Pobst Takes Toronto GT; Cunningham,
Wittmer Win In World Challenge GTS, Touring Car
TORONTO, Canada (July 17, 2010) -- For Randy Pobst, of Gainesville,
Ga., and Peter Cunningham, of Milwaukee, Wis., the streets of Toronto
only feel like home. For Montreal's Nick Wittmer, it almost is. Each
won on Saturday at the Acura Sports Car Challenge, capturing the World
Challenge Championships GT, GTS and Touring Car classes, respectively,
Round Seven of 12 on the season.
Pobst set a new qualifying record and led every lap of the 33-lap,
57.915-mile race, averaging 69.574 mph in a race slowed by one caution
for five laps. It wasn't without drama for Pobst, who appeared to be
sailing away from the field after the standing start.
The No. 6 K-Pax Racing Volvo S60 raced out to more than a three second
lead after four laps, but had started to slightly fall back to the field.
When the yellow flags flew to collect Greg Shaffer's No. 40 Go 4 It
Racing/Hawk Volkswagen Jetta GLI Touring Car after contact with the wall
on the front straight leaving the final corner, his mirrors were full of
James Sofronas' No. 14 GMG Racing Porsche 911 GT3.
Sofronas hounded Pobst from the time the race went green again to start
lap 14 until the checkered flag. Though the gap fluctuated as the two
weaved through traffic, Pobst held off Sofronas for a 0.821-second margin
of victory.
The win was the third of the season for Pobst and second win in two tries
on the streets of Toronto in World Challenge, who also set a new race-lap
record with a time of 1:15.513 (83.667 mph).
"It starts with a car that was extremely well set up by the K-Pax
Racing team," Pobst said. "Will Moody, the engineer, is pretty
brilliant. The car handled and drove extremely well. The interesting
situation in World Challenge right now is that our Volvo, because of the
advantage of the all-wheel drive, we weigh a lot more. The way it seems
to be working out is that we can turn a really good qualifying lap and we
seem to go strongly the first two or three laps and then the weight takes
its toll. The tires get hot, the brakes get hot and it starts turning
into a race. But, it is a great advantage to be first, because it's a
lot easier to lead than to get around somebody.
"I owe Andy Pilgrim, my teammate, a great vote of thanks. He got a
much better start than I did and was actually ahead of me going into
(Turn) 1, and he let me through. After that, we seemed to have them
covered so easily for about two laps. Then everything got hot and James
started looking stronger and stronger and stronger and it turned into a
race."
Sofronas' day started when the lights went out, moving from his
fourth starting spot past Patrick Lindsey in the No. 57 Horton/Sloan
Securities Porsche 911 GT3 before the field reached Turn 1. By the end of
the first lap, he had also slipped past Andy Pilgrim in the No. 8 K-Pax
Racing Volvo S60 for second place and had his sights set on reeling in
Pobst. Sofronas' two-position improvement on the first lap earned him
the Optima Batteries' Best Standing Start award.
The restart helped close the gap, but the Newport Beach, Calif.-racer
couldn't advance any further.
"The start went really well," Sofronas said. "We played with
the launch control before the race and we nailed it and got ahead of
Patrick [Lindsey]. We knew that, in order to beat the Volvos, you've
got to get ahead of them early because they're so tough to pass when
they launch out of the corners. But our GMG Porsche and the StopTech
brakes really kept us in the hunt. I got a nice run on the back straight
on the first lap and got around Andy. We both broke deep into Turn 1, and
Andy being the professional that he is, I knew he'd give me room. I
kind of squeezed on the outside and we just got through.
"I knew we had a good car to pace Randy, but here, as it was getting
greasy and the cars were sliding around, you've really got to get off
these corners to have any kind of chance to make a pass at the end of a
straight. Where Randy would pull away out of the corners, our Porsche
would actually brake really deep and catch up in the braking zone, and
that's where I knew we had a chance. It was an accordion effect and
with the traffic, it was a give and take. At the end, I could see
Randy's car was pushing a little bit in some of the tight stuff. Our
car was still running really strong. Without making a real dive-bomb
move, it was going to be tough to get by Randy. He didn't make any
mistakes and I didn't make any. It feels good to be in second.
We've had an up-and-down year for my car, but the GMG guys do an
amazing job. They're overworked and they do a fantastic job every
race. I've been trying to get a good podium for them."
Pilgrim, of Boca Raton, Fla., started second and got a launch at the
start that moved him alongside his teammate entering the first corner.
After falling behind Sofronas later that lap, Pilgrim ran third until
dropping behind Dino Crescentini in the No. 4 Centric Parts/Stoptech/GMG
Porsche 911 GT3 on lap 13 after the restart. Two laps later, he also fell
behind Lindsey and looked to be headed in the wrong direction.
Lindsey got past Crescentini for third on lap 18, and Pilgrim did the
same on lap 24 to move into fourth. Pilgrim made a pass on Lindsey for
third in Turn Five on lap 29 and hung on for the final spot on the
podium. That pass earned Pilgrim the Invisible Glass Clean Pass of the
Race award.
The result snapped a three-race streak of finishes outside the top-10 for
Pilgrim, who had been plagued with a variety of mechanical issues.
"It's really a team thing, now, because the guys are so
great," Pilgrim said. "The K-Pax guys work their butts off and to
get, basically, three DNFs in a row, it was just breaking their hearts. I
mean they were just absolutely on their knees. The Volvo ran well today.
I had to work to get back from fifth, back to fourth, back to third. I
had a fun race. I really wanted to finish. I didn't care if I
finished dead last, as long as I finished on the same laps as the leader,
so I'm really happy with this."
