SCC: GS and ST points battle heads to Birmingham

Stanton Closes On Borcheller in Grand-Am Cup GS Points; Turner and Salama Keep Rolling in ST

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (October 6, 2004) - With his victory in last weekend's Grand-Am Cup Series VIR 250, No. 43 TheRaceSite.com Racing Porsche driver Craig Stanton closed the gap on Terry Borcheller in the Grand Sport (GS) drivers championship chase -- but only by three points. Borcheller, co-driver of the No. 11 Powell Motorsport Cadillac, finished second and now has a seven-point advantage over his former co-driver (214-207).

Stanton and Borcheller are the only two drivers to stand atop the GS leaderboard this season. They shared the top spot through the first three rounds, but after Borcheller moved to the Cadillac at Mont-Tremblant, Stanton took sole possession of the top spot. He maintained his lead for the next two races, but Borcheller moved past Stanton following last month's ¡El Combate de Velocidad! in Miami. With only two races left in the 2004 Grand-Am Cup Series season, the GS championship is likely to go down to the wire.

No. 35 Schuitemaker Nissan 350Z co-drivers BJ Zacharias and Michiel Schuitemaker are tied for third with 183 points, while No. 33 Unitech Nissan driver Mike Cronin moved up four spots to fifth (174). Fellow Unitech driver Blake Rosser is one point back in sixth place and No. 17 Doncaster Racing Porsche driver Greg Wilkins is seventh with 168 points. TheRaceSite.com No. 44 drivers Wayne and Joe Nonnamaker are tied for eighth with 167 points, while No. 52 Rehagen Racing Mustang co-drivers Larry Rehagen and Ken MacAlpine are in a three-way tie with BGB Motorsports No. 38 Porsche driver Guy Cosmo at 157 points.

In the GS team standings, the No. 44 TheRaceSite.com Racing team continues to lead with 199 points, with the No. 35 Schuitemaker Motorsports team 16-points back in second. TheRaceSite.com Racing's sister car, the No. 43 Porsche, is third with 181 points. After ending a two-race win streak for Nissan at VIR, Porsche increased its manufacturer lead to 35-points over Nissan (267-253). Ford is third with 183 points.

In the Sport Touring (ST) class, No. 95 Turner Motorsport BMW drivers Don Salama and Will Turner continue to stand atop the driver standings, but No. 70 SpeedSource Mazda drivers Sylvain Tremblay and David Haskell have cut that lead to 18 points with their second-place finish in Virginia (239-221). Turner Motorsport driver Tim Pappas remains in fifth with 218, while No. 27 Bill Fenton Motorsports Acura driver Eric Curran used his ST class victory last weekend to move into sixth place (202).

Team Lexus driver Chuck Goldsborough fell to seventh with 199 points, followed by teammate Ian James in eighth with 187 points. Bill Fenton Motorsports driver Bob Beede is ninth one point back of James, and Curran's co-driver of the No. 27 Acura, Bob Endicott, rounds out the top 10 with 172 markers.

The No. 95 Turner Motorsport BMW team still leads in team standings over the No. 70 SpeedSource Mazda team by the same point margin as the advantage Turner and Salama have over Tremblay and Haskell (239-221). The No. 97 Turner Motorsport team is third with 218 points. BMW has a 10-point advantage over Acura in the manufacturer standings (258-248), while Mazda is third with 239 points.

Grand American Road Racing Association, which sanctions the Rolex Sports Car Series and the Grand-Am Cup Series, is one of the fastest growing motorsports organizations in the United States. Established in 1999, Grand American's stated goal is to bring stability to professional sports car road racing in North America. The 12-race 2004 Rolex Series schedule and the 10-race Grand-Am Cup calendar deliver professional sports car racing to many key markets throughout North America in addition to being televised in the United States and Canada on SPEED Channel and distributed globally through ESPN International. With title sponsorship support from Rolex Watch USA, the Rolex Sports Car Series showcases emerging and legendary drivers from around the globe and thoroughbred racing machines from the industry's leading constructors and the world's top automobile manufacturers. Learn more about Grand American at www.grandamerican.com.

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