Close Finish in Sports Car Series

By SHAV GLICK

Oct. 29, 2004 12 AM PT

Boris Said and Bill Auberlen, two of the finest road-race drivers in the country, won five consecutive races as BMW co-drivers in the Grand American sports car GT series early in the year before a factory decision split them apart. Seven races later, they will go into the season finale Sunday at California Speedway only seven points apart, with Auberlen leading.

If they were still sharing a car, they would probably share the championship.

But since the split, Auberlen, 36, the road-racing specialist from Redondo Beach, has won three more times and leads Said, 42, the Carlsbad veteran who is one of racing’s most versatile drivers, 348-341. All Auberlen needs for the championship is to finish within three positions of Said in the GT portion of the Rolex Grand American 400 -- 89 laps around the 21-turn, 2.8-mile course that snakes through the infield and includes stretches of the two-mile superspeedway oval.

“When we started out, Boris and I racing together, it was fantastic,” Auberlen said. “We won and won and won. I mean, Boris is a great teammate. Then they separated us, and it’s kind of a bummer that we can’t win it together because he helped me do this all the way through.”

The split was made because BMW wanted experienced drivers to pair with rookies. Justin Marks of Chico joined Auberlen in the No. 21 Team PTG BMW M3, and Joey Hand of Sacramento moved into the No. 22 car with Said.

Said, who may be running one of his last sports car races before moving to NASCAR next season, was not happy with the move.

“Mad, that’s what I was when I heard about it,” he said. “Racing with Bill, it would have been easy for me to win the championship. He’s one of the best in America, and I’d rather have him sharing a seat than race with a rookie. It was disappointing. But in the big picture, we’re part of a team and that’s BMW North America, and they decide what’s best for them. Sometimes that’s not what is best for me personally.”

After driving in a dozen Winston and Nextel Cup races on NASCAR’s road courses at Sears Point and Watkins Glen, N.Y., in recent years, Said tested the oval waters by running in this year’s Bud Shootout for 2003 pole winners. He also ran in the Pop Secret 500 Cup race last month at Fontana, where he qualified 36th and completed the 500 miles in 30th place.

“Just to run all the laps in the race, I mean it felt like a win for me,” he said.

Now the lanky veteran is about to make a serious career change.

“Next year, I’m going to do 12 Nextel Cup races and maybe a few Busch races,” he said. “I’ve been running 30 to 40 races a year, anywhere I could get a ride, but that’s going to change. I am serious about the Cup career, and I’m really going to concentrate on it. And when I’m not racing, I’ll go and sit in the spotter’s stand and try to absorb as much as I can.”

Auberlen, who also won the SCCA’s World Challenge Cup in a BMW last week at Laguna Seca, plans to remain in sports cars but with an expanded schedule. Besides the Rolex series, he is planning to drive a Panoz car in the American LeMans series.

“Plans are still a bit up in the air,” he said. “It depends on what the schedules look like. I’ll run the Panoz when their race doesn’t conflict with my BMW ride.”

The GT cars will be on the track Sunday in the same race with the Daytona Prototypes, top class in the Rolex Sports Car Series. The race is tight there too, only three points separating co-leaders Scott Pruett and Max Papis in Chip Ganassi’s No. 01 CompUSA Lexus Riley and Wayne Taylor in the No. 10 SunTrust Pontiac Riley. Taylor, a South African who builds electric vehicles in San Diego, will be partnered with Max Antelelli.

Ganassi, who also has had Luis Diaz and Jimmy Morales in a second car, has added a third entry with his Indy Racing League drivers, Scott Dixon and Darren Manning.

“Our goal is to win the championship,” said Papis, a former Indy car driver. “That’s why Chip Ganassi committed, and CompUSA and Lexus committed, to put the third car out there, because we are going to take no prisoners.... We spent a lot of time analyzing and looking and preparing ourselves in the best way. I think with the added help of Manning and Dixon, it’s going to be awesome.”

Dixon will be the busiest of them all. Tuesday, he was in New York for a magazine photo shoot with his sponsor. After today’s practice in Fontana, he will fly to Atlanta to drive in the final International Race of Champions on Saturday at Atlanta Motor Speedway and then return for Sunday’s Rolex race.

All classes will practice today, with Rolex GT and Daytona Prototypes qualifying Saturday. Also scheduled Saturday is a Lexus Grand American 250 for production sports cars.

Unlike NASCAR, the sports cars race rain or shine.

Last Laps

The 2005 Champ Car schedule, released Thursday, will start April 10 with the traditional Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, but the 14-race season probably will include a street race in San Jose instead of Laguna Seca’s road circuit in Monterey. There will also be new races in Edmonton, Canada, and Ansan, Korea. The schedule is evenly divided, seven races in the U.S. and seven in other countries.

Heavy rains earlier in the week prompted Ventura Raceway officials to cancel Saturday night’s U.S. Auto Club midget and Ford Focus midget races at the Seaside Park facility.

Pro stock driver Jason Line, top fueler Morgan Lucas and funny car protege Eric Medlen have been nominated for the Auto Club’s NHRA Road to the Future award. The Powerade drag racing series will be in Las Vegas this weekend, then will close its season in two weeks with the Auto Club Finals at Pomona.

Sports Cars

* What: Grand American Series.

* When: Today, qualifying, 9:20 a.m.; Saturday, Lexus Grand American 250, 2 p.m.; Sunday, Rolex Grand American 400, 1 p.m. (Speed Channel)

* Where: California Speedway (2.8-mile infield road course, 21 turns), Fontana.

* Race distance: 250 miles or 400 kilometers (89 laps).

* 2003 winners: David Donahue and Mike Borkowski, Rolex series; Michael Levitas and Randy Pobst, Grand-Am Cup.

* Next event: Season finale.

This Week

*--* NASCAR NEXTEL CUP Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500

*--*

* When: Today, qualifying (Speed Channel, 4 p.m.); Sunday, race (NBC, 9:30 a.m.).

* Where: Atlanta Motor Speedway (oval, 1.54 miles, 24-degree banking in turns), Hampton, Ga.