ERIC CURRAN RACING
Official Website
Main Menu
2012 Racing Season
| Curran, Said drive Whelen Corvette to 11th place finish at Watkins Glen |
 |
 |
 |
|
August 7, 2010 Watkins Glen, NY  Eric Curran and teammate Boris Said gave the Marsh Racing/Whelen Engineering Chevrolet Corvette one of its best rides of their GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series season, at Watkins Glen International, running in the top five and finishing 11th in the GT class of the Crown Royal 200. "This team has made incredible gains since those first, tough races of the season at Barber Park and Virginia International last spring," said Curran. "The many changes Teddy Marsh and his crew have made on this new Corvette lately feel like I'm driving a whole different car. "We are getting this #31 Whelen Corvette into the top five regularly now and are starting to understand what the car needs to be reliable and fast." The race was televised live on SPEED TV, earning the team and the Whelen name a lot of air-time on the popular all-racing network. "We started our turnaround at the first Glen race back in June. We started to get our Corvette working pretty well then, but it wasn't yet reliable.  "This time, we were capable of running in the top five, but the rear tires got really hot about 45 minutes into our runs and started to blister, and that forced us to pit early for new tires. It's too bad we had those problems - we felt like we had a top-five car. The Mazdas had a trouble-free race and their weighing 300 lbs. less than our Corvette really made a difference in relative tire wear." Eleventh place may not sound like much to write home about, but not all the numbers tell the real story. We had a fast car at the Glen but not quite fast enough or consistent enough. The Marsh guys are continuing to work hard get this Whelen Corvette to the front. Said, who was also at The Glen to compete in the NASCAR Nextel Cup race, qualified the Whelen Corvette 10th quickest in the GT class with an average speed of 121.237mph on the 2.45-mile road course. Said drove the first gas tank stint, and Curran brought the car home to the checkered flag.  "To make a comparison, the pole speed for the NASCAR Nationwide race on Saturday was a 122.410mph lap, and the NEXTEL Cup pole was only two miles per hour faster than him. Our Whelen Corvette wasn't much slower than the Nascar cars" Curran noted. "If you consider how many production components are on our Rolex series Corvette, that's pretty remarkable. The total number of production parts on a NASCAR car would fit in the hip pocket of my jeans, and still leave enough room for a baseball." The next race is Aug. 27-28 at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve outside of Montreal, Quebec. |