Alegra Motorsports is pleased to announce that two new primary sponsors

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (January 28, 2007) -- In a 24-hour battle of speed, weather, fatigue and the largest single class to compete in the Rolex 24 At Daytona, Scooter Gabel, Jean-Francois Dumoulin, Carlos de Quesada and Marc Basseng overcame them all, claiming the GT victory in the 45th anniversary of North America’s premier endurance race in the No. 22 Alegra Motorsports/Fiorano Racing Porsche GT3. Overcoming an early race incident that saw the Gabel’s No. 22 machine slide off-course and make heavy contact with the tire barrier in Turn 1 and capitalizing on misfortune from the race-leading No. 85 Farnbacher Loles Porsche GT3 in the race’s 23rd hour, the Florida-based team won by a slim, 7.072-second margin. The decisive moment of the race came with a little more than 90 minutes remaining, when Dirk Werner was forced to pull his No. 85 Porsche down pit road with a lingering oil leak, opening the door for the Alegra/Fiorano team, as Dumoulin crossed the stripe just ahead of Paul Edwards, who debuted the new No. 07 Banner Racing Pontiac GXP.R. "There were so many good cars out there," said Dumoulin, a 2004 Rolex 24 SGS class winner. "We needed to be quick without doing too much harm to the car. We were able to keep our head down and stay ahead of them. It was a lot of fun." The No. 22 car only led the final 48 laps in the of the race, but fast and efficient pit crew members, coupled with persistent and consistent drivers, completed the "underdog" story. "You always have to believe you can win in racing," said Gabel. "I thought the odds were stacked heavily against us, with the problems we had in testing. We didn’t have a solid set of data to get a good setup with. The GT class was huge and they were all good cars, and for us to come out on top, it’s a huge honor." Battling the proven Porsche fleets of TRG, Tafel Racing and Farnbacher Loles, the No. 22 machine flew under the radar heading into Daytona. And with 41 GT machines taking the green flag--the single-most class entries to start the Rolex 24 in the race’s 45-year history--it was easy to get lost in the shuffle. "This is the biggest success of my career," said Basseng. "This is a great series, and for us German guys, we love coming here because we all want this watch. The win definitely feels good." "This team has been working so hard this off-season and I couldn’t be happier for them," said de Quesada. "We had a little incident early in the race that put us five laps down, but we knew that if we continued to focus on what we could control and kept turning out good laps, we’d have a pretty good chance." Edwards finished second in the No. 07 machine, co-driving with Kelly Collins, Andy Pilgrim and Johnny O’Connell. Banner Racing fielded a pair of Pontiac GXP.Rs in the Rolex 24, and although lacking the straight-line speed of the Porsches, handled remarkably through Daytona’s infield road course. Jim Lowe, Jim Pace, Johannes van Overbeek and Ralf Kelleners finished third in the No. 64 TRG Porsche GT3, followed by Banner Racing’s second entry, the No. 06 Pontiac GXP.R, driven by Leighton Reese and Tim Lewis Jr., with help from Edwards and O’Connell. The No. 70 SpeedSource Mazda RX-8 rounded out the top five, with drivers Sylvain Tremblay, Nick Ham, David Haskell and Randy Pobst. Germany’s Wolf Henzler took the lead from polesitter Patrick Huisman in Turn 1 of the opening lap, and led the first 29 circuits aboard the No. 74 Tafel Racing Porsche GT3. Alongside co-drivers Jim Tafel, Eric Lux and Dominick Farnbacher (113 laps led), Henzler and the No. 74 machine looked like a strong bet in the early going. The 2006 GT class runner-up led 83 of the first 88 laps. Mechanical issues during the night hours, however, forced the machine into the garage for extensive repairs, seemingly dashing the team’s hopes at a victory. Much of the damage was caused when Lux locked the brakes in Turn 1 and was forced to limp the car around the track with front-left damage. Tafel Racing’s misfortune handed the class lead to the No. 85 machine, which led throughout most of the night hours. It looked as though the Farnbacher driver lineup of Werner, Jörg Hardt, Pierre Ehret and Leh Keen, would run away with the race until the late oil leak problems. Hardt led a race-high 208 laps and Werner, who did the majority of the driving for the team, spent 56 laps on the point position. The Banner Racing and Alegra/Fiorano entries used mid-race caution periods to make up time lost to the faster No. 85 car. A total of 13 drivers exchanged the lead 25 times and the winning team covered more than 2,228 miles in the 626 laps around the 3.56-mile, 14 turn speedway road course. For more information: Linda Mansfield, Restart Communications Cell: 317-201-0729 E-mail: LindaKMansfield@cs.com StrategicAir, Merchant Services LTD Join Alegra Motorsports As Primary Sponsors MIAMI, Jan. 8 — Alegra Motorsports is pleased to announce that two new primary sponsors have joined its Grand-Am Rolex Series endurance sports car team: StrategicAir, a worldwide private air charter company, and Merchant Services LTD, which provides payment processing solutions for merchants around the world. The new marketing partnership will kick off at the most prestigious endurance sports car race in North America, the Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla. on Jan. 24-25. Alegra Motorsports won this event’s GT class in 2007. This year it is fielding a Riley BMW Daytona Prototype, No. 22. At the Rolex 24 the car will be driven by team owner Carlos de Quesada of Coral Gables, Fla.; Scotland’s Ryan Dalziel of Orlando, Fla.; Chapman Ducote of Miami Beach, Fla.; Jean-Francois Dumoulin of Trois-Rivieres, Quebec; and the Czech Republic’s Tomas Enge of Monte Carlo. It will be driven by Dalziel, de Quesada and Ducote for the subsequent shorter events in the 12-race season. "We’re thrilled to welcome StrategicAir and Merchant Services LTD to our team," said de Quesada. "Both are excellent companies, and they’re a perfect fit for our fans’ demographics. StrategicAir owns and manages over 10 aircraft with a goal of 25 for 2009, and it has access to over 5,500 corporate and private aircraft with only four hours prior notice. Its clients experience all the benefits of aircraft ownership without the monthly maintenance fees or acquisition costs. Merchant Services LTD is one of the nation’s largest merchant processors, with several thousand customers around the globe." “We are delighted to enter into such a significant sponsorship with Alegra Motorsports, which like StrategicAir believes in the pursuit of perfection and total customer satisfaction,” said Keith St. Clair, president and chief executive officer of StrategicAir. “Winning associations build winning teams. We feel the demographics of the series are absolutely perfect for our company, and are eager to deploy our marketing efforts within the motorsports community.” With speeds approaching 200 miles per hour, Enge topped the charts during the last session of Rolex 24 testing at Daytona on Monday with a lap of 1:41.916 for the nine-turn, 3.56-mile road course. Dumoulin and de Quesada were part of the winning GT effort in 2007. Dalziel, a former Champ Car World Series driver and Toyota Atlantic star, finished second overall in this event in 2007, and he won a Rolex Series race at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in Salinas, Calif., last May. Enge will be looking for his first Rolex 24 victory but he won the GTS class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2003 and finished second in GT1 in that race in 2006. He’s also well known for his American Le Mans Series, IndyCar Series and Formula 1 accomplishments. The two new primary sponsors join two long-time supporters of the team: Gatorade and TodayMD. The Rolex 24 is scheduled to be televised live Saturday, Jan. 24 beginning at 3 p.m. EST on FOX. The coverage then switches to SPEED from 4:30 p.m. until 10 p.m. SPEED will rejoin the action at 7 a.m. on Sunday morning, with post-race interviews concluding at 4 p.m. Live timing and scoring is planned for grand-am.com. The team, which was founded in 1996, has a Web site at alegramotorsports.com. Additional information can be found at merchantservicesltd.com, strategicair.com and limitlesssky.com.

