Team StopTech has Early Momentum in 2011

It's only very early spring but already Team StopTech can be proud of the way the 2011 race season is shaping up. There are two big races lined up for the next two weekends so we'll see if they can keep the momentum up.

Team StopTech, not an actual race team, consists of select drivers, cars and teams racing on StopTech equipment. Turner Motorsport got things off to a rolling start with the first two races of the Continental Tire GRAND-AM series. Sporting StopTech's new GT racing calipers (among other StopTech equipment), they landed a podium visit for the first race then hit the track a month later to take the checkered flag at the Kia 200 race.

Now the team is prepping for a return to racing in Alabama for the Barber 200 on April 9th at Barber Motorsports Park. The team will carry an extra challenge with them.

Sponsoring a race gets you promotional signage. Making great brakes gets you victories. On March 25 Grand-Am made a number of rules changes to competitors. Among them are limiting the Turner's BMW M3s to a maximum of 8250 rpm.

Will Turner, driver and team owner said "the recent rules changes were a shock to me. We didn't have the fastest car or the fastest race laps at Homestead. The Grand Am officials must have had a good reason to take the revs away from us. I don't think it will hurt us too much at Barber because of the short straights." That's the spirit!

Meanwhile, the 2011 World Challenge series is only two races deep but already has provided a list of superlatives for Team StopTech. Team StopTech won both GT races, nabbed 5 of 6 GT podium spots, won both TC class races, hold the top three spots in the Drivers Championship, and helped hand Porsche a firm grip on the Manufacturers Championship lead.

The usual Porsche poster boys, GMG Racing's James Sofronas and StopTech CEO Dino Crescentini, played their part with trips to the podium but it was Patrick Long in the No. 45 Privacy Star/Entrust Porsche 911 GT3 with StopTech brakes that was first to finish both races. This sets up quite a back story for when the SCCA rolls into Long Beach for the Grand Prix on April 17th. Long has the momentum to make it three in a row, but Crescentini turned in a stellar race performance at the event last year and Sofronas won the event outright the year before that.

StopTech will sponsor the race, and in fact are the official brakes of the 2011 World Challenge Series. That does not take away from the victories though, as one StopTech insider puts it "sponsorship gets you signage on the track but great brakes get you to the podium."