Road Atlanta: RealTime Racing race report
Acura Wins World Challenge Title Curran Helps Acura Clinch Sixth Touring Car Crown With a solid third place finish at Road Atlanta, Eric Curran was the man who pulled the RealTime Acura team over the top to clinch Acura's unprecedented sixth SCCA ...
Acura Wins World Challenge Title
Curran Helps Acura Clinch Sixth Touring Car Crown
With a solid third place finish at Road Atlanta, Eric Curran was the man who pulled the RealTime Acura team over the top to clinch Acura's unprecedented sixth SCCA SPEED Touring Car Manufacturers' Championship.
Acura now holds the distinction of being the winningest manufacturer in the 17-year history of the SCCA Pro Racing World Challenge series, breaking the tie with Honda which owns five. Acura takes an insurmountable 11-point lead over Mazda into the season's final race at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey, California on October 22nd.
"Winning the Manufacturers' Championship has always been our primary goal," said RealTime team leader Peter Cunningham. "Clinching that for Acura here today takes away that pressure, and allows us to refocus on Pierre Kleinubing's quest for his fourth Drivers' Championship."
Driving an Acura Certified Pre-Owned Vehicles--sponsored TSX, Kleinubing qualified sixth fastest and finished fourth in the 32-car race. Curran, who qualified his Acura RSX on the pole to pick up an important point in the Manufacturers' battle, dropped to third on the standing start, but regained second place by lap two and stayed there until lap 20 when the turbocharged Audi Quattro of Chip Herr repassed him for the position. Kleinubing held onto fourth place for all 27 laps of the race on the 2.54 mile Road Atlanta circuit.
2005 Rookie of the Year Brandon Davis qualified his TSX in seventh and finished fifth, only 0.3 sec behind Kleinubing. Cunningham's TSX qualified 11th quickest, fell to 13th on the opening lap, but was eighth when the checkered flag fell. Nick Esayian drove his RealTime RSX to a 14th place finish, moving up three positions from his 17th place starting spot.
RealTime Racing drivers continue to hold five of the top 10 positions of the Drivers' Championship points chart. With one round yet to be run, they sit first, fourth, fifth, sixth and 10th.
Kleinubing's finish maintained his points lead, but he saw his advantage cut in half. He is now 11 markers ahead of today's race winner, Mazda 6 driver Randy Pobst, 261 to 250. Defending Touring Car Champion Cunningham drops one spot to fourth with 202 points, Davis maintains fifth at 194, Curran moves up to sixth with 184 and Esayian is tenth with 127.
The Road Atlanta race will air on the Speed Channel on a tape-delayed basis on Saturday, October 14th at 200p EDT.
-credit: rtr
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