July 18, 2004 The Lamborghini Murcielago R-GT #5 run by the Krohn Barbour Racing team driven by David Brabham and Peter Kox got 2nd place in the GTS class. The Murcie came in between the 1st and 3rd place Corvettes (it didn't hurt that there were no GTS Ferraris in this race). Dale Earnhardt Jr. was hurt in a fiery crash earlier in the day. The #6 Murcie DNF'd. It will be interesting to see what happens with the Lambo and the GTS Ferrari cars are running in the same race. Gil
Gil, I'm bummed we didn't get a chance to meet. I thought the #5 Murcie retired or at least lost many laps due to smoke coming out of the engine compartment. Here it is in the garage during the race. It was a good day and my other favorite Marque, audi, won again.
Those waiting to see the Lamborghini and Ferrari 550 GT Maranellos have at it are in for a long wait. The relationship between Ferrari and Prodrive broke down in 2002 and was further eroded when Maranello took credit for Prodrive's outstanding GTS win at Le Mans in 2003 despite the fact that Maranello gave the program little (READ: no) support. There are 550 GT Maranellos available for sale for privateers to take on the factory entered Corvettes and Aston Martins next year but so far thats not looking like a wise investment and no one is taking that on. At upwards of $875,000.00 for a 575 GTC, there dont seem to be many takers either with the exception of the Barron-Connor team which was upwards of 15 seconds off the pace of the lead Corvettes and Prodrive/Care Racing 550 GT Maranellos at Le Mans this year. To see interesting Ferrari-v-Lamborghini battles, the only place that will be is in the FIA GT. BHW
Since there were only about 6 or 7 cars entered in GTS, and almost all were faster than the Murcie, I'd say they were pretty lucky to get a second place finish. The faster Saleen broke, Earnhard's Vette burned to the ground in the warmup, the faster other Vette made several lengthy pit stops to fix damage from contact with the Murcie, of all things. The Lambo did sound good, though! I was pretty disappointed with the small field this year, the prototype field was way smaller than last year, same with the GTS group, and the GT field is just a spec-GT3RSR race, with a lone private 360 that actually did pretty well, finishing 4th in class among about 20 entries I would guess. Gary
Vincent, Yes, sorry we didn't run into each other. We'll see you at the next event. Gary, BHW, Yes, I was disappointed we didn't get to see any Ferraris in the GTS class as well as the other attrition. I guess we'll see how this series evolves. Gil
