For immediate release
(Colorado Springs Colorado, October 3, 1999)
Press release complements of Toad Hall Racing

Peter Kitchak qualified third for tomorrow’s World Challenge GT race at Pikes Peak International Raceway in Colorado Springs, Colorado. John Heinricy of  Holly Michigan was the top qualifier in a Corvette and Bill Cooper of Boseman Montana, also in a Corvette was Second.

Heinricy, Cooper and Kitchak were within 12 one hundreths of a second of each other, and all were under the previous track record at Pikes Peak International Raceway, set last year by Terry Borcheller.

Points leader Bobby Archer qualified 6th and failed to gain the one championship available to each of the top five qualifiers. Thus, Kitchak narrowed the points gap from 9 to 8 in the Championship series with 2 races remaining.

Kitchak was driving his Keewaydin/Toad Hall Porsche RSR.

Peter Kitchak, of Excelsior, MN, who has won three races in the series at Mid Ohio, Trois Rivieres, Quebec, and Grand Rapids, Michigan, is one of the favorites for the race.  Kitchak, was only 15th in the series standings after the first two races, and has steadily improved his position. He is now 2d in the season championship points race.

The Pikes Peak International World Challenge GT Race is the 9th stop in a ten race series for the World Challenge GT Championship.  The race will take place on Sunday at 12:30 PM Mountain Daylight time.   Pikes Peak International Raceway, where the race will be held, is a purpose built racing facility near Colorado Springs, and is not the same site as the famed Pikes Peak Hill Climb. The final race will take place next weekend at Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, California.

Kitchak was fastest in the morning session, and second behind Heinricy in a mid-day practice session.

“Qualifying was a tough session,” said Kitchak.   ‘”Our chief engineer was not here today and the weather is colder than we expected. We had to make significant changes in the car during the day to get it to be set up properly. We never did find the correct setting and although the car performed well on the BF Goodrich Tires, we still need to do better tomorrow in the race.  We are making some additional changes this evening and hope to be quicker tomorrow for the race. We expect to be in contention.”

The Speedvision World Challenge GT series is North America’s leading professional series for exotic production sports cars with a broad spectrum of manufacturers competing.  The series pits top European sports cars such as Porsche and BMW against the “big iron” from North America, the 8 liter Dodge Vipers, the Corvettes and the Mustang Cobras. Also included are the best sports cars from Japan with the turbocharged Toyota Supra and the Acura NSX competing. Eight different manufacturers are now represented in the top 12 positions in the driver’s points race.

The Toad Hall Motor Racing Porsches are prepared by Moorespeed Race Engineering in Austin, Texas.

David Moore, president of Moorespeed will be the team’s crew chief, manager and chief  engineer. Moorespeed is a specialty race car engineering and preparation shop specializing in Porsche and other race cars.

Kitchak won the 1998 24 hours of Daytona GT-2 class in a 600 hp Twin Turbo Porsche.  He recently finished 18th overall, 6th in class and was a driver in the top GT-2 Porsche at the 1999 24 Hours of LeMans.  Driving in the American LeMans Series for the Germany based team of Konrad Motorsports, he was also 3d in his class at the 12 Hours of Sebring and 3d at the Grand Prix of Atlanta in 1999.

Kitchak was the Canadian American Ice Racing Champion in 1970 (driving a Porsche on the frozen lakes of the US and Canada) and the International Ice Racing Champion in 1973.  He did not drive any race cars between 1974 and 1992 when he started his road racing career.  At 58 years old, Kitchak is one of the oldest drivers in the field.  “Age is not a factor, ” he says, “I stay in good shape and am driving better than I ever have.”

Kitchak is a resident of Excelsior, Minnesota.  He is 58 years old.

More information:
Toad Hall Motor Racing: www.toadhallracing.com
SCCA World Challenge and immediate results: www.sccapro.com
The Keewaydin group: www.keewaydin.com

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