Ruby Tuesday will have to pick their way through the pack after being sent to the rear of the grid
Courtesy of the Rolex Grand Amercian Road Racing Series
VIR: DP Team Qualifying Reports
Pontiac
Ganassi
Michael Shank
Suntrust
Pontiac
ALTON, Va. (April 28, 2007) -- Colin Braun drove the No. 75 Krohn Racing Riley Daytona Prototype (DP) to the team's second pole position of the year for tomorrow's running of the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Special Reserve VIR 400 at Virginia International Raceway. Kelly Collins piloted the No. 07 Banner Engineering Pontiac GXP.R to a fifth place qualifying effort in GT. The GT race will run at 4:30 p.m. this afternoon.
Braun and his Pontiac powered Krohn Racing Riley kept the pole streak intact for Pontiac at four in as many races. The 18-year old Texan put in a time of 1:45.003 and a speed of 112 mph. Braun and teammate Max Papis will share the front row with the No. 99 GAINSCO Pontiac Riley of Jon Fogarty and Alex Gurney.
"We started the weekend a little off," Braun said. "We thought we would unload with a little better car, so the team has had to do a lot of work all day. The work paid off in qualifying, the car was really good. I can get the Pontiac power down off of the turn and the car is good through the fast stuff. The track lends itself to close racing, some cars are good through the fast stuff and some faster down the straights."
Jon Fogarty helped keep the momentum going for the GAINSCO Pontiac. Fogarty put in a time of 1:45.153 good for a front row starting position. The GAINSCO team also has a qualifying record of four front row starts in DP, with a pole position at the Daytona 24.
"Another front row start," Fogarty said. "I wanted to get the pole, to be able match Alex as he has one at Daytona this year. The front row is a great place to start at this track. I like to race with Colin, we started this way at Mexico City. Tire management will be key to having a good day tomorrow."
New to the DP category is Jean-Francois Dumoulin. Moving up from the GT ranks Dumoulin qualified the No. 11 Samax Pontiac Riley in ninth place with a time of 1:47.198.
"This is my first time driving a DP car," Dumoulin said. "We have been improving every session. I had a pretty good lap, we are not quite getting 100% out of the car yet, but we are close. We have had limited track time, so I am hoping to be stronger as the race progresses tomorrow."
New to the Pontiac fold this weekend is Tommy Constantine and his No. 53 Playboy Pontiac Riley. Constantine qualified his DP entry in 17th place with a time of 1:49.614.
"I haven't been in a DP car since Barber last year," Constantine said. "I hadn't sat in the car until practice this morning. We only ran about seven laps before qualifying. I made a slight mistake on my fast qualifying lap and left about a second out there, I think we could have been in the top 10. We are making good power and are getting more comfortable with the car each lap."
In GT, the Banner Racing Pontiac GXP.R driven by Kelly Collins will start from the third row based on his 1:55.443 qualifying time.
"The car is really handling here," Collins said. "This is a good track for our GXP.R until we get out on the straight and we get pulled by our competition by four car lengths off of the corner. We can make up some room under braking, but we still lacking down the straights."
In the team No. 06 Banner Engineering GXP.R, Tim Lewis Jr. put in a time of 1:56.183 and will go away from the start from the fifth row.
"I thought the car was a little better this morning," Lewis said. "I am not sure if the weather changed or that we made adjustments to our handling for old tires. I think I could have been up toward the top five. I hit some traffic on my fast lap and didn't want to abuse the tires. We are looking good for the race."
James Gue, new to the Racers Edge Motorsports team this weekend, posted a time of 1:56.279 and will start from the sixth row today.
"Qualifying was not very good for us," Gue said. "I lined up early and went out like third, but couldn't get a clean lap. Then the yellow came and that reduced our session. I think I could have done a lap in the mid 55s. The team has made good improvement with the GXP.R and I hope we can give them a strong finish today."
The GT race will be televised on the SPEED Channel, tape delayed at 8:30 p.m. tonight, Saturday, April 28. The DP race will be televised live tomorrow, Sunday, April 29 at 1:00 p.m.
Ganassi
ALTON, Va. (April 28, 2007) -- TEAMS: Back-to-back Rolex 24 At Daytona Champions TELMEX Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates and drivers Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas in the No.01 TELMEX Lexus-Riley, and in their season debut with CGRFS, Rob Finlay and Michael Valiante in the No.19 Z-Line Designs/Mission Residential/Make-A-Wish Foundation Lexus-Riley.
VENUE: Virginia International Raceway this Sunday, April 29th (1:00pm ET), on the 3.27-mile natural terrain road course in Alton, Virginia - Round 4 of the 14-race Grand American Rolex Sports Car Series season.
