Temple of VTEC Rumors and News - RealTime Lime Rock Results

RealTime Acura Third at Lime Rock

Curran�s RSX a swift 3rd on home track

July 2, 2005 � Lime Rock Park, Conn.

Eric Curran used his many years of racing knowledge of the fabled 1.53-mile Lime Rock Park circuit to drive his RealTime Racing Acura RSX to a third place finish in today�s SCCA Pro Racing SPEED World Challenge Touring Car race.

It was the first podium finish of the season for Curran, who lives in nearby East Hampton, Mass., and who qualified fourth fastest in the 33-car field for the season�s sixth event.

�I got a great start which let me slide into second place,� Curran said. �It wasn�t until the restart [after a full-course caution] on Lap 18 that Randy Pobst motored right past me in his Mazda6. From there, the others behind me were fighting among themselves and I was able to keep the third position to the end. Thanks to the RealTime crew for giving me such a great car today!�

Curran remains fourth in the quest for the Drivers� Championship, but closed to 13 points behind third place Mazda driver Jeff Altenburg.

Peter Cunningham and Pierre Kleinubing came into the Lime Rock event running 1-2 for that championship, in a season where consistency in their Acura TSX cars has given Acura a healthy lead for the Manufacturers� Championship.

�Pierre and I brought �passengers� to the race today,� Cunningham said. �Because of our reliability and top-five finishes, both of us are already maxed out at 250 pounds of REWARDS weight [accumulated success ballast]. Lime Rock only has one left hand turn, and the lead we use for ballast is required to be carried on the right side foot well, so here compared to anywhere else we go this year, the pain is minimized.

�Next up is Sears Point, which is also a clockwise layout, but there are hills to climb and more lefthanders to deal with. We�ll do our best to fight for the podium, but right now we�re hoping that some of these other fast cars that haven�t enjoyed our consistency catch up so we can once again have a fair fight.�

Kleinubing finished fifth, and Cunningham sixth.

Nineteen-year old college student Brandon Davis, with no extra weight to carry on his Monster Energy Drink Acura TSX, qualified third fastest�his best showing of his rookie season in the series.

He held fifth place for the first 18 laps until a restart after a full-course caution period shuffled him back to 11th. �As a rookie in SPEED Touring Car there are tracks I�ve never seen before, which makes it difficult to beat the regulars,� Davis said. �I took advantage of an opportunity to come up here on Tuesday for a test day and it helped my learning curve a lot. I�m disappointed that I wasn�t able to deliver my first top-five today, but at least I proved we can run up front.�

Davis continued his battle after the restart and moved up to the 10th spot, his fourth consecutive top-10 finish.

Nick Esayian qualified 22nd in his Acura RSX, and by lap 35, clawed his way through the field to hold the 16th position. �Nick had a balky transmission in his car, preventing him from always finding the correct gear,� team manager Nathan Bonneau reported, �but he did a great job carefully picking places to pass and not losing his cool any time he was nudged. He was able to run only 1/10th of a second off his qualifying time late in the race, but the gearbox issue prevented him from a representative finish.�

After six of 11 events, Acura has a 10-point lead over Mazda for the Touring Car Manufacturers� Championship, and a 19-point advantage over BMW.

Cunningham and Kleinubing run one-two in the Drivers� Championship, with 157 and 148 points respectively; inching away from their closest rival Altenburg who has 136. Curran�s success today kept him in fourth place with 123 points, while Davis moved up one spot to sixth with 105 points, 72 ahead of his nearest challenge for the series Rookie of the Year award. And Esayian keeps his 11th spot in the chase with 69, only four markers away from where he wants to be in the top-10.

The Lime Rock race was televised Sunday on SPEED TV.

Round Seven of the 11-race SPEED Touring Car battle will be July 15-17 in the wine country of Sonoma, California at Infineon Raceway (nee Sears Point), where the World Challenge cars will once again share the bill with the American Le Mans Series.

PROGRAM NOTE: The Infineon race will debut on SPEED TV on a Same Day Delay basis, at 600p ET on Sunday, July 17, and will re-air the following day at 100p.

The RealTime Acura team is sponsored by the Acura Division of American Honda, A-SPEC, Red Line Oil, Eibach Springs, Memphis Car Audio, buyBrakes.com, BOSCH, Sparco, Hawk Performance, Brembo, SportCompactCar, Valley Graphix, Total Auto Body, PACT and A-YES.

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