CITGO Racing Team Out Early in EMCO Mid-Ohio Road Racing Classic

Multi-car accident foils high hopes for Wallace, Duno

Lexington , OH ( August 27, 2005 ) . The EMCO Mid-Ohio Road Racing Classic at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course has proven to be both good and bad for the #2 CITGO Racing Team. Last year, a late-race charge resulted in a 2 nd -place finish for the duo of Andy Wallace and Milka Duno at the 2.258-mile track. On Saturday, a multi-car accident on lap 15 ended the hopes of the CITGO Team of a second consecutive podium finish at Mid-Ohio.

Milka Duno qualified the #2 CITGO Pontiac Crawford on Friday afternoon and posted a fast lap of 1:24.998 / 95.635 mph. Her qualifying effort placed the CITGO Team 18 th in the 44-car starting field for the event.

From the start, Duno turned very competitive lap times and began to steadily move up in the running order. When caution waved on lap 10, Duno was running in the 13 th position. Restarting 12 th on lap 13, Duno was looking to march toward the top ten. Ultimately, she would reach as high as 11 th overall and advance the #2 CITGO Pontiac Crawford seven positions from her start.

Unfortunately, that march ended when Duno spun and was hit by the #6 Michael Shank Racing Riley. Several cars made evasive moves to keep from making contact with these two cars. However, the #81 Porsche driven by Mae Van Wijk made heavy contact with the CITGO Pontiac Crawford and the Mears entry. The resulting damaged ended the EMCO Mid-Ohio Road Racing Classic for the CITGO Racing Team.

"I am so disappointed," Duno stated. "We had such a positive start to the race. I managed to defend my position and make up six places in the early laps. I made a mistake and spun. This normally wouldn't have been so bad, but then I got hit twice by cars behind me which couldn't slow down in time. I am so sorry for the CITGO Racing Team. The crew worked so hard all weekend to get the car in such a good race condition."

The next event for the CITGO Racing Team will be at the Phoenix International Raceway on Saturday, September 10 th . Speed Channel will provide tape-delayed coverage of the 250-mile event at 4 PM ET on Sunday, September 11 th .

CITGO, based in Houston , Texas , is a refiner, transporter and marketer of transportation fuels, lubricants, petrochemicals, refined waxes, asphalt and other industrial products. The company is owned by PDV America, Inc., an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Petróleos de Venezuela , S.A. , the national oil company of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela . For more information on CITGO visit www.citgo.com .

Milka is currently featured in Pontiac 's largest ever Spanish language advertising campaign launching an all-new sports sedan - the Pontiac G6. Pontiac is a division of General Motors Corporation (NYSE: GM) and markets the Bonneville, GTO, Grand Prix, Grand Am, G6, Vibe and Sunfire. In 2003, Pontiac sold more than 475,000 vehicles, ranking third among GM divisions in total sales. 2004/2005 will see Pontiac launch an exciting new range of vehicles including the Montana SV6, G6 coupe, G6 convertible and the Solstice roadster. More information on Pontiac and its products can be found at www.pontiac.com . Information in Spanish can be found at www.pontiac.com/sp. For additional information on Milka and Andy please visit www.milkaduno.com or www.andywallace.com, respectively. For more information on the Rolex Sports Car Series log on to www.grandamerican.com.

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