AIR DATE: April 29th, 1:00 pm ET (LIVE) on SPEED Channel.
LAST RACE: Homestead-Miami Speedway, Fla. St. 7 Fn. 3 NEXT RACE: May 20th, U.S. Sports Car Invitational, Monterey, Ca. (2006, St. 6 Fn. 10)
TEAM POINTS: No.01 TELMEX Lexus-Riley, 93 points (Leader, +1) and the No.19 Z-Line Designs/Mission Residential/Make-A-Wish Foundation Lexus-Riley, 16 points (11th, -33)
DRIVER POINTS: Scott Pruett, 93 points (Leader, +1); Memo Rojas, 68 points (6th, -25); Rob Finlay, 60 points (12th, -33); Michael Valiante, 60 points (12th, -33)
No.01 DP Qualifying Results: No.01 TELEMEX driver Memo Rojas took the driver's seat for the team's qualifying attempt this afternoon and posted a terrific fourth position starting grid spot. He narrowly missed putting his Lexus-Riley in a top-three position, getting held up by slower traffic in the field. Rojas, along with his Rolex DP Series points leading partner Scott Pruett, look to capitalize from their 2nd row outside starting spot tomorrow.
N0.19 DP QUALIFYING RESULTS: In his first qualifying attempt for CGRFS, Rob Finlay in the #19 Z-Line Designs/Mission Residential/Make-A-Wish Foundation Lexus-Riley posted a Rolex Series career high qualifying spot of 10th in today's 15 minute qualifying session at VIR as he and teammate Michael Valiante continue to adjust to their new Lexus engine and Riley chassis combination.
EXHAUST NOTES: CGRFS continues to be the most successful team in Daytona Prototype history- holding records in wins (14), poles (19) and podium finishes (31). Pruett continues to be the winningest driver in the history of the Daytona Prototype class (13), and has now tied James Weaver's Rolex Series record for overall wins (13)...CGRFS engine supplier Lexus currently ranks second in the Manufacturer Standings, trailing Pontiac by just six points following Round 3...CGRFS constructor Riley leads Crawford (105-71) in the Chassis Standings...on the strength of their win in Round 1, CGRFS has led 468 of 859 total laps, or 55%.
EXHAUST NOTES PART/CAR DEUX: Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates unveiled plans two weeks ago to expand their Rolex Grand American Sports Car Series program to two Daytona Prototype entries for the rest of the 2007 season. The team reached an agreement with Finlay Motorsports to operate the #19 Z-Line Designs, Mission Residential, Make-A-Wish Daytona Prototype under the CGRFS umbrella. The #19 Daytona Prototype also makes the switch to both a Lexus powered engine and a Riley chassis.
VIRGINIA HISTORY AND MORE: In three career appearances (2004-2006), CGRFS has a best finish of first (2005) and has won the pole once (2004). To date, the No.01 team boasts 14 wins in 43 career Grand American starts, an astounding winning percentage of 33%. The team's last pole position in the 2006 Utah finale (Pruett) marked the No.01 car's 20th in 43 career Rolex Series starts- a pole-winning percentage of 47%.
Finlay and Valiante are no strangers to success at VIR, having posted a podium finish in the Rolex Series first ever qualifying event back in 2006. Enjoying their best starting grid spot ever as a team, they went on to achieve a Top-10 finish the next day in one of the most exciting races in Rolex Series history. Overall Finlay and Valiante have nine top-10 finishes, including two top-5's in the DP Series, and finished a respectable seventh overall in their first season as teammates in the Grand American Cup Series.
VIR REWIND: Last season at VIR, the No.01 team fought back fiercely from a last minute engine change that resulted in a starting grid position of 22nd to finish third in one of the most closely contested races in Rolex Series history. Luis Diaz had taken the lead before the driver change on Lap 46 when Pruett took over and cycled through the field as the pit strategy played out, finding himself in eighth on Lap 50 when the race to the checkered began. Pruett waltzed his way through the field all the way to second and three cars, No.01, No.10 and No.23 fought nose to nose to the finish, with the No.23 sneaking by Pruett and Angelelli to steal the show.
CGRFS Driver Quoteboard
Memo Rojas- No.01 TELMEX Lexus Riley: "I'm very happy with our qualifying results today. I think we've improved a lot. I got held up in my quickest lap of the day, which cost us two or three tenths and could have put us a position or two better, but it's still a good start. The TELMEX car is ready and we have a great crew behind us."
