2006 Saint Petersburg - World Challenge Touring

2006 marked the seventeenth season for the Sports Car Club of America’s (SCCA) very successful SCCA Pro Racing Speed World Challenge series. With SPEED TV back on board as the primary sponsor, SCCA had developed a successful format that continued to attract competitors and fans.

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

Grand Touring (GT) – The GT class rules accommodate a variety of vehicles from different manufacturers. Engine displacements range from the 2.5-liter turbocharged Volvo S60R 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. A majority of the competitors race the Chevrolet Corvette, Porsche 911 GT3 Cup or Dodge Viper.
Touring Car (TC) – The Touring Cars were 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. 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 is 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 vehicle 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 2006 season – ten-races for the two classes. The Touring cars did not compete at Long Beach and the GT class was not invited to the Denver event. The opening round is in March at Sebring International Raceway, followed by a second event in Florida at Saint Petersburg. The GT category has a race at Long Beach in April and rejoins the Touring Car division for a race weekend at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. In July, the championship takes a trip to the West Coast for an event Infineon Raceway. Competitors stay in the West for races at the new Miller Motorsports Park in Utah. Teams return to the East for events at Road America and Mosport International Raceway. Next, the Touring Cars make a stop at Denver, Colorado. The penultimate round is held at Road Atlanta and the series finale takes place at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

Round two of the 2006 Speed TV World Challenge Series took place at Honda Grand Prix of Saint Petersburg. Thirty-one Touring Car drivers competed in a fifty-minute race around the fourteen-turn 1.800-mile temporary street course.

The pole-sitter, Randy Pobst leads the field of thirty-one Touring Cars through turn-one on the first lap at Saint Petersburg. Behind Pobst, the seventh place qualifier, Chip Herr gets sideways in the STaSIS Audi and the RealTime Acuras of Peter Cunningham and Pierre Kleinubing go wide. But the real action was behind the leaders – an accident eliminated - Eric Curran, Brian Smith, Hugh Stewart and Jim Osborn.

Defending race winner, Randy Pobst drove the No. 73 Mazda 6 prepared by Tri-Point Motorsports. In the season opener at Sebring, he finished in the runner-up position - but Saint Petersburg was a different story. Pobst dominated the weekend – he was quickest in the practice sessions and qualified on the pole by 0.555-seconds. He led the race flag-to-flag and headed to Mid-Ohio with the points lead.

2005 Speed TV World Challenge Touring Car champion, Peter Cunningham drove the No. 1 RealTime prepared Acura TSX. Cunningham qualified third and avoided the melee on the opening lap. A poor start by his teammate, Pierre Kleinubing allowed Cunningham to grab second place. He chased Pobst, but lapped traffic prevented him from getting close enough to pass the leader. Cunningham took the runner-up spot.

Three-time World Challenge Touring Car champion, Pierre Kleinubing drove one of the five Acuras entered by RealTime Racing. At Saint Petersburg, he was the second-fastest qualifier. A poor start caused him to lose second place to Peter Cunningham. He chased Cunningham and despite turning the fastest race lap, he was unable to make the pass. Kleinubing captured the final position on the podium.

Seventh fastest qualifier, Chip Herr made a great start but almost caused a second accident on the first lap when he momentarily lost control of the No. 17 Audi A4T. Herr saved the car and fell in behind the leaders – Randy Pobst, Peter Cunningham and Pierre Kleinubing. The driver of Qvale/STaTIS Engineering was challenged by the Mazda 6 of Charles Espenlaub but prevailed and finished fourth.

Charles Espenlaub was looking for redemption at Saint Petersburg. In the season opener at Sebring, Espenlaub qualified the Tindol Motorsport Mazda 6 second and finished in the top-ten but at the end of the event, he was disqualified. For round two, he qualified fourth and was involved in the starting line incident with Eric Curran. Espenlaub’s Mazda was damaged but he was able to continue and finish fifth.

At Sebring, the No. 2 Turner Motorsports BMW 325i was driven by Bill Auberlen. Auberlen started and finished first in round one. Team principal, Will Turner handled the driving duties at Saint Petersburg. Turner was eighth quickest in qualifying and avoided the start line incident which claimed four cars. After almost fifty-minutes of racing, he was in sixth place.

The highest finishing rookie was Jeff Courtney. Courtney drove one of three Audi A4T entered by STaSIS Engineering. He was gridded a respectable thirteenth for the start of the race. At the checkered flag, Courtney improved sixth positions and moved into the top-ten to finish in seventh place.

Difficulties before qualifying prevented Touring Car veteran, Lance Stewart from recording a time. Driving the Circuit City/Kicker/Eclipse sponsored Mazda 6, Stewart was gridded thirty-first in the thirty-four car field. During the race, he advanced seventeen positions and finished sixteenth. Stewart’s efforts earned him the Sunoco Hard Charger Award.

Rookie, Billy Revis was not entered in round one at Sebring. The driver of the No. 14 Motorsports Connections BMW 325 qualified thirty-first at Saint Petersburg but retired on lap-25 with a mechanical issue and was classified twenty-first. Despite this disappointing outcome, Revis won the B&M Sport Shifters Holeshot Award for advancing nine positions on the first lap.

FINISH	START	DRIVER	CAR	LAPS	RETIREMENTS
1	1	Randy Pobst	Mazda 6	29	-
2	3	Peter Cunningham	Acura TSX	29	-
3	2	Pierre Kleinubing	Acura TSX	29	-
4	7	Chip Herr	Audi A4	29	-
5	4	Charles Espenlaub	Mazda 6	29	-
6	8	Will Turner	BMW 325i	29	-
7	13	Jeff Courtney	Audi A4	29	-
8	10	Brandon Davis	Acura TSX	29	-
9	16	Freddy Baker	Audi A4	29	-
10	14	Nick Esayian	Acura RSX	29	-
11	17	Kuno Wittmer	Mercedes-Benz C230	29	-
12	23	Christian Miller	Volkswagen Jetta	28	-
13	19	Dan Aweida	Dodge SRT-4	28	-
14	27	Rob Holland	Dodge SRT-4	28	-
15	24	Mark Hein	Honda Civic Si	28	-
16	33	Lance Stewart	Mazda 6	28	-
17	30	Mary Katharine	Mazda Protege	28	-
18	28	Karl Poeltl	BMW 325i	27	-
19	26	Charlie Putman	Mazda 6	27	-
20	29	Paul Goldman	BMW 325i	26	-
21	31	Billy Revis	BMW 325i	25	Mechanical
22	12	James Clay	BMW 325i	25	-
23	11	Justin Hall	BMW 325Ci	20	Mechanical
24	22	Phil Parlato	BMW 325i	20	Mechanical
25	20	Justin Hall	BMW 325Ci	20	-
26	9	Seth Thomas	BMW 325i	13	Mechanical
27	5	Jeff Altenburg	Mazda 6	4	Mechanical
28	18	Brian Smith	Dodge SRT-4	0	Accident
29	25	Hugh Stewart	Dodge SRT-4	0	Accident
30	21	Jim Osborn	BMW 325Ci	0	Accident
31	6	Eric Curran	Acura RSX	0	Accident
32	15	Dino Crescentini	Mazda 6	0	Did Not Start
33	32	Henry Brosnaham	Mazda Protege	0	Did Not Start
34	34	Michael Flynn	Subaru WRX	0	Did Not Start

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