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BEDFORD, MA (1 August 2007) Driver Don Knowles celebrated the Sports Car Club of America club racing debut of the Pontiac Solstice GXP and the new sponsorship from iRacing.com of the Phoenix Performance-entered car with a dramatic charge from the back of the field to second place at this past weekend's SCCA Nationals at Connecticut's Lime Rock Park.
"Given that the car hadn't turned a lap before the first practice session on Friday, this is a good first result," said Scott McKee, vice president of marketing for iRacing.com, which is developing an auto racing simulation of unprecedented authenticity. "Our sponsorship agreement with Joe Aquilante and his company, Phoenix Performance, which grew out of a similar program last year, parallels the development by iRacing.com of extremely accurate sim versions of both the Z0K Club Sport and the new, higher performance turbocharged GXP model of the Pontiac Solstice," McKee said. "Don won the SCCA Runoffs for us in Showroom Stock B last fall at Heartland Park. We are going to be involved this year as he and the Phoenix Performance team go for another national championship."
Knowles qualified second on the Touring 2 class grid, but a minor teething problem dropped the three-time club-racing national champion to dead last halfway through the first lap. "The car lost power for a few seconds," Knowles recalled after the race. "It was just a few seconds, but that was enough. Everyone passed me. I knew I had to keep cool and not do anything rash. So I just focused on driving as quickly and consistently as I could."
It was a strategy that worked well. Knowles turned quick laps with metronomic consistency. Other than when he was held up by a backmarker for a couple of laps, Knowles picked off one car after another, passing the T2 pole-sitting Lotus Elise of David Brand for second place late in the race. Knowles finished 18 seconds behind Bill Ziegler, who cruised to victory in his Mitsubishi Evo.
"I lost some time behind that Camaro, until he spun at Big Bend," Knowles said. "I was lucky that the guys I was chasing got caught in some traffic that same lap, and that helped me a lot. On the other hand, I'm not sure I could have beaten the Evo anyway. That's really a fast car. But for the first time out, I think we had a great result."
Knowles said that one factor contributing to his good result in Saturday's race was the three hours that he'd spent on track earlier in the week conducting a driver training event. "You never really get enough practice time in any car you race," Knowles said. "I don't think anybody else in the race had done as much on-track driving as I had this week; I know that helped me with the Solstice."
Phoenix Performance has placed orders for a total of eight copies of the club-racing version of the Solstice GXP, with plans to sell them to racers. Aquilante noted that while the Solstice GXP has excellent competition potential, success with the car will require a driver who understands its particular driving requirements. "The top Formula One teams use simulators to help their drivers prepare for racing," Aquilante said. "Most people don't have access to the McLaren or Ferrari simulators or unlimited track time, but iRacing.com will have an excellent and cost-effective solution for racers in other professional and amateur series. With the inclusion of both the standard and GXP models in the Sim, Solstice racers will be among the first to benefit."
The next outing for Knowles and the iRacing.com Solstice GXP is at Virginia International Raceway, August 1012. The SCCA Runoffs are scheduled for October 1014 at Heartland Park Topeka.
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