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Lexus
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Lexus
JDAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (July 3, 2008) -- With a strong run off the final corner, Scott Pruett utilized his Lexus power to push past Alex Gurney down the straightaway on the final lap to register the closest victory in Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series, winning by just .081 seconds in tonight's Brumos 250 at the Daytona International Speedway. The win is the fifth in eight races for the #01 Ganassi/Lexus team and gives both the drivers and the team a 40-point championship lead with just six races remaining. In addition, Lexus now holds a six-point lead in the manufacturer's championship.
Pruett and Gurney traded the lead three times in the last 20 laps of the event before Pruett made his final pass within sight of the finish line. Pruett originally took the lead on Lap 50 in a maneuver that would prove to be similar to his race-winning move. Gurney then re-took the lead on Lap 58 and held the top spot until the last lap. A pair of full-course cautions almost prevented the dramatic finish, but the track officials were able to clean up the debris from a late-race incident involving the #3 Southard Motorsports Lexus and a lapped GT car. The end result was a one-lap shoot-out with Pruett coming out victorious.
The late contact soured an otherwise strong performance by the Southard team, which led their first lap of the 2008 campaign and ran in the top-10 for much of the event. The #3 car was running eighth and on-pace for a season-best finish before the incident, which occurred as the GT car moved up into the faster Daytona Prototype as driver Bill Lester was passing on the outside.
The Rolex Sports Car Series returns Sunday, July 20 at the Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama with coverage live on SPEED.
Quotes:
Memo Rojas, #01 Telmex Lexus: "That was an awesome pass by Scott -- the best I've ever seen. Once our tires started to heat up, we'd lose grip, so I think it helped to cool the tires some at the finish. It was a great finish as far as the points. We've been consistently strong all year and that's what we need to keep us in the lead."
Scott Pruett, #01 Telmex Lexus: "Wow! That was an awesome finish. They had more downforce and were quicker in the infield, but we were definitely quicker on the straights. Lexus did a great job giving us the power. We knew if we could be close enough coming onto the straightaway that we'd have a good shot to win it. I have to applaud Grand-Am for getting everything cleaned up so quickly after a bad accident to give the fans a great finish."
Shane Lewis, #3 Southard Motorsports Lexus: "It was really good to lead a lap tonight. The team really needed it. We probably could have led another five to 10 laps, but our strategy was to come in and pit early. The car was much better at night than it was during the day. Hopefully, we can continue to build on an overall strong run tonight."
GM Racing
GAINSCO Pontiac Finishes Second At Daytona
Stevenson Motorsports third in GT
Daytona, Fla., July 3, 2008 -- The GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing Pontiac Daytona Prototype (DP) finished second this evening in round eight of the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16 run at Daytona International Speedway. The Stevenson Motorsports Pontiac GXP.R of Robin Liddell and Andrew Davis finished third in GT.
Jon Fogarty started the No. 99 GAINSCO Pontiac DP car from the front row. Fogarty was able to take over the lead on lap 37. Soon after Fogarty pitted and turned the wheel over to Alex Gurney. Gurney took over the lead again after the pit stops cycled through. The Californian then lost the lead to the 01 on lap 50 and then retakes the head spot on lap 57. A late race yellow flew on lap 61. Grand-Am then took the race green again with one lap remaining. Coming out of the Bus Stop turn and up on NASCAR turn four, the 01 car pulled alongside the 99 and beat them to the checkered flag by .081-seconds to account for the closest finish in Grand-Am history.
"I could see that if I didn't have a certain gap he could close and go bye," Gurney said. "All of the restarts were different. The track was slick and the tires are not all the way in. I knew as soon as I turned on to the oval I didn't have the gap. It was an exciting race for everyone. From my seat it was very painful. A great finish, we just didn't have enough today."
The No. 76 Krohn Racing Pontiac Lola of Nic Jonsson and Ricardo Zonta equaled their best finish of the year by coming home in third. The duo had the green car upfront at the end of the race and were able to make a brief run at the lead on the last restart, but had to settle for the bottom step of the podium.
"The team did a great job today," Jonsson said. "The guys had to completely turn the car around since practice and qualifying. We had some small problems all day, but in the race it was a great car. We are happy to be on the podium. The last time was in Mexico City. We have a lot more to come with this new car. The team is putting everything together with the strategy and the handling of the car and we are looking forward to some more top finishes."
The No. 16 Cheever Racing Pontiac Coyote finished the race in 10th. Tom Kimber-Smith started the Coyote from 18th after a difficult day. Antonio Garcia was able to run in the top 10 and then finish the day in 10th.
"We had some high expectations for the day," Kimber-Smith said. "We were really fighting the setup all day. With the way the day was structured there wasn't really a chance to sit back and think about the changes to the car. What we thought was good, ended up being not good. After qualifying we went to the paddock and decided to put a setup on the car that we know works. So we ended up playing it safe for the race. I had a little drama early when the radio went out and then it came back on just in time for the crew to call me in for the mandatory 45-minute pit stop."
