After reuniting for the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen, the GT class returns to action at Mid-Ohio as the premier event on Sunday’s card. And for the first time since the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona, a new points leader heads the standings.
German rookie Werner, who now leads the points by 11 (204-193), and American co-driver and fellow rookie Bryce Miller have been the hottest pair of drivers on the GT circuit since Daytona, having finished on the podium in the last four races. With a second-place finish in the No. 87 Farnbacher Loles Motorsports Marquis Jet/IPC Porsche GT3, Miller moved ahead of No. 70 SpeedSource Mazda RX-8 co-drivers Nick Ham and Sylvain Tremblay after the three shared the lead in the standings. Miller, who was 10th in point standings two races ago, has moved into fourth. Among the duo’s consistent finishes was a victory in April at VIR and a second-place finish last month at Lime Rock Park.
Werner wasn’t the only driver to pass Tremblay and Ham in the standings. Equally as consistent throughout the season have been No. 07 Banner Racing/Banner Engineering Pontiac GXP. R co-drivers Kelly Collins and Paul Edwards, who have since moved into a second-place tie in points. Despite not having won a GT race in 2007, Collins and Edwards are the only two drivers to have placed in the top 10 in all seven GT events. The pair also claimed second in GT last season at Mid-Ohio, and Collins landed a victory in GT at the track in 2005.
Tremblay has since fallen to fifth in the standings with two straight finishes outside the top 10. He and Ham are two of four drivers to take multiple victories this season, but the team needs to regroup as quickly as possible in order to return to their early season form. Currently, Tremblay and Ham are separated by nine points, as Ham did not drive at Watkins Glen due the car’s early retirement. Ham is now eighth in the standings.
The other two drivers who own multiple GT victories in 2007 are Andy Lally and RJ Valentine, tied with Tremblay for points and wins. Lally mastered the Sahlen’s Six Hour in the No. 66 TRG CRG/Maxter Porsche GT3, driving to the checkered flag with assistance from Valentine and Spencer Pumpelly. That car has finished inside the top 10 in six of its seven starts. Valentine was part of the winning Mid-Ohio GT team in 2005, and finished third last year with Lally and Marc Bunting. Lally was second with Bunting in 2005.
Bunting is entered to drive the No. 57 Stevenson Motorsports Stevenson Automotive Corvette this weekend with Dominic Cicero II. It marks one of five Corvettes entered, joining the Nos. 42 and 43 Team Sahlen HRPworld.com Corvettes driven by Joe Sahlen and Will, Joe and Wayne Nonnamaker. The No. 56 Beachman Racing/Dynex Design Corvette has Bruce Beachman and Michael Fitzgerald in another race car, and the No. 03 Georgian Bay Motorsports SCADA Pack Corvette looks for a victory right out of the box in GT competition with drivers Jamie Holtom and Eric Curran, regulars in the Grand-Am KONI Challenge Series Street Tuner (ST) division.
Holding on to eighth and tied with Ham is Jean-Francois Dumoulin, who won the season-opener for the GTs at Daytona with Carlos de Quesada. The duo is entered to drive the No. 22 Alegra Motorsports/Fiorano Racing Gatorade/TodayMD.com Porsche GT3 again at Mid-Ohio. The other duo which has won this season, No. 06 Banner Racing/Banner Engineering Pontiac GXP. R co-drivers Leighton Reese and Tim Lewis Jr., won their first race for the team at Lime Rock and has top-10 finishes in five of seven races this season. They own 10th in the standings. Drew Staveley and Mark Pavan pilot the No. 30 Racers Edge Motorsports Pontiac GXP. R, the third such GXP. R in the field.
Tafel Racing has been tough at Mid-Ohio in past seasons, and should be once again with two Porsche GT3s entered. No. 74 Rembrandt Charms Porsche GT3 co-drivers Eric Lux and Wolf Henzler notched a season-best third at Lime Rock and own four top 10s in seven starts this season. No. 72 Tornos/Dunkel Bros Porsche GT3 co-pilots Nathan Swartzbaugh and Andrew Davis look to turn around their bad luck with their first podium of 2007. Heading into the race, the duo’s best finish is a fourth at VIR. Tafel Racing won last year’s race with Henzler and Robin Liddell.
The other Farnbacher Loles Motorsports car is also ready for action in attempt for its first victory of 2007. Leh Keen, who was fourth and sixth at Mid-Ohio the last two years, teams with Dominik Farnbacher in the No. 85 Shoes for Crews/Recaro Porsche GT3. While the two drivers have yet to win a race, their car has led in more than half of the GT races this season.
The No. 21 Matt Connolly Motorsports race car sat on the GT pole last season at Mid-Ohio, and the team has Connolly, Hal Prewitt and Shawn Price enlisted for battle this weekend. Last year’s pole-winning BMW was destroyed in Joey Hand’s spectacular crash, but the Connolly team is expected to return to Mid-Ohio with a Pontiac GTO. R. Canadians Greg Wilkins and Dave Lacey have co-piloted a Porsche GT3 to third- and fourth-place finishes at Mid-Ohio in the last two seasons, and are back in the No. 17 Doncaster Racing MineStar/Tim Hortons Porsche GT3 this weekend.
Ford and Nissan also hope to break through for their first victories of the season. Tom Nastasi and Ian James are entered in the No. 15 Blackforest Motorsports USG Sheetrock/Guardian Insulation Ford Mustang GT while Tommy Constantine, Mike Borkowski and David Murry are entered in the No. 35 Playboy Racing/Unitech Vonage/Palms Nissan 350Z.
Others entered are the No. 28 At Speed Motorsports Celette/Duraform Porsche GT3 (Ian Baas and Mark White), No. 36 Competition Marketing Motorsports Pontiac GTO (Nick DiMeo, Peter Doane and Manny Matz), No. 41 Team Sahlen Orchard Chrysler/Dodge Porsche GT3 (Aaron Bambach and Robb Brent), No. 65 TRG Maxwell Paper Products Co. Porsche GT3 (Ross Smith and Daniel DiLeo), No. 67 TRG NETTTS/Louis Boston Porsche GT3 (Pumpelly and Mark Greenberg), No. 69 SpeedSource FXDD Mazda RX-8 (Emil Assentato and Nick Longhi), No. 81 Synergy Racing EMC Mechanical/Gamewell Mechanical Porsche GT3 (Milton, Carey and Kevin Grant) and the debuting No. 96 RJR Racing Group Porsche GT3 (Rene Robichaud and BJ Zacharias).
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