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 Lucas Luhr puts Alex Job Racing on pole for Rolex 24
Porsche wins all three poles in Daytona 
January 26, 2006

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Two drivers familiar to American road racing fans, and two former winners of the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona, have secured pole positions for their Porsche teams for this year's big event.

Alex Job Racing/Emory Motorsports will start the 44th running of the Grand American Rolex Series Presented by Crown Royal Reserve Rolex 24 Hour at Daytona from pole position on Saturday.

Lucas Luhr, the German driver now living in Monaco, and GT class winner in the Petersen/White Lightning Porsche 911 GT3 RS in 2001, survived a Pontiac and Lexus Riley onslaught to put the Alex Job Racing Shred-it Porsche Crawford on the pole with a speed of 123.220 miles-per-hour around the 3.56-mile Daytona International Speedway high banking and road course for Saturday's 44th running of the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona.

The Alex Job Porsche Crawford, powered by a 3.8-liter version of the Porsche 911 GT3 RSR engine, will be driven in the race by Luhr along with Patrick Long, of Las Vegas and Mike Rockenfeller, another German driver now living in Monaco. Luhr/Rockenfeller/Long were fastest during the Rolex test session the beginning of the month, and have been consistently among the top three in every session. Luhr beat out the Pontiac Riley that won the raced here a year ago, by 3.7 seconds. The Riley was being driven by sports car veteran Max Angelelli.

"The car was really good and the weather conditions could not have been better for our pole run," said Luhr. "I went out early and was with some fast cars that were behaving and was able to turn a pretty good time. A few laps later when my tires really started to come in I was held up by a couple of guys, I had a few more tenths in the car and I really would have liked to get back into the 43s but the pole time of 1:44.009 is a good result. The team has put a lot of work into this car since they received it in November. Since my first laps in this new car I have been really comfortable, it is easy to drive fast and the Porsche power will be very helpful with all of the traffic come Saturday. We need to focus on getting a good setup on the car so we can maximize our opportunities in traffic."

For Alex Job this is his first pole position at Daytona. “This is a nice reward for the team, we have been really working hard to get this unproven Porsche/Crawford package debugged for our run at the 24. Crawford and Xtrac have really done a great job to support this effort. This is the only Porsche/Crawford combination in the race, which creates some unknown factors. We have been able to overcome those with a great deal of work and diligence from everyone involved. Lucas did a nice job to back up all of our fast practice times and put it on the pole. The pole is nice, but the payout we are looking for is Sunday at noon.”

Team Target IndyCar driver Scott Dixon of Target Chip Ganassi Racing rolled off pit lane second, survived a flat-spotted tire, and still managed to outrun 30 other Daytona Prototypes to secure the second position on the grid for Saturday’s Grand American Rolex Sports Car Series’ 44th running of the prestigious Rolex 24 At Daytona. The 2003 IndyCar Champion continued his fast and furious week in the no.02 Target Riley after he and IRL teammate Dan Wheldon left the Phoenix IndyCar open test first and second overall.

Dixon, no stranger to CGR’s Rolex Series program with three career starts under his belt, ran as high as second in the day’s 15-minute qualifier at DIS, but his top lap time of 1:44.609 (1:22.513 mph) clocked in on Lap 8 of 9 ultimately catapulted the New Zealander to the outside of the front row.

“Overall I’m pleased with the car and how far we’ve come with it this afternoon,” said Dixon of his qualifying run. “But I think first place was definitely within our reach. I locked up the front tires and set us back a little so that hurt us. At the start, I rolled off behind the no.10 car and was having a good time pressuring him and trying to get into his head to force a mistake. I wanted to get some room to run in the clear, but unfortunately he didn’t bite. It’s the best starting spot we’ve had for the Target car at the Rolex 24, so I can’t complain. I’m looking forward to my teammates Dan [Wheldon] and Casey [Mears] getting in the car and giving some feedback as well in this evening’s night session.”

