Herr Dominant In Road America SPEED Touring Car Run
For Immediate Release Herr Dominant In Road America SPEED Touring Car Run ELKHART LAKE, Wis. (Aug. 19, 2006) - Chip Herr, of Lititz, Pa., captured his second SCCA Pro Racing SPEED World Challenge Touring Car win of the season in his Audi A4 at Road America's Generac 500 weekend. Charles Espenlaub, of Lutz, Fla., and Robb Holland, of Denver, Colo., completed the top three. Starting second in his No. 17 International Autos/North Shore Audi/Clear Capital Audi A4, Herr rocketed into the lead off the standing start, utilizing his all-wheel-drive system. Once out front, Herr kept his advantage over polesitter Espenlaub to between one and two seconds for the entire run to take his second career victory in the 17-lap, 68.815-mile race by 1.677 seconds. "Since I was starting second, it was nice to be able to focus on launching from the lights and not focusing on driving around the guy in front of me," Herr said. "At Denver, I had a great launch almost to the lead and then a little Touring Car mishap that took me out of the race. "It was a good race today and I love running with Charles [Espenlaub]. I was watching my mirror the whole time. They kept giving me splits and there was a couple times where under braking he had an advantage and I was able to slowly pick it up. I was watching. "The fact that Audi is not an actual 'manufacturer' for us [with regard to support], it's really important to run well here because we're showing that we can drive with a brand new car, develop it and, within one year, win two Touring Car races and basically fight for a podium every race. I think we're trying to show Audi that we're here to win and these guys [Holland and Espenlaub] have the support from their factories and that's great, but we just don't have that right now." Starting from the pole in his No. 97 Sparco/Oakley/Tindol Motorsports Mazda 6, Espenlaub accurately predicted that he would follow the Audi into turn one after the standing start. What he had counted on, though, was being able to keep in Herr's draft. "I was hoping we could get close enough to [Herr] to get into a draft and make him use his brakes a little harder, but I was never quite able to close that gap," Espenlaub said. "A little bit here and there, but then he'd open it right back up. The track conditions changed quite a bit from this morning and I think it kind of favored the all-wheel-drive, and he was quite a bit quicker than me in a some places and I could just not close the gap." After starting fifth in his No. 67 3R-Racing Dodge SRT-4, Holland battled all race long with the Mazda of Randy Pobst and the Acura of Eric Curran for fourth. When Brian Smith's Woodhouse Auto Family/Kicker Dodge SRT4 developed a flat tire and retired to the pit lane from third place, Holland inherited the spot and held Pobst at bay to record his first, and the car model's first, podium finish. "It feels great," Holland, who earned Piloti Rookie of the Race for his effort, said. "It was a fantastic race. I had Randy [Pobst] behind me the whole entire time and having a guy like Randy Pobst behind you for the whole entire 50 minutes, I had my hands full. It feels fantastic to be here, but I'll be back, in Chip's seat." Pobst, of Gainesville, Ga., dogged Holland with his No. 73 Mazdaspeed/Tri-Point Motorsports Mazda 6, but couldn't get close enough in the draft to make his move, settling for fourth. Eric Curran, of E. Hampton, Mass., was fifth in his No. 43 Acura Certified Pre-Owned/RealTime Racing Acura RSX. Jeff Altenburg (Mazda 6) emerged from a race-long battle with defending race winner Peter Cunningham (Acura TSX) to finish sixth. Point leader Pierre Kleinubing (Acura TSX) finished one spot behind Cunningham, in eighth, after starting 11th. Christian Miller finished a career-best ninth in his Volkswagen Jetta and last week's Denver winner, Brandon Davis, was 10th in his Acura TSX. Jon Prall, of Los Gatos, Calif., earned the Sunoco Hard Charger in his No. 11 DIG Motorsports/JustRacing.com BMW 325Ci for advancing from 23rd starting position to finish 14th. Charles Putman, of Mills, Wyo., captured the B&M Shifters Holeshot Award for advancing four spots on the opening lap of the race. Kleinubing, who came into the weekend with a 28-point lead, saw that