Image courtesy PhotosByJuha.com

For: Immediate Release     Date: May 23, 2006    Contact: Dan Barnes

May 23, 2006—Torrance, California USA – Lou Gigliotti, in his No. 28 LG Pro Long Tube Headers Chevrolet Corvette C6, started from the pole and led every lap of the SPEED World Challenge at Mid Ohio Presented by Trenton Forging Quality Formed Solutions GT race on Saturday, May 20.

This race victory was the cap to a perfect weekend, as Gigliotti tied for fastest in practice and qualified on pole. The No. 28 C6 Corvette entered Turn 1 in first and was never seriously challenged. Concerned he might have hurt the car on the standing start, Gigliotti drove only as fast as necessary to keep the lead. A full-course caution from laps 23 to 26, to extract two cars from the gravel at the Carousel entrance, allowed everyone to cool off. Gigliotti pulled away cleanly on the restart, leaving Lawson Aschenbach in the No. 66 AXA Financial Porsche 911 GT3, Michael Galati in the No. 24 At Speed Motorsports Volvo S60R, Tommy Archer in the No. 5 c3controls/Autohaus Dodge SRT Viper and Andy Pilgrim in the No. 1 XM/Mobil 1/Motorola/On Star Cadillac CTS-V to battle with each other and cross the finish line at the end of lap 29 in that order.

Gigliotti praised his StopTech brakes from the podium, saying, “The brakes were perfect the entire race.” After leading in each prior event, this was the first victory for Gigliotti this season in his StopTech Balanced Brake Upgrade-equipped Corvette. In spite of a DNF caused by engine failure at Sebring, Gigliotti trails Aschenbach in the championship by just two points, 102 to 104. The No. 28 LG Pro Long Tube Headers car is the only Corvette to win in World Challenge in 2005 or 2006.

Touring Car

In the SCCA Pro Racing SPEED World Challenge Touring Car race, Jeff Altenburg put his StopTech-equipped No. 72 Mazdaspeed/Tri-Point Motorsports Mazda 6 on the grid in sixth place and moved up, passing fourth-place-qualifying team mate Randy Pobst in the No. 73 car for third on lap 18. From there, Altenburg battled for second with Pierre Kleinubing in the No. 42 Acura Certified Pre-Owned/RealTime Acura TSX. The duo’s lap times suffered slightly, allowing Chip Herr in the No. 17 STaSIS/QVALE Audi A4 to take advantage of his turbocharged car’s performance on the straights and secure his first-ever win. Altenburg finished third, his first podium of the 2006 season, and Pobst crossed the line in sixth. Thanks to his runner-up finish at Sebring and a flag-to-flag victory at St. Petersburg, Pobst remains second in the season championship, trailing Kleinubing by just one point. Mazda retains the manufacturer’s lead ahead of Acura, Audi and BMW.

Television Broadcast

These SPEED World Challenge Presented by Trenton Forging Quality Formed Solutions races will be broadcast on SPEED Channel Saturday, May 27, with the Touring Cars starting at 8 p.m. (EDT) and the SPEED GT race, at 9 p.m. (EDT).

The fourth round of the 2006 SCCA SPEED Touring Car Championship is scheduled for June 23-25, at Infineon Raceway.

StopTech Brakes for Your Car

Unlike many racing components, the exact same two-piece AeroRotor® discs and six-, four- and two-piston calipers used by these successful racers are included in the Balanced Brake Upgrades StopTech engineers for street and track day cars. Located in Torrance, California, Stoptech is the performance engineering and manufacturing division of Centric Parts. StopTech is the leader in Balanced Brake Upgrades for production cars and production-based racecars. It has three patents in basic brake technology and one other pending. With a worldwide network of resellers, StopTech’s product line includes Balanced Brake Upgrades for approximately 450 applications, two-piece Direct Replacement Kit Aerorotors, braided stainless-steel brake lines and slotted original-dimension rotors. StopTech stocks a wide range of performance brake pads. The company’s website, www.stoptech.com, is a clearinghouse of performance brake information, as well as providing details on StopTech products.

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For more information contact Dan Barnes at (310) 325-4799 or by email at dbarnes@stoptech.com.