ARA Racefacts Bulletin: Road Atlanta Special Edition
23 June 1998
AUTO RACING ANALYSIS RACEFACTS BULLETIN: ROAD ATLANTA SPECIAL EDITION
Sunday's fourth round of the 1998 PSCR WSC/GT series
held at Road Atlanta produced a second consecutive PSCR WSC
victory for Butch Leitzinger and James Weaver as they led a
Dyson Racing Ford R & S Mk 3 team 1-2, winning by 44.891
seconds over runnerup teammates Dorsey Schroeder and Elliott
Forbes-Robinson! The duo became the first drivers to take
multiple 1998 PSCR WSC victories and made the Dyson team
1998's first PSCR WSC team to attain two wins! The Dyson
entries started fourth and third, respectively but the
winning car led 140 of 162 laps while the runnerup led one
lap. Four cars led the race (the two Dyson entries, the
Doyle/Risi Ferrari, and the Champion Porsche 911 GT1) with
the lead changing hands five times.
Ferraris filled the front row with Eric Van de Poele
placing the Toshiba/Danka Doyle/Risi 333SP on the pole with
Didier Theys alongside in the Lista 333SP. Theys set Fast
Lap for the second consecutive PSCR event but the car
retired with mechanical problems. Van de Poele and Wayne
Taylor finished fourth overall and third in WSC, four laps
down to the Dyson duo.
Taylor continues to lead the 1998 PSCR WSC standings,
now with 93 points, to 91 for Van de Poele with 1997 WSC
champion Leitzinger now third with 77 points.
Thierry Boutsen and Bob Wollek won GT1 in the STP
Champion Porsche 911 GT1 by sixteen laps over the runnerup
Visteon Ford Panoz GTR of Raul Boesel and Eric Bernard as
all three Panoz entries encountered trouble! The Porsche
started second in class and took an early lead, evening
leading overall for seven laps! The GT1 winner placed third
overall!
The Porsche victory was the marque's first in 1998 PSCR
GT1 competition, ending a four-race (dating back to the 1997
finale!) Panoz GT1 win streak and a four-race GT1 win streak
for David Brabham (and a three-race GT1 win streak for Andy
Wallace)!
The victory was Boutsen's second in only seven PSCR GT
starts; his first win was an overall victory in the 1985
Daytona 24 Hours, teaming in a GTP Porsche 962 with Wollek,
A.J. Foyt, and Al Unser!
Wallace put his Panoz on the pole but wrecked early in
the race while Bernard set Fast Lap; Panoz entries have won
three consecutive PSCR GT1 poles and set six consecutive
PSCR GT1 Fast Laps!
Eric Bernard leads the 1998 PSCR GT1 point standings.
For the third consecutive PSCR event, PTG Yokohama/Fina
BMW M3s won both the GT2 and GT3 classes!
Marc Duez and Boris Said teamed with Brian Simo to win
GT2 by one lap over the Schumacher Racing Porsche 911 GT2 of
Larry Schumacher/John O'Steen/Andy Pilgrim. The victory was
the fourth consecutive in 1998 PSCR GT competition for Said,
as he won GT3 in the 1998 Sebring 12 Hours and has been part
of the GT2-winning team in the Las Vegas, Lime Rock, and
Road Atlanta events! Duez scored his third consecutive 1998
PSCR GT win, having won GT3 at Las Vegas plus the GT2 events
at Lime Rock and Road Atlanta! Brian Simo's GT2 victory was
his career-first PSCR GT win and came in only his third PSCR
GT start!
Duez put the GT2 winner on pole for the second
consecutive event as the PTG BMWs have won three consecutive
PSCR GT2 poles! BMW was denied the GT2 Fast Lap, however,
as Andy Pilgrim achieved that feat in the Schumacher Porsche
911 GT2! Road Atlanta marked the car's second 1998 PSCR GT2
Fast Lap, as Larry Schumacher achieved the honor at Las
Vegas.
Schumacher continues to lead the 1998 PSCR GT2 point
standings.
Bill Auberlen and Mark Simo teamed to win GT3 by a lap
over Yokohama/Fina PTG BMW M3 teammates Peter Cunningham and
Ross Bentley (the Lime Rock GT3 winners)! Auberlen's
victory was his third in four 1998 PSCR GT3 races (he
finished second at Lime Rock); he also shared the Las Vegas
GT2 win and thus has four 1998 PSCR GT victories! Auberlen
won the pole and set Fast Lap, scoring a "Clean Sweep" of
Road Atlanta GT3 honors! Mark Simo's victory was his second
in GT3, joining his Las Vegas win! Auberlen leads Mark Simo
by four points in the 1998 PSCR GT3 point chase!
PTG BMW has now won seven consecutive PSCR GT3 events,
tying the all-time PSCR GT3 "team" win streak record set by
Kent Racing and its Mazda RX-7 entries with a seven-race win
streak from 1981's Portland GT3 event through the 1982
Daytona 24 Hours!
For the Simo brothers, Mark (GT3) and Brian (GT2), the
feat of each achieving a different class win in the same
event marked the second such "brother" milestone in PSCR GT
history! Jim and Will Pace were the first to achieve the
feat in the 1996 Sebring 12 Hours when Jim won overall in
the Doyle Oldsmobile Aurora R & S Mk 3 and Will won GT3 in a
Porsche 911!
"Brother teams" won in the same car in two PSCR GT
events! Gary and Geoff Brabham (teamed with Derek Daly) won
the 1991 Sebring 12 Hours in the NPTI Nissan NPT 90, and
Bill and Don Whittington won the 1979 Riverside GTX event in
a Porsche 935 Turbo.
The Brian and Mark Simo "brother act" is but the latest
in PSCR GT racing. Two "trios" of brothers have won PSCR GT
events, the most recent Geoff, Gary, and David Brabham
joining the Bill, Don, and Dale Whittington trio; all three
never combined to win together or in the same event,
however. Other brothers with PSCR GT wins (but not in the
same events or together) are Paul and Wally Dallenbach, Jr.,
Irv and Scott Hoerr, Bart and Tom Kendall, Rod and Steve
Millen, and Kenper and Paul Miller.
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