Lexus has had the speed so far in 2008
Lexus
Bob Stallings/GAINSCO
Michael Shank Racing
Farnbacher Loles
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Lexus
GANASSI/LEXUS COMBINATION OFF TO BEST START IN SERIES HISTORY -- With three victories and a second-place finish in the season's first four races, the #01 Chip Ganassi Racing Lexus is off to the best start in Daytona Prototype history. No team had ever won three of the season's first four events. Included among the three victories was the sport's crown jewel -- the Rolex 24 at Daytona. On the strength of the historic start, drivers Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas hold a 21-point championship lead heading into Laguna Seca, where Pruett debuted approximately 30 years ago in go-kart competition.
20 AND COUNTING... - With the victory at the most recent event at Virginia, Lexus reached the 20-win plateau in Rolex Sports Car Series competition. The manufacturer registered the feat in just 58 races -- a 34 percent winning clip. The #01 Chip Ganassi Racing Lexus has 17 of those victories, with one each coming from Michael Shank Racing, Doran Racing and a second Ganassi Racing entry.
LEXUS AT LAGUNA -- Lexus has competed at Laguna Seca three times since entering the series in 2004 with Lexus-powered teams earning three podium finishes, including a win by Scott Pruett and Luis Diaz in 2005. Last season, Scott Pruett appeared to be on the way to a second triumph at the Monterey, Calif., road course before a series of late-race cautions left him running second as the race finished under caution and the leader running on fumes as he crossed the finish line.
LEXUS ATOP ROLEX SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP -- Lexus has extended its Rolex Series lead to 12 points after four races in its chase for a second Manufacturers Championship in three years.
RECORD-SETTERS -- With three 2008 wins, Scott Pruett now has 17 career Rolex Series victories, while Chip Ganassi Racing has extended its win total to 18 - both Rolex Series records.
AND THE STREAK GOES ON.... -- Not only are Scott Pruett and the #01 Lexus team the biggest winners in the sport, but they're also the most consistent team. In addition to the recent victories to open the season at the Rolex 24, Miami and Virginia, Pruett and the #01 Telmex Lexus have now finished in the top-10 in a record 23 straight races, dating back to Mid-Ohio in June 2006.
STEADILY RISING -- Coming off their second top-10 finish in the last three races at VIR, the #3 Southard Motorsports team has climbed into 11th-place in the overall standings -- less than 10 points out of the eighth position. The team already has one top-10 finish at Laguna Seca with an eighth in 2005. The trek to Monterey will mark a homecoming for Southard driver Bill Lester, a native of Oakland, who raced at the track coming up the sports car ranks. The return to Laguna marks the second time this season that Lester will venture to a track where he has previous experience.
Bob Stallings/GAINSCO
Gurney and Fogarty Joined by Fellow Champs da Matta and Vasser in First Two-Car GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing Effort on Saturday
MONTEREY, Calif. (May 13, 2008) -- GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing will for the first time field two Daytona Prototype race cars in Saturday's RumBum.com 250 (SPEED, May 18 at Noon ET) at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in a history-making Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series race that will see champion driver Cristiano da Matta make his first professional race start since recovering from life-threatening injuries in an August 2006 testing accident.
Reigning Grand-Am Rolex Series Champions Alex Gurney and Jon Fogarty will be joined by da Matta and former CART Champ Car Champion Jimmy Vasser in similar Pontiac Rileys on the legendary Laguna Seca track where GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing made its debut just three years ago. Gurney, along with team owner and then-driver Bob Stallings, finished sixth.
"I returned to racing in 2005 after two years away when GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing made its series debut at Laguna Seca, so it is a special place for us," said Gurney, who drove through the field after Stallings recovered from an early contact incident. "We will always remember being quickest on our first day and we want that tradition to continue this weekend. We've had some terrible luck lately, but the speed of the car is there and the team is performing well, so we believe wins are coming. I'll have a big contingent of family and friends attending, so it's the perfect weekend to get back into victory lane."
