WOLF HENZLER has the pole position for Sunday's SCCA Pro Racing SPEED World Challenge GT race. He is currently fourth in the standings. Starting on the front row is 'Mad' MAX PAPIS. He is sixth in the standings.
Papis' Cadillac team-mate, points leader ANDY PILGRIM, starts eighth overall in the 29-car field. All but one of the entries qualified.
Next year, the World Challenge Series will race at a new venue, Miller Motorsports Park in Utah. It will be with ALMS on the weekend of 14-15 July 2006. Both races will be on Saturday. World Challenge will run its standard format, while ALMS will run a 2hr 45min race.
Miller Motorsports Park, owned by LARRY MILLER, was designed by well-known circuit designer, ALAN WILSON, and he is now CEO/general manager. The course is 4.5-miles long - the longest road course in the United States. It will have a 3500 foot long front straight. The track runs counter-course wise, like Laguna Seca. At its widest - on the front straight - it is 50 feet wide. The narrowest portions of the track are 40 feet wide, and there is lots of grassy run-off planned around the entire course. It is planned to have
FIA and FIM circuit approval.
Twin pit-lanes will allow quick turnaround between events. A hill by the last corner will allow viewing of 95 per cent of the entire course, which has elevation changes despite its seemingly flat appearance.
Five series will race during four major weekends next season - AMA Superbikes in June; Historic Sportscar Racing in August with the first-ever IMSA sanctioned Historic GTP cars among other historic cars; and Grand American Rolex Series in September over Labor Day weekend. All the races will be Friday-Saturday weekends.
FREDDIE SPENCER will base his motorcycle school at the track starting next summer, and Life Flight/IHC will dedicate a helicopter and flight crew for all the aforementioned events.
GILL CAMPBELL, SCRAMP general manager, said advance ticket sales for this weekend are up 60 per cent over last year.
