From Sebring International Raceway, Sebring, FL

- A summary of the first round of the 2010 ALMS season.

      The American Le Mans Series is truly represents the pinnacle of road racing in the USA. With 5 classes competing at the same time (LMP1, LMP2, LMPC, GT2 and GTC) the variety of cars, speed and teams is second to none. Rules are dictated by IMSA, and are closely monitored by the ACO (Automobile Club de l’Ouest) the
French entity that runs the greatest race of all, the famed 24 Hours of Le Mans.

     The 12 hours of Sebring are famous in their own right around the world for being the second most
grueling endurance race after Le Mans, and that’s why many teams come to this event. It tests drivers and
machines to the limit and is widely seen as the perfect preparation and benchmark for a successful attempt at the
24 hours of Le Mans later in the year. So it was no surprise to see the Peugeot factory team in force, despite no
commercial presence of this manufacturer in North America, ready to show its strength while testing its readiness
for a second win in a row at Le Mans next June. Peugeot has never won Sebring and was keen to take the trophy
away from Audi with their powerful diesel powered prototypes.

     The track, with its 3.7 miles of flat road, is not particularly difficult, but it is very fast and demanding, as it
was evolved from a 2nd World war airfield and has kept all the ondulations and concrete pavement junctions you
would expect on such an airfield. As a result, Turn 17 and Turn 1, both very fast sweepers feel more like riding a
bronco in a rodeo than driving a race car! And brakes are under heavy stress at all times. Add to that the
prototypes closing speeds and I can assure you that every lap feels quite busy…

     Taking advantage of the spring break vacation, we arrived at the track on Monday for a full week of
testing prior to the race that would start Saturday at 10.30 am. Even more so then in Daytona, the roster of
international driver celebrities from all form of motorsports was impressive, and the grid presented 37 cars which
would create a lot of traffic and put extreme focus on track position management given the wide range of
performance between an LMP1 and a GTC.

     Our team was composed of Duncan Ende, a young star driver, winner of the Grand Am Koni Challenge
series in 2008 and Andy Lally, one of the most experienced road racing driver in the Americas and an expert with
10 entries at Sebring and many victorious seasons with Porsches and many other makes. It was a real privilege
to be able to drive with such experienced drivers and share their knowledge while learning from their telemetry
data and in car videos.

     The weather forecast for the week was “Florida perfect” and we were eager to take advantage of the
large amount of track time scheduled throughout each test day. With the benefit of TRG’s expert crew and Andy’s
invaluable experience, we embarked on a journey of progressive tuning of the car setup, and zeroed in by
Thursday on a car that Andy qualified as ‘perfect’. Nevertheless, our 2009 Grand Am spec car was significantly
slower than the new 2010 Porsche Cup cars, and it became clear that IMSA needed to correct the assumptions
made when they determined the balance of performance between the three versions of Porsches allowed to race
(Grand Am, World Challenge and Cup cars are all variations off the same base car made in Germany). The
balance of performance is achieved by adding weight, limiting ride height and placing restrictors on the engine’s
intake manifolds, amongst various options. We knew that no changes would take place until the next race in Long
Beach and focused on getting a car that would last the distance and was easy to drive rather than try to find the
extra speed edge.

     Knowing we wouldn’t be able to qualify the car in the front of our class even with Andy at the wheel, the
decision was made that I would qualify the car and start the race. We qualified Friday morning without any drama
and clocked a 2’11”374 lap which put us not last in our class and actually in front of many other cars due to
various technical disqualifications in the after qualifying verifications.

     Saturday morning demonstrated how popular an event Sebring really is, with tens of thousands fans
roaming the paddock and on the grid until a few minutes before the start of the race! At precisely 10.30 am the
green flag was waived and without any problem, the race was on.

     We immediately settled into a good race pace, identical to our qualifying speed, and with the car feeling
easy to drive and solidly planted, enjoyed the unique challenge presented by this track. Keeping in check our
class leader and executing well on our strategy, we were approaching the first hour when at the exit of Turn 7, the
car suddenly didn’t right itself and started to feel loose. What I thought could have been just a tire problem didn’t
go away, and after several radio exchange with our pit, and a couple of laps, unsure of whether the problem was
a rear tire, a rear shock or a broken sway bar, we decided to perform an early pit stop and to put Andy in the car
to try to get a better read on the problem.

     Despite his superior talent, Andy was about 3 seconds a lap of his normal pace, and we progressively
narrowed the diagnosis to a faulty rear left shock. The car was very difficult to drive and eating up the left rear tire
at an alarming rate. We prepared a replacement shock and started the wait for a double yellow condition on the
track that would allow us to stop and replace the shock without losing too much time. Andy drove 2 hours without
the yellow flag ever coming out, and then Duncan got into the car for another two hours and still no yellow flag
came by to allow us to repair. By then, we had run for 4 hours at a pace significantly below our capabilities and
were still second in our class, our hopes intact for a podium if not a win.

     As Andy got back into the car, disaster hit. The combination of Sebring’s tough track conditions and a
faulty shock eventually led to a broken rear suspension sub frame, and the team rushed our car back to our
paddock. The sub frame replacement was done in 58 minutes, an incredible performance from the crew, and we
were back on track with a car almost as good as it was at the beginning of the race, but all chances of a class win
gone at that point. The remainder of the race was uneventful, with our pace confirming that would have been a
strong contender. We ultimately finished 6th in class and 24th overall, without a single mistake on track or in the
pits, during these 12 hours.

     Despite the 58 minutes stop and the 4 hours running about 3 seconds off our normal pace, we finished
only 56 minutes behind the leader! This mathematically would say that we were definitely in the hunt to win this
race. But that’s racing and hypothesis and mathematical models are worthless. Standing on the top step of the
podium is the only thing that matters.

     Looking at the experience with a positive mindset, we left Sebring with a sense of satisfaction with our
competitiveness in endurance races, the expectation that the balance of performance will be improved by IMSA
going forward and the demonstration of excellence in execution from our pit crew. The technical failure of the
shock remains a mystery to us and we wait eagerly for the analysis from the factory. Perhaps even more
important is the realization that my pace is now at a level insuring a solid overall performance for the team, and
that the system used in ALMS for pairing pro drivers and gentleman drivers within the same team allows for a
level playing field and high expectations for victory.

     We want to express our deepest gratitude to all our sponsors and in particular to our title sponsor Future Electronics, to Gary Biehl, our crew chief, to Joe La Joie, our strategist, to all the members of the TRG crew, to our spotters, who tirelessly called the fast approaching prototypes, to our numerous guests and to Freescale Semiconductor. I also want to recognize the exceptional contribution of Andy Lally and Duncan Ende throughout the week. We are impatient to be back on track at the Long Beach Grand Prix in April and fight for the win!