January 6, 2007 - Dayton, FL.  Auston Harris completed three days of testing today at the Daytona International Speedway for the upcoming Rolex24 at Daytona in The Racers Group # 67 Porsche GT3 Cup car.

Auston shared the track with the likes of Juan Pablo Montoya, Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart.  Yes, Auston Harris at 16 years and 24 days old circulated the 3.56 mile Daytona circuit at speed with these stars of the motorsport world and others during the three days of testing that concluded today in advance of the Rolex24 event to be held at the end of the month at "The World Center of Racing". 

In all there were eight sessions for the Rolex series cars over the three days with the sessions ranging from 1 hour to 2.5 hours in length and including one night session. The test sessions were alternated between the two Grand American Racing series, Rolex and Koni Challenge. 

This was Auston's first visit to the very fast Daytona track.  He had tested last year with The Racers Group at Miller Motorsports Park which is fast but Daytona is faster with average lap speeds exceeding 110 mph.   He quickly came up to speed on the high banked turns of the oval while establishing a rhythm through the infield.  He managed to set the fastest lap time for the car in each session he was in.  Auston's fastest lap was 1:55.635, speed 110.831 mph.

All was not without drama, in the first session on Saturday, on his second lap, Auston attempted to stretch the laws of physics and suffered his first shunt in a race car.  Fortunately it occurred at a relatively slow turn and while the damage was pronounced, Auston was uninjured. 

Since the TRG team had experience from an exact duplicate of the incident in one of the other TRG Porsche GT3 Cup cars earlier in the week, they were able to effect repairs in time for the final session of the three days of testing.  With less than 10 minutes to go in the final session Auston was put in the car, and with only three laps he set the fastest lap of the session.  This was the second time he accomplished this end of session sprint to set fast lap.

Adding a little variety, Auston also drove one Koni Challenge test session in the Team Cobalt California #98 Chevrolet Cobalt SS entry. 

It was an outstanding week for Auston.  He wrapped it up: "I want to thank Kevin Buckler and the crew at The Racers Group, what a fantastic experience.  I am very sorry I damaged the car, we lost the entire session because of it.  I made an error and I learned. I learned more than I anticipated, just awesome.  I know that with this team and my co-drivers Pierre, Mike and Tom, we will do very well in the Rolex24."

The Rolex24 will be Auston's third long distance endurance race, having completed successfully in the 2005 and 2006 25Hours of Thunderhill events in California at 14 and 15 years of age respectively.

Grand American Racing's Rolex24 at Daytona will start at 1:30 pm EST on January 27, 2007 and will be broadcast live on Fox and Speed.