It is showdown time here in the wild west – the 2014 Pirelli World Challenge Championship will be decided this weekend at Miller Motorsports Park, just outside of Salt Lake City Utah.
The GT Championship is basically a 2-car shootout, both between some good old southern boys – Johnny O’Connell and Mike Skeen. Johnny O and his Pratt Miller Cadillac have led for most of the season, but a combination of BOP changes and the emergence Mike Skeen and his Audi have made the championship come down to the wire.
With 152 points available in each of the 2 races this weekend and only a 42 point gap between the two competitors, this promises to go down to the wire.
The BOP gives and the BOP takes – earlier this season the Cadillac was dominant, but was reined in by the magic science of the BOP, but now, at the finale, the Cadillac runners have received a break and based upon the morning times appear to be more competitive than recently. In the session, O’Connell was the 5th fastest, while Skeen was way back in 11th.
For Skeen, it all comes down to maximizing the results. “The way the points work out, I’ve got to hope for a podium or a top 5 at least to have a chance. I can’t control what O’Connell does – I just have to hope he finishes back in the field. I do know we’ll be struggling on the long straight compared to them. I just hope I can make it up in the corners.”
Fastest in the Morning session was Guy Smith in the No. 88 Bentley, a full .580 seconds faster than the rest of the field. “The car is quite good here so far. It’s nice to be back here again. I’ve spent so much of my career here in the States, I’ve been feeling like a foreigner when I’ve been racing back in Europe. I’ve lots of good memories racing here and I’m glad to be back again.”
“I think we’ll have some speed here to be competitive and hopefully the speed to overcome our starts. We’re getting better on the standing starts but we’ve got more work to do. I just hope we only drop back a few places on a start rather than half of the grid.”
The Bentley effort was slowed by issues yesterday – low oil pressure forced the Dyson tam to replace the motor in Butch Leitzinger’s car, while Smith’s car was delayed in heading on track when some electrical bits were “lost” by the airline.
The event here at Miller will feature the GT/GTS cars racing on the outer circuit, while the TC class will be competing on the west course. For the most part, the facility hasn’t changed much – it is still the same fantastic facility we had when the ALMS was visiting back a few years ago, only now it appears as if Utah is blessed with some very large gophers that have altered the landscape a bit…
Gary Horrocks
