Road America: 3R-Racing race notes

3R-Racing Finishes Third, Seventh and Twelfth at Road America

Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin -- 3R-Racing's Phil McClure drove to a third place finish today in round eight of the SCCA Pro Racing World Challenge GT series. Teammates Tommy Archer and Tim Wiens brought their Vipers home in seventh and twelfth place.

McClure, returning to the site of his big crash in last year's race where his race ended with a ride to the hospital, was able to secure some redemption today. At the drop of the green flag, he was able to move up from his fourth place qualifying position to run in third going into the first turn. "I had a good jump at the start and followed the Audis through turn one," said McClure, driver of the number 73/Aggregate Industries/3R Corvette. "I really just settled in after turn one, took care of the car and focused on running consistent lap times. It was a great finish considering what I went through here last year. The 3R team did a great job all weekend and third is a nice way to end the weekend at the track closest to my home in Iowa. It was also nice to excise some of my demons today."

Tommy Archer driving his number 22/c3controls/ Whelen Engineering/3R Viper carried his 255 lbs in REWARDS weight to a seventh place finish. "She felt heavy today. The good news is I get to shed a few pounds for Atlanta. I was running as hard as I dared with the thought of keeping the tires under the car. There were no cautions so I really had to be conservative so as not to fall any further back. I wish I knew the Audi secret of making a heavy car run three seconds faster than I could run."

Tim Wiens, driving the number 33/1st Interstate Inns/3R Viper, finished the day in twelfth position. "The car was a real handful. I didn't get a great start and was just able to hold my position. Once the field was spread out I just wanted to run good fast laps. It was hotter this afternoon than all weekend, so that made the track a little greasy affecting the tire wear and the handling became an issue."

Archer relinquishes his GT driver's points lead to Audi driver Michael Galati.

The race will be televised on Speed Channel August 29th at 1:00 p.m. Eastern time.

Round nine of the Speed World Challenge GT Series will be run at Road Atlanta on September 25.

-3rr-