For: Immediate Release     Date: July 17, 2006    Contact: Dan Barnes

July 17, 2006—Torrance, California USA – In the SPEED World Challenge series’ first visit to Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, Utah, Lou Gigliotti qualified on the pole, led every lap, set the fastest race lap and crossed the finish line first in his No. 28 LG Pro Long Tube Headers Chevrolet Corvette.

This 14-lap, 62.804-mile race was won by 0.523 second, at an average speed of 88.469 mph. The sheer amount of real estate available on the 4.486-mile road course meant each car had space and racing “incidents” were few. There were no yellow flags to gather the field or give cars and drivers a chance to cool off.

Front-row starter Ricardo Imery made a mistake on lap two, going off and back on the track with his No. 64 AXA Financial/Cavenas Elevators Porsche 911 GT3. That moved Leighton Reese, with his No. 6 Banner Engineering Chevrolet Corvette, into second. The two Corvettes battled for the lead, trading fast laps and by lap eight, opening up an 8.331-second gap between Reese and Imery’s third-place Porsche. When the No. 6 Corvette retired with a broken driveshaft on lap ten, Gigliotti dialed back the pace to preserve his car. Imery, now back in second place, steadily gained on the leading No. 28 Corvette, but on the last lap, Gigliotti held off the rookie and earned his 22nd victory in the series.

Racing hard for nearly 43 minutes with no pause in the 100-plus degree ambient temperatures took its toll on the big Corvette, but the StopTech brakes took this punishment in stride. “The only cars that could brake with me into Turn One were my own teammates,” Lou said. “We’re really pleased with how the StopTech brakes worked for us and helped keep us in the lead!”

Gigliotti is the only driver to win twice in World Challenge GT so far this year, and now leads the points battle by 12 (155 vs. 143 for second-place Andy Pilgrim). His previous victory was a similar flag-to-flag rout of the GT-class competition at Mid-Ohio. The No. 28 LG Pro Long Tube Headers Chevrolet Corvette, equipped with StopTech ST-60 six-piston front brakes and ST-40 rears, is the only Corvette to win a race in World Challenge in 2005 or 2006.

Touring Car

The SPEED World Challenge Touring Car race was also run without a caution period. At the end of the first lap, the running order was Pierre Kleinubing in the No. 42 Acura Certified Pre-Owned/RealTime TSX, Randy Pobst in the No. 73 Mazdaspeed/Tri-Point Motorsports Mazda 6, Eric Curran in the No. 42 Acura Certified Pre-Owned/RealTime RSX and Jeff Altenburg in the No. 72 Mazdaspeed/Tri-Point Motorsports Mazda 6. In thirteen hard-fought laps of door-to-door racing, this order never changed. Pobst took a look inside Kleinubing on lap 11, but couldn’t quite get past and had to settle for his third podium finish of the season. After five of ten events, Pobst and Altenburg now sit second and fifth, respectively, in the driver’s championship, and are looking forward to the next Touring Car event on the streets of Denver, August 11-13.

Television Broadcast

These races will be broadcast Saturday, July 22 at 3 p.m. (Touring Car) and 4 p.m. (GT) Eastern Daylight Time on SPEED Channel.

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.