1998 Mid Ohio

In 1998, the United States Road Racing Championship (USRRC) was formed as an alternative to the IMSA series – Professional Sports Car Racing (PSCR) and sanctioned by the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA).

The inaugural season of USRRC consisted of five rounds, beginning in late January and ending in August. Race lengths ranged from 1-hour 45-minutes to 24-hours.

Daytona International Speedway – Rolex 24 at Daytona
Homestead-Miami Speedway – Homestead 2-hours 15-minutes
Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course – U.S. Road Racing Classic
Minneapolis – Sprint PCS Grand Prix of Minnesota
Watkins Glen International – First Union 6-hours

The USRRC had four classes that paralleled those of the PSCR series:

Can Am – These are open cockpit, two-seat prototypes. Five-liter pushrod motors are limited to two valves per cylinder, whereas a four-liter powerplant may be equipped with four valves per cylinder. Rotary engines are also permitted, but the series does not allow turbocharging. These powerplant options produce approximately 675-horsepower. Engine configuration and displacement are also used to determine the weight of the car. The chassis used in the championship are manufactured by Ferrari, Riley & Scott, Spice, Hawk and Kudzu.
GT1 – This is the fastest of the three GT categories. The cars are two-wheel drive-production-based vehicles. Tube frame chassis cars are powered by a normally aspirated engine with a displacement between 3.5 to 6.0-liters. Unibody vehicles run under the 1997 FIA specifications and are allowed to compete with an 8.0-liter normally aspirated engine or a 4.0-liter turbocharged motor. The Porsche 911 GT1, Panoz GTR-1, Chevrolet Camaro, Mosler Raptor, Oldsmobile Aurora and Ford Mustang Cobra are examples of cars that race in this class.
GT2 – This category was for two and four-wheel drive unibody vehicles. Eligible powerplants include a 4.0-liter turbocharged engine to an 8.0-liter normally aspirated motor. The Porsche 911 GT2 Turbo is the most common car in this group, but this division also includes the Callaway Corvette, Ford Saleen Mustang and Mazda RX-7.
GT3 – The GT3 category is for two-wheel drive production-based cars with a tube-frame or unibody chassis. Engine displacement is limited to engines between 2.0 and 3.8-liter. Some SCCA World Challenge vehicles are eligible to compete in this division. Rules are written to allow the Acura NSX, BMW M3, Mazda RX-7, Porsche 911 RSR and Porsche 993 to race in this group.

The U.S. Road Racing Classic was the third round of the United States Road Racing Championship. The last time a professional sports car series had competed at Mid-Ohio was 1993. The Mid-Ohio event was 2.5-hours long. It was believed that this distance would allow the GT1s to be competitive with the Can Am cars as they would require one less pit stop. Can Am cars could run for 45-minutes between stops and the GT1 would go 55-minutes.

The United States Road Racing Championship event was promoted as a fight between the Can Am and GT1 class. Unfortunately, that scenario never played out as the two quickest cars in the field were the Dyson Riley & Scott Mk IIIs of Dyson Racing. Qualifying on the pole was the No. 16 of James Weaver and Butch Leitzinger. They dropped to second in class and overall with clutch issues.

The second Dyson car was piloted by Elliott Forbes-Robinson and Dorsey Schroeder. Schroeder qualified the car second in the Can Am class and overall. Forbes-Robinson followed Leitzinger for the first stint but clutch troubles caused the No. 16 car to stall when leaving the pits. This allowed the duo of Forbes-Robinson and Schroeder to take the lead and win by 15.17-seconds.

Quickest of the GT1 cars were the two Panoz GTRs entered by Panoz-Visteon Racing. The team had raced the previous weekend at Le Mans with the trio of Brabham, Wallace and Davies finishing seventh overall. David Brabham would be paired with Andy Wallace for Mid-Ohio. They finished first in GT1 and third overall. Their teammates Raul Boesel and Eric Bernard finished 2-laps behind them in second.

Former IMSA Camel Lights champion, Scott Schubot shared this Riley & Scott with Henry Camferdam. Schubot qualified the Transatlantic Racing prepared car third in the Can Am class and fifth overall. The team ran a consistent race and at the conclusion of the event matched their qualifying results.

Jim Matthews entered two Riley & Scott Mk IIIs powered by Ford engines. Matthews shared the driving duties with Barry Waddell. The second car, No. 39, was raced by Tom Kendall and David Murry. The team did not qualify well but made good progress in the race until lap-35 when Matthews retired with transmission problems. On lap-59 Kendall also retired with terminal a gearbox issue.

The No. 10 BMW M3 was driven by Boris Said and Bill Auberlen. This pairing ruled GT3 at Mid-Ohio – qualifying first in class, less than 0.5-seconds behind the quickest GT2 car. The finished ninth overall and beat the GT2 winner. This was a difficult race for Said as he was still recovering from a 160-mph accident at the NASCAR Truck race the previous weekend in Texas.

The Molser Raptor was driven by Shane Lewis and Vic Rice. Warren Molser began manufacturing cars in 1985 – starting with the Consulier GTP and then the Intruder. The Raptor, powered by a Chevrolet engine, was a modified Intruder - the most notable difference was the v-shaped windshield which reduced drag. Unfortunately, the car was the first to retire with a multitude of problems.

