Wednesday, June 12, 9:30 p.m. after first practice session

     AURORA V8 DEBUTS AT LE MANS

     AT LONG LAST LE MANS!  A new chapter in the Aurora odyssey 
opened today at the Circuit de la Sarthe, the home of the 
prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race.  After winning 
the Daytona 24-hour and Sebring 12-hour races earlier this year, 
the Doyle Racing Oldsmobile Riley & Scott team took another step 
in its quest to win the "Triple Crown" of international endurance 
racing.

     The Aurora V8's debut at Le Mans was another motorsports 
milestone for Oldsmobile -- in the auto company's 99 years, an 
Oldsmobile has never competed in the world's most prestigious and 
demanding endurance race.  Olds can make auto racing history this 
weekend by becoming the first manufacturer to sweep the "Triple 
Crown" in a single year with the same car, drivers, and team.  
The 4.0-liter Motorsport Aurora V8 is based on the production 
four-cam Aurora V8 that is available exclusively in Oldsmobile's 
performance luxury sedan.

     Drivers Wayne Taylor, Jim Pace, and Scott Sharp all made 
qualifying runs in the first practice session for the 64th annual 
24-hour classic.  Taylor turned the Motorsport Aurora V8's 
fastest time at 3:53.272 (209.884 kph), which placed the Riley & 
Scott entry tenth on the qualifying list after the first of four 
sessions.

     Under the rather arcane rules for this event, all three 
drivers must qualify within 130 percent of the average qualifying 
time in both daylight and darkness.  Under this complex 
procedure, it's vital for the drivers to clear the hurdle of 
qualifying before the crew can focus on extracting the maximum 
performance from the machine.  Taylor was the team's quickest 
qualifier, followed by Sharp (4:02) and Pace (4:05).  The second 
qualifying session will begin at 9:00 p.m., and conclude at half 
past midnight.

     "The car is much improved since we came to pre-qualifying in 
April," said Taylor, 35, of Altamonte Springs, Fla.  "We're 
running lower revs now, and I'm very, very happy with the car.  
It's more stable over the bumps and through the fast sections, so 
I think we've made good changes to the chassis.  Our goal for 
this session was to give all three drivers a few laps in the car; 
we'll take a step forward in the next session.

     "After all the months of speculation and anticipation about 
going to Le Mans, it's a relief to finally get down to the 
business of racing.  It's going to be a lot of fun!"

     Jim Pace, 35, of Jacksonville was next on the track.  "The 
car feels better than I remembered it," Pace reported.  "The 
pre-qualifying session in April was the first time I had ever 
been to Le Mans, so my perspective may have been affected.  The 
circuit's coming back, and everything feels really good.  We've 
talked and talked about coming to Le Mans, the team has done all 
the work, and now it's time to start racing."

     "It's important to have this car set up as well as we can 
for the twisty sections rather than try to make it go 240 mph 
down the Mulsanne Straight."

     Scott Sharp, 28, of San Ramon, Calif. flew to Le Mans 
directly from the Detroit Grand Prix, where he competed in the 
Trans-Am event.   During Memorial Day weekend, he became the Indy 
Racing League co-champion in the open-wheel series inaugural 
season.  "I only had one timed lap today, but it was a good one," 
Sharp said.  "I got caught up in traffic and had to back off, but 
still ran just over 4 minutes.  We had a small oil leak from the 
breather hose; I saw the smoke in my mirror, so I came in.  It 
turned out to be nothing, but it's better to be safe than sorry 
in practice.

     "We know the Oldsmobile Aurora V8 is going to put out a lot 
of power -- and the Riley & Scott chassis is putting the power to 
the pavement well.  We're trying to maximize our cornering speed, 
and an important part of that is coming off the turns well.  I 
think we have everyone beat in that area now, and we'll continue 
to try to exploit that advantage.  We only had a single day to 
pre-qualify in April, so we really didn't have time to work on 
the chassis.  Now we're just starting to talk about the 
adjustments we can make.

     "Coming to Le Mans is such a fabulous experience!  There's 
such an intensity about the event, it's all I've been thinking 
about for the last three days -- but it still takes a few laps to 
get used to how the car shifts, brakes, and feels in the turns."

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