News
14 JULY 2008
CANNEY AND PLUMB READY FOR ALABAMA'S BARBER
Birmingham, AL (14 July, 2008)—After taking
a hard-fought fourth place finish in round four of
Grand-Am KONI Challenge competition at Watkins Glen, Mike
Canney and Hugh Plumb will target another top-five
run in the No. 60 Sunset Hills Ford Mustang GT campaigned
by Rehagan Racing this weekend at Barber Motorsports
park outside of Birmingham, Alabama.
The No. 60 entry currently holds second in the KONI
Challenge Team Championship standings, with Canney
and Plumb tied for third place in the Driver Championship
rankings. After racing at a fabled facility in Watkins
Glen, the Series’ visit to the South will see
the 36-car KONI Challenge field racing on a track that
is much newer to the motorsports scene, but has still
made quite an impression.
“The spectator viewing areas at the track are
just amazing-you can see nearly the entire track from
almost anywhere, and that is really a rare thing in
road racing,” said Canney, who scored 16th in
the 2007 KONI race at Barber. “So I’m looking
forward to our race of course, but it’s also
a great experience to go up on the hills and see some
of the other races that are going on this weekend.
I try to learn something from every experience, so
it is entertaining as well as helpful.”
Plumb has scored both Rolex Sports Car Series GT and
KONI Challenge victories at Barber, and took ninth
in the KONI Barber event in 2007 driving a Porsche
entry as he looks to go even better in his first Barber
event co-driving with Canney this weekend.
“Barber has some really technical corners and
the surface is just fantastically smooth, but the layout
doesn’t really let our Mustang stretch its legs
so it might not be our best track of the year,” said
Plumb. “Still, KONI Challenge racing can certainly
make for some surprises, and we keep improving what
we are doing with our set-up’s so we’re
not giving anything up quite yet!”
With Porsches, BMW’s, and Ford Mustang’s
all taking to victory lane so far in the 2008 KONI
Challenge season, Canney also feels as though this
weekend could be anyone’s race.
“Even though some tracks would seem to favor
one kind of car or maker over another, it seems as
though we see each brand represented up front no matter
where we go, so we are certainly not going to change
our expectations for the weekend,” said Canney. “There
is a rhythm to the track, and it takes experience to
go quickly there. We will just try to get a comfortable
set up and hopefully I can qualify the car well and
get off to a good start before turning it over to Hugh
to keep doing a great job in the car and take it to
the finish like we’ve been doing.”
The 109-lap race is slated for a 2:15 PM ET green flag
on Saturday, with qualifying slated to get underway
at 4:40 PM on Friday.
Additional information available: www.mcanney.com
ABOUT SUNSET HILLS VINEYARD:
Sunset Hills Vineyard produces high-quality Bordeaux
style wines, from our 45 acre historic farm in Northern
Virginia. Located at the foothills of the Blue
Ridge Mountains, our soil and climate conditions are
well suited for producing quality wine. We will produce
about 36,000 bottles of wine this year including; Chardonnay,
Viognier, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and Petit
Verdot. Our wines are available at the winery, and
at festivals held in the Middle Atlantic states. For
additional information, please visit: http://www.sunsethillsvineyard.com.
Contact: Matt Cleary, Sunday Group Management
media@sundaymanagement.com
(317) 908-2975 Mobile