GM Vehicles Set Fastest Lap Time in Seven Classes on First Day of Qualifying at SCCA National Runoffs

TOPEKA, Kan. - General Motors vehicles set the fastest lap in seven different classes on Monday during the first of four days of qualifying to determine the starting order for the 2007 Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) National Championship Runoffs at Heartland Park Topeka this weekend.

Ten-time SCCA National Champion and GM Performance Division executive John Heinricy drove a supercharged Chevrolet Cobalt SS to the head of the Touring 3 (T3) class with a time of 1:49.480 as well as a naturally-aspirated Cobalt SS to the front of the Showroom Stock C (SSC) class with a time of 1:55.578.

“We know it was only day one of provisional qualifying, but we really couldn’t have asked for a better first day,” said GM Performance Division executive director Bob Kruse. “We set the fastest lap in seven classes where GM vehicles compete, so our efforts during the past few years to get many of these vehicles classed and on the track are really paying off.”

Don Knowles, last year’s Showroom Stock B (SSB) champion in a naturally-aspirated Pontiac Solstice Z0K, is this year’s Touring 2 (T2) leader after the first day with a time of 1:46.626 in a turbocharged Pontiac Solstice GXP Club Sport Z0K.

The SSB class was dominated by the Pontiac Solstice Club Sport Z0K in only its second year as Mike Scornavacchi, Ken Flory and William Hagerty set the fastest three laps with times of 1:53.120, 1:53.316 and 1:54.104 respectively.

Andrew Aquilante, who set the pole for last year’s SSB race in a Solstice Z0K, topped the list of five Corvettes at the top of the Touring 1 (T1) class with a time of 1:41.351 as eight Corvettes finished in the Top 10.

Other vehicles finishing with the fastest lap on the 2.5-mile road course included a Corvette driven by Tony Ave in GT1 with a time of 1:31.303 and a Chevy Camaro driven by Philip Smith in American Sedan (AS) with a time of 1:46.128.