2007 Toronto - 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.

Round six of the 2007 World Challenge season for the GT class was held at Toronto’s eleven-turn 1.755-mile street course. The K-Pax Porsche 911 GT3s exit the last turn as they prepare to line-up for the standing start. They are followed by another eighteen GT competitors. In wet conditions, the temporary race track would take its toll on the field. Four retirements were attributed to crashes.

Randy Pobst started from the pole in the K-PAX Racing Porsche 911 GT3. Pobst led the thirty-one lap race flag-to-flag and won by a margin of 3.495-seconds. This was his second consecutive win of the season – he was victorious a month earlier at Watkins Glen. As a result of the win, Pobst took point lead in the GT Drivers’ Championship.

Local favourite, Ron Fellows, was making his second start of the season for Cadillac. Fellows first race was at Long Beach where he qualified on the pole and was leading until the car stopped with electrical problems. At Toronto, he qualified the No. 16 CTS-V third and moved to second when Pobst’s teammate, Michael Galati, spun a second time. Fellows was unable to catch Pobst and took the checkered flag in second.

Lou Gigliotti was on a fast lap during qualifying when a brake bias issue caused him to hit the concrete barriers at the end of Lakeshore straight. Gigliotti was not aware that he had bent the wheel which caused the tire to deflate. Entering the right-hand corner at the end of Lakeshore it became apparent that something was wrong - the session was red-flagged. Gigliotti did not get a qualifying time but had better luck in the race – he started last but finished ninth.

It was an eventful race for Michael Galati. The driver of the No. 22 K-PAX Racing Porsche 911 GT3 qualified second. At the start, Galati chased his teammate Randy Pobst but could not catch him. He spun in the process but did not surrender second until he had an incident with Rob Foster driving a Dodge Viper. Despite a third close call, Galati brought the damaged car home in third.

Brian Kubinski had a strong qualifying effort. Driving the No. 12 Black Dog Racing Chevrolet Corvette he started sixth – in fact, Kubinski had a number of top-ten qualifying efforts but Toronto was his best. Unfortunately, he sustained crash damage and retired after 23-laps.

Tommy Archer drove the No.5 Mopar Dodge Viper. Archer started and finished fifth. Despite these numbers, his race was not without some excitement. He was sixth on the last lap but passed Cadillac driver Lawson Aschenbach for fifth at the checkered flag.

Defending GT champion, Lawson Aschenbach, qualified the No. 1 Cadillac CTS-V eighth. But as a result of the damp conditions, Aschenbach decided to change from dry to wet tires and started the race from the pit-lane. He moved through the field and was running fifth until the last lap when he was passed by the Viper of Tommy Archer.

The World Challenge GT podium at Toronto. On the left is second place finisher and factory Corvette driver Ron Fellows and at the right Michael Galati who captured third which was his first podium of the season. Between these two is the winner Randy Pobst whose flag-to-flag victory would give him the points lead in the Drivers’ Championship.

FINISH	START	DRIVER	CAR	LAPS	RETIREMENTS
1	1	Randy Pobst	Porsche 911 GT3	31	-
2	3	Ron Fellows	Cadillac CTS-V	31	-
3	2	Michael Galati	Porsche 911 GT3	31	-
4	4	Andy Pilgrim	Cadillac CTS-V	31	-
5	5	Tommy Archer	Dodge Viper	31	-
6	8	Lawson Aschenbach	Cadillac CTS-V	31	-
7	7	Eric Curran	Chevrolet Corvette	31	-
8	9	Doug Peterson	Chevrolet Corvette	30	-
9	20	Lou Gigliotti	Chevrolet Corvette	30	-
10	10	James Sofronas	Porsche 911 GT3	30	-
11	14	Jeff Courtney	Dodge Viper	30	-
12	12	Rob Foster	Dodge Viper	30	-
13	17	Jeffrey Robbins	Dodge Viper	30	-
14	19	Nick Majors	Dodge Viper	29	-
15	15	Dane Moxlow	Pontiac GTO	29	-
16	13	Cindi Lux	Dodge Viper	28	-
17	6	Brian Kubinski	Chevrolet Corvette	23	Crash
18	16	Scotty B. White	Dodge Viper	22	Crash
19	18	John Bourassa	Porsche 911 Turbo	19	Crash
20	11	Michael McCann	Dodge Viper	10	Crash
21	21	Sonny Whelen	Chevrolet Corvette	0	DNS

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