Gigliotti Wins SPEED World Challenge GT at Mid Ohio
LG Motorsports At Mid Ohio.... PERFECT Lou Gigliotti, driving the #28 LG Motorsports, ProLong Tube Header Corvette C6.R went wire-to-wire to win Saturday's SCCA Pro Racing SPEED World Challenge GT race taking at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. The race will be broadcast on SPEED Channel next Saturday, May 27 at 9 p.m. Gigliotti set the fastest time in qualifying with a 1:26.973 at 93.463 mph to start the race from the pole. With 93 World Challenge starts to his credit, the 3-time World Challenge Champion (91, 92, & 96) this was Gigliotti's 26 pole. He has accumulated an impressive 20 wins. Gigliotti led the field from the drop of the flag. Holding off challenges from Michael Galati and Lawson Aschenbach in the early going, Gigliotti gradually stretched out his lead. With Galati and Aschenbach battling each other behind him, Gigliotti took the opportunity to settle into his own race pace. "Any of these guys will tell you, when you get the lead the idea is to win the race at the slowest possible speed so you don’t break anything,” Gigliotti said. “My car had a vibration from lap number one and I still don’t know what it is. I was really worried that I broke something on the standing start. “Before the race, I thought I’d need a caution to win. Once the race was going the way it was, I didn’t want the caution at the end. The car was good and in cruise mode. I could adjust for the vibration I had. But, for all I know, if we went green the whole way, something would have broken. Something is wrong, so probably, the caution was a godsend.” Aschenbach, ultimately got the better of Galati, but never had enough to pull up on Gigliotti. The outcome of the race did, however, play into the Drivers Championship. Mike McCann’s early departure from the race pushed Aschenbach into the Drivers’ Championship lead with 104 points. Gigliotti now sits in second, just two points back. Right after taking the checkered flag, Gigliotti slowed on the back straight during the cool-down lap, not from a problem, but in order to honor a friend. “A few weeks ago, a really dear friend of mine passed away. I carried a small vial of his ashes taped to my roll cage. That’s why I slowed down on the straightaway at the end of the race so that I could sprinkle his ashes. He always wanted to run a race. Now he ran one, he won one and he’s at Mid-Ohio forever.” Lou also gave a nod to his LG Motorsports team and son, Louis Jr. In addition to todays winning outcome, the #28 LG Motorsports Corvette enjoys an outstanding reliability record. "Louis Jr. and my guys operate with one objective," added Lou, "to race and we leave it all out on the track. I can't compliment these guys enough. The continually give all they have to the team... and then give a little more. They are the reason we are standing here on top of the podium." Teammate, Claudio Burtin, moved his #27 Pabst Blue Ribbon/ProLong Tube Headers Corvette from a 19th place start to a 12th place finish. "We'll take the 12th place finish," said Burtin, following the race. "We've got more work to do, but I think we're moving in the right direction. It was a pretty crowded track for the first half of the race, and I think we did real well hanging in and keeping out of trouble. We'll see what we have for them when we get to Sonoma. The crew is doing a great job." Doug Peterson in the #87 3 Dimensional Services Corvette qualified to start in 12th position but did not start the race. The SPEED GT race, part of the SPEED World Challenge weekend with the American Le Mans Series at Mid-Ohio, will be broadcast Saturday, May 27, at 9 p.m. (EDT). LG Motorsports is located in Wylie, Texas. Known for their exceptional service and customer support, LG Motorsports provides high-performance parts and accessories for the Corvette C5, C6, C6- Z06, Cadillac CTS-V, Pontiac GTO and F body LS1 powered cars. LG Motorsports … where money buys speed. For more information about LG Motorsports, visit www.lgmotorsports.com. Regarded as the most relevant and top production car road racing series in the world, the SCCA SPEED World Challenge Championships are broken into two distinct sub-series that run separately from one another— SCCA SPEED GT and SCCA SPEED Touring Car. Each Championship is run in a 50-minute “sprint” race format, featuring recognizable cars, world-class drivers and standing starts. For more information about the SCCA Pro Racing SPEED World Challenge Championships, please visit www.world-challenge.com.