World Challenge - Skeen, Brown and Aschenbach Lead Saturday Pirelli World Challenge Practice at Long Beach

LONG BEACH, April 16, 2011: If the first two practice sessions are any indication, Sunday’s Pirelli World Challenge Championships Round Three is shaping up to be one for the ages. Lap times continue to fall at the Pirelli World Challenge presented by StopTech, part of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach led by Mike Skeen, of Charlotte, N.C. in the GT class. Paul Brown, of Covina, Calif., and Lawson Aschenbach, of Darnestown, Md., led the GTS and Touring Car classes, respectively.

Nearly every driver went quicker during Saturday morning’s 30-minute session than on Friday afternoon, where temperatures in the low 60s made for ideal conditions around the 11-turn, 1.968 mile course set-up around the city streets.

Skeen posted a fast time of 1:22.584 (85.789 mph) in the No. 2 CRP Racing/Cragar Wheels Chevrolet Corvette, more than a second faster than Patrick Long’s fast lap yesterday.

“We just got the new bigger front tire for this car, and it helped out a lot,” Skeen said. “We’ve been battling some understeer and that really helped us out. Our pace in that session was a little bit skewed because we were running sticker tires and nobody else was, and I’m sure at qualifying time everything will tighten up again like it always does. We’re certainly happy with the car, it’s handling the best it has since I’ve been in it, so I’m very pleased.”

Long held on to second on the combined practice sheets after a best time of 1:22.653 (85.717 mph) in the No. 45 Truspeed/Privacy Star Porsche 911 GT3. Long is the Drivers’ Championship leader after winning the opening two rounds on the streets of St. Petersburg.

Dino Crescentini, of Manhattan Beach, Calif., was third in the GT class in his No. 4 Centric Parts/StopTech/GMG Porsche 911 GT3 with a best time of 1:23.013 (85.345 mph).

Brown led the GTS class for the second straight day, lowering the class’s time to beat to a 1:30.698 (78.114 mph) in the No. Lucas Oil/K&N Filter Ford Mustang Boss 302S.

“We’ve been doing testing, and the car is getting better,” Brown said. “I’ve been here before, I know the track, and we’ve really been focused on this race. That’s our goal. I don’t know that I’ve got much left, but we’ll see if we can pull a rabbit out of our hat for pole position. It’s all in the fine tuning and the details. We were here until midnight just going over all of the details on the car, and that’s what it takes to run up front.”

Ben Crosland, and 18-year-old rookie from Salt Lake City, Utah, was second on the chart after a lap of 1:30.709 (78.104 mph) in the No. 25 Inerbank FX/RacewithRP.com Ford Mustang FR500S. Unlike Brown’s machine, Crosland’s Mustang is a former Ford Racing Mustang Challenge car.

Jason von Kluge was third in GTS in the Varsity Ford of Ann Arbor/Steeda Ford Mustang Boss 302S. Von Kluge, the winner in the season opener, posted a best time of 1:30.777 (78.046 mph).

Championship leader Aschenbach vaulted back on top in the Touring Car class, posting a best time of 1:35.798 (73.955 mph) in the No. 71 Compass360 Racing Honda Civic Si.

“Today the car was very good,” Aschenbach said. “We had some minor issues yesterday that we were able to take care of overnight, and fortunately was able to get the car quite a bit better this morning. It looks like everyone was able to pick it up, especially since St. Pete. We know this race is going to be tougher, but hats off to the Compass360 guys. They worked really hard last night to try to get this car going, with the help of Honda Racing and HPD and all of our sponsors. We’ve got this thing tuned up pretty good.”

Ron Zitza, the runner-up to Aschenbach in the season-opener, again followed him on the time sheets with a best time of 1:35.917 (73.955 mph) in the No. 60 Zotz Racing Volkswagen Jetta.

Robb Holland, quickest on the first day in the No. 66 K-Pax Racing Volvo C30, was third in the second practice with a time of 1:37.362 (72.767 mph).

The Pirelli World Challenge returns to the track at 8:25 a.m. (PDT) Sunday morning for qualifying in preparation for Sunday afternoon’s race.