Ruhlman and Cochet to drive at Barber Motorsports Park Daytona Prototype race --Qualifying Report Birmingham, AL (July 29, 2006) – The Derhaag Motorsports #40 Preformed Line Products Pontiac Riley will start on the outside of the 9th row in the 43-car combined DP and GT field in tomorrow's Grand American Daytona Prototype race at Barber Motorsports Park. The #40 Daytona Prototype will be driven by team driver Randy Ruhlman and Jonathan Cochet, when the three-hour race gets underway at 2 p.m., Sunday, July 30th at the Alabama track. Cochet will be starting the race, having qualified the car with a time of 1:24.574 on the 2.3-mile course. The Grand American Road Racing Association and the Daytona Prototypes return to racing action this weekend and head into the first of four final races of the 2006 season. The Rolex Series presented by Crown Royal Special Reserve Porsche 250 presented by Bradley Arant starts Sunday, July 30 at 2 p.m. CT. The race will air live on SPEED Channel at 3 p.m. ET. Randy Ruhlman just came off a successful 2005 season in the Trans-Am Series with wins at both the Cleveland Grand Prix and the Long Beach Grand Prix. Jonathan Cochet is currently a Formula One demonstration driver for Renault and a top competitor in Daytona Prototypes this year. Cochet has an extensive resume of driving in Europe and Japan. He won the Formula Renault Championship over current Champ Car driver Sebastian Bourdais and went on to win the Formula Three Championship in the following years. After spending time with Alain Prost's Formula One team as a test driver, Jonathan Cochet has wide-ranging experience driving in competitions from Formula Renault to LMP1 to Grand American Rolex Cup Daytona Prototypes. He has driven with Team Oreca and the Courage Competition team at Le Mans, also working in the development of their car. Currently residing in Paris, France, Cochet is a full-time driver in the Grand American Daytona Prototype Series with Tuttle Team Racing. Ruhlman was named the 2005 BBS "Most Improved Driver of the Year", won the 2005 Cleveland Grand Prix Trans-Am race and Long Beach Grand Prix, and was runner up for the 2005 Trans-Am Drivers' Championship. Ruhlman makes the record books as fourth in Top Ten finishes in Trans-Am history. Ruhlman from Greensboro, NC has been a professional race car driver since his Rookie year in Trans-Am in 1990 and has extensive racing experience, predominantly in road racing in the Trans-Am Series, as well as in IMSA, ASA and the NASCAR short track series. Derhaag Motorsports Pontiac Riley carries primary sponsorship from Preformed Line Products with additional sponsorship logos of Coyote Closures®, Park Place Ltd, KeyBank and McDonald Financial Group. Preformed Line Products (PLP) is an international manufacturer and supplier of hardware and support systems for the communications and energy industries. Products include the COYOTE® Closure and GUY-GRIP® Dead-End used in the telecommunications, cable and energy industries. Manufacturing facilities are located worldwide in the USA, Canada, China, Brazil, Mexico, England, Spain, South Africa, Australia and Thailand. Cleveland-based KeyCorp is one of the nation’s largest bank-based financial services companies, with assets of approximately $92 billion. Key companies provide investment management, retail and commercial banking, consumer finance, and investment banking products and services to individuals and companies throughout the United States and, for certain businesses, internationally. For further information about the drivers, sponsor, team, please visit the following links: Derhaag Motorsports http://www.derhaag.com/ Randy Ruhlman http://www.randyruhlman.com/ Jonathan Cochet http://www.jonathancochet.net/ Preformed Line Products http://www.preformed.com/ |