In the GT class, Porsches took the top three spots, led by last year's GT winter, Wolf Henzler from Germany, who piloted his Tafel Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, type 997, around the speedway at 113.080 miles-per-hour. Henzler, who will share the driving chores with Robin Liddell/Johannes van Overbeek/Graham Rahal, edged the second Tafel Racing Porsche team car of team owner Jim Tafel, Andrew Davis, Charles Espenlaub, Eric Lutz, and Michael Cawley, by less than three-tenths of a second. Third was the Farnbacher Loles Red Bull Porsche 911 GT3 Cup of Dirk Werner/Philip Peter/Dieter Quester/Luca Riccitelli.

The top 30 spots overall (29 prototypes and the pole-sitter in GT) are locked in - the other GT cars will have to qualify again in a final session of Friday.

In Grand-Am Cup, the Porsche 911, type 996, of Craig Stanton and Mark Plummer will also start on the pole for tomorrow's 200-mile event, edging out the Foster/Pilla Mustang GT. The Eric Lutz/Chris Lutz Porsche 911 qualified third.

Speed TV will broadcast more than 14 hours of the 24 Hours at Daytona. The first segment will air with the start of the race on Saturday at 12:00 p.m. EST and run air until 6:00 p.m., they will return at 8:00 p.m. and run until 11:00 p.m. On Sunday the show will resume at 8:00 a.m. and run the finish at 12:30 p.m.

The team’s Daytona effort will be sponsored by Shred-it; the world’s leading on site document destruction company. The team will also feature partners adidas and charity Limbs for Life.

A total of 70 teams took part in qualifying today.

