Santa Clara, CA – July 11, 2005 – From the first practice session which resulted in seventh place overall and the second fastest Mazda in the field, it was obvious to Scott Bradley that the team had made significant progress. As the driver and member of the Circuit City/Protomotive team, the Santa Clara-based motorsports pro was optimistic about round five of the SPEED World Challenge touring car series held recently at Lime Rock Park in Connecticut.

“Going into the weekend I had my fingers crossed that the progress we made the week before at Cleveland was not just specific to that track. I was hoping we could duplicate the same speed again at Lime Rock,” said Bradley, 28. “In the Cleveland race, the car was really good, which allowed us to come from a pit lane start to finish 13th.”

After the successful first practice session, Bradley said the team made some big changes for the second session, and faced a pretty steep learning curve. Some of the modifications worked and some did not, but it gave them a direction in which to go. Although the team ended the second session in 21st, Bradley said he was still extremely upbeat as they headed into qualifying.

With the Toyo tires used in SPEED World Challenge there is a very small window when the tires are brand new and they have a ton of grip. Then after about two laps, if you’re lucky, they fall off a bit, Bradley explained. This makes it very important to get a clean lap at the beginning of the session.

“As we rolled out, I created a nice gap for myself so I could get a clean lap right away,” said Bradley. “I set off on my flier, and as I came up the hill off of the back straight I was confronted with waving yellow flags and a crashed car parked in the middle of the track. I knew our window on the tires was blown and that a red flag was on the way, so I dove for the pits. This way we'd be toward the front of the line when it turned green again.”

Bradley’s first lap at speed put the team in sixth, but much of the field still had to get up to speed on the new tires. When they went back out again, Bradley said he found it easy to stick with the faster cars although “those guys were out of the tire window as well but had gotten clear laps early on so they were able to hold their grid positions.” As more cars got up to speed Protomotive slid down the time charts and ended the session 14th.

“I knew our car was much better than that, so I was really looking forward to the race. If we played it smart in the beginning we'd be there to challenge for a top five at the end,” said Bradley. “Before the race I looked at previous years’ results and found we averaged about two caution periods per race. With this in mind, the strategy was to do what we could in the first few laps and then settle in and save the tires until the first caution.”

The plan worked perfectly and Bradley settled into a battle with Chip Herr in the Ford Focus. Although Bradley’s car was faster, he took position behind Herr to avoid burning up his tires. Bradley’s strategy was simple: pressure Herr every corner of every lap to make sure his mirrors were filled with a yellow Mazda 6.

“I could see it was working because he (Herr) was driving as hard as he could to stay ahead. With every lap his tires began to fade, while I was able to drive about 80% and keep my tires ready for a charge in the middle to end of the race,” Bradley explained.

By lap 13 as they entered turn three, Herr became crossed up and slowed down both he and Bradley. As they entered the corner, Bradley saw in his mirrors that Ryan Pilla had closed but was still too far back to make a pass or get alongside him. As they exited the left hander and set up for the following right hander, Bradley stayed out wide before coming back over “just to give Chip another rear view mirror full of yellow as I'd done every single lap before,” said Bradley.

“As I came back over for turn in, I felt a huge thump in the rear and was sent spinning off the track and into the tire wall,” Bradley explained. “It turned out that Ryan had stuck the nose of his car even with my rear wheel during the transition between the two corners, and we made contact. To say I was frustrated by the incident was an understatement.”

Drivers use a certain amount of logic when it comes to car placement and overtaking attempts, explained Bradley. ”It was obvious to me that Ryan and I were not on the same page this time. No matter what I did, it was going to result in a bad outcome for one of us,” he said, “and that’s not a position I'd ever put myself or my competition in.”

”It was a shame because the team had done a great job and we were headed for our first top ten finish together – maybe even a top five,” said Bradley. “Looking at the results was frustrating because there were only a few guys who were able to run faster race laps.”

”Thanks as always to the support of Circuit City, Kicker, Peak Travel Group and Travel Promotions Network, who make it possible for us to keep making significant progress,” he continued. “Things are starting to get good and the gloves are coming off at Infineon!”

Round seven of the SPEED World Challenge Touring Car 2005 season takes place July 15-17 at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California, as part of the American Le Mans Series Infineon Technologies Grand Prix of Sonoma. Then Bradley and the Circuit City Protomotive team head to Portland International Raceway in Oregon, July 29-31 for round eight of the SWC competition.

Scott Bradley Motorsports