Multimatic Panoz Squad Heads Out West For Newest ALMS Venue Assault

Courtesy Multimatic Panoz Squad

Toronto - ON (July 10th, 2006) Multimatic Motorsports Team Panoz has its sights set on getting its championship assault back on track when the team visits the newest venue on the American Le Mans Series schedule this week – Miller Motorsports Park in Salt Lake City.

While the search for speed in Utah has been pursued since 1912 at the Bonneville Salt Flats only 100 miles away, the new Miller Motorsports Park facility is set to establish itself as one of the premier state-of-the-art road courses in North America.

Located 33 miles from downtown Salt Lake City, the new track features a 4.5 mile long, 40-50 foot wide, 24-turn layout – the longest circuit in North America.

The venue has become the new home track for Multimatic Panoz star Gunnar Jeannette who moved to Salt Lake City earlier this year.

The #50 and #51 Panoz Esperante GTLM machines finished 6th and 7th in the last round of the championship at Lime Rock Park – both cars requiring extensive bodywork repairs after a visit to the shortest venue on the ALMS calendar.

Miller Motorsports Park this week becomes the 20th venue visited by the American Le Mans Series in its eight year history – joining Sebring, Road Atlanta, Mosport, Infineon Raceway, Portland, Mazda Raceway – Laguna Seca, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Charlotte Motor Speedway, Silverstone, Nurburgring, Texas Motor Speedway, Adelaide, Mid Ohio, Road America, Washington D.C., Trois Rivieres, Miami, Lime Rock Park and the other new venue for 2006, Reliant Park at Houston.

Of the 19 venues contested to date, the Panoz marque has tasted the champagne in victory lane at eight of those tracks – winning at Sebring, Road Atlanta, Mosport, Infineon Raceway, Portland, Nurburgring, Mid Ohio and Washington D.C.

Following the Salt Lake City event, Multimatic Motorsports Team Panoz will head north to Portland for round six of the 2006 title assault the following weekend.

The back-to-back races represent an ideal opportunity to chase down points leader Johannes van Overbeek (Flying Lizard Porsche). After Lime Rock, David Brabham and Scott Maxwell slipped to equal third place in the driver's standings – 20 points adrift of the Porsche driver.

However, with 20 points up for grabs for a race victory – a pair of strong performances over the next two races could put the Australian/Canadian combination back in contention.

Jeannette and team-mate Tom Milner will also be chasing their first podium result for 2006 after clinching their first race finish at Lime Rock. The young American duo’s Lime Rock chances were spoilt after contact with the Porsche of Klaus Graf.

After four rounds, Panoz remains second in the manufacturer's standings and Multimatic Motorsports Team Panoz holds the same position in the team's title chase.

"Obviously the next two weeks are very important – two good races here would really set us up well for the remainder of the season," Multimatic Vice President and Motorsports Technical Director, Larry Holt said.

"The new track in Salt Lake has a pretty varied combination of corners and I believe our cars should be well suited round there.

"Gunnar has done a few laps around Miller Motorsports Park so he has been able to give us a bit of an idea as to what to expect.

"The guys in the shop have worked pretty hard to get the cars turned around and reloaded into the trucks for the trip out West. The cars came back from Lime Rock with the roof as basically the only straight panel.

"The team is looking forward to checking out the new venue. We've heard nothing but good reports and we’d love to add a ninth track to the Panoz ALMS win roster this week."