Double Win for Team MGR Racing-WOT Performance

BUTTONWILLOW, Calif.(September 1, 2007) – After the mechanical failure suffered at Thunderhill last month, Team MGR Racing-WOT Performance took no time to rebound to the top at Buttonwillow Raceway Park.

The weekend however presented a new set of challenges to the Phoenix based team. With a new engine that was installed in the #27 WOT Performance Ford Taurus just a couple of days prior to the race weekend, Manuel Gil del Real tested it for the first time on Friday afternoon. With ambient temperature in the 110 degree range, the car started overheating right away and the oil pressure dropped below comfortable levels. Both, Pete Andreas, Team Technical Director and Manuel were seriously concerned about how to handle the extreme heat the rest of the weekend.

On Saturday, Manuel drove a very conservative qualifying session placing him in fifth place overall. "I know I can go at least a couple of seconds quicker... I just want to save the engine for the race and see how things go from there..." said Manuel after qualifying. In fact, at the drop of the green flag, it took Manuel a few hundred feet to move from fifth to third place. By turn one, he was right behind Michael Arnheiter and studying the best place to pass him for second place. That would happen only a lap later when Manuel went inside Michael's car under braking just before the "Grapevine" turn.

The race literally heated up and a roll over crash by another competitor caused it to be halted for several minutes. "That was the worst time I've had inside a racecar. Seating strapped in the car with the cockpit temperature at around 150 degrees and all the metal surfaces inside the car at nearly 200 degrees, with no airflow at all, it was unbearable! I was about to walk out of my car..." said Manuel Gil del Real after the race. However, the race was re-started a few minutes later and all drivers went back to race action. At the end of the race, the WOT Performance Ford secured a second place overall and a win in the ASC-Unlimited class, the first of the two wins it would achieve this weekend.

After Saturday's success, and based on the fact that Sunday's race would take place in the morning with cooler temperatures, Pete Andreas decided to tune the engine of the WOT Performance Ford a little more aggressively. It took Manuel Gil del Real only one lap to qualify second overall and first in ASC Unlimited. "I told Pete after qualifying that we would win the race. I'm actually surprised that I qualified up front since I only drove the car at about 85% during the qualifying lap," said Manuel Gil del Real.

At the start of Sunday's race, Manuel got his car just ahead of Bryan Hintz –who qualified on the pole- as they both approached turn one's right hander, however, not quite enough to shut the door on the #13 Chevrolet. Two laps later, the WOT Performance Ford was able to get past the #13 of Bryan Hintz at full speed just as they both entered "Riverside" turn at around 140 mph. But the real battle for the lead was about to start when Robert Davis –who won Saturday's race and considers Buttonwillow his home track- also got past Bryan Hintz and started a hot pursuit of the #27 Ford. "I saw that Robert passed Bryan too and I figured he would get behind me real quick, but I wasn't overly concerned about him passing me. Then, I ran a bit wide at the end of the esses and that's all it took for him to slip by... still I was able to pass him back the following lap and from there on, we had a real good and competitive time racing side-by-side several times," said Gil del Real.

The fight for first place ended when Davis lost fourth gear with two laps to go and left Manuel Gil del Real easily taking the overall ASC win and his second ASC-Unlimited win of the weekend. "This has been a great weekend for our team," said Pete Andreas, Team's Technical Director. "We've been working very hard at the shop since we came back from Thunderhill testing different engine platforms and working different problems until we came up with the solution just about two days before coming to the track. I'm really glad that all our effort has paid off and we've come up with two wins."

Team MGR Racing - WOT Performance will now prepare for round six of the ASC Racing season at Mazda Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, CA on September 28-30, 2007. For more information about the Team's schedule, please visit http://www.mgrracing.net/ or http://www.wotperformance.com/.

About WOT Performance:Based in Riverside, California, since its inception in 2001, WOT Performance (WOT) has had the privilege of working directly with celebrities' cars, fleets and individuals to provide services from oil analysis and speed limiting to wheels-up drag racing to wheel to wheel short track, dirt, and road racing. Among other features, WOT's facilities include Fuel Injection services and a chassis Dyno bringing their passion for technology and custom tuning to continue "Taking Performance to the Next Level".

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