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FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
Gigliotti
Earns 22nd Career World Challenge Pole at Lime Rock, Moves To
Third All-Time
LAKEVILLE, Con n.
(July 1, 2005) – Lou Gigliotti, of Dallas,
Texas, earned the 22nd pole position of his SCCA Pro Racing SPEED
World Challenge career and moved into third on the all-time poles won list
Friday at Lime Rock Park when he ran a SPEED GT record-breaking qualifying
time of 54.196 seconds (102.295 mph) on the 1.53-mile course in his No. 28 LG
Pro Long Tube Header Chevrolet Corvette C6.
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The "G" Man flying over the famous Uphill in
qualifying
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Cadillac teammates Max
Angelelli, of Monte Carlo , and
Max Papis, of Miami , Fla.
, qualified second and third in the No. 12 and No. 16 Cadillac/XM
Radio/Mobil 1/Motorola/On Star Cadillac CTS-V rides, respectively.
“It feels great. This is our 22nd
pole and the first since Reno in 1997, which was also my last win,” the three-time World Challenge Champion said
after ending his 17-race streak without a pole. “We’ve
been testing a lot and we’ve got this thing so I can pound the
pedal when I come out of a corner and it rotates and doesn’t push.”
Even
though his time broke Randy Pobst’s
previous qualifying record (54.362 in 2004), Gigliotti said that at the time,
he didn’t feel it was going to be enough.
“We figured it had to take a 53.9 or
something like that,” Gigliotti said. “I
got crossed up in one of the corners and just kept my foot in it, and
we still did the 54.1. [My crew chief] said ‘P1’ and I said ‘okay, that’s not going to hold.’ That’s why I was
so worried, because I skidded in one corner.”
Gigliotti also said that he
should have plenty of experience for tomorrow afternoon’s
sixth-round race.
“The
first pro race I won here, I’m
embarrassed to say this, was in 1975 in the Scirroco
Bilstein Cup. I finished second in a Super Vee race here. I won a Trans-Am
race here in 1998. I won a World Challenge race here in ’92. I’m the only guy to ever beat Bob
Sharp at Lime Rock in Club Racing. So, I’ve
been around her a few times.”
James
Sofronas, of Newport Beach , Calif. (No. 14 Global Motorsports Group/Tecmark Autosport Porsche
911 GT3 Cup), and five-time SPEED World Challenge Champion Michael Galati, of
Olmstead , Ohio (No. 24 Volvo Cars of North America/At Speed Motorsports
Volvo S60R), qualified fourth and fifth, respectively.
Galati’s performance was the first
top-five qualifying effort for a Volvo in World Challenge history.
The race is set for 12:40
p.m. and will be broadcast on SPEED Channel on Sunday, July 3, at 5
p.m. All times are
Eastern.
To follow Saturday’s
race via live timing and scoring, visit www.world-challenge.com
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