Barron looks to Laguna Seca

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ATLANTIC CHAMPIONSHIP TO BE DECIDED IN SEASON FINALE AT THE TOYOTA GRAND PRIX OF MONTEREY

MONTEREY, Calif. (Sept. 2) - - It has been said that if anything can happen, it probably will. No adage could be more fitting for what is expected to be a fierce, two-driver, down-to-the-wire showdown for the 1997 KOOL/TOYOTA Atlantic Championship on Saturday, Sept. 6, at Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, Calif. The 28-lap/62.664-mile/100.826-km sprint around the 2.238-mile/3.60-km, 11-turn road course -- a premier support race for the PPG CART World Series Toyota Grand Prix of Monterey which will drop the green flag the next day at 12:00 noon PT -- is scheduled for a "standing start" green light at 3:30 p.m. PT. This will be the eighth consecutive year* that the Atlantic championship, which is sanctioned by SCCA Pro Racing, has concluded its season at picturesque Laguna Seca. The stage was set for end-of-the-year heroics at Vancouver in round 11, when Memo Gidley, of San Rafael, Calif., did everything humanly possible to stay in the title hunt against series leader and Lynx Racing teammate Alex Barron, of Vista, Calif. Gidley needed a maximum 22 points available from a single race including 20 points for a win, one bonus point for a pole position, and one bonus point for leading the most laps. He also needed Barron to finish third place or lower. When round 11 concluded, Gidley had won the pole, won the race, led the most laps, and collected 22 points. Barron finished in third place, thereby failing to collect the Atlantic championship, but still giving him a 20-point cushion entering the 12th and final Atlantic race in 1997, 156-136. Gidley