3R-Racing announces GT driver lineup

TOPEKA, Kan. (Jan. 13, 2004) -- Colorado-based 3R-Racing announced today its driver lineup for the 2004 SCCA SPEED World Challenge GT season. 3R-Racing will field a four-car team that includes veteran drivers Tommy Archer, of Duluth, Minn., Phil McClure, of Floris, Iowa, Tim Wiens, of Westminster, Colo., and a fourth driver to be named at a later date.

In addition to announcing its drivers, 3R-Racing also announced that its stable will be running some "American Muscle" in the 2004 SCCA SPEED GT campaign with two Chevrolet Corvette Z06s and two Dodge Viper Competitions Coupes.

"We're always looking for ways to improve the team and replacing the Porsches with another Corvette and two Vipers gives us the edge we were looking for," said Wiens, owner of 3R-Racing. "We've always had a great relationship with the professionals at GM and, with these newly added cars, we intend to be one of their 'top dogs' in racing. Nothing beats American horsepower and with our quality team behind the wheels and in the pits, 3R-Racing will be the team to beat."

"We're pretty excited," said Bob Raub, owner of 3R-Racing Race Shop. "We made this change trying to be the most competitive team that we can be. We're pretty excited about this 'all-American' aspect. We feel that the [Dodge Viper] Competition Coupe is going to be a pretty exciting direction and another challenge for us."

Archer will drive the No. 22 Dodge Viper Competition Coupe. In two seasons (1990 and 1991) of World Challenge competition, Archer ran the Super Production Class recording two wins (Autodrome Del Norte and Mosport), eight trips to the podium and 13 top-10 finishes in 14 career starts. In 1990 and 1991, he finished third and fifth in the Drivers' Point Championships, respectively.

In 2001, Archer teamed with Cinjo Racing and 3R-Racing Chief Engineer Will Moody in the SCCA Trans-Am series driving a Dodge Viper. He won at Portland and grabbed two pole positions en route to helping him place fourth in the Point Championship. Dodge Performance Vehicle Operations (PVO) hired Archer in 2002 to handle the high speed development driving for the new Dodge Viper Competition Coupe. Last year, Archer continued with Dodge in the Coupe development along with consulting at Viper Days.

"When we made a team decision to switch to the Vipers -- just like when we had Porsches, we pursued Randy [Pobst] and Mike [Fitzgerald] because we thought they were the top drivers to put in our Porsches -- we felt that Tommy was someone we wanted to at least talk to and we ended up settling with him," Raub said. "[We brought] Tommy Archer on because we think he is the best driver right now to put in a Viper."

McClure, who finished third in the SPEED GT Drivers' Championship in 2003, will drive the No. 73 Chevrolet Corvette Z06. In 2003, McClure recorded two wins (Sebring and Mosport), three podium finishes, seven top-five's and one pole position.

All told, 3R-Racing was the winningest SCCA SPEED World Challenge team in 2003, recording four wins total between McClure and Fitzgerald.

Wiens returns for his second full season of SPEED GT competition driving the No. 33 Dodge Viper Competition Coupe. Wiens has 12 career SPEED GT starts that include five top-10 finishes.

The SPEED World Challenge GT season will make its first standing start of 2004 at Sebring International Raceway for the fourth-consecutive year as part of the 52nd Mobil1 Twelve Hours of Sebring week March 17-20. In 2004, the series will visit Lime Rock Park, Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Infineon Raceway, Portland International Raceway, Mosport International Raceway, Road America, Road Atlanta Motorsports Center and Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

For more information about SCCA SPEED World Challenge, visit www.world-challenge.com. For more information about 3R-Racing, please visit www.3r-racing.com.

-scca pro racing-