Results

Pos No. Class Drivers Team Time Speed

1

23

DP

Luhr/ Rockenfeller/ Long

Alex Job Racing/ Emory Motorsports / Porsche Crawford

1:44.009

123.220

2

10

DP

Angelelli/ Taylor/ Collard/ Br

SunTrust Racing / Pontiac Riley

1:44.395

122.765

3

02

DP

Dixon/ Wheldon/ Mears

Target Chip Ganassi with Felix Sabates / Lexus Riley

1:44.609

122.513

4

99

DP

Gurney/ Stallings/ Vasser/ Mor

Gainsco/ Blackhawk Racing / Pontiac Riley

1:44.675

122.436

5

78

DP

Bourdais/ Boesel/ Zacharias

Doran Racing / Ford Doran

1:44.691

122.417

6

60

DP

Negri/ Patterson/ Allmendinger

Michael Shank Racing / Lexus Riley

1:44.771

122.324

7

19

DP

Gidley/ McDowell/ Barron

Playboy/ Uniden Racing / Ford Crawford

1:44.827

122.259

8

12

DP

Fernandez/ Haberfeld/ Sharp

Lowe's Fernandez Racing / Pontiac Riley

1:44.838

122.246

9

28

DP

Valiante/ Finlay/ Herta/ Rice

Finlay Motorsports / Ford Crawford

1:44.933

122.135

10

3

DP

Lewis/ Szekeres/ LaJoie/ Burge

Southard Motorsports / BMW Riley

1:44.944

122.122

11

01

DP

Pruett/ Diaz/ Papis

CompUSA Chip Ganassi with Felix Sabates / Lexus Riley

1:44.969

122.093

12

59

DP

Barbosa/ Haywood/ France/ Chri

Brumos Racing / Porsche Fabcar

1:44.983

122.077

13

8

DP

Bu Frisselle/ Br Frisselle/ Hu

Rx.com/ Synergy Racing / Porsche Doran

1:44.996

122.062

14

6

DP

Tracy/ Wilden/ Mears Jr/ Borko

Graydon Elliott Fusion Racing with MSR / Lexus Riley

1:45.015

122.040

15

39

DP

Fittipaldi/ Cheever Jr/ Carpen

Cheever Racing / Lexus Crawford

1:45.189

121.838

16

58

DP

Donohue/ Law/ Maassen

Red Bull/ Brumos Porsche / Porsche Fabcar

1:45.197

121.829

17

89

DP

Dalziel/ Figge/ Fogarty/ Empri

Pacific Coast Motorsports / Pontiac Riley

1:45.424

121.566

18

7

DP

D Franchitti/ Duno/ M Franchit

CITGO Racing by SAMAX / Pontiac Riley

1:45.673

121.280

19

2

DP

Lammers/ Wallace/ Patrick/ McN

Howard - Boss Motorsports / Pontiac Crawford

1:45.953

120.959

20

51

DP

Johansson/ Erdos/ Newton/ Hugh

Cheever Racing / Lexus Crawford

1:46.074

120.821

21

77

DP

Borcheller/ Brix/ Barber/ Jour

Feeds The Need/ Doran Racing / Ford Doran

1:46.254

120.617

22

4

DP

Wallace/ Leitzinger/ Stewart

Howard - Boss Motorsports / Pontiac Crawford

1:46.393

120.459

23

84

DP

W Dallenbach/ Robinson/ P Dall

Robinson Racing / Pontiac Riley

1:46.613

120.210

24

40

DP

Fellows/ Bingham/ Ruhlman/ Bel

Derhaag Motorsports / Pontiac Riley

1:46.742

120.065

25

5

DP

Dayton/ Knoop/ DeVries/ Matthe

Essex Racing / Ford Crawford

1:46.981

119.797

26

50

DP

James/ Zogaib/ Nastasi/ Gleaso

Blackforest Motorsports / Ford Crawford

1:47.221

119.529

27

09

DP

Goad/ Labonte/ Primat/ Oberto

Spirit of Daytona Racing / Pontiac Crawford

1:47.634

119.070

28

16

DP

C Dyson/ R Dyson/ Gavin/ Smith

Howard - Boss Motorsports / Pontiac Crawford

1:48.036

118.627

29

11

DP

Tuttle/ Petty/ Said

Tuttle Team Racing/ SAMAX / BMW Riley

1:51.486

114.956

30

72

GT

Henzler/ Liddell/ van Overbeek

Tafel Racing / Porsche GT3 Cup

1:53.336

113.080

31

74

GT

Davis/ Lux/ Espenlaub/ Tafel/

Tafel Racing / Porsche GT3 Cup

1:53.461

112.955

32

82

GT

Werner/ Peter/ Quester/ Riccit

Farnbacher Racing/ Farnbacher Loles / Porsche GT3 Cup

1:53.726

112.692

33

70

GT

Tremblay/ Haskell/ Altenburg/

SpeedSource / Mazda RX-8

1:53.846

112.573

34

83

GT

Farnbacher/ Fitzgerald/ Ehret/

