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Linda Mansfield, Restart Communications
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Gleason and Auberlen Finish on the Podium
In KONI Challenge Season Opener at Daytona

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla., Jan. 26 - Chris Gleason of Johnstown, Pa. and Bill
Auberlen of Redondo Beach, Calif., got the 2007 KONI Challenge season off to a
great start by setting the fastest race lap and finishing on the podium in the
Fresh from Florida 200 Friday at Daytona International Speedway. After 3 hours
of competition on Daytona's 3.56-mile road course, their Turner Motorsport BMW
M3 No. 96, which is sponsored in part by Gleason Financial, crossed the finish
line in third place out of 106 entries.

Like the duo's experience here last year, they had to come from behind. This
time that was because Gleason got spun out by a Porsche driver in Turn 1 on a
restart on lap 10 of what turned out to be a 64-lap race while he was running
tenth.

No one associated with the effort panicked, however, and the entry clawed its
way back up the scoreboard. An extremely long yellow didn't help, nor did
the fact that other makes of cars have an advantage here because Daytona is a
high-horsepower track, but in the end it still worked out great for everyone
cheering for the No. 96 when Auberlen crossed the line in third.

Gleason qualified 21st but he got off to a fabulous start, vaulting into 15th
place by the end of the first 3 miles (1 lap). After a battle with Jim
Hamblin in the BGB Motorsports No. 38, he was up to 11th when the first yellow
waved on lap four when Tim Traver crashed and wiped out the front end of the
Porsche he had been driving. Gleason passed another car right before the yellow
waved to move into tenth place by the end of lap six.

The spin occurred on the restart on lap eight, dropping him to the rear of
the standings. By lap 13, with two hours and 23 minutes left, he was in 56th
place and digging.

Four laps later he was in 44th place. By lap 21, with two hours and nine
minutes left, he was in 41st place when a Mustang went into a tire wall so hard
it moved the concrete barrier behind it, bringing out another yellow.

Some pit stops and some more attrition allowed Gleason to move up to 33rd by
lap 24, around the race's midpoint. He moved up to 29th shortly thereafter,
and he was around that position when he pitted for fuel, tires and Auberlen to
take over with about half the race remaining.

Auberlen got the car back into the top 10 by lap 35, but then the No. 151 BMW
330ci crashed in Turn 5 to bring out another yellow on lap 35. Auberlen
pitted on lap 39 for fresh tires and fuel under that yellow with an hour and 10
minutes remaining. The entry was back in 19th after the stop, but then other top
drivers pitted too and by lap 44, still under yellow, Auberlen was back in
the top 10.

The green waved again on lap 46 and Auberlen pounced. He had charged into
fifth by lap 48, and then battled the eventual winner, David Empringham, in what
turned out to be the best fight of the race. They exchanged fifth place a
couple of times on lap 50 and lap 51 before yet another yellow slowed the action
on lap 52. Empringham repassed Auberlen just before the yellow waved to push
him to sixth with 30 minutes remaining.

There was an attempt to get things going again with 18 minutes left but then
Nick Longhi spun to a stop in the middle of a turn. He was a sitting duck,
and was soon creamed by another competitor to bring out another yellow. Before
everything was said and done there were five caution flags for 30 of the 64
laps.

The race finally got restarted with 10 minutes remaining. Empringham headed
to the front and Auberlen got fourth with six minutes left. He took third
from David Murry on lap 60 with 5 minutes remaining, and then threatened Scott
Maxwell for second. On lap 61 he recorded the fastest lap anyone had run in
the race when he traveled over the 14-turn track in 2:01.089 for an average
speed of 105.840 miles per hour. Maxwell's Hyper Sport Mustang had too much
horsepower on the high banks, however, and Auberlen was in third when the checkered
waved on lap 64. Two Mustang GTs were the only cars ahead of his BMW, which
was just 0.417 of a second behind the winner at the line.

The race was covered by SPEED. It will be shown on a tape-delayed basis,
probably in early March, but no official time for its airing has been announced
yet. Pit reporter Calvin Fish interviewed Gleason during the coverage, which
hopefully won't be cut when the tapes are edited.

The next KONI Challenge race is April 13-15 at Homestead-Miami Speedway in
Homestead, Fla.

Both Gleason and Auberlen will also compete in tomorrow's Rolex 24, which
will be covered live on FOX Sports starting at 1:30 p.m. Eastern before it
switches to SPEED for the bulk of the coverage.

Gleason will drive the TRG Porsche GT3 Cup No. 68 in that event, which starts
58th in the field of 70. He's slated to drive fourth in the rotation, after
Ted Ballou, Rocco DeSimone II and Brad Jaeger.

The compete race results and live timing and scoring can be found on the
Internet at grand-am.com.

Gleason's post-race quote on Friday follows:

"Some Porsche hit me in Turn 1 on a restart. The engine stalled and I ended
up sitting on the apex of the turn. The engine is hard to start when it's hot,
so it took awhile before I got it going again. But I still stayed on the
lead lap. We tried to minimize our pits stops, and I drove for about an hour and
45 minutes or so I guess.

"Last year we started last and this year that happened, so we had to battle
back both times.

"Bill did his best to come up through the field, but this course is not a BMW
track. So, to come away with a podium finish here is good. We earned good
points and we're in a good position after the season opener, and the BMW tracks
are coming up.

"Our car was great; my kudos to the Turner Motorsport crew for preparing a
great car. The brakes were phenomenal.

"As far as the Rolex 24 goes, I'm still getting used to that car. It's a
little different to drive, but we'll try to do our best."

The top five:

1. Tom Nastasi/ David Empringham, Blackforest Motorsports Mustang GT
2. Joe Foster/Scott Maxwell, Hyper Sport Mustang GT
3. Chris Gleason/Bill Auberlen, Turner Motorsport BMW M3
4. David Murry/Hal Prewitt, Playboy Racing Nissan 350Z
5. Jep Thornton/Jeff Segal, Automatic Racing BMW M3