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Drivers Jeff Altenburg and Randy Pobst started and finished
in first and second place with their StopTech-equipped
Mazdaspeed
Motorsports Development Mazda 6 SPEED World Challenge Touring Cars.
For: Immediate Release Date: March
20, 2007 Contact: Dan
Barnes
March 20, 2007—Torrance, California USA – For the second
year in a row, a StopTech Balanced Brake Upgrade®-equipped car led
the SPEED World Challenge Touring Car race from pole position to
the checkered flag on Friday, March 16. Jeff Altenburg, in his blue and
white No. 72 Mazdaspeed Motorsports Development Mazda 6, was challenged
for the lead only by teammate and 2006 SPEED World Challenge Touring Car
Driver’s Championship runner-up Randy Pobst, in the No. 73 car.
Pobst qualified and finished second, holding off a serious bid for the
middle step of the podium from series champion Pierre Kleinubing in his
Certified Pre-owned Acura/RealTime Acura TSX on lap eight. The Touring
Car race went 18 laps with no yellows.
“It feels awesome to win and it was a perfect weekend,” Altenburg
said. “First pole in four years and that was with the help of Randy
[Pobst]. We decided we were going to help each other out more in qualifying
and give one another a pull down the straights. We both got a clean start.
Worked together to not do anything silly. Randy says he wanted to win
with all of his heart and I’m sure he did, but I think he could
have pulled a move or two during the race.”
Altenburg added, “The guys just did a great job for me this weekend.
Ron (Carroll) and Brett (Monetti) worked together and gave me a really
good car. I also have to thank StopTech for their brakes that helped me
in every aspect of the race.”
StopTech also supplied its Balanced Brake Systems to the biodiesel-powered
No. 24 A Mother’s Arms/Austin Hatcher Volkswagen Jetta TDI of Jim
Osborn. Billed as the world’s first biodiesel-powered professional
road race car, it unfortunately retired with mechanical issues in this,
its first race.
Repeat Victory for StopTech
The winning performance in 2006 was turned in by Bill Auberlen, driving
the Turner Motorsport/H&R Springs BMW 325i. Six days later, the E46-chassis
BMW 325i received several competition adjustments, reducing its potential.
Turner Motorsport chose to focus on a competing road racing series for
the rest of the season, where it won championships in both classes.
This SPEED Touring Car race will be broadcast on SPEED Sunday, March
25 at 1:30 p.m. EDT.
Round Two of the SPEED Touring Car Championship will take place May 17-19
at Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, Utah.
Grand Touring Class
In SPEED World Challenge Grand Touring, the 2007 Sebring event was dominated
by Corvettes. The StopTech-equipped duo of Doug Peterson in the No. 87
3-Dimensional Services/LG Motorsports car and team owner Lou Gigliotti
in his hot rod-flamed No. 28 LG Pro Long Tube Headers Corvette were impressive
in practice and qualified first and third, separated by Eric Curran in
Whelen Engineering’s new No. 30 C6 Corvette.
With a track still unevenly wet from earlier showers, Eric Curran, a
rain specialist from his home track of Lime Rock Park, built up a strong
lead early in the race. Gigliotti, while fast, retired with a mechanical
failure on lap five. Peterson suffered an electrical glitch and lost three
laps in the pits, but was able to finish the race. After a restart on
lap 14, Curran and series champion Lawson Aschenbach, who switched from
a Porsche to an XM/Mobil 1/ Motorola/Bose Cadillac CTS-V for 2007, held
their positions at the front. Tomy Drissi, driving the LG Motorsports-prepped,
StopTech brake-equipped No. 15 “Next – The Movie” Chevrolet
Corvette was able to get past Michael Galati three laps from the end for
a spot on the podium, his first in the series.
This SPEED GT race will be broadcast on SPEED, Sunday March 25, at 2:30
p.m. EDT.
Round Two of the SPEED GT Championship heads to the Toyota Grand Prix
of Long Beach April 13-15.
The latest information on all Speed World Challenge events can be found
at the series’ web site, http://www.world-challenge.com.
StopTech Brakes for Your Car
Unlike many racing components, the exact same two-piece AeroRotor discs,
calipers and stainless steel brake lines 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. |