Backstretch Motorsports

LEXINGTON, Ohio (July 20, 2008) – Tommy Archer, of Duluth, Minn., led every lap Sunday to win the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course SPEED GT Presented by Remington race, Round Five of the SCCA Pro Racing SPEED World Challenge GT Championship. Brandon Davis, of Huntington Beach, Calif., and Andy Pilgrim, of Boca Raton, Fla., completed the top three.

Starting from the pole in his No. 13 Foametix/Woodhouse Performance Dodge Viper, Archer got away cleanly from the standing start to lead second starting Davis’ No. 10 ACS/Sun Microsystems Ford Mustang Cobra. Davis was never far from Archer, but he was unable to mount a challenge for the lead despite the race being slowed by three cautions.

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LEXINGTON, Ohio (July 19, 2008) – Tommy Archer, of Duluth, Minn., captured his second SCCA Pro Racing SPEED World Challenge GT pole of the season and will lead the field at the start of Sunday afternoon’s Mid-Ohio SPEED GT Presented by Remington race. Brandon Davis, of Huntington Beach, Calif., will start second.

Driving the No. 13 Foametix/Woodhouse Performance Dodge Viper, Archer set a time of 1:25.673 (94.882 mph) on his first flying lap around the 2.258-mile track. It is Archer’s second top qualifying effort of the year, after winning from the pole position at Miller Motorsports Park in May. Following an engine failure at the previous round in Watkins Glen, Archer’s team has been working non-stop to get him back up to speed.

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WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. - Andy Pilgrim is a lucky guy. He’ll be the first to tell you that. From racing motorcycles in England, to becoming a Champion road racer in the United States and a GM factory driver, all while growing a successful business, the pieces have all settled into place. Many struggle to accomplish just one of those things, but the English-born Cadillac CTS-V driver makes it look effortless.

In speaking with him however, you’ll find it was far from effortless. It’s his attitude rather, that makes it all seem simple. He prefers it that way.

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Vickers’ No. 83 team wins Sprint Pit Crew Challenge

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Brian Vickers’ team kicked off NASCAR’s All-Star week activities by winning the Sprint Pit Crew Challenge on Thursday night, beating Denny Hamlin’s team in a battle of Toyotas in the final round.

Vickers’ crew, which includes a former college football player and two former college hockey players, changed four tires, filled the car with fuel and pushed it 40 yards in 22.902 seconds to collect the $70,000 first prize.

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ALTON, Va. (April 25, 2008) – Chip Herr, of Lititz, Pa., will start Saturday’s SCCA Pro Racing SPEED Touring Car Round Two race from pole at VIRginia International Raceway during the Bosch Engineering 250 weekend after setting a new qualifying lap record. Charles Espenlaub, of Lutz, Fla., will start second, making it an all-Mazda front row.

Driving the No. 97 Tindol Motorsports MAZDA6, Herr captured his third career-pole with a new qualifying lap record at VIRginia International Raceway. Herr’s lap of 2:05.650 (93.859 mph) around the 17-turn, 3.27-mile track was slower than several of the times clocked in morning practice, but was the quickest lap produced in the much warmer qualifying session .Although not as warm as Herr and the Tindol Motorsport team were expecting.

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MURRIETA, Calif. (April 7, 2008) - Horton Motorsports has announced that they will support driver Stu Frederick, in the 2008 SCCA Pro Racing SPEED World Challenge GT Championship.

Currently, the team is campaigning a full-season SCCA SPEED Touring Car effort with driver Patrick Lindsey. “Adding Stu to our team now gives us solid entries in both Touring and GT,” states Horton. “Stu is a very complete and impressive driver. We all expect to be sharing in some great results this season.”

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I have to start the day with a big “thank you” and tip of the cap to the guys at On Pit Row, “The Fastest Two Hours in Radio”. I’m honored that Steve Wronkowicz and Charlie Turner gave the opportunity for racing’s “enriched web” folks to speak a bit by hosting me and the “Best O’The Net” last evening. The show, that featured some of the best web-based news and blog authors was a blast to be a part of, if not a bit intimidating for this author. If you weren’t careful, you may have just learned a thing or two by listening. I know I did, listening to the likes of Luke Poland, Marc Boland, Darren Fauth, Bob Ellis and the others. And together, we may have solved all of racing problems in a single two hours. Not to mention that the majority seems to favor Greg Biffle to win at Darlington.

Head on over to On Pit Row website (using the link above) and be sure to save it to your favorites.

The weekend past was a tremendous weekend for motorsports. Lots of fast activities taking place, lots of winners got new trophies to carry home with the bragging rights. We will start with the SCORE Desert Racing Series.

The 22nd Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250 featured 263 total starters roared through the rugged trails and washes of Mexico’s Baja California desert Saturday, and the smoke and dust cleared, there was second-generation veteran Las Vegas desert racer Brian Collins earning the overall and SCORE Trophy-Truck victory in the No. 1 Collins Motorsports Mopar Dodge Ram 1500.
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SEBRING, Fla. (March 13, 2008) – After an incident during qualifying for Round One of the SCCA Pro Racing SPEED World Challenge GT Championship caused the session to end under a red flag without any cars entering a fast lap, Brandon Davis, of Huntington Beach, Calif., was awarded the pole for Friday’s race based on Wednesday’s practice times. Defending SCCA SPEED GT Champion Randy Pobst, of Gainesville, Ga., will start second.

Shortly after the SCCA SPEED GT cars took to the 3.7-mile, 17-turn Sebring International Raceway, the No. 06 Group A Wheels Chevrolet Corvette of Joey Scarallo, from Smithtown, N.Y., suffered an engine failure on the front straight. The car came to a stop just past the start-finish line with a trail of oil behind it. While course workers attempted to clean the course as quickly as possible, the remaining time allotted for the 20-minute session elapsed without any drivers entering a fast lap and series officials were forced to revert to Wednesday’s practice times to form the starting grid.

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MAIDEN, N.C. - Defending SCCA GT-1 National Champion Tony Ave Racing, of Maiden, N.C., has teamed up with its former Trans-Am driver Joey Scarallo, of Hauppauge, N.Y., to compete in the 2008 SCCA Pro Racing SPEED World Challenge GT Championship.

For their full-season effort, the team has purchased the Chevrolet Corvette campaigned last season by SPEED GT Rookie of the Year Brian Kubinski.

“Given the limited timeframe to prepare for the season, we didn’t really have the time to build our own car from the ground up,” Ave said. “We’ll see what we can learn from this year, and intend to expand to two cars in SPEED GT for 2009, as well as get into the Touring Car ranks, provided the series has the momentum we’re hoping for.

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