Craig Stanton Gets Championship Boost Entering Laguna Seca

 
LONG BEACH, Calif., April 26, 2005 - Craig Stanton's 2005 championship hopes
have been rekindled. Entering Sunday's Road & Track 250 Grand American Rolex
Sports Car Series at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, the Long Beach,
California-resident has been moved into second-place in the Grand Touring
(GT) class. Due to a rules technicality, Stanton, who has two fourth-place
finishes and a third in the first three races of the 2005 championship, had
not been granted the points for his fourth-place finish in the second race
of the season held at Homestead-Miami Speedway in March. However, Grand
American Road Racing Association officials reviewed the situation and
awarded the driver of the No. 80 Synergy Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup the 28
points for the Grand Prix of Miami. Combined with the 28 markers for his
performance in the Rolex 24 At Daytona and the 30 for the third at
California Speedway, Stanton now has 86 total points. The 2004 Grand-Am Cup
GS class champion is only seven points out of a tie for first place. 

 

Stanton will be joined in the No. 80 by David Murry, Cumming, Ga., for
Sunday's two hour and 45-minute sports car race at the 2.238-mile, 11-turn
Monterey-area facility. Murry is fifth in the current GT standings with 58
points. The longtime driving team is confident that, when coupled with a 100
pound weight reduction that the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup has been given entering
this race, Laguna Seca will prove an excellent opportunity for the No. 80 to
keep its top-five performances. Each driver has extensive experience in
Porsches, as well as other race cars, on the beautiful, Northern California
facility. Stanton has two top-five finishes in GT Porsches at the track
including a podium performance in a Porsche 911 GT3 RS in 2003. Murry has
two GT class wins driving a 911 at Laguna Seca ('98 and '99). 

 

The Synergy Porsche will roll onto the classic American road course Friday
for practice. Qualifying is scheduled for Saturday while the race will be
run on Sunday. The Road & Track 250 can be seen live on SPEED at 3 pm (ET),
Sunday, May 1. Live timing and scoring as well as audio of practice,
qualifying and the race can be found at www.GrandAmerican.com . 

 

 

Quotes;

Craig Stanton: 

About being awarded the points for Homestead-Miami: "I'm really excited that
Grand American saw clear to give us our points back. That puts us back in
second place. If we can keep plugging along and getting podiums and top-five
finishes, that will work to our favor at the end of the year. Every point
counts because it is so competitive." 

 

About racing at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca: "I always look forward to coming
to Laguna. It's a challenging track; you're never on a straightaway. Traffic
is going to be an issue with the DPs and we'll be lapping the slower cars in
GT pretty quickly. This will be a tough race with all the cars entered.
There is going to reach a point in this race that, if you want to win, you
are going to have to take the bit in your teeth and do what you have to do.
You're going to have to drive hard, fast and smart to work the traffic."  

 

About his expectations for Sunday's race: "The Synergy guys are really
coming together. We have a few tricks up our sleeve that we are optimistic
about. I was just up at Laguna recently and got a good setup to carry over
to the race. We are working really hard. The platform that Grand American
has put together is working very well, as you can see from the number and
caliber of cars entered this weekend. We found a few things that we think
will move us forward. We've been off 10 to 15 percent on our setup but with
what we have found, David, Harry [Haggard, engineer] and I feel like we can
nail it here at Laguna."

 

About the biggest challenge of this race: "I think traffic is an issue. It's
going to be like a Saturday night, half-mile, short track race. You really
have to protect the car for the last 15 laps so you have something that you
can fight with at the finish." 

 

 

 

For more on Craig Stanton please visit  <http://www.craigstanton.com/>
www.CraigStanton.com. 

To learn more about Glyco Max at  <http://www.glycomax.com/>
www.GlycoMax.com. 

Information on Synergy Racing can be found at
<http://www.synergyracing.com/> www.SynergyRacing.com.