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Highlands Today

Panoz Racing Team Seeing Improvement

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Special to Highlands Today

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 6, 2008

The improvements and updates for Panoz Team PTG have been coming frequently so far in the American Le Mans Series season.

The Generac 500 at Road America presented by Time Warner Cable, the team hopes, will mark the first race this year that all the pieces will come together on the Panoz Esperante GTLM - tires, engine and aerodynamics. There's not a better place for that package than one of North America's premier road courses.

"We have gotten our improvements in chunks," said Tommy Milner, who has shared full-season duties with rookie Tom Sutherland. "I think we were a little bit behind the Porsches and Ferraris in terms of development. They see their improvements in the offseason and we're just now getting caught up."

The second half of the season started well with a fifth-place GT2 finish at Lime Rock before running seventh at Mid-Ohio. The team also has bounced between tire suppliers and has chosen Dunlop for the balance of the season. Aero upgrades have allowed for cleaner air to get to the rear wing which has helped reduce drag.

On top of that is the addition of Joey Hand to the entry for Road America. He raced with Milner and Sutherland at Sebring and has a lengthy history with PTG. He and Bill Auberlen finished second in class at Road America in 2006 in a PTG BMW M3. Count Milner among those hoping for a return of that magic.

"It'll be good to have him back in the car," Milner said. "We've improved the car since Sebring and hopefully he'll enjoy that.

"We should have a bigger engine update for Road America," he added. "We're limited on power by the restrictor but we're trying different cam shafts and other ideas that should be a benefit. It's all focused on making good horsepower. We seem to get pretty good fuel mileage compared to the other GT2 runners. I think we have good torque but we lose a little bit to people coming out of the corners and the Porsches and the Ferraris get away from us a little bit. Any more performance we can see at the top-end will be welcomed too."

The Generac 500 at Road America presented by Time Warner Cable is scheduled for Saturday from Elkhart Lake, Wis.

The four-hour race will start at 4 p.m. CT with SPEED televising the race starting at 2 p.m. ET on Sunday, August 10. XM will air the race from 4 to 8 p.m. ET on Sunday via Sports Nation Channel 144. Live radio coverage will be available from American Le Mans Radio at americanlemans.com, which also will feature IMSA's Live Timing & Scoring.

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