Petersen Motorsports/ White Lightning Racing took their highest finish in 2004 earning a second-place in GT class- ninth overall- in Sunday’s Toronto Grand Prix of Mosport, round six of the American Le Mans Series (ALMS).
As a virtue of the second-place, the team won its second event IMSA Cup of the season and closed the gap in the season-long pursuit of the overall IMSA Cup- an award given to the highest placing privateer team in which the team currently sits second. The No. 31 Westward Ho Casino/ MMPIE/ PAWS/ Michelin Porsche 911 GT3 RSR showed speed immediately in today’s two hour and 45-minute sprint race at Mosport International Raceway. David Murry, Cumming, Ga., qualified fourth, worked his way to third and ran nose-to-tail with the first and second-place Porsches early. 30-minutes into the race, a P1 class prototype made contact with the right-rear of the Michael Petersen-owned Porsche causing body damage. Murry briefly lost touch with the leading duo but caught them within 10 laps. Sizing-up his competition, the former ALMS winner made an exciting two-car pass to take the lead. The Las Vegas-based race team held the top GT spot and pulled away substantially until pitting one hour and 18 minutes into the race.
Craig Stanton, of Long Beach, Calif., stepped behind the wheel of the brightly colored Porsche and left the pit lane in second-place during that stop. Stanton held there and, at the end of his stint, began to close dramatically on the class leading Porsche. Lap-after-lap, the 2003 Road America 500 GT winner knocked two-seconds off the lead each lap. He took the lead briefly before pitting for fuel at the end of the race. The Dale White-managed team had to make a last-minute stop for fuel and to allow series’ officials to investigate the rear diffuser- an underbody aerodynamic component- for damage. The stop for 20 seconds of fuel and the go-ahead of officials allowed Stanton to return to the track still in position-two. Despite a valiant effort, Stanton was unable to track down the leader in the remaining four minutes of competition.
Petersen Motorsports/ White Lightning Racing will next compete at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisc. on August 22nd. The No. 31 is the defending GT class champions there, having scored their first ALMS victory at the Road America 500 last season. Three races remain on the 2004 schedule but that tallies to 18 hours and 45-minutes of competition as the endurance events of the Petit Le Mans (Road Atlanta) and Grand Prix of Monterey (Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca) provide ten and six hours of competition respectively.
Dale White, team manager: “That was a good one. We are right there and I think everyone can see it. If they can’t they better look again. Next race out we are at Road America, where we won last year. I am really confident going into that race. After that we have two races on two tracks that this team really loves. So, I am really looking forward to the rest of this season. We are going to win one of these things this year yet. We really want to win one for the Petersen family.”
David Murry: “Michelin makes a pretty strong sidewall on their tires, I’ll say that. When the prototype hit us I thought ‘oh no’ but the tire never had a single problem. The biggest problem we had from the contact was the pit stop. It cost us 19 seconds extra to pull the bodywork away to get the wheel off and then to get the other wheel on. That could have been the difference between winning and not. We really raced for the win this time. We got out front and pulled a little of a gap. We had a better car over the tire life; the second-half of the stint on the tire was the better part. That was a big benefit over the other teams. We came up a little short this time but, hopefully, we’ll come-up with the brass ring next time.”
Craig Stanton: “Second is another great showing for the Petersen/ White Lightning crew. I am very happy that Dale, Mike and Stefan’s (Pfeiffer, crew chief) vision is really coming together. Today was sort of a weird day for me. I was out of sync with everyone else on the track so I didn’t get to do much racing. But, when I did have traffic, that was a real handful. This is a tough track if you are getting passed or if you’re doing the passing. David did a terrific job in his stint and got us into the lead. Our pit stops were great today but we fell to second, which is no real surprise at a track as fast as this one. I did all I could to bite into the lead that was built up on us but when I got it back down to about three seconds, from nineteen or so, we had to come in for fuel and that was about it. I’m just real happy for the whole Petersen Motorsports/ White Lightning Racing team. Everyone is really working together and is doing a great job. Another podium shows it. I’m really looking forward to getting on to Road America to defend last year’s win.”
