Veteran Endurance Racer Hurley Haywood Joins RCR for 1,000 Mile Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta

The 1999 Petit Le Mans featured a record number of entries including all three winning cars from this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans. Joining the class winners was a who's who of sports car racers from around the world including last year's overall winner, Wayne Taylor's Toshiba Ferrari 333 SP, the Rafanelli R&S Judd that won this year's spring race at Road Atlanta, the Panoz Roadsters, winners at Mosport and Portland, plus Rob Dyson's entry for points leader Elliott Forbes-Robinson. Champion Motorsports showed up with their GT1-EVO chassis, driven by 1998 Le Mans overall winner Allan McNish.

In GTS, three ORECA Vipers faced stiff competition from a pair of Corvette C5-Rs, the Saleen SR Mustang, and a number of Porsche 911 Turbos including last year’s Petit Le Mans class winning team, Freisinger Motorsport.

In GT, the ongoing battle of the PTG BMW M3s and the newest racer from Porsche, the 911 GT3 R, continued. RWS Motorsport's Le Mans winning GT chassis and Alex Job Racing's #23 Champion Racing chassis from this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans were also in attendance.

The BMW V12 Le Mans Roadster # 43 of Bill Auberlen(USA), Steve Soper (GB) and Joachim Winkelhock (D) brought home the top result for BMW by finishing second. The win went to the Panoz drivers David Brabham (GB),Eric Bernard (F) and Andy Wallace (GB).

Five laps before the checkered flag dropped, the BMW V12 LMR #42 of JJ Lehto (FIN) and Jörg Müller (D) had been in the lead for most of the distance, but Müller spun off the track, got stuck in the gravel and finally came home third.

In the GT class BMW also celebrated second place, with works driver Hans-Joachim Stuck and Boris Said at the wheel of a BMW Team PTG's M3. BMW Team PTG collected a hard-fought two-three-four finish in the GT class. The #6 BMW M3 of Boris Said and Hans Stuck was second in class behind the winning #23 Porsche.

Hans Stuck: "Second place was the maximum we could do with our car. The Porsches are the new generation [model]. We fought very hard today and we took the maximum out of the car. We drove everything out of it."

Reiser Callas Rennsport again fielded two cars. #02, the lead car, was driven by David Murry and Johnny Mowlem plus endurance champion Hurley Haywood. #03 was piloted by Joel Reiser, Craig Stanton and Grady Willingham. Haywood wasn’t the only recognized “name” to be associated with RCR at Road Atlanta. Doc Bundy and Bruce Anderson were on hand to lend their technical expertise to the proceedings. Unfortunately, #02 suffered an electrical malfunction which ended its drive for the day. #03 soldiered on to finish sixth in class. #02 placed thirteenth.

To quote Murry,"Ten hours at Road Atlanta is a long, tough race. Sometimes you're the bug, sometimes you're the windshield. Today we were the bug. To run that hard for 10 hours is really tough."

In a pre-race publicity event, a go-kart race featuring the ALMS Porsche racers against the BMW teams, the result was a draw; RCR's Craig Stanton had the fastest lap of the event, while the factory BMW racers won the team competition. RCR continues to hold third spot in the ALMS GT class point chase.

Info courtesy of Sports Car/ALMS

1. GT Dirk Muller
Sascha Maasen
Cort Wagner Aerofab/Michelin/
Porsche 911 GT3R

2. GT Boris Said
Hans Stuck Yokohama/
Flextronics/ Level One/
BMW M3

3. GT Peter Cunningham
Brian Cunningham
Brian Simo Yokohama/
Flextronics/Level One/
BMW M3

4. GT Darren Law
Mark Simo
Johannes van Overbeek Yokohama/
Flextronics/Level One/
BMW M3

5. GT Bruno Lambert
Mike Conte
SSF Imported Car Parts/
Porsche 911 RSR

6. GT Craig Stanton
Grady Willingham
Joel Reiser
Reiser callas Rennsport
Porsche 911 RSR #03

7. GT Chris Hall
Danny Marshall
Steve Marshall
Cindi Lux The Jennifer Fund/
Porsche 911 RSR

8. GT Patrick Hulsman
Luca Riccitelli
Hans Jorg Hofer
KTM Sport Motorcycles/
Porsche 911 GT3R

9. GT John Heinricy
Dave White
Charles Coker Hendrick Porsche/
Porsche 911 RSR

10. GT Simon Sobrero
Angelo Cilli
Geoff Auberlen ARE/Yokohma/
Techndyne/SSF/Motl/
Porsche 911 RSR

11. GT Kevin Wheeler
Alan Ziegelman
Brady Refenning
Paulo Lima
Auto Sports South Inc/
Porsche 911 RSR

12. GT Scooter Gabel
Carlos De Quesada
SafeQuip/
Porsche 911 RSR

13. GT David Murry
Johnny Mowlem
Hurley Haywood
Reiser Callas Rennsport
Porsche 911 RSR #02

14. GT Randy Pobst
Mike Fitzgerald
Porsche 911 RSR

15. GT Spencer Pumpelly
Atlantic Marine Group/Catz/
Porsche 911


Time of Race:
8 hours 56 minutes 31.991 sec.
09-18-1999

Winning Speed:
111.914 mph for 394 laps/
1000.76 miles 21:58:10

Margin of Victory:
1 LAPS and 0.06 sec.

P Winning Speed:
111.914 mph
GTS Winning Speed:
101.402 mph
GT Winning Speed:
98.302 mph

FASTEST QUALIFIERS:
P: #1 David Brabham
1:10.873 129.019 mph REC
GTS: #91 Olivier Beretta
1:19.525 114.982 mph REC
GT: #23 Dirk Muller
1:23.922 108.958 mph REC

FASTEST LAP:
P: #42 JJ Lehto
LAP # 2 1:12.653 125.858 mph REC
GTS: #91 Olivier Beretta
LAP # 5 1:21.321 112.443 mph REC
GT: #23 Dirk Muller
LAP # 4 1:24.969 107.615 mph REC LAP