| Gidley, Cosmo score top-10 at Laguna |
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| Monday, 21 May 2007 | |
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Racing on the track where his career started, Novato
native Memo Gidley and co-driver Guy Cosmo ran with the big dogs in
Sunday's U.S. Sports Car Invitational at Laguna Seca to score a top-10
finish in the # 77 Feeds the Need/Doran Racing Kodak DORAN JE4 Ford.
Cosmo qualified the car 13th on the starting grid,
but post-qualifying technical penalties to several cars ahead of them
moved the Doran team up to 9th for the start of the 91-lap race.
Problems during a pit stop put the team one lap down, but caught a
break with Grand-Am's new `Lucky Dog' rule that allows one car to make
up a lap during a full-course caution.
Gidley was able to make up the lap and battle his way back up through the field, but that's where the team's luck ran out. Two full-course cautions in the final laps of the race prevented him from continuing his charge all the way to the checkered flag. "If the race had been ten laps longer, we'd have been battling for a top-5 finish," says Gidley. "But the Doran team did a tremendous job and this was the best car we've had all season and it was great to be able to have such a strong run in front of our new team co-sponsor, Steve Aderholt and the Aderholt Specialty Company. He brought a group of thirty business associates to the track and their enthusiasm kept us all pumped up." The duo first became friends back when Gidley was a mechanic at the Russell Racing School at Laguna Seca and Aderholt was racing at the track. They lost touch for ten years until re-connecting recently. With Aderholt's successful construction company now working on major office buildings and casinos in Las Vegas, including the Aladdin, Paris, Venetian and Trump Tower, his passion for racing re-asserted itself and this weekend was his first experience as a team co-sponsor. "What a great experience we all had this weekend, and the Doran team is an extremely professional organization that made us feel very welcome," said Aderholt. "I've spent the last ten years focused on building my business, so it was a real pleasure to get back to the racetrack and feel those competitive juices flowing again. I can definitely see more weekends at the racetrack in my future." Gidley and the Doran team race the # 77 Feeds the Need/Doran Racing Kodak DORAN JE4 Ford, a car designed and built by Doran Enterprises and Doran Designs. The car weighs 2,135 pounds, is powered by a 500 horsepower Ford engine built by NASCAR legend Yates Racing, and has a top speed of 190 mph. The next event on the 2007 Grand-Am schedule is the Sahlen's Six Hours of the Glen on June 8 - 9 at the legendary 3.4-mile road course in Watkins Glen, New York. For more information, visit www.theglen.com. The Sahlen's Six Hours race will be broadcast live on the SPEED Channel. |
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