Two Top Five Finishes for Dinan-Powered BMW Rileys - Bosch Engineering 250 at VIR!

Samax Motorsport Dinan-Powered BMW Riley Turns Fastest Lap of the Race...

Zogaib, Dalziel Score Second Place in Bosch Engineering 250 at VIR

ALTON, Va. (April 27, 2008) - Henri Zogaib and Ryan Dalziel posted a strong second-place finish in the Bosch Engineering 250 at VIR on Sunday as Dalziel brought the Samax Motorsport BMW-Riley to the finish line less than one second behind the race winner.
 
The race result marks Henri Zogaib's debut Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16 podium and his best career Rolex race finish, and matches the best finish in Rolex competition for Samax. Zogaib started the event from the back of the pack after a driveline failure kept him from setting a fast time in Saturday's qualifying session, and he moved up in the order at the start before turning the car over to Dalziel  to take to the finish.
 
"We had our work cut out for us today after we started from last on the grid," said Zogaib. "So to end the day on the podium is just fantastic. The team did an excellent job, and I can't say enough about the job that Ryan did out there. It is difficult to learn a new track in just one day and expect to put in consistently quick lap times. But I was very confident starting this weekend after moving up from 16th to 8th in Mexico and all I wanted to do was to get the car to Ryan in good shape for him to take it to the finish. Hopefully there are going to be more podiums to come, and now I just can't wait to get home and celebrate with my kids!"
 
Dalziel proved a threat to take the lead in a series of thrilling last laps to the finish, but despite shadowing the leader at every corner, never found a clean way by and elected to bring  the car home in second position, without a scratch on the silver and black Riley.
 
"I think, realistically, we had the legs on him a little bit as far as lap time went, but we just didn't really have the straight line speed," said Dalziel. "We ran a little more downforce. I think that was the right thing to do, to get any confidence. It's Henri's first time here, he struggled a little bit with the track time. I told him last night to give me the car on the lead lap and we'll go on from there. He's done a spectacular job this year for somebody who's in his first year of racing, staying out of trouble and giving me the car in one piece. This, I think, will be the turning point for us. There's one I always like following Scott, is that's a guy I can learn from, it's somebody like me looks up to, and you know it's always clean racing. I knew if I could get up alongside him, he'd let me have the corner. You saw today it could be done without banging into each other, and the top three cars today had no damage."
 
The Samax organization made the move to Dinan-BMW power after the Rolex 24, and continues to show great strides with the new powerplant.
 
"It's great we were able to get Henri some hardware for his trophy case," said team owner Peter Baron.  "Ryan did a great job today. We were a little conservative in the closing laps, but the most important thing was to bring a good finish home and we did exactly that, so it's good to get this under our belts and we can build on this at Laguna."
 
For more information please contact Sunday Group Management at media@sundaymanagement.com .
 
www.samaxmotorsport.com

Dinan-Powered Rum Bum Racing Finishes 5th!

Dinan Powered Win at 2007 Miami Grand Prix!

LOS ANGELES, Calif. (March 28, 2007) -- In just their eighth Daytona Prototype start as a team, No. 05 Luggage Express Team Sigalsport BMW Riley co-drivers Bill Auberlen and Matthew Alhadeff scored their first career Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Special Reserve overall victory in Saturday's Linder Industrial Komatsu Grand Prix of Miami at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

With 11 laps remaining, Auberlen swept to the inside of 2005 Daytona Prototype co-champion, Max Angelelli in the No. 10 SunTrust Pontiac Riley in Turn 6 and came out with the lead in a textbook maneuver. Auberlen then spent the remaining laps keeping Angelelli and the rest of the field in his mirrors and the two-time Rolex Series GT champion went on to win the race by 1.759 seconds.

"First of all, it feels unbelievable," Auberlen said. "It came earlier than I even expected. I knew we had a learning curve with the car. The team has a gelling curve, where everybody has to come together. It's all coming together so fast. We've got a good motor program now, and everything is good, so to win this one, it's one of the best wins I've ever had. It was one of the hardest-fought wins I ever had to do."

"As far as the pass on Angelelli goes, on the restart before that, I was much faster than him, but it was like he drove in his mirrors. Everywhere I went, that's where he wound up. I was like, 'I can't go by, so I have to make myself invisible.' If you put a Daytona Prototype right behind another one, they can't see you. I tucked right up behind him to where I knew he couldn't see me, waited for his brake lights to come on, and when he did that, I went just a second longer. It was too much for him. For him to do it, we would have had to wreck. I passed him, went out, and the car was strong."

For Alhadeff, who drove the first 21 laps before turning the car over to Auberlen under the day's second of seven full-course cautions, it was his first professional race victory. It was the 25-year-old Alhadeff's eighth Daytona Prototype start and 26th overall Rolex Series start in a career that began in May 2005.

"This is one of the greatest days of my entire life," Alhadeff said. "I'm so happy for my whole team and for my family and for myself. We've been working so hard to do this. We've been there a couple of times and it's gotten taken away from us for whatever reason. Now, we finally did it. It was a well-deserved finish, because we struggled in the beginning with some of the things that happened on the track and a pit stop that wasn't that great. Everybody just pulled through. Bill Auberlen, man, that guy is unbelievable."

"I am so happy for the team and our drivers and our supporters, fans, our sponsors including Luggage Express whose headquarters is only an hour away from Miami. This was definitely where we needed to win our first overall win!" said Luggage Express Team Sigalsport BMW team owner Gene Sigal. "I want to thank my team for their tremendous work as well as our two drivers Bill and Matt for their great race. The team has worked 24/7 for the last six months and that finally paid off. This is the most successful day of our team's life. I started Sigalsport in 2004 to compete in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series and we gradually moved up the ladder from SGS racing to Daytona Prototype racing. The result is that in less than three years, and only eight DP races, we managed to win and beat the best endurance racing teams on the planet. This is sweet." Gene continued. "I want to thank the Alhadeff family for their continuous support and trust in our abilities to take their son Matt to the highest level of the podium" added Gene Sigal.

"I also want to thank our associate sponsors enVista, Guarneros Racing Wear, Piloti Driving Shoes, Mechanix, MOTUL, HELLA and OMP America and I give a special thanks to Galina and Vadim Vaynter from BZCOM Communications and Arthur Kats from Fortune Market Financial Network for putting the Universal Express sponsorship deal for the next three seasons together. This is only our third race with our sponsor Universal Express division Luggage Express whose primary goal is to create brand visibility and increase the Luggage Express name and company awareness. The Speed TV television coverage and our winning result delivered them just that", Gene continued.

This is only the second BMW Dinan V8 engine win in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Special Reserve. The first one was in Mexico City in 2005.

"We now have to confirm that we can run in front at all the races. We have a great package. Dinan BMW and Luggage Express Team Sigalsport BMW have worked together to develop the BMW engine package on and off the track and will continue to do so until we are perfect. We are testing next week here in California to make sure we keep the team busy and in the winning mode", announced Sigal after the race.