Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Race Day Ends Ten Minutes Too Early For Rahal Letterman Racing

Press Release

Houston Race

Houston, Texas – In a weekend of highs and lows Rahal Letterman Racing’s high in race position tumbled to a low as the halfshaft broke on the team’s #18 Bell Micro Porsche with less than ten minutes remaining in the ALMS Grand Prix of Houston. After starting sixth on the GT2 grid Ralf Kellners and Tom Milner had moved into contention for a podium finish in the two hour 45 minute event around the tight confines of Reliant Park when their day came to an unexpected end with just minutes remaining in the event.

The weekend for the RLR Bell Micro Porsche started with a water leak that occurred at the beginning of Friday’s practice, directly proceeding qualifying. “The team did a great job fixing the leak and getting the car ready for qualifying in a very short period of time,” said Kellners. “They got the car prepared for qualifying and we were able to qualify sixth which was important since there are not a lot of passing opportunities because of the tightness of the course.”

On race day, Kellners drove a very strong first stint prior to turning the car over to Milner during the first pit stop. Milner returned to the track in third place.

“Ralf drove a great first stint,” said Milner. “We stayed out a little longer than most GT2 teams and gained track position because of our longer first stint. The Bell Micro Porsche was running very well. I have to take my hat off to the entire team, they did a great job preparing the car on a very quick turn-around after our event in Long Beach. I thought we were on our way to our first podium finish of the season when I turned the car back over to Ralf.”

With 30 minutes remaining in the event the yellow flag flew and the RLR squad made their final pit stop of the day. Ralf Kellners took over the driving chore from Tom Milner for what the team thought would be their final drive to the podium. It wasn’t to be. With less than ten minutes to go the halfshaft broke and the visions of a podium finish were eliminated.

“After the final pit stop and driver change I thought we were going to be in contention to battle for a spot on the podium,” said Kelleners. “We were very competitive all day and to have the halfshaft break with less than ten minutes in the event was very, very disappointing. Hopefully our luck will change in Utah. Our last three races have been on tight street courses – now we move to road courses – it will be a different challenge, but I think we will do well on the road courses.”

Jaime Melo and Mika Salo won for the fourth consecutive event of 2007 for Risi Competizione and Ferrari in the GT2 class. The duo gave the Houston-based Risi squad a 6.4-second win over Johannes van Overbeek and Jörg Bergmeister in the Flying Lizard Porsche, which recorded its third runner-up finish of the season. The Bell Micro Porsche driven by Kelleners and Milner was credited with eight position in the final GT2 results.

The next round of the American Le Mans Series is the Utah Grand Prix at Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, UT, set for 5:00 p.m. MDT on Saturday, May 19. The race will be broadcast on CBS Sports at 1 p.m. EDT on Sunday, May 20. American Le Mans Radio and IMSA's Live Timing and Scoring will be available at americanlemans.com.