ERIC CURRAN RACING

Barber Motorsports Park, Birmingham, Ala.

April 9-10, 2011

Under sweltering Alabama skies, Whelen Engineering teammates Eric Curran and Boris Said each led one of the two GRAND-AM series races on the scenic and twisting Barber Motorsports Park racing complex held last weekend.

In Sunday's featured Rolex Sports Car Series 2h45m race, competing in the GT class, Curran and Said overcame a shifter problem during qualifying in the Whelen Engineering/ Marsh Racing Chevrolet to rocket their way to the class lead for lap 34 thru 59.

"We finished 14^th in our class, though which was tuff after leading," Curran added. "There was a rear axle seal failure in the differential due to light contact with a Daytona Prototype on lap 71, and that ended our day."

"I feel bad for Marsh crew because they have worked really hard to get the Whelen Corvette working as well as it has. They built the Corvette from scratch last year and do all of their own development. The fact that we led the race so long proves that point.  We're the only Corvette team out there, though, and we're racing against BMW, Camaros, Mazdas and Porsche teams with very visible factory assistance and strength in numbers.

Our Marsh Racing crew has built a great car and we're proud to be racing American-built Chevrolet Corvettes, just like the All American products built by Whelen Engineering. I've raced cars built by a lot of manufacturers, but I've always got a special thrill wining in a GM car, whether it is a Corvette or the Chevy Cobalts from a couple years back.

In Saturday's Continental Tire Sports Car Championship 2h30m race on the 2.3-mile road course, Curran put the CKS Autosport Chevrolet Camaro GS.R into the race lead on laps 48 thru 51 of the 77-lap race.

With their off sequence pit strategy and a penalty, Eric and teammate Ashley McCalmont eventually finished the TTL/Golden State Margarine-backed Camaro 17^th in the Grand Sports class, for the fastest cars in the two-class series, 21 seconds away from the race win.

"With Sonny Whelen's Corvette in the Rolex series and the new McCalmont Camaro GS.R in the Continental Tire series, I have every confidence we're going to win some races this year. Getting the first win for the Camaro would be especially nice since that is the quintessential American "pony" car and a win in our Whelen Corvette we'd like to think is just around the corner.

The next races for both series are May 13-14 at VIRginia International Raceway near Danville, Va..