The team Krohn Racing Pontiac with Eric van de Poele and Tracy Krohn at the wheel finished the day in 14th. After day of practice and qualifying the team made some drastic changes for the race that paid off.
"This is an amazing turnaround today because it was so miserable earlier in the day for both cars," Krohn said. "We were both searching. We made some very, very last minute, I mean just before the race, changes on the No. 76 car that made a huge difference. I applaud (Krohn racing Team Manager) David Brown and our drivers. They did a really good job pulling it back together. Several laps they were actually the quickest car in the field. It was a huge turnaround. Getting on the podium here was very big for us. We really struggled the last couple of weeks, and particularly today, but they pulled it through and made it work."
Jim Matthews started the No. 91 Riley-Matthews Pontiac Riley from his 11th place qualifying position. Matthews was running strong in the top five when he had contact with the 76 car which forced a GT competitor into the path of the 91. The result was a busted radiator that took six laps to fix.
"I wasn't being too aggressive following the 76 into the corner," Matthews said. "He came down on me, got into the 07 GT car spun in front of me and that is where the damage happened. Before that we had contact on the restart and that is how it all got started. It was tough. I had a good run going."
The No. 10 Suntrust Pontiac Dallara of Michael Valiante and Max Angelelli had a day full of ups and downs. The team started from third place on the DP grid. Valiante managed to take over the lead of the race on lap 10. Sixteen laps later he had a right-rear tire go down as he went into turn one. He had to limp the Dallara all the way around the track back to the pits costing the team two laps. Later in the race Angelelli had to take evasive action in the Bus Stop to avoid a slower GT car, sending him into the tire barrier and ending the team's day early in 20th place.
"It happened in the 'Bus Stop,'" Angelelli said of the incident that put him out of the race. "A Porsche came down. I don't think it saw me. It came down, I was right there, and I spun. There were times the car was really, really good. It's just a shame what happened. Everything started to go bad with the tire puncture. But I was very excited about how good the car felt, so I wanted to have a strong finish. Michael qualified well and put the car in the lead, so we had a very strong day at the beginning. He said the car felt good, too. The car definitely is fast. It's just disappointing to not get the good result tonight."
In GT Liddell and Davis made a late race run to the front finishing in third. Liddell took over the car late in the race and as team's got caught out by caution flags, good pit work and strategy had the team at the front. In the waning laps, Liddell took over second place and was not able to hold the position on the final restart settling for third.
"I was very confident that we were slow on the banking," Liddell said. "Finishing third is a bonus for us. This is not our strongest circuit. The car is heavy and make a big hole in the air. Coming third is great for us. For Pontiac we are battling for the championship. We finished ahead of the 07 car again and that is good for the points. We are coming up to some better tracks for our car and hope to keep having top finishes."
The No. 07 Banner Racing Pontiac GXP.R of Paul Edwards and Kelly Collins also had strategy on their side to finish the day in fourth. Collins started the car and was involved in the incident with the 91 and 76 on lap 11, but the contact did no real damage to the Pontiac. Collins turned the car over to Edwards on lap 41 and on the restart Edwards was hit from behind. He had to pit twice for repairs, but the team had him back out without losing a lap.
"In practice we had a strong 10th place car," Edwards said. "On that restart I got hit in turn three after avoiding a spinning car. I had to pit twice for repairs and that sent us to the back of the longest line, but still on the lead lap. After the banging and hits we took tonight, fourth place is definitely a gift. We will take it and go to Barber."
The No. 72 Autohaus Motorsports team also had to preserver to their sixth place finish. Tim Lewis Jr. started the GXP.R and experienced a vibration early. The Floridian pitted and the team changed tires and sent him back out a lap down. Terry Borcheller took over the Pontiac and managed to keep it out of trouble for the sixth place finish.
"At the start of the race I got caught up in traffic," Lewis said. "Soon after I had a bad vibration coming through the tri-oval which was scary. I was sideways into turn one again through the kink. I naturally thought it was a tire going down. The team did a good job today to maximize our finishing position. Terry did excellent work behind the wheel to finish the day strong."
The Grand-Am competitors will have one weekend off before returning to action at Barber Motorport Park on July 20.
Porsche
Solid Efforts Net Top 10s For Porsche Teams
Barbosa-France Fourth in DP; Werner-Miller Score Runner-up in GT
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - July 4 -- Overall, Porsche's performance customer teams turned in solid efforts with three top-10 finishes in DP Class and a podium for second place in GT in Thursday night's Brumos Porsche 250 at Daytona International Speedway, the eighth race in the 14-race 2008 Rolex Sports Car Series Presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16.
Portugal's Joao Barbosa provided some last-minute heroics in the No. 59 Porsche-Riley as he passed Brumos Racing teammate Darren Law of Phoenix, Ariz., on the final lap to finish fourth, only 3.24 seconds behind the winning Lexus-Riley of Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas. Law finished fifth, just a whisker behind Barbosa, and Joey Hand of Sacramento, Cal., gave the No. 23 Ruby Tuesday Alex Job Racing Porsche-Crawford its first top-10 finish by placing eighth, only 4.661 seconds behind the winner. A late-race caution helped set up the close finish, but the Porsche contingent ran in the top 10 most of the evening with the No. 58 Brumos car and the Alex Job Racing entry both running as high as third place at separate times during the 250-mile race. For the Brumos team, it marked the second straight race with both of its cars taking the checkered flag in the top five.
