2005 Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca

2005 was the fifth consecutive year of the Grand American Road Racing’s Grand Am Cup Series for American and Foreign sports cars and sedans.

There was a significant restructuring of the classes in 2004. The season debuted with a single Grand Sport (GS) and Street Tuner (ST) class.

Grand Sport (GS): The quicker of the two classes - the group features the larger displacement engines as well as smaller four-cylinder motors with forced induction systems. The power-plants produce between 350 and 405-horsepower. Minimum weights range between 2,730 – 3,250-pounds, which is dependent on the motor configuration and displacement. The top speed for a Grand Sport car is approximately 160-mph. This class includes cars such as the Acura NSX, Cadillac CTS-V, BMW M3, Pontiac Firebird, Ford Mustang, Nissan 350Z and Porsche 996.
Street Tuner (ST): The smaller displacement cars compete in this class in which engines typically produce between 170 and 240-horsepower. The top speed of a Sport Touring car is approximately 135-mph. Popular vehicles found in this group are the Acura RSX-S, Mazda RX-8, BMW Z3, BMW 330i, Chevrolet Cobalt SS and Mini Cooper S.

The cars competing in the series are relatively unchanged from their road-going versions – modifications are mandated mainly for safety – roll cages, window nets, etc. They also used spec DOT-approved tires produced by Hoosier. Based on performance potential, the cars are placed in the Grand Sport or Sport Touring group.

The 2005 season consists of eleven race weekends and starts in February at Daytona International Speedway. New for this year is a Grand Sport only race in Santo Domingo. Returning to the United States, teams travel to California Speedway in early April. At the end of the month, the series competes at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Then there is a trip to the East Coast for race weekends at Watkins Glen International, Mosport International Raceway, Barber Motorsports Park, Trois-Rivieres and Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. The penultimate rounds take place at Phoenix International Raceway with the Twin 200s. The Grand Sport and Street Tuner teams will compete in separate races. The finale is held in early October at Virginia International Raceway.

The Monterey 200 was conducted on the 2.238-mile eleven-turn road course at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. This would be round three for the Grand Am Cup Sport Touring competitors and race four for the Grand Sport teams as they had an additional event in Santo Domingo.

Leading the field into corner two at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca for round three of the 2005 Grand Am Cup series is the second-fastest qualifier, Scott Maxwell. Maxwell is driving the Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang. To his right is the pole-sitter, Justin Marks, in the Turner Motorsport BMW M3. Trailing the leaders are third and fourth place starters, the No. 58 Speed Quest / Rehagen Racing Ford Mustang and the BMW of Anchor Racing.

Scoring their first Grand Sport victory of the season were Canadians, Scott Maxwell and David Empringham. Maxwell started in the second position but jumped into the lead at the drop of the green flag. He was in the top spot for twelve-laps before contact with a slower car cost him several positions. Empringham drove the final stint. He regained the lost places and grabbed the lead with sixteen-laps remaining.

Defending Grand-Am Cup Series Sport Touring champions, Sylvain Tremblay and David Haskell claimed their second-straight ST class win at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Haskell qualified second fastest in the No. 70 SpeedSource Mazda RX-8. Tremblay made a late-race pass in the final turn on the Acura of Bob Endicott for the class lead. Despite several attempts by Endicott to regain first place, Tremblay held on to win by 0.638-seconds.

Eric Curran and Bob Endicott made quite a formidable duo in the Sport Touring category. To date, they had runner-up finishes at Daytona and California Speedway. After Curran qualified third at Mazda Raceway, it appeared that they might capture their first victory of the season. Endicott was leading with two laps to go; unfortunately, a daring pass by Sylvain Tremblay dropped him to second. He was unable to regain the position.

Sharing the No. 6 Zoom Motorsports Porsche 996 was Mike McCalmont and Darren Law. The Porsche was gridded twenty-second in the Grand Sport category for the start of the Monterey 200. McCalmont and Law maneuvered their way through the field. As the race came to a conclusion, Law chased and passed the Ford Mustang of Ian James to finish second. This was the team’s second consecutive runner-up result.

