The Autocon Motorsport entry into the 2007 ALMS prototype battle hit the ground running this week as testing began in preparation for the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring. Sporting a distinctive new livery to recognize the expanded partnership with JeanRichard, the car, and transporter caused a lot of heads to turn during the Wheels Down Winter Test and the on-track performance matched the smart new look.

"We are light years ahead of last season when we got our car so late in the game," said team owner and co-driver Mike Lewis. "We come to Sebring with a full season under our belt with the car and a stable driver lineup. That is not to say we are standing still. We have a new engineer to start this year, John Mills, who is taking a new approach to engineering our car and I really like his theories. I have worked with him in the past in other series and trust his instincts. Our times were not quite as fast as we wanted but we know how to find more."

The freshly painted car stood out on the track both in appearance and performance. Indeed the team of Lewis, Chris McMurry and Bryan Willman turned in some very impressive times on day two of the test. Without the benefit of fresh tires or light fuel the team got within a half second of last year's qualifying time and looks for even more improvement to come.

"When I got into the car the first day I thought something was wrong because it was so different from last year," McMurry said. "A new engineer is like a new dance partner; it takes some time out on the floor to get used to each other. Over the course of two days we got to know each other better and we could all see the wisdom of John's new approaches. Our fast lap, which was recorded point to point rather than by official timing and scoring, was a tick off qualifying last year and I know there are more seconds to be found given the tires and fuel load on that lap, and that we hadn't really pushed the car completely perhaps like other teams had done to achieve their times."

Willman was also looking forward to a good 2007 debut event with Autocon. "This is my third year with Mike and Autocon and I feel at home here. I love this track and love this car. I like to measure a test no just by the times but what did we learn? My answer is that I, and the team as a group learned a lot of useful things and it was a very productive test."

Bottomline, 2007 looks terrific for Autocon. New livery, bigger challenges, better prototype competition, more races, enhanced TV coverage, higher profile, what more could a race team ask for? Autocon next takes to the 17 turn, 3.7 mile track for the 55th Annual Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring March 14 - 17, 2007.