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Tomas Enge Leads Final Daytona Prototype Session (Updated Monday at 2"50 p.m.)

Tomas Enge ran a lap of 1:41.916 (125.751 mph) to lead the final session of the "Roar Before the Rolex 24." Enge drives the No. 22 Alegra Motorsports Gatorade/Today MD BMW Riley with Carlos de Quesada, Jean-Francois Dumoulin and Ryan Dalziel. "We had a few problems during this test, but it looks like at the end of the test it looks like we’ve sorted out the small issues and we’ve set up the car quite well. We’ve still got a ways to go before the race, but the car looks good and we feel very positive," Enge said. "I still need a few more laps to be comfortable, but it’s working well. It’s not perfect yet, but I know we will work hard and we will be ready before the race and we will be strong." Alega won the GT class in the 2007 Rolex 24 At Daytona, with team owner de Quesada and Dumoulin part of the winning lineup. "For us, we’ve faced a lot of challenges in the past, and it’s the same with this event," de Queseda said. "We’ve got a lot to learn in such a short amount of time, and we’re meeting the challenges. I’m very proud of our team, all the drivers, and the crew is doing an incrediblle job." In addition to winning GT honors in the 2007 Rolex 24, Dumoulin won SGS honors in the 2004 event, driving for Doncaster racing. "We have a great car and we’ve got an amazing team," Dumoulin said. "I’ve got great co-drivers, it’s great driving with Ryan Dalziel who is doing an amazing car. We’ve got a pretty good car and I’m feeling positive about it." Dalziel finished second overall in the 2007 Rolex 24, driving for SAMAX. "This is Alegra’s first season in Daytona Prototype competition, and they’ve done a phemenal job getting the car up and running," Dalzier said. "We’ve got a great engine with Dinan, we’ve got a great chassis with Riley, and I’m happy to be here. I think we’re going to have a great 24-hour race. I’ve had a few good runs in the Rolex 24. We had a great run in 2007, so we’re hoping for good things this year. We’re definitely the underdogs at this point, but I think that gives us a little more motivation."