The pace lap for the Sport Touring class at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. On the pole is the Turner Motorsport BMW 330i shared by Don Salama and team principal, Will Turner. The second fastest qualifier is the reigning category champions, Sylvain Tremblay and David Haskell, driving the SpeedSource Mazda RX-8. Occupying the second row is one of the Bill Fenton Motorsports Acuras and the Nuzzo Motorsports’ Mini.

Don Salama was the fastest Sport Touring driver during the qualifying session at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Sharing the Turner Motorsport prepared BMW 330i with Salama was the team owner, Will Turner. During the Monterey 200, they lost a lap to the class leaders. The duo finished twenty-ninth overall but was able to salvage a third place in the Sport Touring category.

The No. 5 Daytona winning Ford Mustang FR500C was a Multimatic Motorsports customer car. Driver’s Ian James and Tom Nastasi were having a lot of success with the new Mustang. In addition, to their victory, they scored a third-place finish at California Speedway. In round four, Nastasi qualified twelfth fastest, but the pair moved into contention. During the final laps, James was second but lost the position to the Porsche of Darren Law.

Gunnar Jeanette and James Gue entered Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca with the Grand Sport points lead. They started fourth in class, but Gue flat-spotted a tire early in the race and the car fell to the twenty-eighth position. After two pit-stops, the drivers worked their way back through the field. A last-lap incident between two BMWs gave them a fourth-place finish. More importantly, they were able to maintain the championship lead.

Justin Marks captured his second overall and Grand Sport pole-position at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Marks’ first pole of 2005 was in the season opener at Daytona International Speedway. He was sharing the Turner Motorsport BMW M3 with Bill Auberlen. Unfortunately, the drivers were continuing to have challenges and dropped down the race order. The pair finished on the lead lap but were in fifteenth place.

David Tuaty and Daniel Colembie were the first Sport Touring competitors across the finish in the season opener at Daytona International Speedway. However, the fuel tank capacity on their TC Kline Racing BMW Z4 exceeded specifications and they were disqualified. In round three, at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, they started eighth in class but problems during the event relegated them to a twenty-second place finish.

