Temple of VTEC Rumors and News - RealTime's Cunningham Competes in Grand-Am Cup Series

Road Trip Proves Fruitful

MKE-CLE-SFO-CLE-SLC-MKE= 6,200 miles

By the time Peter Cunningham returns to Wisconsin after Tuesday�s Miller Motorsports Park test for the RealTime Acura SPEED Touring Car team, he will have pocketed more than 6,200 Frequent Flyer miles.

His weeklong trip commenced from Milwaukee last Thursday, with the first destination being the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio. There, he tested a new Acura TSX owned by Canadian Benoit Theetge, and prepared for the Grand-Am Cup series.

He then flew from Cleveland to San Francisco so he could be with the RealTime Acura crew at Infineon Raceway for Friday and Saturday (see separate story), followed by a red-eye flight back to Cleveland, landing at 800a Sunday morning and arriving at Mid-Ohio three hours before the start of the race.

Theetge had qualified the previously unraced TSX 35th quickest in the Street Tuner class field and was the starting driver for the 2 �-hour endurance contest.

The goal for the day was to first survive the brutal event as 38 Grand Sports class and 37 Sport Tuner category cars were competing together on the challenging 2.25-mile circuit. As a veteran of over 250 endurance events, Cunningham knew if they could do that, they would have a good chance for a top 20 result.

The race ran green for the first several laps before a full course caution was declared and the Theetge Motorsport crew went to work to prepare for a pit stop. Benoit had deftly passed a number of cars and was ready to turn over the controls to Peter for what could be their only stop.

The pit strategy proved to be a good one and the driver on loan from RealTime was able to continue the charge toward the front. If not for the final full course caution laps the team may have placed even higher, but everyone seemed pleased with the 12th place finish.

�That was a fun experience,� Cunningham said. �A tiring one, but fun. An Acura TSX built for the Grand-Am Cup series is a good bit different from one of our RealTime Racing TSX Touring Cars, but Benoit�s car looks great and ran very well for its first time out.�

The Mid-Ohio Grand Am Cup race will be televised on the Speed Channel July 9 at 1100a EDT.

Next race for the Theetge Motorsport team will be at their home track in Trois-Rivieres, Quebec on August 3-5.