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Photos courtesy Jamie Longmuir 2007 BOWMANVILLE Ontario Canada (August 24, 2007) — Joey Hand is not only “doing the double” this weekend, he is doing double duty for Team PTG Panoz as well. His co-driver, Bill Auberlen, is racing in another series on the west coast of the USA this weekend and will not be at Mosport until Sunday. So this means that in addition to driving the No. 37 BMW for Bimmerworld, Hand will be assuming full responsibility for the No. 22 Team PTG Panoz, and that includes qualifying the car. “But,” explained Hand, “because Bill will not be here to run any of the practices, it doesn’t really matter where we qualify because we will have to start at the back of the grid. I understand that this is to encourage the drivers not to do two races in one weekend, but it does make it hard for a guy to make a living sometimes.” Hand joined the Bimmerworld BMW team at Mid-Ohio and promptly proved that team owner James Clay had made the right decision by winning the team’s first race in a closely-fought battle with Chip Herr in the StaSis Audi. (A win at that track was particularly sweet for Hand as he had suffered a highlight-reel type crash in a GT car at Mid-Ohio last year.) But it was all in a day’s work for Joey Hand, who has been a BMW driver since 2004. “This was the main reason that James [Clay] hired me for the team, “ Hand explained. “I have plenty of experience testing the car for the factory; I can help the team out with the setups and to get the car working as planned. And of course to get that win! That just chirked the team up; they have been working so hard with the new car and getting that first win makes it all worth while.” Hand has the highest praise for Bimmerworld as a team. “I was never made to feel like the outsider New Guy, “ he said. “The guys are easy to work with; they are a great group of guys and we could get right down to work without any skirmishing. That makes teamwork so much better.“ Team PTG has moved from their traditional BMW to run the Panoz Esperante GTLM and they are, as he put it diplomatically, “Going as planned” so far. They have not had a lot of track time due to what he referred to as ’issues ’. “What I can say about the car, “ he said, “is that it’s the best it has been this year. There are a lot of miles on these cars, after all. We have been working hard and testing hard to make progress, but a lot of the problems we have been having are mechanicals just due to the fact that the parts have been run a lot.” One advantage Team PTG has over the other teams is strategy. Both Auberlen and team owner Tom Milner are strategists of the highest order and have allowed the car to show much better than expected on occasion. At Road America, for example, explained Hand, “We came from the back of the grid to third place just by strategy; Milner and Bill [Auberlen] called for rain tires before anyone else and we were able to beat the leaders out of the pits. If the car had not broken, we were on track for a podium, and we have been in other races as well.” There is some talk about intermittent rain this weekend; although none has actually fallen, some dark clouds were rising on Friday afternoon, and Hand was not optimistic about the chances of Team PTG if the race should happen to be wet. “There are too many unknowns about our car,” he said frankly, “and I am afraid that if it does rain, Team PTG will be out of luck.“ Still, anything can happen in racing and usually does, so Joey Hand is not prepared to concede an inch of Mosport ground. “I am out here doing what I love,” he said. “And Team PTG will give it all we have. I am looking forward to the race on Sunday and we will see how it goes.” With two cars to shepherd this weekend, odds are pretty good that whenever you happen to be watching sports cars this weekend, you are likely to see Joey Hand. Keep an eye on him. He will be going places!