Lindsey finished fourth and earned the MTM/Special Ops Watch Move of the
Race for overtaking Crescentini, who went on to finish fifth.
Rob Morgan's No. 46 TruSpeed Motorsports/Querencia Porsche 911 GT3
was sandwiched between a pair of Woodhouse Performance Dodge Vipers in
seventh, with Kuno Wittmer (No. 13 Dodge Motorsports Dodge Viper) in
sixth and Jeff Courtney (No. 99 Kenda Tire Dodge Viper) in eighth.
Jason Daskalos (No. 5 Daskalos Developments Dodge Viper) finished ninth
to become the third Dodge in the top 10, followed by the No. 29
Kleinschmidt/Blackdog Racing Chevrolet Corvette of Tony Gaples to
complete the top 10.
Pobst extended both his Drivers' Championship lead and the
Manufacturers' Championship lead for Volvo with the win. Pobst (788
points) now leads Wittmer (676), Crescentini (598), Sofronas (544) and
Pilgrim (535) for individual title, with Volvo (51 points) leading
Porsche (37) and Dodge (34) for the Manufacturers' crown.
Cunningham began Saturday with a World Challenge record 37th career pole
position, and ended the day extending his own all-time wins mark to 36
with his GTS victory.
The No. 43 Acura/RealTime Racing Acura TSX pulled away from the GTS field
and the start, but was even again with Ernie Jakubowski's No. 91
Fuchs/CDOC/Forgeline Porsche Cayman S and teammate Nick Esayian's No.
34 Acura/RealTime Racing's Acura TSX on the restart. Jakubowski's
restart put him just ahead of Cunningham at the line, but the veteran
racer quickly pulled back to the point and began to get away.
Cunningham's lead was safe when Esayian tried to get to the inside of
Jakubowski on lap 16 and the two made contact, with Jakubowski facing the
wrong way on the track and Esayian sitting nose-to-nose with the Canadian
driver. Jakubowski, of nearby Oakville, Ontario, would go on to finish
second in the GTS class, while Esayian finished third.
"Our Acura was running very well to get the pole this morning,"
Cunningham said. "I've been kind of concerned about how my starts
have been lately, but today I got a really good start, which was the only
reason I was able to stay ahead of Ernie going into (Turn) 1. From there,
I had things pretty well figured out, but then with the full-course
yellow, you never know what's going to happen on those restarts.
Again, I was able to get just a little bit of breathing room after a lap
or so. From there, it was just a matter of dealing with the GT cars
coming to put us a lap down and dealing with some of the Touring Car
traffic and trying to put a lap on them and from there, just make it to
the end. It was a good day for Acura."
Five-time World Challenge Champion Cunningham stretched his Drivers'
Championship margin over Esayian to 121 points with the win. Acura also
holds a commanding lead in the GTS Manufacturers' Championship.
RealTime Racing earned its second class win of the race with Nick
Wittmer's No. 93 HPD/HondaRacing/RealTime Honda Civic Si. Wittmer,
the younger brother of GT driver Kuno, raced away to a 6.053-second win
in an action-packed Touring Car race.
Wittmer pulled away at the start in just his second World Challenge race
this season after campaigning the same car on the streets of Long Beach.
At the previous race, Wittmer sat on pole but finished third to Robert
Stout and Eric Meyer. In Toronto, he reversed the roles, avoided trouble
and kept the checkered flag in his native country.
"It was a good day for the HPD Honda Civic in Touring Car," said
Cunningham, who in addition to his driving duties in GTS owns RealTime
Racing. "For Nick to be able to get this win is exciting for him here
in Toronto, especially when he also won the Canadian Touring Car race
just after. We're very happy for him and his performance this
weekend. All in all, it was a good weekend for RealTime and a great
weekend for Honda and Acura at the Acura Sports Car Challenge."
The Touring Car action came deeper in the field, beginning on lap six
when the Brett Sandberg's No. 28 Whitehall Stable Acura TSX tried to
move to the inside of Stout's No. 18 DG-Spec/Scion/TRD/Lucas Oil
Scion tC in Turn Three. Sandberg hit square into the Scion's
passenger side door and raised onto his two right-side tires, landing
back on the pavement with a thud. While Sandberg made it back to pitlane,
it ended his day and dropped Stout back to seventh in Touring Car with
bodywork damage to the right side of his car.
Using the help of the full course caution two laps later, Stout closed to
the rear of the Touring Car field and picked his way back through until
he was again third, behind Meyer's No. 32 XOWii
Racing/Samaritan's Feet/Delvira Mazda RX-8.
Pushing Meyer on lap 23 and looking for a way by, Stout ran off the track
into the runoff area at Turn eight and back onto the track. Still in
third but with a gap too large to catch Meyer, the two held their
positions until the checkered flag.
Michael Pettiford earned the Sunoco Hard Charger award for advancing six
positions in the race in his No. 41 Go 4 It Racing Schools/Hawk
Volkswagen Jetta GLI to finish fourth in Touring Car.
Shea Holbrook completed the top five to earn her best career finish in
the No. 67 Autohaus/MD&F Honda Civic Si.
Stout continues to hold the Touring Car Drivers' Championship lead,
814-660 over Meyer. In the Manufacturers' Championship, Scion (54
points) leads Volkswagen (38), with Honda (28) closing the gap with a win
and Mazda (26) contending largely on the strength of Meyer's
finishes.
The World Challenge Championships return to action at Mid-Ohio Sports Car
Course for a doubleheader at the permanent road course, August 6-8.
-source: scca pro racing
