SCC: Birmingham: Race notes

Stanton and Murry Take Second Straight Grand-Am Cup win in Barber 250
Tremblay and Haskell Take Fourth ST Class Triumph

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (October 9, 2004) -- For the second straight week, No. 43 TheRaceSite.com Racing Porsche 996 co-drivers Craig Stanton and David Murry claimed a victory in a Grand-Am Cup Series race, as the duo won Saturday's Barber 250 at Barber Motorsports Park (SPEED Channel, October 24, 3 p.m. ET).

Murry took the lead from teammate Kris Wilson on Lap 72 of the 93-lap race and sped to a 9.481-second victory over the No. 11 Powell Motorsport Cadillac CTS-V of Terry Borcheller and Devon Powell. Murry and Stanton also won last weekend at Virginia International Raceway, and their win today allowed Porsche to clinch the Grand-Am Cup Grand Sport (GS) Manufacturer's Championship. The famed German automaker now leads Nissan by 40 points heading into the season finale at California Speedway in three weeks with just 35 points still available.

"It always looks easier than it is, but it's not," Murry said. "The race is so competitive and this track is certainly suited for our car. California (Speedway) is more suited for the Cadillac. We're happy and we're moving in the right direction, but I wish we could have more points. Those guys did a great job and came up second, but we need more than that in California. It's going to be tough."

For Stanton, the triumph was his series-leading sixth of the season. Despite the fact that he missed one race this season, the victory moved Stanton to within four points of GS class championship-leading Borcheller with one race remaining on the schedule.

"It's great," Stanton said. "This is our sixth win and I'm just proud to be involved with TheRaceSite.com Racing Porsche. It's great. It was unbelievable and now it's truly believable. We've got a heck of a points chase going and we're just inching up to Terry and the Powell Motorsport team. They are awesome competitors and they are real professionals. It's exciting. I'm sure its going to go down to the last lap in the last race at California Speedway, so stay tuned."

Borcheller fought tooth and nail to retain his points lead, battling door-to-door late in the race with two TheRaceSite.com Racing cars. On Lap 86, Borcheller finally made his way past the No. 44 Porsche 996 of Wayne Nonnamaker for third place after a lengthy fight for position. A third place finish would ensure that Borcheller would keep sole possession of the championship lead, but he also battled past the No. 41 Porsche 996 of Kris Wilson to take second place. As a result, Borcheller leads Stanton 246-242 after nine of 10 races.

Wayne and Joe Nonnamaker came home with a third-place finish in the No. 44 TheRaceSite.com Racing Porsche 996, followed by Bobby Julien and Jean-Francois Dumoulin in the No. 91 Doncaster Racing Porsche 996 in fourth place. Michiel Schuitemaker and BJ Zacharias rounded out the top five with a fifth place performance in the No. 35 Schuitemaker Motorsports Nissan 350Z. Wilson and co-driver Dave Riddle finished sixth in the No. 41 Porsche.

On the final lap in the race, Sylvain Tremblay powered his No. 70 SpeedSource Mazda RX-8 past the No. 27 Bill Fenton Motorsports Acura RSX-S of Bob Endicott to take the Sport Touring (ST) class victory. It was the fourth class win of the season for Tremblay and co-driver David Haskell, and the triumph enabled them to substantially close the gap to ST co-points leaders Will Turner and Don Salama, who encountered difficulties in their No. 95 Turner Motorsport BMW 330i.

"It's awesome," Tremblay said. "We said we were going to bring it down to the wire. You have to give credit to these Turner Motorsport guys for having an awesome year. These Acura guys have been great competition. It's great racing. To be our first year and our fourth win, we're just amazed. Mazda and MazdaSpeed have a great car and this RX-8 is just awesome."

The victory coupled with a sixth-place class finish by Turner and Salama allowed Tremblay and Haskell to reduce their points deficit from 18 points going into today's race to eight points afterward.

"It's great," Haskell said. "All the pressure is on the No. 95 now, so we're just trying to do the best we can. We're winning races. We have the best car, the best crew and I've got the best co-driver. I'm looking forward to California."

Endicott and co-driver Eric Curran earned their fourth consecutive class podium finish with today's second-place result, but they were one lap short in their efforts to win for the second straight week. Bill Fenton and Bob Beede made it two Bill Fenton Motorsports cars in the top three with a third-place run in the No. 29 Acura RSX-S. David Tuaty and Scott Schlesinger finished fourth in the No. 68 SpeedSource Mazda RX-8, with Andy Brumbaugh and Andy Lally finishing fifth in the No. 3 Team Lexus IS300.

SPEED Channel will televise the Barber 250 on Sunday, October 24 at 3 p.m. ET. Next up for the Grand-Am Cup Series is the season-ending Lexus Grand American Champions Weekend at California Speedway on the weekend of October 29-31.

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