Sears Point: TeamRTR race notes

Nissan on Podium for Third Time

July 18, 2004 - Sonoma, California - Peter Cunningham gave TeamRTR's Nissan Sentra SE-R Spec V its third podium finish of the SPEED Touring Car Championship season Saturday at Northern California's Infineon Raceway.

The two-race weekend featured Rounds Four and Five of the 10-race season, and included live TV coverage of Sunday's event on the SPEED Channel.

However, a sudden oil fitting leak in that race prevented the Nissan from improving on Saturday's effort on the 2.53-mile road course. The car was retired on the fifth lap.

Cunningham fell to sixth in the Touring Car points going into the coming weekend's race at Portland International Raceway. Nissan remains third in the Manufacturers' Championship points chase, at the season's halfway mark.

"I'm happy with the finish in Saturday's race," he said, "it was our third podium in a row for the NISMO Sentra, but it was frustrating watching Sunday's race from the pit lane."

Cunningham qualified fifth for Saturday's 23-lap race, moved to fourth on lap five, dropped back to fifth through lap 18, and moved up to third on lap 19 for his podium finish.

"The TeamRTR guys worked their tails off all weekend," he said, alluding to the double race format, "and with precious little time to prepare for next weekend's race, they won't be catching up on their sleep anytime soon!"

The World Challenge crews have only four days to regroup and travel to Portland as on-track activities start there on Thursday.

The TeamRTR Nissan Sentra SE-R effort is sponsored by Nissan North America, Inc., NISMO, Red Line Oil, Eibach Springs, BOSCH, Sport Compact Car, Sparco, Brembo and Memphis Car Audio.

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