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| The Preferred Line - Road America Touring Car Race report |
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Chip Herr and Paul Lambert of STaSIS celebrate their win in Wisconsin - Jim Bourn Photo
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The Preferred Line - Road racing news and commentary
SPEED World Challenge Road America 2006 - Touring Car Race report (August 20, 2006) By Jim Bourn
Herr reverses qualifying roles as Chip bests Charles at Road America
Chip Herr blasted his International Autos/North Shore Audi/STaSIS Audi A4 away from the grid here at Road America on a late Saturday afternoon leaving pole sitter Charles Espenlaub and the rest of the SCCA SPEED World Challenge Touring Car field to battle over the rest of the top ten as Herr opened up a 1 to 2 second gap and maintained it for the rest of the Round 7 race here at Road America.
It looked almost easy as Herr's Audi dominated the rest of the Touring Car field today.
Herr, certainly elated to win, was more focused on how this win helped the STaSIS team continue their quest to get some respect and notice from Audi for the same kind of support enjoyed by other World Challenge teams.
The fact that Audi is not an actual manufacturer' for us [with regard to support], it's really important to run well here because we're showing that we can drive with a brand new car, develop it and, within one year, win two Touring Car races and basically fight for a podium every race. I think we're trying to show Audi that we're here to win and these guys [Holland and Espenlaub] have the support from their factories and that's great, but we just don't have that right now.
We are trying to show Audi that we (STaSIS Engineering and Herr himself) are here to win, Herr said positively. We are working with every Audi dealership we can to keep this whole deal going!
Charles Espenlaub had to be content to follow Herr from a slight distance as Espenlaub and his Circuit City/Sparco/Oakley Mazda 6 remained 1 to 2 seconds behind Herr and his Audi for the entire race much as Espenlaub tried to close the gap.
It was a good race today and I love running with Charles [Espenlaub], Herr said. I was watching my mirror the whole time. They kept giving me splits and there was a couple times where under braking he had an advantage and I was able to slowly pick it up. I was watching.
I love Chip like a little brother but I wanted to kick his ass, said Charles from the podium. It appeared for a bit that I could close on his but then Chip would open up the gap again.
I was hoping to get close enough to get into his draft and make him use his Brakes a little harder but I was just never able to close that gap enough!
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