There were only three GT2 entries at Mid-Ohio – the No. 99 Schumacher Racing Porsche 911 GT2, Mazda RX-7 Turbo of Pettit Racing and Team Protosport Porsche 911 Carrera RSR. The Schumacher Porsche, driven by Andy Pilgrim and Larry Schumacher, dominated the class – they qualified 12-seconds quicker than the competition and took the GT2 victory.

The Oldsmobile Aurora entered by Robinson Racing started the race twelfth overall and fourth in GT1. The car was shared by team owner George Robinson and Jack Baldwin. They completed 104-laps finishing eighth overall and fourth in GT1. They were not as competitive as the other GT1s. The Panoz and Porsche in their class were built to FIA specs. which allowed ABS and carbon fibre brakes. The tube-frame Oldsmobile used less sophisticated technology.

Champion Motors entered a Porsche 911 GT1 EVO. This car was fitted with a 3.2-litre flat 6-cylinder DOHC twin turbocharged engine. Driving this entry was Bob Wollek and Thierry Boutsen – both drivers had competed at Le Mans the previous weekend. They were not as quick as the Panoz and qualified and finished third in GT1. Boutsen won the 1998 USRRC GT1 Driver's Championship and the team won the GT1 title.

The No. 88 was the only Ferrari entered in the event. The former Scandia 333 SP was raced by Mike Davies and Bill Dollahite. Davies qualified tenth overall and seventh in the Can Am class. The car began smoking and during the pit- stop it was discovered that the it was leaking oil. The car was taken back to the paddock for repairs and returned to finish eighth in the Can Am class.

Tom Milner’s Prototype Technology Group entered two BMW M3s in the GT3 class. The second car was shared by Mark Simo and Canadian Ross Bentley. They “played second fiddle” to their teammates, Auberlen and Said, qualifying third and finishing second in class.

The Panoz Ford GTR-1 was designed and built by Reynard. This carbon fibre chassis was powered by a 6-litre Roush-prepared Ford V8. The motor was mounted in the front but the design allowed it to obtain the benefits of a mid-engined car. In USSRC, the Panoz team fought with Porsche in the GT1 class honours. Panoz won three of the five events during the season but lost the Manufacturers Championship to Porsche by a mere three points.

The Riley & Scott Mk III had a very successful debut in 1995 – winning overall five times. In 1996, this model won the Drivers’ (Wayne Taylor) and Manufacturers’ title. Again in 1997, the car won the Manufacturers Championship and Drivers title (Butch Leitzinger). The early cars were powered by either an Oldsmobile Aurora or Ford engine. However, the most successful Riley & Scott Mk III team was Dyson Racing which used the Ford engine.

POS.	CLASS	DRIVERS	CAR	ENTRANT	LAPS	RETIREMENTS
1	CA	Forbes-Robinson / Schroeder	Riley & Scott Mk III	Dyson Racing	111	-
2	CA	Leitzinger / Weaver	Riley & Scott Mk III	Dyson Racing	111	-
3	GT1	Wallace / Brabham	Panoz GTR-1	Panoz-Visteon Racing	111	-
4	GT1	Boesel / Bernard	Panoz GTR-1	Panoz-Visteon Racing	109	-
5	CA	Schubot / Camferdam	Riley & Scott Mk III	Transatlantic Racing	107	-
6	GT1	Boutsen / Wollek	Porsche 911 GT1 Evo	Champion Motors	106	-
7	CA	Field / Mirro	Riley & Scott Mk III	Intersport Racing	105	-
8	GT1	Robinson / Baldwin	Oldsmobile Aurora	Robinson Racing	104	-
9	GT3	Auberlen / Said	BMW M3	PTG	100	-
10	GT2	Schumacher / Pilgrim	Porsche 911 GT2	Schumacher Racing	100	-
11	GT3	Bentley / Simo	BMW M3	Prototype Technology Group	100	-
12	CA	Downing / Bayliff	Kudzu DLM-4	Downing/Atlanta	99	-
13	GT3	Wagner / Havens	Porsche 911 Carrera	Alex Job Racing	99	-
14	GT3	Law / Marshall	Porsche 911 Carrera	G & W Motorsports	98	-
15	GT3	Marshall / Fitzgerald	Porsche 911 Carrera	G & W Motorsports	96	-
16	GT2	Worth / Sansone	Mazda RX-7	Pettit Racing	94	-
17	GT3	Kitch / White / Petersen	Porsche 911 Carrera	Alex Job Racing	93	-
18	GT2	Stitt / Russell	Porsche 911 Carrera	Team Protosport GT	92	-
19	GT3	Collin / Ezell	Porsche 911	Fabcar/Perfect Power	83	-
20	CA	Brown / Martin	Spice HC94	Brown Racing	72	-
21	CA	Schroeder / Volk	Kudzu DL-4	TRV Motorsport	70	-
22	GT3	Fahlgren / Greer	Mazda RX-7	Swedish Car Specialist	68	-
23	CA	Davies / Dollahite	Ferrari 333 SP	Dollahite Racing	65	-
24	CA	Kendall / Murry	Riley & Scott Mk III	Colucci/Matthews Racing	59	Transmission
25	CA	Matthews / Waddell	Riley & Scott Mk III	Colucci/Matthews Racing	35	Transmission
26	GT1	Lewis / Rice	Mosler Raptor	Mosler Automotive	22	Mechanical

Copyright Notice:

All content (photographs and text) appearing on this website are the exclusive property of © www.zoompics.com and are protected under International copyright laws. The subject matter on this website may not be reproduced, copied, stored or manipulated.