St. Petersburg, Florida: (April 2nd, 2005) Leighton Reese of Minnetonka Minnesota went out onto the St. Petersburg track on this clear and cool day and blasted his Banner Engineering Chevrolet Corvette C6 in time of 1:20.098 (or 80.901 MPH lap average speed) on his first hot lap which would eventually qualify him 9th for Sunday morning's SPEED World Challenge GT Series race.

While the qualifying time put Leighton right in the hunt for Sunday's race Reese felt that there was much more in the car.

On a tight street track traffic is always an issue and the cement lined streets of the St. Petersburg Florida track were no exception Saturday for Leighton Reese as he was on his qualifying lap for Sunday's SPEED World Challenge GT race and got balked on his hot lap.

"We have a great car capable of qualifying as high as 3rd or 4th today," lamented Reese after his qualifying run.

"Mike McCann was ahead of me on our out lap, some 800 feet and I thought that would be enough to get a clean lap," said Reese continued. "But McCann slowed way down going into the chicane at the end of the lap and I caught right up to him. I had to drag race him down the pit straight and lock up the Brakes to get past him into the first turn!"

"I had to take a very early apex into one and that was pretty much all it took," Reese continued. "I am hearing now that Mike McCann is mad at me but I had cars behind me so I had to go past him!"