2007 Toronto - World Challenge Touring

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.

There were twenty entries and nineteen starters for round six of the 2007 World Challenge Touring car race at Toronto’s Exhibition Place. Competitors would be challenged by damp conditions on the eleven-turn 1.755-mile temporary street course.

The World Challenge Touring Car podium at Toronto. On the left is second place finisher Ian Baas and the right Pierre Kleinubing, who captured third. Between these two is the winner Peter Cunningham. Cunningham’s victory ended a twenty-five race winless streak which dated back to March 2005 at Sebring.

Peter Cunningham qualified his Acura TSX fourth and inherited first when early race leaders Kuno Wittmer and Ian Baas slid off the track and Chip Herr experienced throttles problems. In the late stages of the race, he was caught by his teammate Pierre Kleinubing and Ian Baas. An incident between the teammates allowed Baas to take second from Kleinubing. Cunningham was able to hold off Baas and win by 0.538-seconds.

The No. 18 Audi A4 was driven by Ian Baas. Baas started second but was the first victim of the wet track when he slid into the corner-three runoff area. This incident dropped him to fifteenth but he made steady progress and by lap-24 he was third behind the RealTime Acuras of Cunningham and Kleinubing. An incident between the teammates allowed Baas to take second. He challenged Cunningham for the lead but finished second.

In post qualifying tech Pierre Kleinubing’s front splitter was too low. As a result, the defending Touring Car champion was required to start from the eighteenth position. Kleinubing was able to move through the field and found himself second to his teammate, Peter Cunningham. On lap-24, he hit Cunningham which allowed the Audi of Ian Baas to take second. Kleinubing took the checkered flag in third.

The No. 73 Mazdaspeed Motorsports Development Mazda 6 was raced by Randy Pobst. In the first five rounds of the 2007 season, Pobst had two wins and four podiums which gave him a comfortable lead in the Drivers’ Championship. At Toronto, he qualified six and finished fourth. Pobst left the event with his points lead intact.

Canadian, Kuno Wittmer, started on the pole in the RealTime Racing Acura RSX. The start of the race was in wet conditions but Wittmer was able to hold off the all-wheel drive STaSIS Audi A4s of Ian Baas and Chip Herr. He led the first four laps until he was caught out by the slick conditions and had to use the runoff area at turn-six. Wittmer returned to the track and was fifth at the checkered flag.

Chip Herr drove the No. 17 STaSIS Audi A4. Herr started from the third position and took the lead on lap-5 when Kuno Wittmer was forced to use the runoff area in corner-six. He ran out front for four laps but on lap-10 Herr’s Audi experienced throttle problems which cause him to drop down the running order. He finished three laps behind the leaders in seventeenth place.

Jeff Altenburg entered the Toronto event second to his teammate, Randy Pobst, in the Drivers’ Championship. The driver of the No. 72 Mazdaspeed Motorsports Development Mazda 6 qualified seventh and finished sixth. After the race, Altenburg was still second in points but the gap between him and Pobst had grown.

The No. 95 Tindol Motorsports Mazda 6 was driven by Charles Espenlaub. Espenlaub’s season was off to a good start. In the first five rounds, his worst finish was an eighth at Miller Motorsports Park and he had earned a podium at Watkins Glen. After qualifying sixth at Toronto, it appeared that Espenlaub’s streak of top-ten finishes would continue but at the checkered flag, he was eighteenth – 7-laps behind the leaders.

FINISH	START	DRIVER	CAR	LAPS	RETIREMENTS
1	4	Peter Cunningham	Acura TSX	28	-
2	2	Ian Baas	Audi A4	28	-
3	18	Pierre Kleinubing	Acura TSX	28	-
4	6	Randy Pobst	Mazda 6	28	-
5	1	Kuno Wittmer	Acura RSX	28	-
6	7	Jeff Altenburg	Mazda 6	28	-
7	8	Michael Galati	Mazda 6	28	-
8	19	James Sofronas	BMW 325Ci	28	-
9	13	Nick Esayian	Acura TSX	28	-
10	10	Jason Martinelli	BMW 325Ci	28	-
11	14	Stan Wilson	Dodge SRT-4	28	-
12	17	Tor Krueger	Lexus IS 300	28	-
13	9	Brandon Davis	Acura TSX	27	-
14	12	Seth Thomas	BMW 325i	27	-
15	11	Roberto Santos	Mazda 6	25	Crash
16	16	Andrew Wojteczko	Lexus IS 300	25	-
17	3	Chip Herr	Audi A4	25	-
18	5	Charles Espenlaub	Mazda 6	21	-
19	20	James Clay	BMW 325i	0	DNS
20	15	Charlie Putman	Mazda 6	0	Crash

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