Press Release:
For immediate release
SEARS POINT, CA
Pre Race Info
July 11, 2000
Press release complements of Toad Hall Racing
Toad Hall Motor Racing, of Minneapolis, Minnesota, will enter a single car in the Speedvision World Challenge GT Race at Sears Point Raceway in Sonoma California, July 22 and 23.
Peter Kitchak, Runner-up in 1999’s driver’s championship in the Speedvision World Challenge GT series, will drive the #3 Keewaydin/Toad Hall
Porsche GT3.
Jim Oppenheimer, who started the season in the #2 Impact, Toad Hall Porsche RSR has withdrawn from the series.
After significant advances in the car, the team expects Kitchak’s car, which has not been a front runner yet this season, to be “very competitive”. Crew chief David Moore acknowledged that numerous changes have been made to the car since the last race at Lime Rock, Conneticut. ” We have made too many changes to the car to even count”, said Moore, “but the result is that we have overcome some of the difficulities we have had early in the season and we expect the car to be a front runner at Sears and for the rest of the season.” Althought Moore would not elaborate on the nature of the changes, he did indicate that the car will have about the same power that it had in the past, but the big gains should be in the handling. ” We have worked hard to exploit Porsche’s legendary handling capability,” he said. ” But, we will still be down substantially on power from the Corvettes, The Vipers, The Mustangs and the Audis. We remain hopeful that SCCA will do something to bring the power to weight ratios of all of these cars back into line.”
The Keewaydin Toad Hall Porsche is a normally aspirated 3.6 Liter water-cooled Porsche GT3 with 6 cylinders that makes approximately 390
horsepower. The car is prepared by Moorespeed Race Engineering of Austin, Texas.
In 1999, Kitchak was runner-up in the Speedvision GT championship. He lost the championship by only one point. He went into the last race leading the
series. After winning the pole position for the race, he was bumped off the course from behind in the first turn of the first lap. Although he started from the rear of the
field, he finished that race in 4th place and narrowly missed winning his first World Challenge championship.
Kitchak was the winner of the GT-2 Class at the 1998 24 Hours of Daytona and winner of 4 Speedvision World Challenge GT races in 1999.
Kitchak was the Canadian American Ice Racing Champion (driving a Porsche on the frozen lakes of the US and Canada) in 1970 and the International Ice Racing
Champion in 1973. He did not drive any race cars between 1974 and 1994 when he started his road racing career.
David Moore of Moorespeed Race Engineering will be the team’s manager, crew chief and chief engineer for the 2000 season. Moorespeed is a
specialty race car engineering and preparation shop specializing in Porsche and other race cars.
Jim Oppenheimer’s withdrawl was a set back for the team. “We will miss Jim’s presence,” said Kitchak, “he was a real asset to the team.” Oppenheimer withdrew citing changes in the approach of SCCA to the series. “Last year it was a lot of fun,” said Oppenheimer, ” but it has become too expensive, with little or no payback. The organizers want to make this a top level pro series and that has changed the attitudes of the drivers and has significantly increased cost of being even remotely competitive. It is just not the type of racing that I am interested in at this point. I think Peter (Kitchak) will do well in the series, but the team has had to go through an extraordinary amount of effort and cost to get his car up to speed. I expect to attend some of the races but I do not presently plan to drive any more races this season.”
The Keewaydin Group, primary sponsor of Kitchak’s car, is a national real estate advisory company headquartered in Minneapolis. See the Keewaydin web page.
Kitchak is a resident of Excelsior, Minnesota. He is 50 years old, married and the President of The Keewaydin Group, a real estate consulting firm specializing in
large commercial real estate projects, headquartered in Minneapolis, MN.
Toad Hall Motor Racing is owned by Kitchak and partner and teammate Jim Oppenheimer of Chicago.
For more information contact Peter Kitchak, at The Keewaydin Group, Inc. Minneapolis, MN, 612-341-4422 or by e-mail at pkitchak@keewaydin.com. During
the Race Weekend contact Peter Kitchak 612-889-0910 (cell phone) or David Moore at 512-751-2996 (cell phone).
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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