ERIC CURRAN RACING

Homestead-Miami Speedway, Fla. March 4, 2011  Eric Curran and Boris Said debuted the new #31 Whelen Corvette race car in the GRAND-AM Grand Prix of Miami race weekend, and ran in the top three during most of the featured Rolex Sports Car Series race.

Following that race, Curran and Ashley McCalmont finished one of the CKS Autosport Chevrolet Camaro GS.Rs only 16 seconds away from the race win in the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge event.

"Towards the end of last year's season, Sonny Whelen and Teddy Marsh decided we needed a new Whelen Corvette race car to keep up with the Mazdas, Camaros and Porsches in the Rolex series' GT class. We started to become competitive in the Rolex series late last year, but we needed a new fresh car for the 2011 season." Curran said.

"As always, Teddy Marsh and the Marsh Racing crew took their time and built a great car. We qualified on the front row and raced competitively all race long until our engine lost a cylinder with less than an hour to go in the race. You can't ask for more than running in the top three with a brand new car. Just goes to show how well Teddy and crew build our new Whelen Corvette. Hats off to the crew for building such a good car right out of the box. Now we need some strong finishes and a little more reliability."

Curran shared the Whelen Engineering Corvette with co-driver Boris Said, who led lap 23. He was one of six drivers to lead the class during the 116-lap nationally-televised race on the 2.3-mile combination infield road course and NASCAR oval track.

Immediately following that race, Curran quickly changed his driver's suit and hustled over the CKS Autosport team's paddock area where the Ontario, Canada-based team was putting the final touches on the TTL/Golden State Margarine Chevrolet Camaro GS.R, which he would share with Ashley McCalmont of Ancaster, Ontario. The CKS team entered a pair of 2011 Chevrolet Camaro RS.R race cars, powered by GM high performance LS3 engines.

"Ninth place is a lot better than the 14th place we accomplished at the season's debut at Daytona six weeks ago. We still need a little more than one second per lap to be able to run door-to-door with the BMWs and Mustangs that finished in the first eight positions, but I was able to get in into the top ten and we were the top finishing Camaro," Curran said.

Ashley drove the first 32 minutes of the two hour, 30 minute race on the 2.3-mile combination high-speed oval and infield road course, before Eric jumped in for the remaining two hours.

"We had a sway bar issue at Daytona in late January, but Kirk Spencer, Mike Kuznicki and their crew at CKS took care of that and put together a great Camaro for Ashley and I to drive," Curran said.

"Our initial goal this season is to be the first Camaro team to win a race," Curran concluded. "All the ingredients are there. We have the car, the engineering talent and the experience, but development and a few adjustments by GRAND-AM are still in the works.

The Homestead race was televised by SPEED TV and will air Saturday, March 19 at 2pm ET.

The next race is April 7-9 at Barber Motorsports Park near Birmingham, Ala.