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Co-driver Scott Maxwell sits in third place and has an opportunity to clinch second from Marks. However, it would take a victory by Maxwell and Empringham and a poor finish of 17th or worse by Marks and Bill Auberlen to lock out the top two spots in the championship for the two Ford Mustang stars. Multimatic Motorsports drivers actually hold four of the top six positions in the championship with American young guns Gunnar Jeannette (5th, 240 points) and James Gue (6th, 235 points) also recording strong seasons. Ford Racing Technology is also chasing the manufacturer's title but currently trails BMW by only three points, 360 to 357. A Ford victory with a third place finish by the leading BMW will clinch the title for the blue oval brigade. The team's championship faces a similar challenge. The No. 05 Mustang FR500C has been driven by all four Multimatic Motorsports drivers in 2005. Should that car finish in the top three and two places ahead of the No. 96 BMW, it will earn the team's crown. If both cars finish further down the field, the No. 05 Mustang needs to hold a four-position advantage over the BMW rival. "It has been an exciting and challenging season, and it is our intention to finish on a high note," said Multimatic Vice President, Larry Holt. "David and all our drivers have done a fantastic job throughout the year, especially considering the restrictions that have been thrown at the Mustang FR500C. "Regardless of the outcome of the weekend, I am extremely proud of what we have achieved. However, our intention is to not only clinch the driver's championship for David, but take our best shot at grabbing the manufacturer's title for Ford and team's title for Multimatic. "We are going to race that BMW as hard as we can until the final lap. We know they have a speed advantage, but like every race this year, they know they are going to be in for a tough fight."
"I think this will be a good track for us. Multimatic conducted a lot of our early development here and this is a circuit which I really enjoy—especially the fast esses going up the hill towards the old Oak tree. "Our car should be very competitive here but the BMW will be tough as always - they really are the car to beat at the moment. "We will be working hard on grabbing the driver's championship for David but also challenging for the Manufacturers and Teams title as well. "We will probably have to win the race to have a chance of winning all the championships." GUNNAR JEANNETTE "The target for James and I is to finish on a high and pull off the best result we can in the final round. "We can't finish any higher in the championship but the last couple of races haven't been positive so it would be great to finish with a win for Ford. "VIR is a great track. I have done a historic race there before and last year raced a BMW in the GT in the Rolex Series—this year I am out to beat the Germans. "This should be a decent track for us. We tested there before and know what the car should like." DAVID EMPRINGHAM "We tested the Mustang FR500C at VIR before and know the car should be very strong. "I am very optimistic that we have the car to get the job done and win the race. "It will be vital that we get through the race without any contact and best way to do that will be to qualify at the front—that will be the safest place to be. "I will certainly be working very hard on clinching this championship because it will be a good reward for the entire team considering we kept getting penalized with more weight and restrictions throughout the year. "We are going to give it our best shot." JAMES GUE “This place really is a fun track and one which I am very familiar with from the testing we did here during the development of the car. "There are a few very long straights which will be good for us, but the traffic will certainly be an issue because the track is not very wide. "Getting through the traffic will be the biggest challenge we face. "Gunnar and I have had a couple of tough weekends recently but we are very keen to turn that around. "We will also be out to do what we can to make sure Dave wins the championship and we can take a good shot at winning the manufactuer's title for Ford." Top of Article
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