Craig Stanton Takes Grand-Am Cup Points Lead After Fourth-Round

MONT-TREMBLANT, Quebec, Canada, May 23, 2004 � Craig Stanton, Long Beach, California, came into the fourth-round of the 2004 Grand-Am Cup tied for the lead in the series' points chase and three-for-three in victories. He leaves the Canadian province of Quebec in sole control of the drivers' point's battle. Stanton started Saturday's Mont-Tremblant 250 fifth driving the No. 44 TheRaceSite.com Racing Porsche 996 and drove approximately half the three hour race. He handed driving chores over to teammate David Murry, Cumming, Ga., who took the checkered flag in fifth. Stanton entered today's race at Le Circuit du Mont-Tremblant tied for the points lead with former teammate Terry Borcheller. He closed his day as Grand Sport (GS) class points leader by a substantial margin when Borcheller's effort, as well as all of the top-three finishers, failed post-race technical inspection. Those teams lost their points but maintained their final finishing position based on Grand American Sports Car Series rules for the Grand-Am Cup division. Stanton leads the points battle with 131 points to Borcheller's 108.The race was no cruise for Stanton and Murry. The duo had 100 pounds of weight added to their Nonnamaker family-owned Porsche after the car's dominating performance in the first three races of the season. The additional weight was magnified by poor luck on pit strategy when Stanton was forced to bring the Porsche in for its only stop of the day under green flag conditions. He turned the wheel over to Murry who, two laps later, saw the yellow flag thrown giving the competition the opportunity to make their stops under caution. Despite a gallant effort, the team was not able to make-up the difference on track.Craig Stanton: about his race: “The extra weight on the car forced us to really use the car up. This car is worn-out now. To keep up with our pace we really had to force the issue on every lap. It was tough out there. David got spun around a couple of times and we lost our ABS but, other than that we just motored right along. We got a little hosed on our pit strategy. I think if we had come in on the first yellow we would have been nose-to-nose with Terry. Because of the weight, our car was definitely better when we could keep the momentum going. When we would get a yellow it would really hurt us. We had to build that momentum up again. The traffic was a lot of fun but there were some situations where the guys were pushing a tick too far. The car was prepped very well by TheRaceSite.com crew. We just didn't have much for our competitors today but we got a top-five finish. The Nonnamakers did a great job. This is a great place to race. I think it's the most beautiful track we run.” about the championship chase: “It's great to have the championship to ourselves for sure. It's disappointing not to have that fourth win today but to walk out of here with the top spot all to ourselves gives us some breathing room to get this additional weight figured out.” For more on Craig Stanton please visit www.craigstanton.com. For more on TheRaceSite.com Racing team, please visit www.theracesiteracing.com. ###