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Thursday, November 19, 2009

BOARDWALK FERRARI SUPERCAR LIFE RACING'S TUCKER BESTS NORTH AMERICAN FIELD AT 2009 WORLD FINALS

Boardwalk Supercar Life Racing driver Scott Tucker capped a perfect weekend Sunday, finishing first in the North American division for the third straight day in the 2009 Ferrari World Finals at Comunitat Valenciana Ricardo Tormo Circuit road course in Valencia, Spain.

The World Finals race included drivers and teams from divisions around the globe in the Ferrari Challenge Series. In his No. 55 F430 Ferrari, Tucker finished a very strong 10th overall in a field of more than 60 cars.

The World Finals victory came a day after Tucker helped Boardwalk Ferrari clinch the North American sponsor championship.

"Not a bad way to spend a weekend in Spain," Tucker said.

"This wasn't a points race, so we were able to try some different things and let it all hang out. This was a fun race in which to participate, and it was exciting."

Tucker finished six seconds ahead of his closest North American competitor, Mark McKenzie.

"It was a fantastic race. Once again, Scott annihilated the rest of the North American field," said Boardwalk Ferrari Supercar Life Racing Team Personnel Director Ed Zabinski.

"We had some different setups in the car than we normally run because we weren't running for points. At times, Scott ran better lap times than the leaders. Just a great effort, and a very enjoyable race to watch."

Tucker passed five cars in Sunday's race, including European Ferrari Challenge champion Nikolas Misslin, whom he easily got by during the first half of the event. However, he was shunted by a Russian driver during the second half and lost five spots.

"Nikolas Misslin is obviously one of the world's best drivers, so that was no small accomplishment for Scott," Zabinski said. "It was thrilling when he passed him."

Tucker completed the North American division portion of the Ferrari Challenge season on Friday and Saturday with a pair of victories, allowing him to finish second in the driver championship standings. The three triumphs in Spain pushed his season total to 11 in 15 races.

He stood on the podium for every race in 2009, something no other driver has done in Ferrari Challenge Series history.

"What a way to finish the season," Tucker said. "We came over here a couple of times to test because our goal was to come away with two wins.

"The testing trips proved to be well worth it because that's exactly what we did. It was interesting having to race with the European guys because of all of the traffic. But, we accomplished what we wanted."

The two victories in Spain capped an awesome season for the Boardwalk Ferrari Supercar Life Racing team.

In addition to this weekend's success, Tucker scored two victories each at Mont Tremblant in Canada; Homestead-Miami Speedway and Road Atlanta, and one each at Road America in Wisconsin and New Jersey Motorsports Park.

"This has been an incredible year for this Boardwalk Ferrari Supercar Life Racing team," team manager David Stone said.
"It's not only been a great year for Scott, but also the entire team. The crew has been awesome in preparing the cars and giving Scott what he needs.

"As for Scott, he's shown so much improvement as a driver since the 2008 season. He's fast, as he always has been, but now he's driving smarter races. He doesn't make mistakes and get himself into trouble like some others might. One of our goals this year was to stay free from car-to-car contact, and Scott did that for the most part. He's just going to keep getting better and better."

In 2010, Tucker and the Supercar Life Racing team will once again participate in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series. The team also has plans to run in the Le Mans Prototype Challenge class in the American LeMans Series.

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