O’CONNELL & SPEAKMAN JOIN STANTON, BERISHA, FORDAHL & BOWLES AT 25 HOURS OF THUNDERHILL

NEWPORT BEACH, California -- O’Connell Racing (www.OConnellRacing.com), a southern California based Grand American Rolex Series and NASCAR road racing team announced today that it has formally entered the 25 Hours of Thunderhill endurance race taking place in northern California beginning December 1st, 2006. Team drivers Kevin O’Connell and Michael Speakman will be joined by 2005 Rolex Series GT champion Craig Stanton and former IKF regional karting champion Jason Bowles as well as BAJA 1000 driver and engineer Betim Berisha and Daytona Prototype engineer and five (5) time national SCCA Autocross champion Greg Fordahl. Team owner and driver Kevin O’Connell commented, “ this is our team’s inaugural run in an endurance race in excess of 6 hours and we are fortunate to have Craig’s vast experience with Betim’s and Greg’s engineering and driving backgrounds to provide a solid platform for us be competitive and challenge for an overall win. This will also be a great chance to prepare for the 24 Hours of Daytona that we intend to run in 2007”. OCR will enter its Rolex Series #27 Porsche 996 GT-3 Cup Car for the event prepared by its partner BBI of Huntington Beach, California.

In the American Stock Car Series the team competed at California Speedway with the #59 Taleo Grill/General Environmental Chevrolet and the #67 Taleo Grill Ford. Speakman picked up his first win of the ASC season after winning the Saturday qualifying race after passing for the lead with 3 laps to go. O’Connell suffered a blown motor in the final practice session Saturday and drove the #67 in the Sunday race. The #67 suffered a flat spotted tire going into turn 3 off of the super speedway after trying to pass early in the race on cold tires which subsequently ended O’Connell’s day.

In Phoenix, the team struggled early with a low grip track. O’Connell was quickest in the early practice sessions but suffered an overheating problem before qualifying on Saturday. Speakman struggled with no grip and a push in the right handers but stayed in the top ten. O’Connell stated, “ I noticed the motor seemed off in power when I was being gapped off the corners by the #43 and #67. When the water and oil temperatures were unusually high I knew we had a problem.” O’Brien and Montgomery found a timing irregularity and brought the power back to the motor of the #59. O’Connell qualified on the pole and set a new ASC track record for the series only to find that the motor was irreparably damaged during the morning sessions. After winning the Saturday race on a hurt motor it was apparent that the engine was lost and it would blow at any time. Montgomery commented, “ we typically do not bring all of our spares to the ASC events as the cars are designed to require less maintenance so we knew Sunday would most likely not happen for the #59 car.” O’Connell passed on the morning warm-ups and went out to qualify losing the motor on the second hot lap. Speakman escaped the pool of oil left by the #59 while series leader Stinnett spun but kept the car off the barrier walls.

About O’Connell Racing: OCR is a California based road racing team that races in North America in the Grand American Rolex Series, the American Stock Car Series and again in 2007 in the NASCAR West and Busch Series. The team competes in select races in all of these respective series in an focused effort to bring the highest visibility and branding opportunities to its marketing partners currently managed by its affiliate company SpeedSport Branding, LLC: General Environmental Management, Inc., Taleo (Modern Mexican), Mothers Polishes-Waxes-Cleaners, Dragon Optical, Crow Enterprises, HPC West, MicroFiberStuff.com, Neo Synthetics, SparcoUSA, Streamline Designs, General Pacific Group, IMMS, Inc., BASF and Arnett Designs.

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