For: Immediate Release     Date: July 23, 2004    Contact: Robert Lee

Torrance, Calif--When winning race teams find a distinct advantage, news spreads fast. Such is the case with StopTech Brakes, which are now the brakes of choice on nearly a third of the cars in the Speed World Challenge Touring Car Series. At this past weekend’s Sonoma Speed Touring Car double-header, StopTech-equipped cars earned a string of highly convincing race results, including a win, three podiums, and seven top-ten finishes in two total races. Of nine StopTech-equipped cars taking a race start during the weekend, 78% finished top-ten, a remarkable performance by any standard. Making it perhaps even more remarkable is the fact that all of these racecars were running the same StopTech Balanced Brake Systems™ available for popular street cars.

In Saturday’s race one, Bill Auberlen continued to prove why he is widely regarded as one of the best drivers in America, winning convincingly from the pole in the #1 Turner Motorsports BMW 325i. Auberlen led every lap of the race despite carrying an extra 180lbs of R.E.W.A.R.D.S. weight. Despite the extra burden, the car handled beautifully and braked exceptionally, allowing him to hold-off the hard-charging Nic Jonsson even in the braking zones. “The car was amazing, and the brakes really made a difference for us”, Auberlen commented. “Even with all the extra weight, we were able to hold off Nic for the win.” It was Auberlen’s third win of the season in the series. He is also the series’ championship points leader.

Auberlen’s TMS teammates, (and fellow Californians), Justin Marks and Dino Crescentini also put in great performances, with Marks overcoming early-race contact, and charging through the field (from 21st after the incident) to take an impressive 5th place. Crescentini started in 11th, but steadily moved up throughout the race, to finish 6th, just behind his teammate Marks.

In race one, nine of the thirty-two cars taking the start were StopTech-equipped.

For Sunday’s race two, Auberlen’s car sported another 70lbs of R.E.W.A.R.D.S. weight, as a result of his Saturday win. That’s a total of 250lbs, a very tough burden to bear. Despite this, Auberlen qualified 3rd for the race, and fought leader Jonsson for the win, eventually coming just short after a very impressive last-turn pass attempt under braking. Auberlen commented, “We got in there along side of Nic under braking on the last lap, but not quite far enough to make the pass coming out of the turn. That’s a lot of extra weight we are carrying now, which makes it pretty tough, but I was consistently out braking Nic in turn 11.”

In addition to Auberlen’s 2nd place, Justin Marks equaled his highest-ever series finish, taking a stellar third, his first podium of the year. Of his StopTech brakes, Richmond stated that during the race he was able to “brake extra-late into turn seven”. Crescentini came in just behind Marks in fourth, placing all three TMS cars in the top five. Auberlen keeps his championship points lead.

Also impressive in race two was the Bimmerworld BMW of Matt Richmond and the new Mazda 6 of Tri-Point, making its series debut at Sonoma, (both cars are StopTech-equipped). Richmond earned himself both the hard-charger and hole-shot awards, having gained seven positions in the first lap, and moving up eighteen positions total throughout the race. Jeff Altenburg drove the new Mazda 6 to 10th place in its maiden race weekend, incredible for an-all new car and platform, still under development by the team. Altenburg commented that his StopTech brake setup is perfectly matched to the new car, showing great improvement over the previous setup.

In Sunday’s race two, eight of the twenty-nine cars on the grid were StopTech-equipped. Further capping off an incredible weekend for StopTech, four of the twenty-four cars in Saturdays Speed GT race were also equipped with StopTech Brakes.

The entire staff of StopTech wished to congratulate each of these competitors on their outstanding performances.

For more information call Robert Lee at (310) 325-4799 or email at rlee@stoptech.com.