AASCO Motorsports Takes Second In SGS Desert Battle

AVONDALE, Ariz., April 10, 2004 � The No. 16 AASCO Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 Cup entry of David Murry, Cumming, Ga., and Craig Stanton, Long Beach, Calif. fought through adversity to take second-place in SGS class at tonight's Grand American Rolex Series Food City 250. Stanton qualified on the pole position for the endurance sports car event here at Phoenix International Raceway (PIR) and drove the race's first stint. He kept the lead early but dropped from the top spot after being issued a penalty for �jumping' the start while avoiding debris and slower cars going into turn-one. Stanton fought back into the top-five handing the Dennis Aase-owned Porsche over to Murry an hour and 15-minutes into the two hour and 45-minute race. Murry battled back into the top-three adding to the ground Stanton had taken and continued cutting the distance to the leading Porsche of Randy Pobst. In the race's final half-hour the team made the dramatic decision to put new Hoosier tires onto the Porsche. The daring gambit paid off as Murry took second place and briefly took the top spot in the closing laps. He closed from over 21 seconds out of first position to just .356 seconds at the checkered flag.David Murry: "That's what racing's all about! If we had won it would have been even sweeter but it was great racing for the fans. The call to change to new tires at the end was definitely the right one. We didn't have anything to lose. At the end I was able to catch Randy (Pobst) in some traffic and got around him but he got right back around me. I tried as hard as I could but we just weren't able to do it tonight. I've got to thank the AASCO crew. They did an awesome job." Craig Stanton: "That was a tough race! There's so many stories within in the story. This finish goes to Harry Haggard who rallied the team this past week and then was the one to make the call to put on tires at the end. We got really close to winning tonight. We had some awesome pit stops. I challenge anyone on pit lane to do stops as quick as our guys. David drove his heart out and I was driving hard my whole stint. This was definitely good theatre. The AASCO Porsche ran awesome. We're definitely looking forward to the next one."For more on AASCO Motorsports please visit www.aascomotorsports.com. ###