- 3rd in SCCA SPEED World Challenge GT
at Monterey -
- Finishes 5th in Championship -

October 11, 2009
Monterey, CA
 
Eric Curran slipped his #30 Whelen Engineering/Coca-Cola Chevrolet Corvette past Brandon Davis' Mustang on the final lap of the race to slot into third place, and with that move, raced to his sixth podium finish of the 2009 SCCA World Challenge GT Championship season.

The finish in today's championship-deciding season finale, held at Laguna Seca Raceway, near Monterey, CA, earned Curran fifth place in the season points.

"I had another tough start and lost a few spots," Curran said. "I pushed hard right away and re-gained a few positions until the first full-course yellow flag. On the restart I drove my Corvette around the outside of about six guys and moved into the fifth spot.

"I was stuck in fifth for a number of laps behind Tony Rivera, but didn't want to affect his championship race against Brandon," Curran reported.

 After going nose-to-tail with Davis, Boris Said, Rivera, and Randy Pobst for a number of laps, Rivera made a dive-bomb pass on Said, and Curran tried to tuck in behind Rivera.

"Boris got pushed out. I touched the back of his car and sent him spinning, but it wasn't on purpose," Eric said. "This moved me into fourth until Randy got into the back of me and pushed me sideways, allowing him and a few others to get by."

Eric charged back up to fifth to see Pobst get into Rivera and knock him off the track. "Suddenly I was in fourth and running behind Brandon Davis, who Pobst had also gone around. I tucked myself under Brandon's bumper, trying not to affect the championship, until he went a little wide in the corkscrew on the last lap and handed me third place and another podium position to finish the year."

Starting with a second place finish at Sebring, Fla., in March, the Laguna Seca Raceway was Eric's sixth top-three finish in 10 races.

"That second place finish we lost in impound at New Jersey and the 100 points that went along with it, really started mattering as the season wound down. I'd have to re-do all the points, but I think it would have left us third in the championship, instead of fifth. If you get past that, and the bad finishes at Autobahn and Mid-Ohio that we'd like to throw away, we really had a good season," he said.

Sonny Whelen, Eric's teammate and car owner, had another strong weekend in the #31 Corvette, qualifying in the top 10 for the sixth time, scoring a solid ninth place and finishing a career best eighth in the season's standings.

By lap 21, race leader and eventual winner James Sofronas and his Porsche had a six-second lead over the second-thru-sixth place drivers, which included Eric in fifth, and who were all within 2.4 seconds of each other.

"I didn't want to do anything to interfere with Brandon's championship. I'm proud of him for that. Brandon and the ACS team did a great job this year. They deserved the win. We met in 2006 as teammates in the RealTime Racing Acura camp. We've been good friends since them and its good to see him win. Although, I still owe him something for the Denver race in '06 where he beat me by :00.005 seconds, which is still the closest finish in the history of the World Challenge Touring Car Championship.

Earlier in the day, Eric re-joined his old friends at RealTime with their factory-backed fleet of Acura TRX race cars. Eric struggled in the beginning of the race, but came in for a pit stop during a caution flag period, made some changes, and charged back up to an 11th place finish.

The SPEED TV broadcast of the Laguna Seca race will be Tuesday, Nov. 3 at 2pm ET.