WSC: Mosport Aurora notes

• Rick Voegelin <72467.3005@CompuServe.COM>
• MNI - Motorsport News International
• Mon Aug 26 22:34:33 EDT 1996

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


                  AURORA V8 WINS SIXTH STRAIGHT

    Irv Hoerr Scores Seventh Win of the Season in IMSA GTS-1;
  Wayne Taylor Leads World SportsCar Championship after Fourth
                          Place Finish

     Bowmanville, Ont.; August 25, 1996  -- Oldsmobile's advanced
 Motorsport Aurora V8 raced to its sixth straight Exxon Supreme GT
 series victory (and seventh of the season) today in the IMSA
 Chrysler Mosport 500 at Mosport Park.  Points leader Irv Hoerr
 drove solo in the three-hour event to score his seventh win in
 eight starts with Brix Racing's Aurora GTS-1.

     "My car was absolutely perfect," said Hoerr.  "However, our
 plan was to get (teammate) Darin Brassfield the maximum number of
 points and create a bit of a cushion in the championship race
 over Rob Morgan.  That would leave Darin and me to shoot it out
 for the championship in the final two races.  But, you know what
 happens to the best laid plans . . . "

     What happened was that Brassfield had to settle for third
 place behind the runner-up Sifton/Varde Viper GTS.  Brian
 Cunningham celebrated his 27th birthday by putting Brix Racing's
 second Aurora on the GTS-1 pole on Saturday -- the first IMSA
 pole for the grandson of road racing pioneer Briggs Cunningham.
 Near the halfway point of the race, Brian turned over the driving
 duty to Brassfield.

     "Our strategy was to have Irv run conservatively and let me
 run hard before turning it over to Darin," Cunningham reported.
 In the late stages of the race, Brassfield was gaining nearly a
 second a lap on the second-place Viper, but came up 41 seconds
 short.

     Wayne Taylor maintained his lead in the Exxon World
 SportsCar Championship with a fourth-place finish in the
 Aurora-powered Doyle Racing Oldsmobile Riley & Scott Mk-III.
 Taylor now leads Ferrari driver Max Papis by one point after
 Papis' runner-up finish to the Leitzinger/Paul R&S Mk-III in
 Mosport.  Oldsmobile and Ferrari continued their see-saw battle
 for the WSC Manufacturers Championship, with Ferrari taking a
 two-point lead with two races remaining on the schedule.

     "It just wasn't our day, but we are still leading the
 championship, and that's what is important," said Taylor, who has
 won four of the eight rounds in the WSC series.  "As we've been
 saying all season, this championship is going to go down to the
 final race at Daytona."

       "We knew this was going to be a tough one, but we all feel
 very confident going into Dallas," said team manager Bill Riley.
 The Aurora racers will be back in action next weekend in a
 two-hour street race in Dallas.


                              # # #

  E-mail from: Rick Voegelin, 26-Aug-1996