Gordon Defends Title in GTO Race

Pete Halsmer has experience with him. He’s been through the S-turns, the chicanes and more blind spots than a seeing-eye dog. And on the narrow temporary street course at Del Mar, the 47-year-old Anaheim driver took the cautious road to a series championship.

He deferred to youth for a day and was rewarded for his wisdom.

Defending race champion Robby Gordon of Orange won the last of the 15 IMSA Exxon Supreme Series GTO races at Saturday’s Grand Prix of Greater San Diego.

Gordon took the checkered flag in his Whistler Mustang, averaging 66.602 m.p.h. over 87.2 miles. He finished 13.347 seconds ahead of Mazda’s Price Cobb. Dorsey Schroeder, also in a Whistler Mustang, took third.

“We showed that we can dominate this series,” said Gordon, 22. “We just had some trouble earlier in the season mechanically, but that’s five wins this year and five last year. No one else has done that. So this was as gratifying as it could be without winning the championship.”

That honor belonged to Halsmer, who entered the series with an 18-point lead. He needed to finish eighth among 11 drivers to clinch the title, so he treaded lightly in his Mazda RX-7, settling for sixth.

“I could see all those guys going for broke and it didn’t seem to make any sense for me get in the middle of it,” Halsmer said.

There were two caution flags that accounted for 14 of the 42 laps. Twenty-seven minutes of the one-hour race were run under the yellow.

It was the last GTO race for Halsmer, who is going to drive for Mazda next year as it focuses on the GTP class. Halsmer won three races this season and finished second four times to help Mazda, in only its second year, win the manufacturer’s championship.

Bob Leitzinger and his son, Butch, driving Nissan 240SXs, finished first and second in the GTU race.

Nissan came from behind to win the manufacturer’s championship from Dodge, 235-231. Nissan won only four races this season, Dodge 10.

Concord’s Randy Ruhlman drove a Camaro to victory in the All American Challenge for privateer drivers. Steve Anderson, of Las Vegas, took second.

Elsewhere, Tony Kester won his fifth consecutive 30-minute Oldsmobile Pro Series Race in a Lola-T 89/90.

The attendance Saturday was 22,500.