ERIC CURRAN RACING

"Two fast Chevys ... one long day," Curran says

Laguna Seca Raceway

Monterey, Calif.

July 9, 2011

It wasn't another Rolex GT series win like they had at Road America, but Eric Curran and teammate Boris Said put the Whelen Engineering - Marsh Racing Chevrolet Corvette C6 into the fifth finishing spot in Saturday's GRAND-Am Rolex race on the 2.238-mile Laguna Seca Raceway circuit.

And before that 100-lap race took the green flag, Curran and Ashley McCalmont, his co-driver of the CKS Autosport/Golden State Margarine Chevrolet Camaro GS.R, combined their talents to produce a sixth place finish in the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge series race.

Eric raced for almost 4 hours on Saturday between the two GRAND-AM races. The Continental race started at 10:45am for 2 1/2 hours, then an hour's break before the 2 3/4hr Rolex race immediately afterwards. Combined with July weather in California, it made for a long hot day for Curran.

"A long day of racing on a hot dlippery track," Curran said, "but two results that didn't disappoint us too much. I've won GRAND-AM and SCCA World Challenge races here in the past. I like this track but it's tough to win at even though we had a fast a couple of fast Chevys today that were both capable of wins.

"I was four seconds away from a podium finish with the CKS Autosport Camaro GS.R, and seven seconds away with the Corvette. Laguna Seca's configuration and elevation changes put the car through some extreme loads, so the power steering gave out with two laps to go. "

From Said's fourth-quickest qualifying spot in the 100-lap Rolex race, he quickly vaulted the Whelen Corvette to second place by the sixth lap, only 2.8 seconds behind the lead Porsche. He dropped to eighth, however, when GRAND-AM officials penalized him with a scenic tour of pit lane for not avoiding contact with the #42 car.

Curran took over the driving on lap 27; he was the fastest of the V8-powered cars in the GT class and only 20 seconds from the lead by lap 48. By lap 63, Eric was in second place and took the class lead on lap 64.

The next go-around, though, was a scheduled pit stop and Eric dropped five positions while receiving a fresh load of Sunoco gas and four new Continental tires.

Full-course-yellow situation for laps 90-94 and 96-99 gave Eric - as well as all his competitors - time to cool their tires and brakes, and he was able to take 4th place in lap 89 of the 100 laps raced by the GT class cars, but then gave up his 4th spot when the power steering went out. His fastest race lap, 88.643mph on lap 94, was the second fastest.

In the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge race which preceded the Rolex event, Ashley McCalmont, the only woman driver in the series, qualified their CKS Autosport Camaro GS.R 23^rd quickest and cleanly marched her way through the field to position herself in 14h place, 36 minutes into the show, when the Safety Car was called out and it was an expedient time for everybody to change drivers.

Eric jumped in and a quick refueling stop by Kirk Spencer's CKS crew had Eric only 8.4 seconds out of the race lead when the green flag waved again.  He climbed to 6th place on lap 36 when the safety car was again needed, and stayed in the top echelon of the class until the checkered flag flew on lap 79.

The Rolex race was televised the following day; the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge Series race was taped by SPEED TV to air July 17 at 1pm ET.

The next races for both series are July 20-23 at New Jersey Motorsports Park near Millville, NJ.