Grand American Series
Mexico City

RACE REPORT

David made the #80 too wide to pass the last 8 laps of the race. On the last lap, Andy Lally and David made contact twice with David coming out ahead and assuring Craig of the title.

Our pit crew beat the factory Pontiac GTO crew by 18 seconds. They have performed all year and when it counted they did it again.

I couldn't be more proud of Craig, David and the entire GT crew. It has been a true team effort all year and Craig's championship is well deserved. The team chemistry is evident and Synergy is an appropriate team name because our competition had more resources but we still won.

In post qualifying tech inspection the #64 factory Pontiac GTO restrictor was too big (by .007 inch) so they were moved to the back of the starting grid. Subsequently, it was determined the #65 GTO inlet restrictor was also too big and it went to the rear.

The #81 was back for this race, repaired from the Mid-Ohio crash. It took a week-long thrash to get it ready in time to load on the transporter. There was no time to track test it in Virginia.

Consequently, there were several problems with the fuel system, ABS and data acquisition. Most of these were solved by race time. David did the initial setup, which were mostly shock changes to suit the bumpy track.

Will Nonamaker did a high 1:57 in the warm-up session and Craig did a 1:56 during the race in the #81 car.

Porsche, bmw, Pontiac gto comparison - 2005 rules
At Mexico City the true potential of the BMW was exhibited again. Tom Millner wasn't there to keep it under wraps, his engine and chassis guys were there to provide a smooth transition to Sigalsport and Bill Auberlen could drive it as fast as it would go. It was ½ second faster than the Pontiac GTO's. The #14 and #80 Porsches were close to each other in performance, but were one second slower than the Pontiac GTO's on new tires and ½ second slower on old tires. The Pontiac GTO's seemed to suffer most from the 7500-foot track elevation.

RACE
#80 started 2 nd next to the #05 BMW. By the third lap the #64 Pontiac GTO had moved from last to 4 th and the GT order was 05-80-14-64-27-85-65-81. On lap 9, #80 was +11 seconds on #65 and +2 seconds on #64 who was now 3 rd . The #05 BMW was pulling away at about ¾ second per lap. By lap 15, the #64 was right behind Craig and on lap 18 he got by. The #64 started holding Craig up in all the slow corners which allowed the #65 to narrow our advantage from 8 seconds to 4 seconds. On lap 40, the #64 early braked Craig and pitted. Craig avoided contact but now the #65 was within 1-1/2 seconds. On lap 46, we got a fuel stumble and pitted immediately. Craig out, David in, fuel and tires. On the next lap #65 pitted, bunting out, Lally in. Our #80 “in” lap, pit stop and “out” lap was 18 seconds faster than the #65. On lap 52, the #81 pitted, Will Nonnamaker out, Craig in, fuel and tires. With Lally driving, the #65 Pontiac GTO was about ½ second per lap faster than #80, and our lead was down to +10 seconds on lap 60 and +4 seconds on lap 70.

By lap 76, the #65 was right behind David and it stayed that way until the checker on lap 82. On the last lap, at the end of the esses, Lally ran up over the curb on the inside and knocked David out of the way and got by. At the end of the back straight David returned the favor, got the position back and held it to the checker. The finish order was 64-05-80-65-88-14-81-27.

HARRY HAGGARD
Engineer - GT