news: sportscars

04.07.2003  WASHINGTON FERRARI BOUNCE BACK AT DAYTONA TO TAKE A CRUSHING GT-CLASS VICTORY

After suffering a practice crash which damaged their new Ferrari 360GT at last week's Mid-Ohio Road Racing Classic, the Scuderia Ferrari of Washington bounced back tonight, taking the GT class win at the Paul Revere 250. The win restores drivers Brent Martini and Cort Wagner to the lead in the GrandAm GT Drivers' Championship. 

The Washington crew had only three days to prepare their previous Ferrari, the racer which took a record five consecutive GT wins and the GrandAm GT championship
in 2002, but their efforts paid off. Wagner and Martini led the GT class for every lap, and even took the overall race lead at one point. The pair finally finished fourth overall, one lap ahead of the Porsche which finished second in GT. 

"We needed this!" exclaimed Wagner. "The crash and DNF last week with our new car really hurt, but our 2002 car still has good karma.  It won here last year, and gave us a perfect race tonight.  This one's for the crew -- they did an impossible job to get us here.  It's their win."

Martini agreed: "It's so great to come back and use the old car and reward the team who has spent the last week or four days doing the impossible getting the old car ready. It didn't have a motor in it, didn't have seats. I don't think they have had more than three hours sleep for days, so I thank the Ferrari of Washington guys." 
the Ferrari of Washington 360GT on its way to GT class victory in the Paul Revere 250 at Daytona
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