Sebring

MAR. 17, 2005 — Not to be outdone by Chicago dying its river green in honor of St. Patrick`s Day, Mother Nature decided to create its own torrent of water here at Sebring, Florida. This afternoon`s official qualifying session was cancelled due to heavy rain and standing water on the track. The grid has been set based on a car`s best time in Wednesday`s two practice sessions. While the #20 AER powered Thetford/Norcold Dyson Racing Lola was quickest yesterday afternoon, the Audis were quicker in the morning and the #20 car with Chris Dyson and Guy Smith will line up third on the grid followed by it sister car, #16, with James Weaver, Andy Wallace, and Butch Leitzinger.

Rob Dyson: “Compared to the alternative of putting the cars at real risk in the rain, it was the right decision to cancel qualifying. But it is no fun handing over the front row without a fight. We were not planning on qualifying yesterday or other wise we would have stepped it up. But we are in the second row, so they only have a five yard head start on us.

“We may not have gotten a chance to win qualifying, but we did that an awful lot last year (six out of nine poles), but we only pulled it across first once. Sebring averages 350 laps each year, so our focus is on getting the car balanced, so it is comfortable to drive and then drive a winning pace over the twelve hours.”

The Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring will be televised live in its entirety on the Speed Channel on March 19.