SCC: Lime Rock: GM Racing preview

Chevrolet Looks to Extend Grand-Am Cup Points Lead at Lime Rock

LAKEVILLE, Conn., May 22, 2006 -- With two wins and two Top Five finishes in its first four races, the Chevrolet Cobalt SS Supercharged heads to Lime Rock this weekend looking to extend its three point lead over Acura in the Grand-Am Cup Series Manufacturer's point standings.

On Saturday, May 27 at 3:15 p.m., six production-based Cobalt SS Supercharged cars will take the green flag for the 200-mile, 2.5-hour race, with an excellent chance of scoring Chevy's third win of the year in the Series' Street Tuner class.

"The Cobalt teams have built a lot of momentum early in the season, and have been consistent under a variety of track and weather conditions," said GM Performance Division's Ken Wasmer, whose engineering team provides technical support for all the Cobalt SS Supercharged entrants. "Everything our engineers learn from one car is quickly communicated to the other Cobalt entrants and implemented."

Racing against a field of 35 competitors from nine different manufacturers, Team Cobalt will be a record six cars strong at Lime Rock.

Leading the pack are two Canadian-based entries from the Georgian Bay Motorsport team -- the #01 ClearSCADA car driven by Eric Curran and 18-year-old Jamie Holtom, and the #00 SCADAPack Cobalt driven by Jamie's father Jim and Daniel Colembie. Currently, Curran and the younger Holtom lead their nearest non-Chevrolet contenders by 24 points for the Driver's Championship.

Curran has been racing at Lime Rock since 1999 when he won his first SCCA National there in a Chevrolet Camaro, en route to winning the SCCA National Championship in the American Sedan class the same year. He has more than 15 SCCA amateur wins at Lime Rock and as a resident of East Hampton, Mass., considers it his home track.

"Lime Rock is a very technical track," said Curran. "Between the elevation changes and the occasional bump, you really have to pay attention, because you're averaging more than 93 miles per hour in heavy traffic."

Tom Lepper, owner of Team Cobalt California, will drive his #48 car while his #98 entry will be driven by V.J. Mirzayan, both with co-drivers to be named.

Phil Malgren, owner of the Collision Craft Cobalt, returns for Lime Rock after passing on the last two races to build a second Cobalt SS Supercharged. Malgren and Delphi engineer Ed Magner will share the #06 car, while GM engineer Dave Thilenius will drive the new #86 car with a driver to be named.

"We missed Collision Craft at Laguna Seca and Phoenix, but Phil didn't want to dilute his time and resources building a second car by running those two races," said Wasmer. "His dedication to building the new car will ensure Collision Craft comes back even stronger."

The Street Tuner cars will have their own race at Lime Rock, separate from the Grand Sports class cars, and the race will be tape-delayed broadcast on the SPEED Channel Sunday, June 11 at 1 p.m.

The GM Performance Division offers all Cobalt SS Supercharged entrants a contingency program along with the engineering technical support currently provided at every Grand-Am Cup race. The program awards contingency money for every Top Five finish: $5,000 to win, $3,000 for second, $2,000 for third, $1,000 for fourth and $500 for fifth place.

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