2 Top 10 Finishes for Curran Print E-mail
   Eric Curran Racing  
Eric bends the Whelen Engineering Chevrolet Corvette  into Road Atlanta's Turn 1 during the SPEED GT race. 


 
 
 
 
BRASELTON, Ga. -- (Oct. 3, 2008)
 
Eric Curran kept the Whelen Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette closer to Andy Pilgrim's Cadillac than the layers of paint on either car, but by a slim margin of :00.312 seconds, finished in fourth place in the season finale of the SCCA GT Championship series at Road Atlanta.
An hour earlier Eric raced one of the RealTime Racing Acura RSX cars in the Touring Car race, finishing seventh.
 
With the GT race completed on Friday, Eric hopped aboard a plane Saturday morning, headed to Danville, Va., and Saturday's season finale of the Grand-Am Koni Challenge series.
 
There, on Virginia International Raceway's 3.27-mile road course, Eric is slated to drive the Street Tuner class championship-leading Georgian Bay Motorsports Chevy Cobalt SS again with Jamie Holtom in the six-hour season finale for that series.

"I haven't done a weekend like this in a long time," Curran said. "Two races as hard as the Touring and GT sprints at Road Atlanta should be enough, but now we have to face six hours in the Cobalt. I've won at V.I.R. four times over the years, though, and really enjoy the track. The laps go quickly when you're having fun."
 
In today's Speed GT race, Eric and the #30 Whelen Corvette took the green flag from sixth on the 27-car starting grid.
 

"The start of the race was tough because the launch control program failed and my Corvette just sat still while the race started around me. I watched cars drive by me as I tried to get my car going and fell back to tenth or so before I got going," he said.
 

"At that point the race got a lot harder. I had to get past people like Randy Pobst, and Michael Galati before getting back into the top five. I kept charging forward and got up to fourth behind Andy Pilgrim by lap 19.

 

Pilgrim was third behind Brandon Davis and Tommy Milner. For the next 10 laps, Curran dominated the rear view mirror on Pilgrim's Cadillac, never more than a half-second behind and looking for any opportunity to make a clean pass for the third spot on the podium.

 

"I'd say we just ran out of time to complete a clean pass on Andy," Curran said. Andy's car is good, and he's a superb driver. He had a valid hold on third and wasn't going to let go. I wouldn't have, either."

 

On the final lap, Eric exited the 90-degree Turn 6, with the long back straightaway looming ahead of him, and made a final shot at Pilgrim. But like the previous ones, it was futile. The two finished a car length apart.
 

Eric's team owner and teammate, Sonny Whelen, qualified 12th in his Corvette, but a failed suspension part made him slide off course on lap 24. He finished 31st.

 

In the Touring Car race, Eric made his third appearance of the season with his old friends and former teammates at Peter Cunningham's RealTime Racing team and its fleet of Acura race cars.

 

With Cunningham and teammates Kuno Wittmer and Pierre Kleinubing embroiled in the down-to-the-wire fight for the season's Driver's Championship, Eric qualified fifth, even ahead of the team owner.

 

That was remedied on the second lap when Cunningham worked his way past Eric, leaving him in seventh place.

 

"Just like with the Corvette, I had a terrible start to the race. I hadn't done a launch in a Touring car in quite some time and fell back a few spots at the start," Curran said

 

On the sixth lap, a mechanical problem cropped up, slowing the car and causing Eric to momentarily pull off course.

 

"I got the car going again after it shut off for about 30 seconds, charged back towards the front from 16th place and was lucky to get up to 10th by lap 20. I was able to get around three more cars after that, but that was all.

 
Eric Curran Racing 
 Eric raced the RealTime Racing Acura RSX to a seventh place finish in the Touring car event.
  
 

"I enjoy driving for Peter and the RealTime guys. This was my 30th race with them since 2003, and I know they'll always put a good car under me," he said.
 

"Maybe tomorrow I can celebrate a team and manufacturer championship with the Georgian Bay guys at VIR. That'll be a great end to the weekend."

                                   - end -
 

 

The Road Atlanta SCCA GT race airs on SPEED TV Wed., Oct. 15 at 1pm ET, followed at 2pm by the Touring race.

Photos courtesy of Mark Weber and SCCA Pro Racing.