advantage cut to 21 over Pobst (213-192). Cunningham maintained third position, with 158, but Herr jumped from seventh to fourth, with 146. Davis is now fifth, with 145. In the SPEED Touring Car Manufacturers' Championship Presented by RACER Magazine, Acura saw its 13-point lead cut to seven, 52 to 45. Audi made up ground with its win, now with 21, followed by BMW (11) and Dodge scored its first points, with five. The series next travels north of the border to Mosport International Raceway Labor Day weekend, Sept. 1-3. Today's race was shown live on SPEED Channel and will be rebroadcast Wednesday, Aug. 23 at 1 p.m. (EDT). For more information, visit www.world-challenge.com <http://www.world-challenge.com/> . -30- Attached 1: Image of Chip Herr leading Charles Espenlaub en route to victory today at Road America Attached 2: Top three from today's SPEED Touring Car race at Road America (l-r) Charles Espenlaub, Chip Herr, Robb Holland Credit: Both Images (c) 2006 Mark Weber/SCCA ELKHART LAKE, Wis. - Results from Sunday's 17-lap, 68.815 mile SCCA Pro Racing SPEED World Challenge Touring Car Championship Round Seven race, part of the Generac 500 weekend at Road America, with finishing position, starting position in parentheses, driver, hometown, car, laps, distance behind winner and reason out (if any). 1. (2), Chip Herr, Lititz, Pa., Audi A4, 17. 2. (1), Charles Espenlaub, Lutz, Fla., Mazda 6, 17, -1.677. 3. (5), Robb Holland(R), Denver, Colo., Dodge SRT-4, 17, -8.576. 4. (4), Randy Pobst, Gainesville, Ga., Mazda 6, 17, -9.030. 5. (6), Eric Curran, East Hampton, Mass., Acura RSX, 17, -11.332. 6. (10), Jeff Altenburg, Ellicott City, Md., Mazda 6, 17, -12.283. 7. (3), Peter Cunningham, Grafton, Wis., Acura TSX, 17, -12.748. 8. (11), Pierre Kleinubing, Coconut Creek, Fla., Acura TSX, 17, -22.093. 9. (12), Christian Miller(R), Newark, Calif., Volkswagen Jetta, 17, -32.550. 10. (9), Brandon Davis, Denver, Colo., Acura TSX, 17, -33.189. 11. (15), Jeff Courtney(R), Slinger, Wis., Audi A4, 17, -33.797. 12. (18), Freddy Baker, Bedford, Ohio, Audi A4, 17, -39.413. 13. (16), Karl Poeltl(R), Knoxville, Tenn., BMW 325i, 17, -57.350. 14. (23), Jon Prall, Los Gatos, Calif., BMW 325Ci, 17, -1:17.111. 15. (17), Toby Grahovec(R), Palos Park, Ill., BMW 325i, 17, -2:28.599. 16. (22), Mary Katharine(R), Delray Beach, Fla., Mazda Protege, 17, -2:30.189. 17. (20), Charlie Putman(R), Mills, Wyo., Mazda 6, 15, Off Course. 18. (7), Brian Smith(R), Simpsonville, S.C., Dodge SRT-4, 15, -2 laps. 19. (14), Seth Thomas, Cumming, Ga., BMW 325i, 3, OHeat. 20. (13), Nick Esayian, Encinitas, Calif., Acura RSX, 2, Trans. 21. (21), Seth Neiman, Woodside, Calif., BMW 325Ci, 1, Crash. 22. (8), Dino Crescentini, Malibu, Calif., Mazda 6, 0, DNS. 23. (19), Kuno Wittmer, Montreal, Canada, Mercedes-Benz C230, 0, DNS. 24. (24), James Clay, Radford, Va., BMW 325i, 0, DNS. Time of race: 42 minutes, 41.961 seconds. Average speed: 96.698 mph, Record Margin of victory: 1.677 Seconds Lap leaders: Laps 1-17, #17 Chip Herr Fastest race lap: #17 Chip Herr, 2:28.157 (98.360 mph), Record Fastest qualifier: #97 Charles Espenlaub, 2:27.015 (99.124 mph) Sunoco Hard Charger: #11 Jon Prall advanced from 23rd to 14th in the race B&M Shifters Holeshot: #96 Charles Putman advanced four positions on the opening lap Piloti Rookie of the Race: #67 Robb Holland was the top finish rookie Cautions: None SCCA SPEED Touring Car Drivers' Championship Ps., Driver, Car, Points (wins) 1, Pierre Kleinubing, Acura TSX, 213 (2) 2, Randy Pobst, Mazda 6, 192 (1) 3, Peter Cunningham, Acura TSX, 158 4, Chip Herr, Audi A4, 146 (2) 5, Brandon Davis, Acura TSX, 145 (1) 6, Jeff Altenburg, Mazda 6, 140 7, Eric Curran, Acura RSX, 133 8, Jeff Courtney(R), Audi A4, 107 9, Charles Espenlaub, Mazda 6, 104 10, Nick Esayian, Acura RSX, 102 SCCA SPEED Touring Car Manufacturers' Championship Presented by RACER Ps., Manufacturer, Points (Wins) 1, Acura, 52 (3) 2, Mazda, 45 (1) 3, Audi, 21 (2) 4, BMW, 11 (1) 5, Dodge, 5 _______________________ Eric Prill Director of Marketing Communications Sports Car Club of America SCCA Pro Racing/SPEED World Challenge 785-357-7222, 785-232-7228 fax 800-770-2055 toll free 785-250-7920 mobile eprill@scca.com www.scca.com <http://www.scca.com> , www.world-challenge.com <http://www.world-challenge.com/>