Scarallo Seeks Third Consecutive AGT Victory
LIME ROCK, Conn. (June 19, 2006) – Joey Scarallo is hotter than the exhaust pipe on his Corvette racecar. Scarallo has swept the card in the last two American GT Challenge series races and collected every possible point.
Those two performances have propelled him to second in the championship standings in the road racing series. He wants to keep that streak alive when the AGT returns to Lime Rock Park June 29-July 2.
“That’s certainly the goal,” Scarallo said. “I think we can do it. That’s the goal every time out.”
The 27-year-old resident of Smithtown, N.Y. has been racing since he started in karts at age 11. He’s won championships along the way, but an AGT title would be the biggest achievement of his career.
The AGT Challenge brings together American muscle cars from several series through a set of rules that allows the cars to compete fairly. Purpose-built racing versions of Ford Mustangs, Chevrolet Camaros and Corvettes and Oldsmobile Cutlasses thunder around road racing circuits in Canada, Puerto Rico and the United States in international competition. The rules allow cars from the SCCA GT1 class, the now-defunct Trans Am Series and the old AGT class of the Rolex Sports Car Series.
Scarallo drives a C5 Corvette sponsored by groupawheel.com and Team Toyo.
All AGT Challenge events consist of a pair of heat races. The overall winner is the driver scoring the most points in the combined total. Scarallo has won both heat races in the last two AGT events, set a lap record in qualifying and turned the fastest lap during the race.
Since racing karts as a youngster, Scarallo has raced in Legends cars, Formula 2000, Formula Atlantic and raced in the Trans Am Series for three seasons. Scarallo recorded top-10 finishes in more than half his Trans Am starts. He remains active in SCCA competition.
Scarallo drove a borrowed car in the season opener and grabbed a top-10 finish in one of the heat races. Since then he has won everything available.
Defending champion Edison Lluch (of Puerto Rico) leads Scarallo in the standings, 75-65. Lluch swept the card in the first race of the season and has finished near the top in every heat since then. But Scarallo thinks he can catch Lluch before the season ends. “We’re certainly on the right track top win it,” he said. “The points system is very tight. It puts a lot of pressure on us to go out and win. You really can’t count on (Lluch) to go out and have a problem.”
Dave Machavern (USA), the former champion of the Rolex Sports Car Series’ AGT class, sits third in the standings, followed by Jack Busch (USA) and Edison Lluch, Jr. (Puerto Rico).
The AGT race at Lime Rock will be part of the American Le Mans weekend at the track.
More information on the American GT Challenge or the American GT Road Racing Association is available at www.americangt.com.