Farnbacher Loles/ Orbit Racing / Porsche GT3 Cup

1:54.003

112.418

35

36

GT

Pobst/ Levitas/ Baas/ Pumpelly

TPC Racing / Porsche GT3 Cup

1:54.053

112.369

36

64

GT

Edwards/ Collins/ Magnussen/ P

TRG / Pontiac GTO.R

1:54.164

112.260

37

05

GT

Auberlen/ Alhadeff/ Milner/ Ma

Sigalsport BMW / BMW M3

1:54.322

112.104

38

06

GT

Archer/ Reese/ Oasis/ Crescent

Banner Racing / Corvette

1:54.574

111.858

39

22

GT

Dumoulin/ Assentato/ Longhi/ P

Fiorano Racing / Porsche GT3 Cup

1:54.676

111.758

40

80

GT

Murry/ Keen/ Stanton/ Pomeidou

Synergy Racing / Porsche GT3 Cup

1:54.964

111.478

41

17

GT

Mowlem/ Arnold/ Sellers/ Shep/

SAMAX / Porsche GT3 Cup

1:55.441

111.018

42

65

GT

Lally/ Bunting/ Valentine/ O'C

TRG / Pontiac GTO.R

1:55.554

110.909

43

41

GT

WaNonnamaker/ JNonnamaker/ Non

Team Sahlen / Porsche GT3 Cup

1:56.016

110.468

44

57

GT

Rice/ Riggins/ Stevenson/ Tren

Stevenson Motorsports / Corvette

1:56.247

110.248

45

00

GT

Zitza/ Thomason/ Lewis Jr/ Whe

TZ Motorsports / Porsche GT3 Cup

1:56.816

109.711

46

93

GT

Ave/ Stewart/ Stewart III/ Ste

TPC Racing / Porsche GT3 Cup

1:57.255

109.300

47

68

GT

Pace/ Lowe/ Greist

TRG / Porsche GT3 Cup

1:57.440

109.128

48

87

GT

Gaylord/ Hill/ Hill/ Diefenbac

Synergy Racing / Porsche GT3 Cup

1:57.681

108.905

49

04

GT

Sigal/ MacLeod/ Konopka/ Rosse

Sigalsport BMW / BMW M3

1:57.828

108.769

50

69

GT

Jo Vargo/ Ja Vargo/ Herrington

TRG / Porsche GT3 Cup

1:57.971

108.637

51

52

GT

Bertuzzi/ Monzon/ McCormick/ B

Mastercar / Ferrari 360GT

1:58.281

108.352

52

71

GT

Lacey/ Martini/ Wilkins/ Wilki

SAMAX/ Doncaster Racing / Porsche GT3 Cup

1:58.637

108.027

53

21

GT

Van Uitert/ Connolly/ de Quesa

Matt Connolly Motorsports / BMW M3

1:58.829

107.852

54

08

GT

K Goldin/ S Goldin/ Finlay/ Ri

Goldin Brothers Racing / Mazda RX-8

1:59.458

107.285

55

24

GT

O'Shaughnessy/ Cotter/ Malloy/

Matt Connolly Motorsports / BMW M3

1:59.614

107.145

56

67

GT

Flanagan/ Bullock/ Kroczek/ Ke

TRG / Porsche GT3 Cup

2:00.058

106.748

57

81

GT

Pew/ Marshall/ Marshall/ Prewi

Synergy Racing / Porsche GT3 Cup

2:00.887

106.016

58

86

GT

Kitch Jr/ Pennington/ Gagne/ P

Synergy Racing / Porsche GT3 Cup

2:01.861

105.169

59

43

GT

Allen/ Hennessy/ Michaelian/ M

Team Sahlen / Porsche GT3 Cup

2:01.920

105.118

60

46

GT

Mason/ Baughman/ Connolly/ Del

Michael Baughman Racing / Corvette

2:11.095

97.761

61

66

GT

Ortelli/ Johnson/ Nearn/ Sauva

TRG / Porsche GT3 Cup

6:46.484

31.529

62

14

GT

Friedman/ Small/ McGehee/ Herr

Autometrics Motorsports / Porsche GT3 Cup

No Time

---

63

29

GT

Kennedy/ Puleo/ Webb

Xtreme Motorsports Group / Nissan 350Z

No Time

---

64

32

GT

Rosser

Unitech Racing / Porsche GT3 Cup

No Time

---

65

48

GT

Seiler/ Hauser/ Dubler/ DeFont

WTF Engineering / Corvette

No Time

---

66

55

GT

Arnold/ Miller/ Koselke/ Posce

ASC Motorsports / Corvette

No Time

---

67

63

GT

Spencer/ Spencer/ Mandeville/

Team Spencer Motorsports / Mazda RX-8

No Time

---

68

75

DP

Krohn/ Jonsson/ Bergmeister/ B

Krohn Racing / Pontiac Riley

No Time

---

69

92

GT

Stewart/ Stewart III/ Gilbert/

TPC Racing / Porsche GT3 Cup

No Time

---

70

97

DP

Cummins/ Ave

CyberSpeed Racing / Pontiac Riley

No Time

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--Grand-Am--

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