Craig Stanton- Homestead Deja Vu All Over Again - Almost

 

HOMESTEAD, Fla., March 5, 2005 - Craig Stanton's Grand American Rolex
Sports Car Series weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway (HMS) was almost
an instant replay of his 2004 race here. Stanton, of Long Beach, Calif.,
and second year teammate Dave Murry (Cumming, Ga.) qualified their No.
80 Synergy Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup entry third in GT class. However,
just as happened in '04, the white German sports car was relegated to
the back of the field for a rear wing end-plate infraction. In the 2004
Grand Prix of Miami, the combination came back to win the SGS class (now
GT class). However, the checkered flag fell just short of a carbon copy
of last season. The 2004 Grand-Am Cup champion would take his second
fourth-place finish (21st overall) of the two race-old season. The
result further strengthens Stanton's pursuit of his first Rolex Series
championship.

 

Murry started the No. 80 Porsche and drove the first 68 laps- racing as
high as second at one point. Stanton took over driving duties in sixth
position. Two laps later he was challenging for fourth while holding
firm to fifth. Despite fighting a loose car, the easy-going native
Californian never fell below fifth and set the car's fastest race lap
(one minute, 22.694 seconds) on the 79th of the 103 circuits that the
Synergy entry put in during the 250-mile/ two hour and 45-minute race.
Murry, meanwhile, finished eighth in class in a second Synergy Porsche
with Mai Van Wijk (Houston, Tex.). 

 

 

Craig Stanton: "This is our first race with Synergy Racing and it is a
good start for the rest of the championship. David and Mai and both
teams did great today. We are pretty optimistic with how the car
performed. This is pretty much a stock Porsche Cup car right now and it
was able to run with the more developed cars in the class. We have some
development planned over the next few races that should make-up the rest
of the difference. We have a huge, long list of things that we are all
going to work on and come back to California very strong. It was a good
race for the prototypes and a great race for the GTs which proves that
the series is gaining momentum. This is a great series to race in. I had
to work pretty hard out there today but I feel great. We started
drinking Glyco Max at Daytona for the 24 Hour and I felt like I could
run another race after that. I'm sold on it now. I'll be on board with
them the rest of the year in everything we do."