2007 Miller - World Challenge GT

In 2007, the Sports Car Club of America’s (SCCA) popular World Challenge series for Touring and Grand Touring cars entered its 18th-season. With continued sponsorship from SPEED TV, the championship attracted a loyal following of race fans and attracted competitors.

Race weekends included two standing start fifty-minute races – one for the Grand Touring class and another for Touring Cars.

Grand Touring (GT) – The Grand Touring class rules accommodate a broad range of vehicles from different manufacturers. Engine displacements range from the 2.5-liter turbocharged Volvo S60-R to the Dodge Viper with an 8.3-liter V10 motor. While most of the cars are rear-wheel drive, the series also permits all-wheel-drive vehicles such as the Nissan Skyline GT-R, Porsche 911 AWD TT, Subaru WRX STI and Volvo S60R. Many of the competitors race the Chevrolet Corvette, Porsche 911 GT3 Cup or Dodge Viper.
Touring Car (TC) – The Touring Cars are limited to an engine displacement of 2.8-liters. Vehicles originally equipped with turbocharged or supercharged motors are also homologated for the series. The class is split predominantly between front-wheel-drive cars from Acura, Honda, and Mazda and the rear wheel drives such as the BMW 325 and BMW 328. Also proving very competitive is the all-wheel-drive Audi A4.

To prevent any driver/car combination from dominating the class and ensuring tight competition, the R.E.W.A.R.D.S. System was implemented. Introduced in 1995, R.E.W.A.R.D.S. is the acronym for ‘Rewarding of Equalizing Weight Assigned to Reduce Driver Sensitivity.' This weight equalization rule adds or removes ballast from a car based on the finishing position of a driver. The maximum amount of weight that can be removed from a car is 100-pounds. And, no more than 200-pounds can be added to a GT class car and 150-pounds to a Touring Car.

There were eleven-race weekends during the 2007 season – ten-races for each class. The Touring cars did not compete at Long Beach or a new venue at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. Touring Cars raced twice at Watkins Glen, which was a new addition to the 2007 schedule. Also, the Touring Cars were the only World Challenge class competing at Lime Rock. As in 2006, the opening round was in March at Sebring, Florida and ended in late October at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, California.

The first lap of round three and twenty-six GT competitors follow pole-sitter Tommy Archer in the No. 5 Mopar Dodge Viper. During the fifty-minute race the GT cars would complete 14-laps around Miller Motorsports Park’s twenty-five turn 4.5-mile long road course.

Tommy Archer led flag-to-flag in his Dodge Viper but it was not an easy win. At the start, he was threatened by second fastest qualifier and last year’s winner Lou Gigliotti in a Chevrolet Corvette. Next to challenge Archer was the Porsche driven Randy Pobst but he spun on lap five. Archer went on to collect his first win of the season and seventh of his World Challenge career.

Last year’s GT class winner, Lou Gigliotti, started third and finished second – just 0.577-seconds behind race winner Tommy Archer. Gigliotti drove the No. 28 LG ProLong Tube Headers Chevrolet Corvette. He jumped into second at the start and attempted an unsuccessful pass on the race leader, Tommy Archer. On lap-3, he was passed by Randy Pobst but Pobst’s spin two laps later elevated Gigliotti to second.

LG Motorsports entered three Chevrolet Corvettes in the 2007 World Challenge series for drivers – Lou Gigliotti, Doug Peterson and Tomy Drissi. Driving the No. 87 Corvette was Doug Peterson. Peterson started the season with a pole at Sebring and finished tenth at Long Beach. At Miller Motorsports Park he qualified fourth and grabbed the final spot on the podium.

Randy Pobst qualified the K-PAX Porsche 911 GT3 fifth. Pobst jumped to third at the start and by lap-3 was second after a pass on Lou Gigliotti - this earned him the B&M Oil Coolers Coolest Move of the Race. Not done yet, Pobst attempted the same pass two laps later on Tommy Archer but he spun. Pobst regrouped and finished fourth - he was credited with the fastest race lap.

Bob Woodhouse came out of retirement and was making his first start since the 2006 season finale at Laguna Seca. Woodhouse started fifteenth in the No. 13 Dodge Viper but passed five cars on the first lap. On lap-11 he made contact with Tomy Drissi in a Chevrolet Corvette which did not affect his progress. By the end of the race he had passed two more cars and finished eighth.

Jim Haughey entered two Porsche 911 GT3s. The K-PAX cars were driven by Randy Pobst and Michael Galati. Galati drove the No. 23 Porsche and at Miller Motorsports Park he started sixth and finished fifth. With top five results in the first three rounds he left Utah third in the Drivers’ Championship.

2006 World Challenge GT Champion, Lawson Aschenbach switched brands leaving his Porsche ride to join Team Cadillac. He started the defence of his title with a second at Sebring. The second round at Long Beach Aschenback qualified eighth but finished eleventh. Miller Motorsports Park saw an improvement as he was sixth at the checkered flag.

Eric Curran left the Touring Car class and joined Whelen Engineering driving a Covette. Curran won the first round at Sebring and followed it up with a second victory at Long Beach. After qualifying second at Miller Motorsports Park, he looked set to complete the ‘Hat Trick’. However, this was not the case as he retired with overheating problems. Despite this result, he still led the drivers standing based on his wins in the first two events.

FINISH	START	DRIVER	CAR	LAPS	RETIREMENTS
1	1	Tommy Archer	Dodge Viper	14	-
2	3	Lou Gigliotti	Chevrolet Corvette	14	-
3	4	Doug Peterson	Chevrolet Corvette	14	-
4	5	Randy Pobst	Porsche 911 GT3	14	-
5	6	Michael Galati	Porsche 911 GT3	14	-
6	7	Lawson Aschenbach	Cadillac CTS-V	14	-
7	12	Rob Foster	Dodge Viper	14	-
8	15	Bob Woodhouse	Dodge Viper	14	-
9	10	Michael McCann	Dodge Viper	14	-
10	16	Jeff Courtney	Dodge Viper	14	-
11	14	Andy Pilgrim	Cadillac CTS-V	14	-
12	13	Ritch Marziale	Dodge Viper	14	-
13	17	Cindi Lux	Dodge Viper	14	-
14	19	Tony Gaples	Chevrolet Corvette	14	-
15	27	Scotty B. White	Dodge Viper	14	-
16	11	Brian Kubinski	Chevrolet Corvette	14	-
17	18	Jason Daskalos	Dodge Viper	14	-
18	8	James Sofronas	Porsche 911 GT3	14	-
19	21	Dane Moxlow	Pontiac GTO	14	-
20	26	Jeffrey Robbins	Dodge Viper	14	-
21	9	Sonny Whelen	Chevrolet Corvette	14	-
22	23	Thomas Glenn	Dodge Viper	14	-
23	24	Robb Holland	Porsche 911	14	-
24	25	Eric Olberz	Porsche 911 GT3	13	-
25	20	Tomy Drissi	Chevrolet Corvette	12	Mechanical
26	2	Eric Curran	Chevrolet Corvette	3	Crash
27	22	Stu Frederick	Dodge Viper	3	Transmission

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