Rob Finlay-No.19 Z-Line Designs/Mission Residential/Make-A-Wish Foundation Lexus-Riley: "I'm very pleased with the results of today's session, especially since this was our first time qualifying the new #19 car. Of course we wanted to get better position, but we've not had much time to adjust. We got in some quality laps yesterday and today which have helped us settle in a bit. Overall it was a great day on the track and the CGRFS team is phenomenal. I'm very proud to be part of this team."
ALTON, Va. (April 28, 2007) -- Michael Shank Racing will start from seventh and fourteenth on the grid in Sunday's VIR 400K with the two team Lexus-Riley entries in round four of the 2007 Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Special Reserve season.
Burt Frisselle has rejoined the Playboy-liveried No. 6 for the VIR weekend and was put to work right away on Saturday as he assumed qualifying duties. Frisselle stepped up with a fast lap time of 1:46.451-seconds on the 3.27-mile natural terrain road course to secure a spot on the fourth row for Sunday's two and a half-hour Daytona Prototype-only event.
"That is all we had in the car," said Frisselle. "I think I might have got her a little bit dirty trying to get more out of it! But the balance was great and we should be in good shape for the race tomorrow."
Frisselle had to leave the VIR grounds right after qualifying to catch a flight to Motor Mile Speedway to race in the NASCAR Whelen short track event in Radford, VA. Frisselle will share the driving duties on Sunday with Ian James, who has led in two of the opening three Rolex events thus far this season.
In the sister Michael Shank Racing No. 60 entry of Mark Patterson and Oswaldo Negri, the qualifying effort was hampered when a hold up with the Grand Am officials kept Patterson from joining the fray until after the fifteen-minute session got underway. But the South African shrugged it off as he still got the most out of his Hoosiers with a fast lap time of 1:48.490-seconds for a spot on the seventh row of the grid.
"This is a solid start for tomorrow," said team owner Mike Shank. "Burt did a good job for us today and it's been great to have him back with us this weekend driving Henri's car. We haven't always had the best of luck at this track, but both our cars are quick and we think we are right where we need to be for good finishes with both cars tomorrow."
Speed Channel will bring live coverage of the race on Sunday starting at 1:00 PM ET.
Suntrust
Max Angelelli and Jan Magnussen, co-driving the No. 10 SunTrust Racing Pontiac Riley of Wayne Taylor Racing, will start Sunday's Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Special Reserve VIR 400 from the inside of the third row after qualifying Saturday on the Virginia International Raceway road circuit.
Magnussen clocked a fast qualifying lap of 1 minute 45.790 seconds (111.277 mph) around the scenic 3.27-mile, 17-turn VIR road course that was fifth-fastest among 21 Daytona Prototypes entered in Sunday's weekend feature race. Earlier today, the SunTrust Racing team found itself working its way through various handling difficulties while recording the seventh-fastest laps of both the morning and early afternoon practice sessions. Angelelli and team owner Wayne Taylor won the inaugural race here for SunTrust in 2004, and they brought home a second-place finish here last season.
"It appears to not be a very good car in qualifying trim at this time, but these guys will figure it out by tomorrow," Taylor said. "They know what they have to do for tomorrow. The way things played out today, we realized that we needed to make a big change for tomorrow, so they just put a Band-Aid on the problem just to get us through qualifying. We had what we had for qualifying and, truthfully, Jan did a pretty decent job. Now, we know what we need to do from here and hopefully it'll make a big difference for us in the race."
"It's been difficult for us this weekend so far, and it's a little bit frustrating because this has always been one of our best tracks," Angelelli said. "But we set up the car as best we could for qualifying and hopefully the changes we make for the race will be good for us. It's not terrible to start fifth here, based on our past experience."
Last year, Angelelli and Taylor battled back from the 11th starting position to take the lead for 12 of the final 20 laps during one of the wildest finishes in Rolex Series history. Angelelli led a five-car freight train to the white flag, only to be shuffled back to second by the Alex Job Racing Porsche.
"We didn't have a pole car today, but we are continuing to make improvements and we are headed in the right direction," Magnussen said. "We improved the car some for qualifying, for sure, but just not enough to put us up front. For some reason we started quite far away from where I suspect we are going to end up. We are getting better all the time, only we're not taking the big steps forward like we want to. We're still searching for the big change that's going to move us to the front, but I'm confident we'll have it figured out in final practice tomorrow morning."
Colin Braun, the 18-year-old driving phenom in the Krohn Racing Pontiac, earned his second pole position in four races this season. His lap of 1:45.003 (112.111 mph) eclipsed the track record held previously by his Krohn Racing teammate, Max Papis. Papis set the previous mark in 2004 while co-driving with Scott Pruett in the Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates entry.