Motorsport News
Historic Win for At Speed Motorsports Volvo at Mosport SPEED GT Race
By source: At Speed Motorsports
Sep 5, 2006, 08:31

Bowmanville, ON - On a wet day at Mosport, Michael Galati piloted the At Speed Motorsports Volvo S60R to a dominating win in the SPEED World Challenge GT race. The Volvo started in the 5th position, but Galati shot off the line and was in first by turn one. Turning fast lap after fast lap, the At Speed entry was never threatened and won by well over one minute, lapping the entire field except for the second place finisher.

"The car's handling was perfect for the conditions. The all-wheel drive gave me excellent traction, and the set-up let me use it to the maximum advantage. I couldn’t be more pleased with the handling," said Galati, a five-time World Challenge series champion. “I had a couple of scares with people spinning right in front of me or not seeing me and moving over on me as I was coming through. In one case practically the whole track was blocked and I had to go off to avoid contact. The engine ran well until it developed a miss late in the race and then lost power at the end, and at that point I was just saying, baby, please get me home. Someone was smiling on us today."



Galati’s schedule over the weekend makes his drive even more impressive. He was also competing in the Grand Am Cup race half-way across the continent, in Utah. He started out doing the Grand Am test day on Wednesday and flew overnight to Toronto for the Thursday test day here, arriving at the track 20 minutes before the first session. He then returned to Utah for the Cup race on Friday, finishing 7th. Another overnight flight brought him back to qualify and race the Volvo, and this exhausting schedule was rewarded with the win.

Race engineer Will Moody handled the set-up that made Galati so happy. “We didn’t really have any data on the car in the wet, so I had to take a shot at something to give Michael a car that would be stable, and it worked. The rest was up to Michael, and he ran a great race to find the line where the car had the most grip.”

The engine problem isn’t considered to be significant by the team. "The miss most likely developed as a result of the water getting into the electronics", said Director of Motorports Paul Amico. "The rain was pretty heavy at times, and lot's of teams were having electrical problems. Unfortunately, engines don't like to run with a miss and so we did end up with some damage. MAHLE delivered a great engine with a lot of drivability, which made driving the car under the conditions much easier for Michael. Most importantly given the electrical problem was that even with the miss it held together and we won. We'll fix it and move on."



This is a historic first win for the Volvo. Although Volvo has a long history of winning in Touring Car series around the world, this is the first time that a Volvo has won a GT class race.

Team principle Bob Miller, who drove the At Speed Motorsports Porsche in the race and finished a solid 14th while fighting visibility problems, had this to say about the result. "This vindicates our decision of almost three years ago to build this car. People told us that it couldn’t be done – you couldn’t build a GT class car from a 2.5L engine and the Volvo’s aerodynamic profile that could compete with Porsche, Viper, Corvette, and Cadillac. Yes, the conditions certainly helped our cause, but we also can't lose track that the qualifying session was dry and we qualified a solid 5th. This car is quick, rain or shine, and we would have given the others a run for their money here regardless." said Miller. "We're very, very satisfied to take this win, and our second podium of the year, in a car that debuted just over two years ago. With development on the car continuing we’ve only entered four races this year and look at what we have done; two podiums and a top ten. What an accomplishment for our team, and there is more to come for the World's Fastest Volvo."

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