St. Pete: GT Friday afternoon notes

HENZLER TAKES TOP SPOT IN ST. PETE SPEED GT PRACTICE

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (April 1, 2005) -- It may have been April Fools Day, but German Wolf Henzler was not fooling around, topping the rest of the SCCA Pro Racing SPEED World Challenge GT field by nearly a second in practice for Sunday's Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Round Two race.

For the fourth time in as many races in the series, dating back to the two races in which he participated in 2004, Henzler put his No. 55 Applied Materials/Jongbloed Racing Wheels Porsche 911 GT3 Cup on the top of the speed charts leading into qualifying with a fast time of 1:19.156 (81.864 mph).

"The GT3 Cup is so well balanced, which is an advantage on a course like this," Henzler said. "The Caddies, Vipers and other Porsches will be strong, but we are looking forward to a great weekend.

"I enjoy driving on street courses and I like this track very much. It reminds me of the street circuit at Monaco, which is one of my favorites."

Lou Gigliotti, of Dallas, Texas, turned in impressive runs both sessions and finished second fastest on the day, posting a 1:20.059 (80.940 mph) in the No. 28 LG Pro Long Tube Headers Corvette C6.

Coming off a season-opening win at Sebring, Tommy Archer, of Duluth, Minn., also showed a strong effort Friday, winding up third in the No. 1 c3controls/3R-Racing Dodge Viper after running a time of 1:20.488 (80.508 mph).

Max Papis, of Miami, Fla., made it four different cars in the top four by nabbing fourth with a lap time of 1:20.599 (80.398 mph), while Leighton Reese, of Minnetonka, Minn., drove his way into the fifth slot in the No. 6 Banner Engineering Corvette C6 (1:20.634, 80.363 mph).

Qualifying for SCCA SPEED GT is scheduled for 30 minutes Saturday, beginning at 12:15 p.m. (Eastern). Sunday's SPEED GT race is slated to begin at 9:45 a.m.

All of the SCCA SPEED World Challenge action can be followed via live timing and scoring at www.world-challenge.com.

-scca pro racing-