Elkhart Lake, WI ? Tony Rivera drove his Porsche 911 to the lead past Kuno Wittmer?s Dodge Viper on the first lap and powered away to win the SPEED World Challenge GT race at Road America on Sunday.
Wittmer grabbed the lead at the start of the race with Rivera following closely behind. By turn twelve of the 4.05 mile road course, Rivera had made his move for the lead and set his sights on the checkers. With open track ahead of him, Rivera was able to open up and maintain a seven second advantage over the runner-up position.
On the sixth lap of the race, Wittmer gave up the second position and headed to the pits. He would be forced to retire with a reported wheel bearing issue on his Woodhouse Performance Viper.
Brandon Davis assumed the second position but, Eric Curran?s Corvette was on the attack and used an exciting outside pass through the fifth turn to take over the spot. Two laps later, Dino Crescentini used the inside line of same turn to take the third spot away from Davis. From there on, the top four positions would remain constant for the rest of the race.
A little further back in the field was where all the racing was going on. A tight group consisting of Ritch Marziale?s Dodge Viper, Mike Borkowski?s Viper, William Ziegler?s Porsche 911 and Sonny Whelen?s Corvette battled for the seventh position. With seven laps remaining in the race, Borkowski and Marziale started the excitement with two laps of swapping positions that Borkowski ended up the winner of. Whelen captured the Sunoco Hard Charger award moving up from his seventeenth starting spot to finish ninth.
Hometown racer, Jeff Courtney of Slinger, WI had a rough race in his Dodge Viper. After moving into the top ten on the start, Courtney spun his ride in the final turn as the field headed up the hill to complete the second lap. To add insult to injury, Courtney was assessed a stop and go penalty for jumping the start. Courtney finished the race on the lead lap in the thirteenth position.
Polesitter James Sofronas was unable to start the race due to a reported broken axel on his Prosche 911. Sofronas returned to the race, twelve laps behind and finished in fifteenth.
With the victory, Rivera became the first multi-race winner of the season. Rivera had won the season opening race at Sebring.
The SPEED World Challenge GT Series returns to action on September 23rd for the 2009 12th Annual Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta.
John WiedemannRoad America