Gigliotti Gets 20th Win,
Ends 24-Race Victory Drought for Corvettein SCCA SPEED GT at
Infineon
SONOMA, Calif. (July 16, 2005) — Prior to
Saturday afternoon’s SCCA Pro Racing SPEED World Challenge GT
Round Seven race, polesitter Lou Gigliotti, of Dallas, Texas,
talked about the importance of getting a clean start in his
No. 28 LG Pro Long Tube Headers Corvette C6. He did exactly
that and then never looked back, averaging a record 86.779 mph
over the caution-free 25-lap SPEED GT race en route to earning
the 20th win of his World Challenge
career.
The G Man en route to his first win since
1997.
Tony Gaples, of Libertyville, Ill., had the best run of
his World Challenge career by finishing second, 7.121 seconds
back, in the No. 34 Kleinschmidt Inc./Blackdog Racing
Chevrolet Corvette C6, and defending SPEED GT Drivers’
Champion Tommy Archer, of Duluth, Minn., finished third in his
No. 1 c3controls/3R-Racing Dodge Viper.
The
win broke a tie between three-time Drivers’ Champion Gigliotti
and Michael Galati for third on the all-time wins list and
snapped a 24-race winless streak for Corvette, which dated
back to Phil McClure’s win at Mosport International Raceway in
2003. The win also stopped a personal 16-race winless streak
for Gigliotti, who hadn’t visited victory lane since 1997.
Gigliotti received a major boost when then second and
third place runners Wolf Henzler, of Nurtingen, Germany (No.
55 Applied Materials Farnbacher Loles Porsche 911 Cup), and
Leighton Reese, of Minnetonka, Minn. (No. 6 Banner Engineering
Corvette C6), took each other out of the three-way battle for
the lead.
The
two, running just behind Gigliotti, battled side-by-side on
lap nine when they came together at turn seven. The incidental
contact caused flat tires on both cars, forcing them into the
pits. Though they continued, the incident effectively ended
their victory chances. Henzler, who won the B&M Oil
Coolers “Coolest Move of the Race” for a start that vaulted
him into second past Reese, rebounded to post the race’s fast
lap with a 1:42.322 (89.013 mph) on lap 12 and finish seventh,
while Reese later retired.
After the race, Gigliotti said that when then-second
place driver Henzler was close, it gave him a lot to think
about.
“With Wolf on my bumper, I knew I’d burn my rear
tires off. I was just hoping he’d burn his off before us,”
Gigliotti said. “With Wolf on our bumper, it was going to be
tough. I could beat him in a few places, and Wolf would catch
up to me in [turn]11. I wasn’t going to give him the inside,
and one time we were side-by-side. A clean driver and really
good racing. It was a pleasure to drive with
Wolfie.”
With Henzler and Reese out of contention, Gaples
assumed second place and never relinquished it, staying just
out of Archer’s reach. Gaples, whose previous best finish was
a sixth at Infineon in 2004, said he was at first surprised to
be in second, but then determined to hold on to his spot.
(l-r) Gaples, Gigliotti and
Archer
“It’s great to be here. It’s a lot of fun to be
up here on the podium,” Gaples said. “I got to see Leighton
[Reese] and [Wolf] Henzler pull into the pits and I didn’t
know what was going on, but I knew that it put me into second
place. I just did my best to stay there.
“I knew that Tommy [Archer] was coming and the guys on
the crew said ‘speed it up a little bit,’ and that’s what I
did.”
In
the end, Archer said, he wasn’t sure his weighty Viper ever
had enough to overtake Gaples.
“I was hoping that I could get close enough to
him [Gaples] so that he would make a mistake or something,”
Archer said. “The weight really took a toll on the tires
today. There are normally cautions here. There were no
cautions and I was a lot heavier than these guys were on the
same size tires.”
2004 SPEED GT Rookie of the Year Mike McCann, of North
Canton, Ohio, finished a career-best fourth Saturday in the
No. 82 McCann Plastics/K&N Filters Dodge Viper, while
Robin Liddell, of Edinburgh, Scotland, took fifth in the No.
66 AXA Financial/PFAFF Porsche 911 Cup.
Jon
Groom, of Boonton, N.J., earned the Sunoco Hard Charger Award
for advancing eight positions to finish 12th after
starting 20th.
Mark LoPilato, of Granbury, Texas placed highest
among rookies (14th) in the No. 42 US American
Resources Porsche 911 Turbo. His finish gave him 36 points and
a current second-place standing in The Winning Team Racing
Apparel Rookie of the Year chase. Sonny Whelen, of Old
Saybrook, Conn., leads with 72 points.
By
finishing third, Archer would have closed the gap slightly on
current Drivers Championship leader Andy Pilgrim, of Del Ray
Beach, Fla., who wound up a season-low eighth in the No. 8
XM/Mobil 1/Motorola/Bose Cadillac CTS-V after fading
toward the end of the race. However, an early race incident
between Archer and the Max Papis-driven Cadillac CTS-V
meant a violation of Archer’s two-race probation for a
Cleveland incident.
For
his part, Archer was penalized five points, $3000 and had his
probation extended two additional races. With the penalty,Pilgrim leads Archer by nine points (163-154) with Liddell
third, with 151. Henzler (127) and Papis, of Miami, Fla.
(126), are fourth and fifth, respectively.
Though it didn’t score any points at the Infineon Grand
Prix, Cadillac maintained its lead in the SCCA Pro Racing
SPEED World Challenge GT Manufacturers’ Championship Presented
by Racer Magazine. With 42 points, Cadillac leads Porsche’s
38, followed by Dodge (28) and Chevrolet (22).
