August 9, 2009

Lexington, Ohio

“Two races in a row now that I’ve become a frustrated spectator instead of a participant with a chance to win, but that happens in racing. You take a deep breath and focus on the next one. It’ll happen in SCCA SPEED World Challenge GT racing, it’ll happen in NASCAR, and any other racing series.”

That’s Eric Curran’s summary of the seventh round of the GT series, held at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, where his #30 Whelen Engineering Chevrolet Corvette unexpectedly broke an upper control arm in the front suspension on the second lap.

“All the guys on the Whelen Motorsports team worked hard all weekend long. We had an oil pressure issue in the motor on Friday morning which forced us to miss both practice sessions while installing another engine. Then the control arm failure…It just wasn’t our weekend,” Eric said. “Things just happened.”

“After missing both practice sessions on Friday I went straight into qualifying on Friday night. The qualifying went a lot better than the earlier part of the day,” Eric recalled.

“The Corvette worked great but it still seems to be struggling against the competition. I was sixth quickest, and my team owner, Sonny Whelen, was 14^th in his Corvette. So it was looking a lot better for Sunday’s race, which was held just before the Indy Racing League race, and assured us of a good crowd.”

Eric passed two cars on the opening lap, taking fourth spot, but going into the Keyhole turn on the second lap, the front end keeled-over when the control arm snapped. With only three wheels pointing in the correct direction, the race ended quickly.

“I felt something come loose in the front suspension but I wasn’t sure of the severity. I tried accelerating down the back straight but the car swerved left and right so I immediately backed off the throttle and as a result, I got a good shot in the rear bumper from a surprised James Sofronas in his Porsche. James was right there behind me and he had no idea I was going to just left on the back straight, but I had no choice,” Eric commented.

“I’ve now slipped to sixth in the Driver Championship points after leading it earlier in the year, and Sonny picked up one spot with his 10^th place finish to take over seventh,” Eric said. “Even though the Volvos have had serious up-and-down weekends, they’re still ahead of us. And since Brandon Davis won today’s race in his Ford Mustang, that leaves the Corvette as the only one of the five brands in the series that hasn’t yet won a race. We have to fix that, and I really hope I’ll get a shot at it.”

The next World Challenge GT series race will be Aug. 14-16 at Elkhart Lake’s Road America, where the SCCA GT and Touring cars will again join the American Le Mans Series, as was the case at Mid-Ohio, Long Beach and Sebring earlier this year.

“Our race there is at 9:35 Sunday morning,” Eric said. “I really hope we have some good news to report!.”

The SPEED TV broadcast of the Mid-Ohio race will be Tuesday, Sept. 1 at 2pm ET.