Sunoco Corvette Closes the Gap to Porsche at Grand AM Cup Phoenix Race.

Mike Weinberg and Jeff Altenburg finish seventh in the Rockland Standard Gear team Corvette

Phoenix, AZ - (May 7, 2003) - Dave Lacey and Greg Wilkins took home the first place trophy for the first time in the three year history of the Grand Am Cup. The winning duo drove the #7 Doncaster Racing Porche GT3 Cup to hold off a strong charge from the Powell Motorsport Sunoco Corvette.

Devon Powell took the pole position in the #11 Sunoco / Rockland Standard Gear Powell Motorsport Corvette. The pole position marked a return to competitiveness for the Powell Motorsport team which had struggled to find speed to match the Porsches in the first couple of events. A weight adjustment before the Phoenix weekend helped to even out the competitiveness between the Corvettes and Porsches.

As the race started, Powell held the lead until the first pit-stop. While Devon was able to maintain the lead, the following Porsches all were giving strong chase. Without a caution the entire race, the teams made their pit-stops during the middle third of the race. When Powell pitted on lap 72 he was one of the last cars to pit for fuel. Doug Goad took over the controls and the race to the end began with 22 second deficit, Corvette #11 to Porsche #7.

By lap 100 of the eventual 131-lap race, Goad had cut the lead to only ten seconds. With thirty laps remaining, it appeared as if Goad had a shot at catching the #7 Porsche from behind. Lacey, who was finishing for Wilkins, was battling a push caused by old tires, but the Canadian driver put his head down and drove towards the win. After 31 more laps of chasing Lacey, Goad could only reduce the margin to 5.67 seconds. As the cars came around for their cool-off lap, Lacey celebrated the win with donuts on the back straight.

"Our pit stop was slow" Doug Goad commented after the race " Devon had used a lumbar support cushion for the first time, and we accidentally left it in the seat in the stop, and of course when I got in we could not get the seat belts done up. It only took a few seconds longer to figure it out, but that was the difference between winning and losing"

On the podium Lacey commented on a tough fight: "I was pushing it as hard as I could. The idea was really to try and save the car early and just push it as hard as we could at the end. I passed the #11 just prior to the hairpin going back on the straightaway," said Lacey. "We had set up the car with a little bit of push in it and the car sort of came into itself during Greg's stint. He made a call just to put rears on, and at the end of my stint the car was pushing quite badly; I think the fronts were just done."

Doncaster Racing's other entry, #119 Porsche GT3 Cup that entered the race with the points lead, took third place overall.

Mike Weinberg's steady race in the #02 Powell Rockland Standard Gear Corvette was hampered by handling problems in the second part of the race. "Both Deovn and Mike said the track was very slippery," Jeff Altenberg reported, "so Crew Chief Troy Flis changed the shock settings at the pit-stop to improve the handling. The change did not work and we were pretty much lucky to salvage 7th place."

The Powell #11 Corvette races with Sunoco Ultra 94 ethanol enhanced gasoline, available throughout Ontario, Canada - the highest octane on the street.

The Powell #02 Corvette races with sponsorship from internationally recognised standard transmission experts Rockland Standard Gear. Rockland is a standard transmission re-manufacturing and wholesale parts distribution business located near New York City, USA.

The #11 Z06 Corvette also races with Chemcraft International Inc. Chemcraft is a North American leader in the supply of unique, high performance and environmental friendly industrial coatings for the wood finishing industry. The Chemcraft Wood Coatings Group are headquartered in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and Port Hope, Ontario with active plants and warehouses across USA and Canada.

Sunoco is a subsidiary of Suncor Energy, a Canadian integrated energy company. In addition to a refinery in Sarnia, Sunoco has a network of more than 300 Sunoco-branded retail and Fleet Fuel cardlock sites and is 50 per cent co-owner of over 200 Pioneer and UPI retail sites. Sunoco manufactures, distributes and markets transportation fuels, heating oils and petrochemicals primarily in Ontario. The company markets natural gas to commercial and residential consumers and offers consumers Sunoco products and services online through the company's web site at Sunoco.ca

Contact:

Rob King
Brand Manager, Sunoco Ultra 94
Suncor Energy Products.
416-733-7020
[email protected]
Sunoco.ca

Bob Maresco,
Rockland Standard Gear Public Relations
1- 800-227-1523
[email protected]

John Powell
Powell Motorsport
905 986-2277
e-mail [email protected]
Powellmotorsport.com