Autocon Heads to Houston

San Diego, CA --- The American Le Mans Series comes off a long break to debut the new downtown Houston street circuit this Thursday and Friday; the first two rounds of the season could not be more different.

The last race was at Sebring International raceway: start time late morning, track far from any urban area and 12 hours of racing and a true test of endurance. This event, Houston: start time 8:00 p.m. on a Friday, in the middle of downtown Houston, a track surrounding by car-eating concrete barriers, and a 2 hour and 45 minute sprint to the finish. The only element shared by these circuits: a torturously bumping circuit.

Autocon is charged up to bring their Lola EX257 AER to this new venue. Team owner Mike Lewis offers his view; "Sebring was very enlightening for us in terms of set-up and understanding the car systems. We expect to be much better prepared for Houston. Even though the Lola is designed more for more wide open road courses than the confines of a street course, we suspect the same can be said for the competition. Bryan and Chris are very good at taking care of the equipment and that will be key in a street race where survival is job #1. It is also important to keep the car in one piece with the race at Mid-Ohio being just one week later."

This driver lineup has a lot of experience together at street events. "Chris and I won together in Trois Rivieres in the ALMS in 2002," says Willman, "And we were second at Washington, DC. that same year. A year later we ran well at Miami until our big adventure -- stuck throttle with McMurry at wheel. I'm stoked for this event. Street race. Night race. Yummmmm."

"I'm a big fan of street circuits. They are so different from the permanent road courses we drive on year-in, year-out, and often the street circuit's have never been driven on or have been changed from prior races. So, they usually present something, at least from a driving standpoint, that's new and exciting," adds McMurry. "I'm hoping the night lighting will be strong. Can't say I've ever driven a night race on a street, except maybe when I was a kid joy riding in my mom's car with my buddies."

McMurry will once again be fitted with his custom helmet design which features an extremely detailed look at the movement of a JeanRichard watch; JeanRichard is a sponsor of Autocon and stands as the official timekeeper of the ALMS. The helmet is a true work of art and is becoming an attention grabber in the paddock and with the media. The team will also debut a new partner, Falcon Tools, a brand of Lawson Products (www.lawsonproducts.com).

Houston marks the first time out for the Lola under the recently revised turbo and restrictor specifications. Originally projected to provide performance increases at high speeds, it now appears the gains are more at the bottom end. The team believes this will be a big benefit at a course such as Houston where six of the nine turns on the tight 1.7 mile course around Reliant Park and the Astrodome are slow speed, 90-degree or greater corners.

"If we get our slow speed corner 'point-and-shoot' set up right, we will be very difficult to deal with in the race. The car should be very quick out of the corners, and its breaking is already know to allow us to go very deep," adds McMurry. "We have a great chance of getting on the podium this weekend."

The Lone Star Grand Prix of Houston flags off at 8 p.m. CDT, Friday, May 12. It will be televised on CBS the following day, May 13, at 1 p.m. EDT. Live timing and live ALMS radio can be found at www.americanlemans.com.