Long Beach: Saturday practice report

Fellows, Pilgrim Lead SPEED GT Into Long Beach Qualifying

LONG BEACH, Calif. (April 14, 2007) --Andy Pilgrim became the first SCCA Pro Racing SPEED World Challenge GT Championship driver to break the 1 minute 26 second barrier at Long Beach, but it was Team Cadillac teammate Ron Fellows who stole the glory in the final minute of Saturday morning's final practice session.

Driving the No. 16 XM/Mobil 1/Motorola/Bose Cadillac CTS-V, defending race winner Fellows, of Mississauga, Ontario, turned a fastest lap of 1:25.552 (82.812 mph) with 45 seconds remaining in the brief, 20-minute session. The lap was 0.794-second faster than the existing course record of 1:26.346 set by Tommy Archer in 2006.

"The track was slicker than yesterday even though the lap times were faster," Fellows said. "It was quite a bit warmer yesterday than it was this morning and it took the car longer to come around. The car kept getting faster and faster and I turned off three fast times there at the end.

"It was good, but we've still got some things to work on. I think we're probably going to need another second [in qualifying] to be honest. The Cadillac is stopping and going around corners really well, but we're off the mark going in a straight line."

Pilgrim, of Boca Raton, Fla., came in second in the session with a fast time of 1:25.685 (82.684 mph) in his No. 8 XM/Mobil 1/Motorola/Bose Cadillac CTS-V. Lou Gigliotti, of Dallas, Texas, was third in his No. 28 LG Pro Long Tube Headers Chevrolet Corvette with a lap of 1:25.853 (82.522 mph), the only other car under the 1:26 barrier.

K-PAX Racing teammates Michael Galati and Randy Pobst were fourth and fifth in their Porsche 911 GT3s, turning fast laps of 1:26.029 and 1:26.069, respectively.

Point leader Eric Curran (Chevrolet Corvette), Hollywood's Tomy Drissi (Chevrolet Corvette), Sonny Whelen (Chevrolet Corvette), Archer (Dodge Viper) and Lawson Aschenbach (Cadillac CTS-V) completed the top 10.

Qualifying for Sunday's race will take place at 8:30 a.m. (Pacific) Sunday morning, with the race making its standing start at 4 p.m. following the Champ Car race. To catch all the action via live timing and scoring and live lap notes, please visit the SCCA Pit Board at www.world-challenge.com.

-credit: scca pro racing