SRO America

Wright withdraws Sebring SVWC GT entry

After an eventful debut in the Speedvision World Challenge GT series at Texas Motor Speedway, Caroline B. Wright will withdraw her Grand Sport Racing Corvette C4 entry at Sebring due to technical problems. Practice for the race at Sebring was ...

Edited: Apr 15, 2002, 11:45 PM

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After an eventful debut in the Speedvision World Challenge GT series at Texas Motor Speedway, Caroline B. Wright will withdraw her Grand Sport Racing Corvette C4 entry at Sebring due to technical problems. Practice for the race at Sebring was scheduled less than nine days after the TMS event. Many teams are finding the short turn-around time difficult.

"I am very disappointed that I will not be able to compete at Sebring," stated Wright. "I love that track because it is very challenging. However, there were too many issues for the team too resolve with the car in too short of a period of time to make the event. Our number one priority is to properly prepare the Grand Sport Racing #08 and #04 C5 cars for G.J. Mennen and Bobby Sak."

Caroline planned to film more file footage for her segments in a new Speedvision car enthusiast program as well as providing live on-track commentary for the spectators during the race. Filming will be postponed until a later event. Wright will return to the announcer booth with World Challenge track announcer Tom Hnatiw.

Wright's practice and qualifying efforts were plagued by braking problems. After last minute adjustments, Wright made the grid in the 28th spot.

"I knew it would be a tough and aggressive race, especially with so many slow corners," explained Wright. "The Grand Sport Racing Corvette C4 is a good strong car, but you have to have the WHOA to go with the GO. I had a great start, avoided first lap chaos and shot up to 19th. Similarly, I had a great nose-to-tail battle with Culver's BMW and Safar's Saleen Mustang. We swapped positions in and out of the corners over and over again. About that time, I started experiencing a miss in the engine that hurt my straight-away speed and the brake pedal was getting progressively softer. Fortunately, the car got off the corners nicely so I was still able to maintain position."

During the first full-course yellow, Wright made a mandatory call to the pits to repair her brake lights. The crew also attended to the engine miss. Meanwhile, via a radio tied into the track PA system, she provided the spectators with more detail about the events of the race. She returned to the race at full song. At lap 26, Caroline lost all brakes going into Turn 3, where she made heavy contact with Phil McClure's C5. Another incident occurred simultaneously at turn one. The race ended under a full-course yellow. In spite of a pit stop for repairs, Wright moved up to finish 21st.

"I'm looking forward to my next start. The standing start is the most intense start I have ever experienced. The level of competition and the quality of cars is amazing. Before driving this series, there was no way I could adequately describe the racing. Now that I have been in the hot seat, I believe my commentary will be much more detailed and informed. I look forward to sharing that experience with the fans and jumping into the fray again."

-gofazt

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