Eric Curran
and Lou Gigliotti raced to a the best finish for a Corvette in the
competitive GT2 category of the American Le Mans Series, finishing
fourth in Saturday's ALMS race, part of the Grand Prix of St.
Petersburg.
Eric was more than happy to finish fourth and help produce a team-high result, for which he was awarded the Founders Cup 1st Place trophy, "honoring excellence in driving by privateer drivers."
The
race was held on a 1.8-mile temporary circuit, which combines runways
of the Albert Whitted Airport, a commuter airport in St. Petersburg,
Fla., and surrounding public streets.
Gigliotti,
of Dallas, Tex., who owns the LG Motorsports/ Whelen Engineering
Chevrolet Riley Corvette C6, drove the first 36 laps of the race,
before turning the car over to Curran, of East Hampton, Mass., who
drove the final 49 laps and who qualified the car eighth quickest in
the GT2 class.
Eric
ran in second for much of the race until the soft compound tire choice
slowed them to a fourth place finish behind a factory-supported Porsche
911 RSR and a BMW E92 M3, and a Panoz Esperante.
"Lou did a good job getting the car up to fifth place before he
turned it over to me," Curran said. "We only had one lap in practice
Saturday morning because another car crashed early and time ran out
before the track was raceable, and only a handful of laps the day
before. Basically, we had very little time to get the setup right
before the race's start. We gambled a little bit on set up, ended up
being fairly close and had a competitive car for the race."
"The
LG Motorsports Corvette uses Dunlop tires. We picked the softer of the
compounds available," Curran noted. "I was able to get up to second
place on the soft tires, but in hindsight, that was the wrong tire to
use on this track today. At the end of the race it got very slippery
from all the rubber laid down by the other cars, and the ambient
temperature got to 85 degrees, so the tires just went off. We should
have used the hard ones, but we'll know that for next year. I'm still
happy to finish fourth and help return the best result for the team
yet."
"During the race, the LG/Whelen Corvette was working well
enough that I ran lap times equivalent to the fastest cars in the
class. So this goes to show the potential of the LG/Whelen Corvette in
GT2," Curran said.
"We did well today," he added. "Lou and his
crew have made some very noticeable improvements to the car since the
Sebring race two weeks ago. Compared to the heavily funded factory
Porsches, Ferraris and BMWs out there, I think we did great. I'm proud
of how hard all the crew worked and our results paid off. I'm really
enjoying racing in this series and would be happy to do more of it."
Another
note added by Curran was that he has raced a Chevrolet product in every
series he has raced in at some point. "I've run a Corvette in ALMS,
three Corvettes in SCCA SPEED World Challenge, and one in Grand-Am
Rolex. I raced a Chevy Cobalt in Grand-Am Koni Challenge for three
seasons; I raced a Chevy Camaro in SCCA Trans-Am, Grand-Am Rolex AGT; I
won the SCCA Runoffs in a Chevy Camaro, and I raced a Chevrolet Monte
Carlo last year in NASCAR Camping World East. The Chevrolet products
have been good to me," Curran noted.
Next Race
Eric's next race is April 19 on another street circuit, the Grand
Prix of Long Beach, Calif. He'll race the #30 Whelen Engineering
Chevrolet Corvette in the second round of the SCCA SPEED Word Challenge
GT series. The American Le Mans Series and Indy Racing League headline
the weekend's program.
Practice will be Friday at 5:30p, and Saturday at 8:05a.
Qualifying will be Sunday at 8:00a, and the race at 4:15p.
All times Pacific.
Photos: John Thawley
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