Road America: Series GT practice two report

Rivera Fastest in World Challenge GT Final Practice at Road America

ELKHART LAKE, Wis. (Aug. 14, 2009) -- Tony Rivera, of Missouri City, Texas, paced the SCCA Pro Racing SPEED World Challenge GT Championship evening practice session and wound up fastest on the day, as the series prepared for Sunday's World Challenge Road America Grand Prix Presented by StopTech, part of the Time Warner Cable Road Race Showcase Weekend. Brandon Davis, of Huntington Beach, Calif., and Eric Curran, of Easthampton, Mass., completed the top three.

Driving the No. 97 Tax Masters/Brass Monkey Racing Porsche 911 GT3, Rivera uncorked a lap of 2:16.671 (106.626 mph) his second time around the 14-turn, four-mile circuit. His lap was more than a second faster than anyone else on the day.

"That was the first time we put [sticker] tires on the car," Rivera said. "I had been running on tires from the last race. We've been trying to dial the car in and everyone keeps telling me 'you need to put tires on,' and I kept saying 'no.' Well guess what? We needed to put tires on. It was a simulated qualifying run, which I knew a lot of guys did in the first session, and now I feel good. If the car works in the afternoon heat today, it'll work even better in the cooler temperatures in the morning.

"There's a little bit more fine tuning that needs to be done. That, by no means, was a perfect lap. Obviously, it was a pretty decent lap, but there's more room."

Point leader Davis, who led Rivera to the checkered flag last weekend at Mid-Ohio for his first win of the season, ran in the bottom half of the top 10 for the first part of the session. Davis also put new tires on late in the session and ran his fastest lap of the day, a 2:17.705 (105.826 mph) in the No. 10 Applied Computer Solutions/Sun Microsystems Ford Mustang Cobra.

Curran, who skipped the early session in his No. 30 Whelen Engineering Chevrolet Corvette, was third fastest with a 2:18.457 (105.251 mph).

Dino Crescentini, of Manhattan Beach, Calif., was fourth in his No. 4 StopTech/GMG Porsche 911 GT3 with a fast lap of 2:18.520 (105.203 mph), just 0.006-second faster than teammate James Sofronas' No. 14 Global Motorsports Group Porsche 911 GT3, which ran a 2:18.526 (105.199 mph).

Kuno Wittmer (Dodge Viper), Brian Kubinski (Chevrolet Corvette), Jason Daskalos (Dodge Viper), Gunter Schaldach (Porsche 911 GT3) and Mike Borkowski (Dodge Viper) completed the top 10.

Most drivers ran their simulated qualifying runs in the earlier session and stood on those times for the best of the day. Rivera's evening time was the exception, placing him first overall. Wittmer was second on the day in the No. 13 Woodhouse Performance Dodge Viper, followed by Sofronas, Crescentini and Randy Pobst's Volvo S60, which opted to sit out the evening session.

Qualifying for Sunday's World Challenge GT Road America Grand Prix Presented by StopTech is set for Saturday morning at 9:55 a.m. (CDT). Sunday's race will run at a similar time, with a 9:35 a.m. (CDT) standing start. Follow all the session times, notes and live streaming audio at World-Challenge.com.

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-credit: scca pro racing