Fogarty, who was part of another GAINSCO Laguna Seca milestone one year later when he and Gurney bagged runner-up honors in just their second race together, knew the Bob Stallings-led team was a winner long before signing on as a driver.
"I took notice of the GAINSCO team's performance when they were at Laguna Seca a year before," said Fogarty, who took over driving duties from Stallings in April 2006. "Right equipment, great driver, great engineer, top crew and a committed team owner, all the makings were there. I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only one who took notice, but having a friend and former teammate kicking butt in a new venue gave me a strange sense of pride. It was really cool to see how well Alex and the team were performing."
Yet another GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing Laguna Seca milestone is set for this weekend with close friends and former teammates da Matta and Vasser sharing a race car for the first time. Gurney and Fogarty will handle the familiar No. 99 GAINSCO Auto Insurance Pontiac Riley while da Matta and Vasser will drive the nearly identical No. 98 GAINSCO Auto Insurance Pontiac Riley.
"I've had enough vacation, man," said da Matta, who has fully recovered from devastating head injuries sustained when his Champ Car struck a wayward deer on August 3, 2006, while testing at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. "It's very nice to get back to work. The GAINSCO team and Bob Stallings were the only ones who gave me a chance to drive. Many other teams said come back after I did some races with somebody else, but only Bob and GAINSCO gave me a chance. I can't thank them enough."
Da Matta, who won a 2002 Champ Car race at Laguna Seca in addition to a 1997 Indy Lights race, was cleared to return to professional driving earlier this year. He sailed through his first test with the GAINSCO team at the Eagles Canyon circuit near Dallas in late March, and is set for his official return to racing on a track that he and his teammate both love.
"Laguna Seca is my home track and it is a favorite more so than a lot of other circuits," said Vasser, who won the featured CART Champ Car race on the same day da Matta took Indy Lights honors in 1997. "It's a track I know so well and this is a weekend I have been looking forward to for a long time. I was there the day of Cristiano's accident and was in the hospital a couple of times, so I know how severe this was, how incredible of a comeback this really is. He is a great friend and a great champion and it is cool to be able to share this with Cristiano at a track we love."
Michael Shank Racing
Michael Shank Racing Ready for Laguna Seca
Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca site of strong team outings
(Columbus, OH) 13 May 08 -Michael Shank Racing is geared up for this weekend's Rumbum.com 250 at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and round five of the 2008 Rolex Sports Car Series season. The team has extensive experience at the track going back to the organization's early days in Formula Atlantic competition.
The Monterey, California facility is also a driver favorite, with the famed Corkscrew corners creating not only a signature visual for the fans, but also a singular experience for the drivers as they take on the 2.238-mile permanent road course facility. The track has also been the site of some important benchmarks in Michael Shank Racing team history.
The first time the Rolex Series raced at the track, Oswaldo Negri took the first Rolex Series pole position of his career as he and Mark Patterson made their Rolex debut together, teaming for a top-ten finish. That weekend outing not only created a pole position, but it was also the first foot forward for a strong partnership.
Patterson and Negri have since gone on to taste Rolex victory champagne, and have visited the podium together at least once every season since 2005. 2007 saw the two take ten top-ten finishes, and the partnership has continued to pick up pace in 2008, as the duo enter the Rumbum.com 250 weekend third in the Rolex Team Championship standings.
"It was no accident that we first raced at Laguna Seca as part of our limited schedule back in 2005, as it's always been one of my favorites," said Patterson, who won the Trueman Award Medal in the 2007 Rolex event at the track. "Being on the podium at Laguna last year was a thrill, and we'd like nothing more than to do that again this weekend. We are even stronger as a team than we were at this point last year, but so too is the competition in the Daytona Prototypes, so it's going to be a fight once again."
