PCA Club Race at Road America

September 1-3, 2007

Road America is one of few PCA Club Races at a professional facility, and each of these big club races brings out the toughest competitors.  This was our first full effort as a team and the first time at Road America for most of our drivers. The holiday schedule was a unique challenge with the Enduros on Sunday as usual, but the Sprint Races ran on Monday.

Drivers for GTC3 Group were: Chuck Grantham, Kim Linville, Gary Pennington, Kevin Violette, and Russell Williams.

GTA Drivers Group consisted of Derek Skea and Cory Friedman in the Autometrics 997 GT3 Cup Grand Am car.

During Saturday practice, Gary Pennington was consistently among the fastest in his class of approximately 40 C3 cars. Derek Skea was close behind Pennington throughout the day. Cory Friedman was second fastest on the overall timesheet, comfortably ahead of the rest of the field. Friedman set a GTA track record during practice but found himself behind a wild turbocharged Cup Car in the standings.

Sunday’s Enduro saw Pennington, Chuck Grantham and Kim Linville all run solo. Russell Williams shared the Enduro with Friedman in Williams’ GT3 Cup Car. Friedman qualified 2nd and Pennington was 5th despite the heavy traffic of an 80 car field. Friedman set the fastest race lap in GTC3 and Pennington finished 2nd in class. Linville and Grantham finished only a couple of laps down from the overall race winner after 90 minutes.

Monday’s Sprint race saw the Turbo car run away from the field as expected. Friedman remained in 2nd for the majority of the race until a much lighter and more powerful GT3RS snuck past on one of Road America’s long straights in the closing laps as Friedman’s tires began to fade away. Pennington stayed strong and scored another podium, finishing 3rd in his class. Skea rounded out the top 5 in GTA.

Overall, it was a fun and successful weekend. All drivers left happy, and we’re looking forward to next year’s trip to Wisconsin.