 |
|
 |
| The Preferred Line - World Challenge Wednesday |
|
|
|
Can Espenlaub get past Kleinubing to repeat at Mosport?
|
Touring Car Championship notes
The Preferred Line - Road racing news and commentary
SPEED World Challenge Wednesday (August 30, 2006) By Jim Bourn
"The Mosport GT race has the potential to be the most competitive GT race ever and could very well be the best SCCA World Challenge race in history!" - Lou Gigliotti commenting on what he sees as a very equitable field heading into Round 8 at the Canadian track.
TC Championship notes:
Pierre Kleinubing scored enough points at Road America to maintain a reasonable lead over Randy Pobst who is basically the only other driver who has a legit shot at winning the Touring Car championship.
Pierre holds a 21 point bulge over Randy (213 to 192) and while Pobst did eat into the lead an even cursory look at Kleinubing's record at Mosport and Road America would depress most anyone trying to erase a big gap.
Defending champ Peter Cunningham needs a lot of help from both Pobst and Kleinubing to retain the championship as his 158 point total lags him 55 and 34 points behind in 3rd.
The real fun of the points chase is in positions 3 through 7 and just because they don't feel that they can win the championship do not think for .005 second that Chip Herr (4th with 146), Brandon Davis (5th with 145), Jeff Altenburg (6th with 140) and Eric Curran (7th with 133 points) are mailing it in as all of these guys are motivated to take that final season championship podium position.
This will be a battle that will be too close to call as Herr and his STaSIS Audi A4 is coming on strong, Jeff Altenburg has been the quickest Mazda 6 in the past 4 races while the RealTime Acura duo of Davis and Curran have impressive records on the remaining tracks.
Any one of the top 7 drivers could easily win one or more of the remaining races as he who podiums most often and is the most consistent will probably prevail in this great duel. So root for your favorite in this one but please remember that most of them are also looking to help their manufacturer win a championship as well.
In the TC Rookie Race, can Holland catch Courtney?
In what looked to be a possible walk over Jeff Courtney had a fat lead and seemingly no serious contender for R.O.Y in Touring but ever since 3R Racing got Robb Holland's Dodge SRT-4 in full operation Holland is now threatening to take a serious run at Courtney and his STaSIS Audi A4.
Jeff does have a 23 point lead but Holland has looked pretty strong in the last two races so stay tuned on this one.
Christian Miller has quietly driven his Volkswagen Jetta into 3rd position 10 points behind Holland while Tindol Mazda teammates and Mary Katharine and Charlie Putman are 4th and 5th in the running with 55 and 54 points respectively.
The Touring Car manufacturer's race is down to a 2 horse race between Acura, which leads by 7 and Mazda. Mazda closed some ground but is definitely up against it.
|
|
|
| |
|
 |
 |
|
