The 2009 race season for Team StopTech started with a “Podium or Pole Position” pledge. The company already had a pretty strong race heritage, but the prediction was that this was going to be the best season for StopTech equipped cars in the SCCA SPEED and KONI Challenge circuits, unofficially known as Team StopTech.
The season is just beyond the halfway mark and Team StopTech has already amassed 16 podium finishes or pole-position earning qualifying runs. The latest was Jason Saini scoring the checkered flag at the Autobahn Grand Prix this weekend for Tri-Point, but the season highlights keep rolling in.
While a “podium finish” means third place or better, Team StopTech has enjoyed a fair share of first place finishes. The season started with Turner Motorsports KONI Challenge victory at Daytona. GMG Racing answered with James Sofronas winning the SCCA SPEED GT stop at the Long Beach Grand Prix. Tri-Point chimed in with Jason Saini’s SCCA SPEED TC win in New Jersey. Turner answered back with a historic KONI victory at Laguna Seca before StopTech CEO Dino Crescentini took matters into his own hands with a first place SCCA SPEED GT win of his own for GMG Racing at Watkins Glen.
However, the biggest single contributor to the “Podium or Pole Position” success of 2009 has been Matt Bell of Turner Motorsports. Bell has earned pole-position starts for 5 out of 7 KONI races this season in his StopTech equipped BMW M3.
With 16 of these successes already in the books, can Team StopTech make it to 20? This could be the company’s best race season ever!
July 20, 2009
Tune In Alert: StopTech CEO Victory on SPEED Channel
StopTech CEO Dino Crescentini's 4th of July victory at Watkins Glen, just a day after his birthday, is going to air on SPEED Channel this week. Support the SCCA in particular and production car racing in general by tuning in at 2pm EST / 11am Pacific this Wednesday, July 22nd.
July 10, 2009
Closeup: StopTech CEO's Watkins Glen Victory
You may already know that Dino Crescentini, CEO of Centric Parts/StopTech, took first place at round 5 of the SCCA SPEED GT World Challenge series at Watkins Glen from the official press release. It was a, metaphorically speaking, long road for Crescentini to this, his second career SCCA victory.
A crash during the practice rounds back at the Long Beach Grand Prix took his car out of the running for a few rounds. This was the same car that that opened the SCCA season with a top qualifying time back in Sebring. Up until 4 weeks before the race it was a bare chassis. The crew at GMG Racing gets huge props for knocking the ride back into such great shape that it lands in the winner’s circle, pretty much picking up where it left off.
Here is a one minute clip of Dino’s interview with SPEED Channel moments after winning…
Starting second in his Porsche 911 GT3, Crescentini got the jump on first starting Jason Daskalos’ Dodge Viper, but not as good as teammate Sofronas, who moved his Global Motorsports Group Porsche 911 GT3 to the lead from third on the grid.
Sofronas led Crescentini for the opening four laps before Crescentini put his No. 4 car out front on lap five, out-braking his teammate going into the Inner Loop. That move that earned him the AutoWeek Move of the Race and the victory as he gradually pulled away as Curran and Sofronas traded second place, turning the Fastest Lap of the race with a 1:55.347 (106.114 mph).
It was Crescentini’s second-career win, and came a day after his 49th birthday. He last won a World Challenge GT race at Portland International Raceway for his debut season in 2005.
“I have to credit GMG and especially Steve Ruiz,” said Crescentini, referring the StopTech’s and GMG Racing Team head engineer. “The car has been perfect every time he works on it! He was everything to me. He gave me the car and all I had to do was drive it.””
“Now that was a fun race, running with Dino and Curran, two great drivers, this is what World Challenge racing is all about,” beamed co-teammate and GMG owner James Sofronas. “I had a great start and jumped into the lead for the first 4 laps but I could see Dino had a little stronger car.”
The race will be broadcast Tuesday, July 22 at 2 p.m. (EDT). The SCCA Pro Racing SPEED World Challenge GT Championship next travels to Autobahn Country Club for Round Seven, July 24-26, 2009.
A crash during the practice rounds back at the Long Beach Grand Prix took his car out of the running for a few rounds. This was the same car that that opened the SCCA season with a top qualifying time back in Sebring. Up until 4 weeks before the race it was a bare chassis. The crew at GMG Racing gets huge props for knocking the ride back into such great shape that it lands in the winner’s circle, pretty much picking up where it left off.
Here is a one minute clip of Dino’s interview with SPEED Channel moments after winning…
Starting second in his Porsche 911 GT3, Crescentini got the jump on first starting Jason Daskalos’ Dodge Viper, but not as good as teammate Sofronas, who moved his Global Motorsports Group Porsche 911 GT3 to the lead from third on the grid.
Sofronas led Crescentini for the opening four laps before Crescentini put his No. 4 car out front on lap five, out-braking his teammate going into the Inner Loop. That move that earned him the AutoWeek Move of the Race and the victory as he gradually pulled away as Curran and Sofronas traded second place, turning the Fastest Lap of the race with a 1:55.347 (106.114 mph).
It was Crescentini’s second-career win, and came a day after his 49th birthday. He last won a World Challenge GT race at Portland International Raceway for his debut season in 2005.
“I have to credit GMG and especially Steve Ruiz,” said Crescentini, referring the StopTech’s and GMG Racing Team head engineer. “The car has been perfect every time he works on it! He was everything to me. He gave me the car and all I had to do was drive it.””
“Now that was a fun race, running with Dino and Curran, two great drivers, this is what World Challenge racing is all about,” beamed co-teammate and GMG owner James Sofronas. “I had a great start and jumped into the lead for the first 4 laps but I could see Dino had a little stronger car.”
The race will be broadcast Tuesday, July 22 at 2 p.m. (EDT). The SCCA Pro Racing SPEED World Challenge GT Championship next travels to Autobahn Country Club for Round Seven, July 24-26, 2009.
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