Reese Paces SPEED GT Practice At Road America
Reese Paces SPEED GT Practice At Road America ELKHART LAKE, Wis. (Aug. 18, 2006) - Leighton Reese, of Minnetonka, Minn., jumped to the top of the charts with less than two minutes of SCCA Pro Racing SPEED World Challenge GT Championship practice remaining Friday to pace the field in preparation for Sunday's Round Seven race, part of the Generac 500 weekend at Road America. Michael McCann, of N. Canton, Ohio, and James Sofronas, of Newport Beach, Calif., completed the top three. Driving the No. 6 Banner Engineering Chevrolet Corvette, Reese uncorked a 2:16.380 (106.854 mph) at the end of the day to pace the field, but by just 0.014-second over McCann's No. 82 McCann Plastics/K&N Filters Dodge Viper and 0.029-second over Sofronas' No. 14 Global Motorsports Group Porsche 911 GT3. "The car's great," Reese, who earned the pole at Sebring this year, said. "We basically went out there and practiced a qualifying run. In this series you never know if everyone else is showing their cards or not, but we are. We knew we'd be a little faster every session, I think some of that's natural. The Vipers are gonna be tough here, but I think we've got a good long run car. The car's really easy to drive and it's making decent power and the car's really handling well. "We're good qualifiers. It's something we've learned and something you've gotta learn how to do for this series 'cause it's so difficult to pass, especially when the parity's good. I knew we had a good lap going there, but I'm surprised we're at the top of the sheets. I know the Vipers will be awful strong here. "This track's famous for being a power track, but honestly it's got 14 very technical turns and some of them are extremely fast like Turn One, and The Kink and The Carousel, which are long periods of time that you're in those corners, and our cars are very good there." Ron Fellows ended up fourth on the day, with a 2:16.575 (106.701 mph) in his No. 16 XM/Mobil 1/Motorola/On Star Cadillac CTS-V. Tommy Archer, of Duluth, Minn., was fifth in his No. 5 c3controls/Dodge Motorsport Dodge Viper, with a 2:16.668 (106.629 mph). Qualifying for Sunday's race is set for Saturday morning at 9:25 a.m. (CDT). To view Live Timing & Scoring Presented by SRT and live notes, visit www.world-challenge.com <http://www.world-challenge.com/> . ELKHART LAKE, Wis. - Combined practice session times for Sunday's SCCA Pro Racing SPEED World Challenge GT Championship Round Seven race, part of the Generac 500 at Road America, with position, car number in parentheses, driver, hometown, car, fastest lap time, and speed in miles per hour. 1, (6), Leighton Reese, Minnetonka, Minn., Chevrolet Corvette C6, 2:16.380, 106.854. 2, (82), Mike McCann, N. Canton, Ohio, Dodge Viper, 2:16.394, 106.843. 3, (14), James Sofronas, Newport Beach, Calif., Porsche 911 GT3, 2:16.409, 106.831. 4, (16), Ron Fellows, Mississauga, Ontario, Cadillac CTS-V, 2:16.575, 106.701. 5, (5), Tommy Archer, Duluth, Minn., Dodge SRT Viper, 2:16.668, 106.629. 6, (64), Ricardo Imery(R), Caracas, VN, Porsche 911 GT3, 2:16.691, 106.611. 7, (66), Lawson Aschenbach(R), Gaithersburg, Md., Porsche 911 GT3, 2:16.771, 106.548. 8, (1), Andy Pilgrim, Boca Raton, Fla., Cadillac CTS-V, 2:16.944, 106.414. 9, (44), Johnny Mowlem, Charvil Berkshire, England, Aston Martin DB9, 2:18.013, 105.590. 10, (13), Bob Woodhouse, Blair, Neb., Dodge Viper, 2:18.080, 105.538. 11, (56), Ritch Marziale, Tempe, Ariz., Dodge Viper Comp Coupe, 2:18.124, 105.505. 12, (17), Rob Foster(R), Phoenix, Ariz., Dodge Viper, 2:18.245, 105.412. 13, (28), Lou Gigliotti, Dallas, Texas, Chevrolet Corvette C6, 2:18.665, 105.093. 14, (83), Jim McCann_Jr, Canton, Ohio, Dodge Viper, 2:19.176, 104.707. 15, (34), Tony Gaples, Libertyville, Ill., Chevrolet Corvette C6, 2:19.302, 104.613. 16, (51), Lenny Diller, Garden City, N.Y., Dodge Viper, 2:20.049, 104.055. 17, (31), Sonny Whelen, Old Saybrook, Conn., Chevrolet Corvette C6, 2:20.171, 103.964. 18, (24), Michael Galati, Olmsted, Ohio, Volvo S60R, 2:20.199, 103.943. 19, (25), Brian Kubinski, Plainfield, Ill., Chevrolet Corvette C6, 2:20.316, 103.857. 20, (23), Bob Miller, Sykesville, Md., Porsche 911 Cup, 2:20.706, 103.569. 21, (43), Tom Papadopoulos, East Hills, N.Y., Aston Martin DB9, 2:21.026, 103.334. 22, (87), Doug Peterson, Bonita Sprints, Fla., Chevrolet Corvette C6, 2:21.039, 103.324. 23, (26), Claudio Burtin, Atlanta, Ga., Chevrolet Corvette C6, 2:21.330, 103.111. 24, (96), Skip Sauls(R), Longmont, Colo., Dodge Viper, 2:21.737, 102.815. 25, (53), Mike Hartley, Cherry Hill, N.J., Dodge Viper GTS, 2:22.001, 102.624. 26, (76), John Bourassa, Jupiter Island, Fla., Porsche 911 Turbo, 2:22.900, 101.979. 27, (42), Mark LoPilato, Granbury, Texas, Porsche 911 Turbo, 2:23.012, 101.899. 28, (11), Mike Davis, Huntington Beach, Calif., Mustang Cobra, 2:23.062, 101.863. 29, (02), Adel Elsayed, Boonton Twp, N.J., Dodge Viper, 2:23.308, 101.688. 30, (40), Greg Weirick(R), Malibu, Calif., Chevrolet Corvette C6, 2:23.618, 101.469. 31, (04), Michael Greenberg(R), LaCanada, Calif., Dodge Viper , 2:24.309, 100.983. 32, (47), Bob Taylor, Denver, Colo., Chevrolet Corvette Z06, 2:24.569, 100.801. 33, (9), Adam Malmquist, Chicago, Ill., Chevrolet Corvette Z06, 4:15.900, 56.947. www.scca.com <http://www.scca.com> , www.world-challenge.com <http://www.world-challenge.com/>