Craig Stanton Takes Grand-Am Cup Points Lead After Fourth-Round

 
MONT-TREMBLANT, Quebec, Canada, May 23, 2004 - Craig Stanton, Long
Beach, California, came into the fourth-round of the 2004 Grand-Am Cup
tied for the lead in the series' points chase and three-for-three in
victories. He leaves the Canadian province of Quebec in sole control of
the drivers' point's battle. Stanton started the No. 44 TheRaceSite.com
Racing Porsche 996 fifth in Saturday's Mont-Tremblant 250 and piloted it
for approximately half the three hour race. He handed driving chores
over to teammate David Murry, Cumming, Ga., who took the checkered flag
in fifth. Stanton entered the race at Le Circuit du Mont-Tremblant tied
for the points lead with former teammate Terry Borcheller. He closed his
day as Grand Sport (GS) class points leader by a substantial margin when
Borcheller's effort, as well as all of the top-three finishers, failed
post-race technical inspection. Those teams lost their points but
maintained their final finishing position based on Grand American Sports
Car Series rules for the Grand-Am Cup division. Stanton leads the points
battle with 131 points to Borcheller's 108.
 
The race was no cruise for Stanton and Murry. The duo had 100 pounds of
weight added to their Nonnamaker family-owned Porsche after the car's
dominating performance in the first three races of the season. The
additional weight was magnified by poor luck on pit strategy when
Stanton was forced to bring the Porsche in for its only stop of the day
under green flag conditions. He turned the wheel over to Murry who, two
laps later, saw the yellow flag thrown giving the competition the
opportunity to make their stops under caution. Despite a gallant effort,
the team was not able to make-up the difference on track.
 
Craig Stanton: 
about his race: "The extra weight on the car forced us to really use the
car up. This car is worn-out now. To keep up with our pace we really had
to force the issue on every lap. It was tough out there. David got spun
around a couple of times and we lost our ABS but, other than that we
just motored right along. We got a little hosed on our pit strategy. I
think if we had come in on the first yellow we would have been
nose-to-nose with Terry. Because of the weight, our car was definitely
better when we could keep the momentum going. When we would get a yellow
it would really hurt us. We had to build that momentum up again. The
traffic was a lot of fun but there were some situations where the guys
were pushing a tick too far. The car was prepped very well by
TheRaceSite.com crew.  We just didn't have much for our competitors
today but we got a top-five finish. The Nonnamakers did a great job.
This is a great place to race. I think it's the most beautiful track we
run." 
 
about the championship chase: "It's great to have the championship to
ourselves for sure. It's disappointing not to have that fourth win this
weekend but to walk out of here with the top spot all to ourselves gives
us some breathing room to get this additional weight figured out."
 
For more on Craig Stanton please visit www.craigstanton.com. For more on
TheRaceSite.com Racing team, please visit www.theracesiteracing.com.