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Super Touring Championship Heads for Mid-Ohio

5 August 1997

(Lexington, OH)-Honda driver Peter Cunningham will be under the gun to duplicate last year's back to back victories that he posted last year at Mid-Ohio. Currently in second place behind series leader David Donohue, Cunningham will close the 6 point gap should he repeat again this year. The chase for the season championship, as expected, has boiled down to a battle between the two (Cunningham, Crompton) Honda drivers and the two (Donohue,Dobson) Dodge drivers. Independent Challenge drivers Randy Pobst and Bob Schader maintain mathematical outside chances to win the over-all championship, but those chances are truly slim and none.

In the Manufacturer's Championship, Honda holds a slim 11 point lead over Dodge. Toyota is involved in the manufacturer's championship but the late arrival (4th race of the season) of Rod Millen's team to the series removed any chance to be a challenger. A strong showing from Cunningham or Crompton could almost put the championship out of reach for the two Dodge drivers.

Cunningham will arrive at Mid-Ohio with a great deal of momentum. This past week-end he scored an impressive win in the SCCA World Challenge at Trois'Rivers, Canada. Granted he was not competing against the likes of Pobst, Donohue and Crompton, none the less it was a large and impressive field that Cunningham defeated.

The Independent's Challenge Championship has been narrowed down to three drivers. Current leader Randy Pobst is closely followed (135 to 127) by Bob Scahder. Darren Law is the remaining driver who has any chance to snare the inner-series championship.

After Mid-Ohio the series continues on to Vancouver,BC and then concludes at Laguna Seca on September 5-7. Ideally all three championships (Over-all, Manufacturer's and Independent's) would go down to the wire. It will be interesting.

For those planning on attending this week-end's race at Mid-Ohio a record crowd is expected. Grandstand seats are sold out. However, general admission tickets always remain available.

David Treffer -- The Auto Channel