BILL AUBERLEN of Santa Monica Ca is on pole for the Rolex GT class with a lap of 1:53.200/88.601 mph in #05 Sigalsport/Alhadeff
BMW M3. Auberlen was recently added to the driver line-up. Quite a fortunate afterthought. He recently lost his regular ride when that team folded shop, leaving him stranded for the rest of the season. Auberlen is currently twelfth in the GT standings, 59 points out of first place. He said "I didn't think I would make it to Mexico, but I did, and I am so glad. This is very rare to see a crowd this great, and I can't wait for the race." His co-drivers are GENE SIGAL and team owner MATTHEW ALHADEFF.
Unspecified Technical Infractions moved the two TRG Pontiac GTO.R GT cars to the back of the field. PAUL EDWARDS had qualified #64 on the front row for GT's. His co-driver is JAN MAGNUSSEN. Now CRAIG STANTON/#80 Synergy Racing Porsche GT3 Cup car will start second in class. Stanton co-drives with DAVID MURRY. Edwards has led more GT laps - 59 - than any other GT driver.
The other penalised Pontiac is starting dead last. MARC BUNTING and ANDY LALLY/#65 Pontiac GTO.R are leading the GT standings by one point ahead of Stanton. This should make for a very exciting class battle.
Also now starting in the rear of the DP field are CORT WAGNER and STEFAN JOHANSSON/#02 New Century Mtg/Chip Ganassi due to an engine change. They will start in P20 behind JC FRANCE and HURLEY HAYWOOD/#59 Brumos Racing Porsche Fabcar DP who didn't go out in Qualifying. Their car crashed in Turn 13 (the same corner which bit Champ Car Rookie FABRIZIO DEL MONTE in the private test Thursday). The Brumos team is still working to ready the car for the race.
McDowell is also running in the
Bridgestone Presents the Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford, which means he will run Champ Car Qualifying at 12:45pm Saturday and start the Rolex Series sports car race at 3pm local time. He realizes this will be a challenge but is up for it.
