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Bill Auberlen will chase at least
two championships in 2008, aiming for the top in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car
Series and KONI Challenge Series. The Redondo Beach, Calif., driver has won two
of his six professional auto-racing championships in Grand-Am competition, with
30 victories, 46 podiums, 11 pole positions and 26 records in the two series to
date.
As announced previously, Auberlen
will drive the No. 23 Ruby Tuesday Championship Racing Team Porsche-powered
Crawford in the Rolex Series Daytona Prototype class. The car will be prepared
by Alex Job Racing for Auberlen and Joey Hand of Sacramento,
Calif.
Auberlen will also return to the
KONI Challenge Series GS class, driving the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M3 with
Matthew Alhadeff of Los Angeles, Calif. The team won its third-consecutive KONI
Series driver and team championships this year. Turner and Auberlen's results
gave BMW its first KONI manufacturer title.
"I almost won two championships in
the [2003 SPEED] World Challenge series, when I won in Touring Car and I missed
in GT by just a few points. This year I want to go one better and try to win
both Grand-Am championships," Auberlen said.
"To be teamed up with Alex in the
Ruby Tuesday Porsche Crawford and to have Joey Hand as my teammate is fantastic.
And the Turner car has been a rocket ship; it's been fast. I've had to miss
races because of conflicting schedules, but this year I'm going to be able to
make all the races. I'm going to put a major effort into winning these
championships.
"This is all about the year to win,
to win, to win. It's been awhile since the stars all lined up this good. I can't
remember the last time I went into a season feeling this
confident."
Will Turner, owner of Turner
Motorsport, is also optimistic.
"It's great to have Bill back with
Turner Motorsport for another season," he said. "He has been a part of the
Turner BMW team since 2001. We've won a lot of races together, and a few
championships over the last six years. I look forward to 2008 – we are going to
have a real strong team and we're going to do whatever it takes to win another
championship."
Auberlen won the Rolex Series GT
driver championship in 2004 and was GT co-champion in 2002. His career race
results include six championships, 75 wins, 139 podium finishes, 53 pole
positions (41 record), 64 fastest race laps (48 record) and 102 series and track
records.
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