O'CONNELL RACING TOP TEN AT SUNCHASER 1000

Source: O'Connell Racing
Date: 09/26/2007

ORANGE COUNTY, California -- O'Connell Racing (OConnellRacing.com), a southern California based Grand Am Rolex Series and NASCAR road racing team announced today that it finished 8th in the Sunchaser 1000 at Miller Motorsports Park just outside Salt Lake City, Utah. The weekend was peppered with controversy beginning with the mid week practice sessions. In the Thursday morning practive co driver Kevin Roush was forced into the championship contending Farnbacher Loles Porsche 997 when a Daytona Protoype attempted to take it three wide going into a fast right hand sweeper just off the infield straightaway. Roush nearly rolled the car at over 120mph but saved it when the car veered off the track and into the soft silt of the infield causing the car to settle. The car was subsequently towed back into the pits on a flatbed with damage to the right rear. In the Friday afternoon session Kevin O'Connell was hit in the left rear when entering the down hill esses by the Frech Canadian team also in a Porsche 997. The car was brought back to the pits under its own power with a bent rim and a deflated left rear tire. O'Connell commented, " This being the last race of the season it seems everyone is going for it and a bit careless. One of engineers overheard the owner of the French team reprimanding their driver for being wreckless and telling him he should be home watching the race on TV with that type of amatuer driving. With two championships in DP and GT on the line I think the race will be memorable." Under the guidance of crew chief Barry O'Brien and technical director Roy Montgomery, technicians Carey Caldwell, and Steve Parker diligently resurrected the car for each session.

Michael Speakman qualified the car with a 3.0679 for a 22nd starting position on the grid. Mike drove the first stint and handed the car off to Roush right after the first caution when the #31Daytona Protoype re entered the track perpendicular to the racing line and caused a significant crash with the #70 Mazda of Nick Ham who was also racing for the championship. Roush and O'Connell ran the balance of the stints for the remainder of the race with Roush making up significant ground in his double stints passing the #40 Sobe Patrick Dempsey car as well as several other 997's. O'Connell topped off the race passing the Sahlen's Covette with less than 10 laps to go to lock in a top ten finish. Barry O'Brien commented, " We executed our stops and strategy well and that helped us here today and in most of the longer races we ran this year. We are going to take what we learned in 07' and work towards 2008. I am really proud of how far this team has come. Rick Toth and Eddie Bernabeo on tires and Ronnie Norwood on bottle and fuel have really been there when we needed quick, solid stops. Jeff Arnett has stepped in and has helped Roy calcualte fuel stops and kept track of the competition during the race. This type of racing requires the entire team to be effective.”

The team begins testing in October both in the 997 for the Rolex 24 at Daytona and Mexico City for the NASCAR Busch series both in the March quarter of 2008. In the interim, Kevin O'Connell will run select races in various west coast road racing series in the stock car and will also join Michael Speakman in Rolex Series test dates at Daytona in November and January.

About O'Connell Racing: OCR is a California based road racing team that competes in North America in the Grand American Rolex Series and various NASCAR Busch Series West. 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 SpeedSport Branding, LLC: General Environmental Management, Inc., Taleo Grill, General Pacific Group, LLC, Direct TV – X Satellite, Mothers Polishes-Waxes-Cleaners, Dragon Optical, Crow Enterprises, HPC Coatings, MicroFiberStuff.com, Neo Synthetics, Sparco USA, IMMS Inc., StunningGuns.com, BASF, Xoodlz and Arnett Designs.

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