"Laguna is a fantastic track and we've had a podium and a pole position there, so of course the next best thing will be to go for a win!" said Negri. "Michael Shank has always had good cars there. And we've been better everywhere we've gone so far this season with the Ford-Riley, so I am really looking forward to this weekend. It's exciting to be third in the championship and no matter how things play out in the race, those points are a big focus for everyone on this team."
Laguna Seca was the site of John Pew's first Daytona Prototype start with Michael Shank Racing last year, as he shared the driving duties with Ian James for a run to seventh at the checkered flag. The track was also where he secured the Formula Mazda Masters Championship in formula car competition. It's challenging to elicit a boastful comment from Pew, but the Florida resident will admit to feeling confident heading out West for the Laguna round.
"Last year at this time I was really anxious about the weekend-I knew the track and that the team was good, but I just didn't know what to expect out of the race weekend," said Pew. "With a year in these cars under my belt now, I feel really confident every time out. And Laguna Seca is one of those tracks that you feel lucky to get to race on, and to do it with a great team and great co-driver, I'm just really looking forward to it."
Since the Laguna round last year, Pew and James have since taken eleven top-ten finishes, including a strong fourth place finish in the last round at VIR, their third fourth-place result together as they look to break through with a podium this weekend.
"John did a great job there last year and now with all the experience he has under his belt, coming to a track where he has already run this car is going to be a big help," said James. "I've always loved racing at Laguna-I've had some good results there and our car was right on pace last year, so hopefully we can have another good weekend."
Farnbacher Loles
Leh Keen of Charleston, S.C., and Eric Lux of Jacksonville, Fla., will drive the No. 86 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup at Laguna Seca, hoping to repeat their GT podium performance at the last series race, at Virginia International Raceway. They've been on track between races -- Keen competed in the Cannonball One Lap of America race and Lux joined forces with team owner Dino Loles to race in the Historic Walter Mitty Challenge at Road Atlanta.
"Laguna Seca is one of my top-three favorite road-racing circuits in the U.S. The types of corners really suit my driving style. I enjoy high-speed corners like turns five and six and after the Corkscrew. I am able to find my rhythm quickly and put down the lap times instantly because of the flow of the circuit," Lux said. "Last season, we had a great chance to win the Laguna Seca race after qualifying off pole [second] and taking the lead early on. However, a mechanical issue led to our retirement from the race. Leh also enjoys this circuit very much and I believe the two of us will be able to apply the pressure to the top GT cars."
Pierre Kaffer of Salenstein, Switzerland, who will drive the No. 87 Porsche with Dirk Werner, enjoyed a prototype win in his last race on the 2.238-mile Laguna Seca road course.
"I'm really looking forward to driving at Laguna again. The last time I drove there was in 2004, in the R8 for Audi, and I won the race with Johnny Herbert and Team Champion. Now I'm really glad to drive there again, for Grand-Am. My memories there are all positive!" Kaffer said. "I like the Corkscrew, of course, but also the first part of the corner when you go up the hill. It has flowing corners and it's not easy to brake for the Corkscrew. It's a corner that everybody in the world knows, and to be fast there is not so easy."
Werner is also enthusiastic: "I love to go to Laguna Seca and race on this beautiful track. It has nice corners, such as the Corkscrew, and you get into a rhythm pretty fast. We had good speed in Laguna last year and got third in the race with a damaged car. My expectations, especially after the disappointing race in VIR, are very high. The team needs and deserves a good result, and we need good points to return to the championship battle."
Steve Johnson of Bristol, Va., and Dave Lacey of Toronto, Ont., will drive the No. 88 Porsche at Laguna Seca. Johnson joined his teammates in high praise for the track:
"Laguna Seca is one of my favorite tracks and it is situated in one of my favorite spots in North America. I love the flow of the track; it really lets you get in a rhythm. And what can you say about the Corkscrew? Amazing! Also, the track staff there is some of the best anywhere, so nice and hospitable."