September 30, 2006
Immediate Release

Alex Job Racing Finishes Eighth at Petit Le Mans 

Braselton, Georgia  – Alex Job Racing witnessed a strong mid race lead fade to discontent as the team finished a disappointing eighth place in GT2 in today’s running of the 10-hour Petit Le Mans. 

Robin Liddell started the number 23/Alex Job Racing/Bell Microproducts/Porsche 911 from tenth place on the GT2 grid.  The Scot was able to put in a stellar drive and take the number 23 car to the front before turning over to Marcel Tiemann.

Tiemann was able to maintain the pace and increase the team’s lead before handing over to Dominik Farnbacher.  Farnbacher also put in a strong performance to keep the AJR 911 RSR in the lead although under pressure from a much more experienced competitor.

On lap 222 Liddell was ready to pit under green, with a one lap lead on the GT2 field.  As soon as he entered pit road, a full course caution ensued and the pits were closed.  An excellent call by the team to have the Scot come in and shut-off the motor and then restart and rejoin the fray without service proved to be the call of the race until that point.  The drive-thru in effect put the team up two laps to the competition at five-hours into the race.

The team enjoyed the two lap gap for about an hour before Tiemann was heading into the fast downhill turn 10 and the right-front control arm broke sending him into the gravel.  The German was able to drive out of the trap and bring the car to pits.  The crew made repairs returning Farnbacher to the race some 17-laps down.  What had been a two lap lead turned into a 30-minute deficit in a matter of an hour.

Robin Liddell brought the team to the lead, but is dejected by the finish.  “We had a great beginning to the day having been fastest in the warm-up.  I am still not sure what happened in qualifying yesterday.  I had a good clean start and was able to make up time and space to get to the lead by the time I turned it over to Marcel.  The car was great to drive and really quick.  We led a lot of the day and even managed, through great strategy, to go up two laps.  We didn’t go the full 10-hours though and our mechanical issue was a tough way to finish.”

Marcel Tiemann was at the wheel when the control arm broke.  “I had been hit by a prototype earlier going through the esses.  I also believe that Robin had some contact earlier.  When I began my second stint the car felt funny, it was understeering.  I was coming down the hill into 10 and bang, it just broke and sent me into the gravel.  We had a great run going up that point.”

Dominick Farnbacher had a good day behind the wheel.  “The car was really good for me.  I got in the third round and we were in the lead. I had a good fight with my friend Wolf and was able to keep a small gap to him before his troubles.  The team worked hard on the car and we really hit the setup for this morning’s warm-up.  The drivers made no mistakes, we just had the bad luck with the control arm.”

“Another tough race in the ALMS for our team,” said Alex Job, team owner.   “Robin did a great job to bounce back from our poor qualifying effort and put us up in the lead in his first stint.  Marcel and Dominik did the job to keep the car up at the front by running fast, clean laps.  When you have taken several hits by prototypes throughout the day something is bound to break and that is what happened.  What was a two lap lead quickly became a 17-lap discrepancy, but that seems to be the tail of our year so far.”

The final round of the American Le Mans Series will be run at Laguna Seca on October 21st.

ALMS GT2 Petit Top Finishers:
1.         Long/Bergmeister/Jonsson        Porsche
2.         Lazzaro/Mediani/Franchitti          Ferrari  
3.         Maxwell/Brabham/Bourdais        Panoz
4.         Milner/Jeanette/Lally                  Panoz
5.         Lieb/van Overbeek/Henzler         Porsche
6.         Hand/Auberlen/Said                   BMW   
7.         Pechnik/Neiman/Law                  Porsche
8.        Liddell/Tiemann/Farnbacher    AJR Porsche
9.         Marks/Sellers/James                  Panoz
10.        Ortelli/Kelleners/Palttala             Ferrari             

2006 Alex Job Racing GT2 Finishes

Bell Microproducts [NASDAQ: BELM] is a global Fortune 1000 company servicing the information technology sector through strategic distribution partnerships with leading product manufacturers.  Specializing in storage technologies, applications and solutions, Bell Microproducts is the world’s largest storage-centric value added distributor.  The company transforms technology products into information technology (IT) solutions by providing channel partners and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) a range of design to deployment services. For more information visit www.bellmicro.com.

AJR thanks team sponsors Bell Microproducts, hirewise, ProVest and partners DHL Global Mail, Mobil 1, Michelin, adidas and ZF Sachs.

To view the Alex Job Racing press kit or for additional information, please refer to www.alexjobracing.com or contact Kyle Chura at chura@aol.com or (248) 821-0468.