Lime Rock Pirate Racing Sumary

FIERY RIDE FOR KIM BAKER AT SCCA WORLD CHALLENGE SERIES RACE AT LIME ROCK PARK Lakeville, CT. - The Les Stanford Chevrolet/Pirate Racing Corvette ZR-1 driven by Kim Baker of Bakeracing qualified third fastest at 00:59.027 for the second race in the SCCA World Challenge Series race at Lime Rock Park. Baker is a 9 time National Champion and 3 time World Challenge Winner. Baker was driving the #75 Les Stanford Chevrolet/Pirate Racing Corvette ZR-1 for the Lime Rock race only this season. Scotty B White of Portland, OR is the primary driver for Pirate Racing and will be piloting #75 for the next race at Mid Ohio June 13th.

Throughout practice and qualifying, the #75 Corvette ZR-1 was running very well and Baker believed that it was his race to win "the car was strong and we were in a position to win that race from the beginning." Unfortunately, Baker was prevented from taking his place in victory lane due to a terminal fire which occured during the first lap. "I started down the front straightaway in good shape, then I heard a loud bang in the engine, the car shook violently and I realized it was on fire" said Baker. Baker was able to bring the car to rest in the grass directly in front of the Lime Rock Park fire crew station. "I got out of there as fast as I could. It's really a shame that this happened to such a great group of Corvette people" Baker said. "I'd like to thank Les Stanford Chevrolet and Pirate Racing for the opportunity to drive their Corvette ZR-1."

Jim Van Dorn, Pirate Racing team owner, said "The most important thing is that Kim was okay. It's too bad that this happened because that Les Stanford Chevrolet Corvette ZR-1 was running strong all day and its LT-5 engine has been so powerful and so good.

We're going to work overtime to get the car back in shape, make a few adjustments to the setup and be ready to race at Mid Ohio June 13th." Van Dorn added "we'd like to thank Les Stanford Chevrolet and all those Corvette enthusiasts out there for supporting us and we'll see you at Mid Ohio."

Pirate Racing would like to thank Les Stanford Cheverolet of Dearborn, MI for their primary sponsorship of the Team as well as the associate sponsors: Red Line Oil, Trailer World, Burtronics Business Systems, Mission Uniform, Doug Rippie Motorsports, Lingenfelter Performance Engineering, Lancaster Uniform, Anchor Bay Packaging, Mid America Designs, The ZR-1 Registry, Lund, and Meguire's. Pirate Racing is a grass- roots Corvette racing effort supported and sponsored by Corvette enthusiasts worldwide. Pirate Racing is competing in the full 1998 SCCA World Challenge Series.

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