POS.	CLASS	DRIVERS	CAR	ENTRANT	LAPS
1	GS	Empringham / Maxwell	Ford Mustang GT	Multimatic Motorsports	76
2	GS	McCalmont / Law	Porsche 996	Zoom Motorsports	76
3	GS	James / Nastasi	Ford Mustang GT	Blackforest Motorsports	76
4	GS	Gue / Jeannette	Ford Mustang GT	Multimatic Motorsports	76
5	GS	Hainer / Hand	BMW M3	Anchor Racing	76
6	GS	Powell / Knowles	Cadillac CTS-V	Powell Motorsport	76
7	GS	Gaffney / Lally	Porsche 996	Race Prep Motorsports	76
8	GS	Auriemma / Pumpelly / Pickett	Porsche 996	Race Prep Motorsports	76
9	GS	Wortzman / Wilden	BMW M3	Zoom Motorsports	76
10	GS	Kohler / Smith	Mustang Saleen	TF Racing	76
11	GS	Reghagen / Martin	Mustang Cobra SVT	Rehagen Racing	75
12	GS	Krohn / Jonsson	Porsche 996	Krohn Racing	75
13	GS	Ellis / Bavaro	Porsche 997	Bodymotion Racing	75
14	GS	Thornton / Russell	BMW M3	Automatic Racing	75
15	GS	Marks / Auberlen	BMW M3	Turner Motorsport	75
16	GS	Seafuse / Seafuse	Ford Mustang Cobra	JBS Motorsports	75
17	GS	Bailey / Brown	Porsche 996	Autometrics Motorsports	75
18	GS	Courtney / Putman	Porsche 996	Race Prep Motorsports	74
19	GS	Martini / Collins	Porsche 997	Synergy Racing	74
20	GS	Wilkins / Lacey	Porsche 996	Doncaster Racing	74
21	GS	Nonnamaker / Nonnamaker	Porsche 996	Team Sahlen	68
22	GS	Guindon / Camirand	Cadillac CTS-V	Powell Motorsport	70
23	GS	Wellon / Ellis / Rossi	Porsche 996	Knobel Racing	69
24	GS	MacDonald / Thompson	Porsche 996	Team Sahlen	68
25	GS	Traver / Miller	Porsche 996	Race Prep Motorsports	61
26	ST	Haskell / Tremblay	Mazda RX-8	SpeedSource	70
27	ST	Curran / Endicott	Acura RSX-S	Bill Fenton Motorsports	57
28	GS	Drissi / Gorriaran	Nissan 350Z	DWW/GorillaRacing.com	70
29	ST	Salama / Turner	BMW 330ci	CSL Racing	69
30	GS	Yeakle / Baughman / Shaw	Pontiac Firebird	Michael Baughman Racing	4
31	ST	Liebl / Beede	Acura RSX-S	Bill Fenton Motorsports	74
32	ST	Holtom / Holtom	Chevrolet Cobalt	Georgian Bay Motorsports	74
33	ST	Pappas / Pfeffer	BMW 330i	Turner Motorsport	74
34	ST	O'Shaughnessy / O'Shaughnessy	BMW Z4	TC Kline Racing	74
35	ST	Schlesinger / Altenburg	Mazda RX-8	SpeedSource	74
36	GS	Sahlen / Nonnamaker	Porsche 996	Team Sahlen	74
37	ST	Johnson / Wehrheim	BMW Z3	Compass360/Racing	74
38	ST	Bisignano / Walker	Mazda RX-8	SpeedSource	74
39	GS	Lehmann / Zacharias	Ford Mustang	Champion Racing	73
40	ST	Milner / Connolly	BMW 330ci	Matt Connolly Motorsports	73
41	ST	Auberlen / Potter	Mini Cooper S	Nuzzo Motorsports	73
42	ST	Becker / Halpin	Mazda RX-8	Southpaw Racing	73
43	ST	Lepper / Roach	Chevrolet Cobalt	Franklin American Mortgage	73
44	ST	Eaton / Howard	Mazda RX-8	Southpaw Racing	73
45	ST	Magner / Strub	Chevrolet Cobalt	WTF Engineering	72
46	ST	Heffron / Briody	BMW 330ci	Matt Connolly Motorsports	72
47	GS	Munson / Sofronas	BMW M3	Anchor Racing	71
48	ST	Baglier / Luffy	Mazda 6	Baglieracing	71
49	ST	Gurucharri / Molin	Mazda RX-8	HBAR Motorsports	70
50	GS	Riches / Grande / Fox	Porsche 996	Knobel Racing	70
51	GS	Bosler / Nonnamaker / Sahlen	Porsche 996	Team Sahlen	69
52	GS	Chang / Price	Porsche 996	BGB Motorsports	54
53	GS	Himes / Ward	BMW M3	Power Racing Team	51
54	GS	Skelton / Foster	BMW M3	Anchor Racing	42
55	GS	Riddle / Wilson	BMW M3	Automatic Racing	41
56	GS	Keravich III / Trinkler	BMW M3	Power Racing Team	40
57	GS	Kapudija / Pecorari	Mustang Cobra SVT	Rehagen Racing / Speedquest	39
58	ST	France / Thomson	BMW Z3	Compass360/Racing	37
59	GS	Plummer / Cosmo	Porsche 996	BGB Motorsports	27
60	ST	Malgren / Lepper	Dodge SRT-4	Collision Craft	26
61	ST	Colembie / Tuaty	BMW Z4	TC Kline Racing	23
62	GS	Finlay / McDowell / Gidley	BMW M3	Finlay Motorsports	18
63	GS	Rosser / Murry	Porsche 996	Fiorano Racing	15
64	GS	Borcheller / Cronin Jr	Nissan 350Z	Unitech Racing	14
65	ST	Lewis / Nuzzo/ Shalit	Mini Cooper S	Nuzzo Motorsports	9
66	GS	Canny / Zavodsky	Mustang Cobra SVT	Rehagen Racing	7
67	ST	Abello / Espenlaub	Mazda RX-8	SpeedSource	4
68	GS	Munson / Scott / Probert	BMW M3	Anchor Racing	3
69	GS	Dement / Bernheim	Porsche 996	Bernheim Porsche Racing	0
70	GS	Nonnamaker / Sahlen	Porsche 996	Team Sahlen	0
71	GS	Finlay / McDowell / Gidley	BMW M3	Finlay Motorsports	0

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