Winner was sponsored by Turbodyne, Goodyear and Valvoline--
A 1996 Ford Mustang driven by California-based Ross Murray took first place in a record-breaking time in the American Sedan class race in the Sports Car Club of America's (SCCA) National Championship "Valvoline Runoffs", presented by NAPA Auto Parts. Murray's car is sponsored by Turbodyne, Goodyear and Valvoline.
The race, which took place on Saturday, October 10th in Lexington, Ohio, was nationally-televised on the Speedvision Network. Speedvision's "speedcam" was mounted inside the Turbodyne car during the race, giving the audience an up close and personal view of Murray's stellar performance.
Murray started in first position and led the field during the entire race, finishing with a time of 39 minutes, .366 seconds, beating the second place finisher by approximately 20 seconds (pending official race results). He also beat the heavily favored defending National Champion.
During the 45.6-mile race, Murray posted the fastest race lap time of 1:39.297, breaking the existing track lap record of 1:40.172, held since 1996. He also set a new record lap time during his qualifying session. Jane Anderson, a writer for SportsCar magazine, had predicted Murray's win in the October 1998 issue, calling the race "one of the most anticipated of the weekend".
Murray, elated with his first place finish said, "I had a good car and it was fast all week. It's been very different coming into this race as the man to beat."
scca.org |
