SRO America
Series Champions
World Challenge Concludes 2010 By Honoring Champions In Salt Lake City SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (October 7, 2010) -- The World Challenge Championships concluded the 2010 season on Sunday night with a Champions' Banquet in the Grand Ballroom of the ...
Published: Oct 9, 2010, 5:08 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
World Challenge Concludes 2010 By Honoring Champions In Salt Lake City
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (October 7, 2010) -- The World Challenge Championships concluded the 2010 season on Sunday night with a Champions' Banquet in the Grand Ballroom of the Grand American Hotel in Salt Lake City.
Tom Hnatiw, the voice of World Challenge, hosted the gala that gathered competitors, teams, family and friends to honor Randy Pobst, Peter Cunningham, and Robert Stout as the newly-crowned Drivers' Champions, and Volvo, Acura and Scion as the newly-crowned Manufacturers' Champions.
Pobst took his fourth career GT Drivers' Championship this season, and, along with teammate Andy Pilgrim, helped Volvo to its first Manufacturers' Championship behind the wheel of the No. 6 K-PAX Racing Volvo S60. Pobst took the title on the strength of four wins and eight pole positions through the season, also earning his team the Team Championship.
Pobst credited his team for his success throughout the season.
"I'm an airhead," Pobst admitted to laughs on the podium. "These people, over at K-PAX racing, know when I put my helmet on and get in the race car, all of a sudden I'm a different person. It's up to K-PAX Racing to take me by the hands and lead me around. A special thanks to the families of everyone on this team, because the amount of work that these guys put in is incredible. That's the effort that goes into this, and I love them for it."
Cunningham essentially rewrote the record books in the inaugural season of GTS competition. With World Challenge single-season records of eight wins and 10 pole positions, Cunningham extended his all-time best marks of 40 wins and 42 pole positions. His sixth Drivers' Championship is also a World Challenge record, as is the ninth Manufacturers' Championship to which he and teammate Nick Esayian helped Acura. Those honors added up to a Team Championship for the No. 43 Acura/RealTime Racing Acura TSX entry.
"I have to thank Acura for 23 or 24 years of being with Honda and Acura, I couldn't do it without the equipment that they give us," Cunningham said while accepting his awards. "Of course, the RealTime gang. Thank you to those guys for their tireless efforts to make these Acuras handle so well and go so fast."
The 18-year-old Stout took the Touring Car Championship by storm, sweeping the Drivers' Championship, the GameStreamer Rookie-of-the-Year award, and helping Scion to a Manufacturers' Championship. Stout was the youngest race winner in Series history when he won at Long Beach, and four wins later became the youngest Champion in Series history. The No. 18 DG-Spec/Scion/Lucas Oil/TRD Scion tC team also captured the Touring Car Team Championship.
"I have so many people to thank for making this such a great season," Stout said. "The DG-Spec team, Scion, Lucas Oil, Rock Star, I couldn't have done it without that help. This season was so great and I'm already looking forward to next year with all of this great competition."
Stout also won the Sunoco Hard Charger award for advancing 59 overall positions throughout the season.
In addition to the Champions awards, all of the top drivers in the series were given special recognition. Fred Roberts and Ernie Jakubowski took home the GT and GTS GameStreamer Rookie-of-the-Year Awards, respectively. The teams of GMG Racing, RealTime Racing and XOWii Racing took home the Crew of the Year trophies in their respective classes. The Crew of the Year award is voted on by the teams in the paddock.
Two special awards were given during the course of the evening. The Jim Cook Memorial Trophy is given annually in honor of James Edwin Cook (1939-1985) to an entrant or diver who has made significant contributions to the overall success of World Challenge through promotional activities and a consistent display of good character and sportsmanship. This year's winner, Eric Meyer, joined previous winners Pilgrim, WC Vision co-chair Bob Woodhouse, and WC Vision Director of Operations Scott Bove on the stage to receive the award. The Zimmermann Cup, an annual award presented in the memory of multi-time Championship winning crew chief Jerome Zimmermann (1967-2003) to the team member that best exemplifies the similar passion, dedication and success that Zimmermann had in World Challenge went to Rick Maxwell, of Woodhouse Performance.
Prior to the awards presentation, WC Vision co-chairs Woodhouse and Cunningham, and SCCA Pro Racing President Bob Wildberger each addressed those in attendance. While no official announcements were made, each discussed the successful season after off season changes, citing the cooperation between WC Vision, SCCA Pro Racing, and the staff and competitors and hinted at more positive changes for 2011.
Stan Chen, of Toyo Tires, was presented with a helmet autographed by each driver in the World Challenge Championships as a token of the dedication that Toyo showed during its 10-season run as the exclusive tire supplier to the Championship.
-source: scca pro racing
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Reading: Robert Hight preview
Next article M2: Malaysia GP: JiR preview
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Fred Roberts
The Big Picture 2013-07-17
General
General
The Big Picture 2013-07-17
Huge, 55-Car Field On Tap for Cadillac Mid-Ohio Grand Prix Presented by StopTech
SRO America
SRO America
Huge, 55-Car Field On Tap for Cadillac Mid-Ohio Grand Prix Presented by StopTech
Pobst Tops Practice Charts at Cadillac Mid-Ohio Grand Prix; Esayian, Herbert Lead Classes
SRO America
SRO America
Pobst Tops Practice Charts at Cadillac Mid-Ohio Grand Prix; Esayian, Herbert Lead Classes
More from
RealTime Racing
Cameron to make Acura debut in an NSX
Endurance
Endurance
Laguna Seca
Cameron to make Acura debut in an NSX
Legge joins Acura, as marque reveals IMSA, PWC lineups
IMSA
IMSA
Legge joins Acura, as marque reveals IMSA, PWC lineups
O’Connell: “We’ll need some luck” to win fifth PWC title
SRO America
SRO America
Laguna Seca
O’Connell: “We’ll need some luck” to win fifth PWC title
Latest news
Gibbs, Spire and Gabehart argue over contempt and injunction
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Charlotte II
2 h
Gibbs, Spire and Gabehart argue over contempt and injunction
William Byron to run Jeff Gordon throwback Axalta scheme at Phoenix
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Charlotte II
2 h
William Byron to run Jeff Gordon throwback Axalta scheme at Phoenix
Alexander Rossi takes over IR-28 testing as IndyCar pushes new chassis to the limit at Sebring
IndyCar
Indy IndyCar 3 h
Alexander Rossi takes over IR-28 testing as IndyCar pushes new chassis to the limit at Sebring
Daniel Suarez will return to Spire Motorsports for 2027 NASCAR Cup season
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Charlotte II
3 h
Daniel Suarez will return to Spire Motorsports for 2027 NASCAR Cup season
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe