STANTON, TRG & PORSCHE CLAIM GT CHAMPIONSHIPS
Putting an exclamation point on a breakout season for the brand-new Pontiac GTO.Rs, Jan Magnussen and Paul Edwards took the GT class victory in their No. 64 TRG Pontiac GTO.R machine in convincing fashion, finishing in time to watch their teammates, the No. 65 TRG Pontiac GTO.R, clinch the 2005 GT team title.
Taking the lead when the No. 05 Sigalsport changed drivers late in the race, the No. 64 machine never looked back in claiming its third class victory in just seven races.
“Starting from the back was not that big of a deal,” Edwards said. “The car was really good from turn four to turn 14, and then we would lose ground on the long straight. I turned the car over to Jan in second and he did the rest.”
Both Pontiac GTO.Rs were forced to start at the back of the grid after a post-qualifying inspection revealed a technical infraction.
“Paul did a great job to make up the places from back of the grid,” Magnussen said. “When I got the car we were in second, and I set out do consistent laps and make up as much room in the twisty parts as possible. The car was really good through the esses and I was able to drive away.”
Although co-drivers Andy Lally and Marc Bunting helped bring the title to the No. 65 TRG team, they fell one position short of repeating as Rolex Series driver champions.
In a pressure-packed, bumper-to-bumper battle for third place, Lally tried everything possible in the No. 65 machine to pass David Murry’s No. 80 Synergy Racing Porsche GT3 Cup throughout the race’s final 15 laps. The nose-to-tail chase turned into a side-by-side battle on the final lap when Lally and Murry swapped several blows and the lead once. The nearly lap-long skirmish ended in the “stadium” portion of the track with Murry airborne and Lally sideways on the track. Murry continued on to take third place and clinch the GT driver title for his co-driver Craig Stanton. Lally eventually continued and finished fourth.
Stanton completed double-duty this weekend, starting the race in the No. 80 machine and finishing in the No. 81 Synergy Racing Porsche GT3 Cup, which he shared with Will Nonnamaker. Stanton qualified the No. 80 Porsche second, and after handing controls to Murry on Lap 52 and taking control from Nonnamaker on Lap 61, he saw his championship hopes literally right in front of him.
“This was exactly like last year when I won the Grand-Am Cup championship last year, and it came down to the last race and the last lap,” Stanton said. “I think it was by 150 yards. This was one even closer. David is my hero, he did an unbelievable job. I started out my stint driving the No. 80 car and I drove my heart out. David carried on and he drove as hard as he could against the BMW and GTOs. And I hopped back in the No. 81 car and finished out the race right behind. I was literally third in line, right behind them. I had the best seat in the house to see David do an unbelievable job.”
This is the second-consecutive championship season for Stanton, who last season won the Grand-Am Cup Series Grand Sport class crown in a Porsche 996.
For their excessive contact, Grand American Director of Competition Mark Raffauf fined both Lally and Murry $3,500. The money, which is equivalent to sending four children to Camp Boggy Creek, will be donated to the Eustis, Florida-based camp that is supported by Grand American.
“For some reason Craig Stanton ends up in these situations every year, I’m not sure how many more of these my heart can take,” Murry said. “It’s pretty stressful in a good way. The last two years it’s come down to the last 100 yards of the last race. Andy Lally is such a great competitor, we got out and hugged after we got done. I knew it was going to be like that, and I knew he did too, it’s just one of those things, we both wanted to win the championship.”
Lally came into the weekend with a one-point lead over Stanton in the driver standings, but his fourth-place finish—combined with Stanton and Murry’s third-place result—left Lally one point shy of back-to-back Rolex Series titles. He was the SGS class champion last season.
“I went in, and we had contact and I put the pass on him,” Lally said. “I had about five car lengths on him going into the stadium turn, and then he hit me from behind, it was a silly move. It is tough that it went that way at the end. We were battling hard for the last 20 laps and then the ugly finish. Marc did a great job to keep us up there at the beginning, but it turned out all wrong.”
BMW factory driver Bill Auberlen joined Gene Sigal and Matthew Alhadeff in the No. 05 BMW M3 for the weekend, and ran at the front of the GT pack throughout his stint. Two driver changes slowed the car, but the trio brought the car home second.
With the third-place finish, Porsche wrapped up the 2005 GT class manufacturer title, in a season that saw the German-based engine claim three class victories and climb on the podium 10 times.
