24h-Race Nürburgring - No 42 retired

24h-Race Nürburging 2003 - 31 May to 1 June - Race

Bulletin No 3

Good and bad luck are never very far apart in motorsport. Twelve hours into the
race Car No 42 is rewarded with fifth place after hunting down the opposition,
but retires shortly afterwards.

The chances of a good result for Team BMW Motorsport didn't look promising at
the start of the race. However, during the six hours up to half distance the
car improved by 30 places. Shortly after car no 42 took fifth place its hunt
for better positions came to a halt due to a collision. Boris Said was driving
the car at 3.18am and crashed at the exit of Fuchsröhre. The uninjured driver
said: "As I came out of the curve I saw a car indicating. I don't know exactly
what happened, but the marshals reported two cars had already crashed there."

For the drivers Jörg Müller (GER), Dirk Müller (GER), Claudia Hürtgen (GER) and
Marc Duez (BEL) it was possible to make up an amazing 140 places after 70 laps
to be in 21st place.

As dawn breaks over the Eifel mountains car number 43 is being driven by Marc
Duez, but car number 42 is definitely out.

Charly Lamm, Team Manager Team BMW Motorsport: "Boris needed to go a long
distance with the damaged M3 GTR to reach the pits. This obviously had an
adverse affect on parts of the car. For safety reasons we decided to retire car
number 42 from the race. All our hopes now lay with number 43."

Boris Said: "I am very sorry that this collision happened to me. We were going
in the right direction to catch the field."

Car No 42 - BMW M3 GTR
Hans-Joachim Stuck (GER)/Boris Said (USA)/John Nielsen (DNK)/Marc Duez (BEL)

Car No 43 - BMW M3 GTR
Jörg Müller (GER)/Dirk Müller (GER)/Claudia Hürtgen (GER)/Marc Duez (BEL)