Good Friday, Good Racing: SPEED World Challenge Season Openers on SPEED

TOPEKA, Kan. (March 20, 2008) – It will be a Good Friday indeed when the opening rounds of the SCCA Pro Racing SPEED World Challenge Championships air on SPEED, Friday, March 21.

The action begins at noon (EDT) with the SCCA SPEED Touring Car race. Pierre Kleinubing starts on pole in the No. 43 Acura/RealTime/Eibach/Red Line Acura TSX and is flanked by teammates Kuno Wittmer and Peter Cunningham. The RealTime crew pulled off a podium sweep at the 2007 season finale, could they pull it off again in the 2008 season opener? Former RealTime driver Nick Esayian could have something to say about it, starting fourth in his new ride, the No. 34 BimmerWorld BMW 325i, and just behind him are MAZDA6 pilots Chip Herr and Charles Espenlaub. SPEED Touring Car always starts the season with a bang at Sebring and don’t expect anything less Friday on SPEED.

Next at 1 p.m. (EDT) it’s déja vu for the SPEED GT field, when rain prompts a single-file rolling restart in place of the usual standing start. Save for one car, the entire field takes the green on dry tires, but unlike Sebring last year, this rain isn’t letting up, and yellow flags make the race a game of strategy rather than speed. Brandon Davis starts from the pole in the No. 10 ACS/Sun Microsystems Ford Mustang Cobra after qualifying was red-flagged, but he has rainmeister and defending SPEED GT Champion Randy Pobst sharing the front row with him. Can the No. 1 K-PAX Racing Porsche find the grip to beat Davis’ Mustang to Turn One and who will brave the puddles the longest before switching to rains? Tune into SPEED to find out!

If you miss them the first time, the SCCA SPEED Touring Car race from Sebring will re-air at 3 a.m. (EDT), Tuesday, March 25, followed by the SCCA SPEED GT race at 4 a.m.

Divided into two separate series and races (SCCA SPEED GT and SCCA SPEED Touring Car), the SCCA SPEED World Challenge Championships are American’s top production car-based series. SCCA SPEED World Challenge events are a maximum of 50 minutes in length, feature standing starts, and regularly have grids of more than 30 cars composed of the world’s most popular manufacturers. For more information see www.world-challenge.com.

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