Sears Point: GT qualifying notes

Gigliotti Leads All-Corvette Front Row in SCCA SPEED GT Qualifying at Infineon

SONOMA, Calif. (July 16, 2005) -- Driving the No. 28 LG Pro Long Tube Header Chevrolet Corvette C6, Lou Gigliotti, of Dallas, Texas, set a new qualifying record with a time of 1:39.581 (91.463 mph) and earned his second-consecutive SCCA Pro Racing SPEED World Challenge GT pole position Saturday morning for this afternoon's race at the Infineon Grand Prix of Sonoma Presented by Ravenswood Winery, Round Seven of the 2005 SPEED GT Championship.

SPEED GT practice leader Leighton Reese, of Minnetonka, Minn., completed the all-Corvette front row by qualifying second in the No. 6 Banner Engineering Chevrolet Corvette C6, 0.4-sec. off Gigliotti's pace. Wolf Henzler, of Nurtingen, Germany, was third in the No. 55 Applied Materials/Farnbacher Loles Porsche 911 Cup.

The pole was the second in as many events for Gigliotti, who also took the top spot into last round's SPEED GT race at Lime Rock Park. He wound up seventh in that race after an oil-induced spin, and said that if he could avoid another instance like that, he liked his chances in Saturday's race.

"Now we just have to carry it through. No bad luck, no parts from other cars," Gigliotti said. "The car is good. We've always been good here, so we've just got to put together a good, solid race. If we can get a good start and lead, I think we can control the race."

"This track is really hard to pass on except at turns seven and eleven. But, we're good coming out of six, which takes care of seven, and we're good out of ten, which takes care of eleven."

James Sofronas, of Newport Beach, Calif., qualified fourth in the No. 14 Greek Brothers Rcg/GMG/Tecmark Porsche 911 Cup, and Tony Gaples, of Libertyville, Ill., completed the top five in the No. 34 Kleinschmidt Inc./Blackdog Racing Corvette C6.

The 25-lap race is scheduled to begin at 1:05 p.m. Saturday afternoon and will be broadcast Sunday, July 17, on SPEED Channel at 10:30 a.m. All times are Pacific.

-scca