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Alegra Motorsports Claims Rolex 24 GT Class Victory...

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (January 28, 2007) -- In a 24-hour battle of speed, weather, fatigue and the largest single class to compete in the Rolex 24 At Daytona, Scooter Gabel, Jean-Francois Dumoulin, Carlos de Quesada and Marc Basseng overcame them all, claiming the GT victory in the 45th anniversary of North America’s premier endurance race in the No. 22 Alegra Motorsports/Fiorano Racing Porsche GT3. Overcoming an early race incident that saw the Gabel’s No. 22 machine slide off-course and make heavy contact with the tire barrier in Turn 1 and capitalizing on misfortune from the race-leading No. 85 Farnbacher Loles Porsche GT3 in the race’s 23rd hour, the Florida-based team won by a slim, 7.072-second margin. The decisive moment of the race came with a little more than 90 minutes remaining, when Dirk Werner was forced to pull his No. 85 Porsche down pit road with a lingering oil leak, opening the door for the Alegra/Fiorano team, as Dumoulin crossed the stripe just ahead of Paul Edwards, who debuted the new No. 07 Banner Racing Pontiac GXP.R. "There were so many good cars out there," said Dumoulin, a 2004 Rolex 24 SGS class winner. "We needed to be quick without doing too much harm to the car. We were able to keep our head down and stay ahead of them. It was a lot of fun." The No. 22 car only led the final 48 laps in the of the race, but fast and efficient pit crew members, coupled with persistent and consistent drivers, completed the "underdog" story. "You always have to believe you can win in racing," said Gabel. "I thought the odds were stacked heavily against us, with the problems we had in testing. We didn’t have a solid set of data to get a good setup with. The GT class was huge and they were all good cars, and for us to come out on top, it’s a huge honor." Battling the proven Porsche fleets of TRG, Tafel Racing and Farnbacher Loles, the No. 22 machine flew under the radar heading into Daytona. And with 41 GT machines taking the green flag--the single-most class entries to start the Rolex 24 in the race’s 45-year history--it was easy to get lost in the shuffle. "This is the biggest success of my career," said Basseng. "This is a great series, and for us German guys, we love coming here because we all want this watch. The win definitely feels good." "This team has been working so hard this off-season and I couldn’t be happier for them," said de Quesada. "We had a little incident early in the race that put us five laps down, but we knew that if we continued to focus on what we could control and kept turning out good laps, we’d have a pretty good chance." Edwards finished second in the No. 07 machine, co-driving with Kelly Collins, Andy Pilgrim and Johnny O’Connell. Banner Racing fielded a pair of Pontiac GXP.Rs in the Rolex 24, and although lacking the straight-line speed of the Porsches, handled remarkably through Daytona’s infield road course. Jim Lowe, Jim Pace, Johannes van Overbeek and Ralf Kelleners finished third in the No. 64 TRG Porsche GT3, followed by Banner Racing’s second entry, the No. 06 Pontiac GXP.R, driven by Leighton Reese and Tim Lewis Jr., with help from Edwards and O’Connell. The No. 70 SpeedSource Mazda RX-8 rounded out the top five, with drivers Sylvain Tremblay, Nick Ham, David Haskell and Randy Pobst. Germany’s Wolf Henzler took the lead from polesitter Patrick Huisman in Turn 1 of the opening lap, and led the first 29 circuits aboard the No. 74 Tafel Racing Porsche GT3. Alongside co-drivers Jim Tafel, Eric Lux and Dominick Farnbacher (113 laps led), Henzler and the No. 74 machine looked like a strong bet in the early going. The 2006 GT class runner-up led 83 of the first 88 laps. Mechanical issues during the night hours, however, forced the machine into the garage for extensive repairs, seemingly dashing the team’s hopes at a victory. Much of the damage was caused when Lux locked the brakes in Turn 1 and was forced to limp the car around the track with front-left damage. Tafel Racing’s misfortune handed the class lead to the No. 85 machine, which led throughout most of the night hours. It looked as though the Farnbacher driver lineup of Werner, Jörg Hardt, Pierre Ehret and Leh Keen, would run away with the race until the late oil leak problems. Hardt led a race-high 208 laps and Werner, who did the majority of the driving for the team, spent 56 laps on the point position. The Banner Racing and Alegra/Fiorano entries used mid-race caution periods to make up time lost to the faster No. 85 car. A total of 13 drivers exchanged the lead 25 times and the winning team covered more than 2,228 miles in the 626 laps around the 3.56-mile, 14 turn speedway road course. The machines of the Rolex Series enjoy a little more than a month before Round 2 of the 2007 championship, when the Daytona Prototypes and GT machines travel south of the border to contest a 400 km race at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.

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