"We had some brake problems with the No. 58 car so he (Law) couldn't hold off the No. 59 car in the end," said Hurley Haywood, the Brumos team director and legendary sports car racer in his own right. "But it was a good showing with all of the problems we had tonight. So we're happy with that."
Haywood alluded to an early pit stop for David Donohue of Malvern, Pa., who started the race after qualifying fifth. Donohue pitted on Lap 7, but fell from fifth to 17th after stopping to have an electrical short repaired on the car's number panel. Donohue slowly rebounded to third by Lap 28 and then pitted two laps later to hand the car over to Law, who was again delayed by work on the troublesome number panel. Law rejoined the race in 13th position but would move back up in the standings to remain in the top five for the final 11 laps.
As he had at Mid-Ohio, Barbosa came on strong at the finish after co-driver and hometown favorite J.C. France took good care of the No. 59 entry after starting in 16th position. France ran as high sixth before pitting on Lap 19 and vacating the cockpit for Barbosa.
"It was a pretty good stint," France said. "I was trying to keep the car clean and keep it on lead lap to give a good car to Barbosa."
Mission accomplished and with the good car, the Portuguese driver continued to improve his position, saving his best for the last lap. The fourth-place finish also came despite a green-flag pit stop that came 30 seconds before the race's first caution period of the night on Lap 38.
"Everything worked really well," Barbosa said. "I made some bad calls on my part and lost many places and it was really difficult to catch up. But the Porsche engine was strong all the way through the race. The team did a great job and gave me a good car--a competitive ca--so we were able to go from 17th to fourth."
Thursday's race was a vast improvement for the Alex Job Racing entry that had retired on the pace lap of the previous race. Not only did the newly redesigned Porsche- Crawford go the distance, but Hand was able to bring it home in one piece, gain some important development miles and score a top-10 finish
Bill Auberlen started seventh and although the resident of Redondo Beach, Cal., dropped to 17th position in the early laps, he was able to work his way up to as high as third before pitting on Lap 38 during a full-course caution and turning the car over to Hand. That yellow came courtesy of race leader Michael Wilkins who cut a tire and then brushed the wall, leaving enough debris to merit the caution.
Hand rejoined the race in fourth and never ran lower than 11th the rest of the way. "We ran," Hand exclaimed. "We've kind of struggled with some things dealing with the new bodywork on the Crawford and then had some freak things happen on the parade lap of the last two races, so it's just nice to get a finish under our belts. We knew there would be some attrition here so we just tried to keep it clean. Alex asked us to keep the bodywork on it because we don't have a ton of spares just yet. We had some sort of vibration in the end with the right rear tire and it was causing some weird sort of harmonic. It was actually slowing the engine down. We persevered."
NOTE: Hurley Haywood and J.C. France will drive the original Brumos Racing Porsche- Fabcar in next week's Goodwood Festival of Speed in England. The chassis, No. 001, has been restored and carried Haywood and France to score first overall victories for a Daytona Prototype in races at Homestead and Phoenix in 2003.
***
Werner, Miller Lead Porsche Contingent in GT Class
For the second straight race, a Farnbacher Loles Porsche 911 GT3 Cup scored the best finish for Porsche in GT Class as Germany's Dirk Werner and Bryce Miller of Hoboken, N.J., wound up second to the Mazda RX-8 of Nick Ham and Sylvain Tremblay. Starting in third in the No. 87 entry, Werner jumped into the lead at the start and took off with teammate Eric Lux of Jacksonville, Fla., who eventually worked up to second to give Porsche a 1-2 in the standings for a handful of laps.
However, Lux was forced to pit on Lap 11 with a mechanical problem that kept the car in the pits for 12 laps. The winners at Mid-Ohio would be denied a second straight victory . Werner continued to lead, setting the pace for the first 21 laps before losing the lead to Ham. The full-course caution for debris on Lap 38 allowed Werner to close up on Ham, who had been ahead by 20 seconds. Both teams used the occasion to pit and make driver changes with Miller taking over for Werner.
Miller continued where Werner left off by jumping into the lead as the green flag came out on Lap 44 and stayed there for five laps until being passed by Jeff Segal in a Mazda RX-8. Segal brought out the final caution after tangling with a DP car and flipping just after the exit from the Bus Stop Chicane. On the final lap, Miller was able to pass the Pontiac GXP-R of Robin Liddell to finish in second.
"The last race was the changing point for our team," Werner said during the post-race interview. "We wanted to hop on that train and get a good result at Daytona. The plan was to get a gap in the first part of the race and as the tires went away, I tried to stay up front. The advantage (for the Mazdas) was that they didn't have to change the tires. I'm pretty happy with the second place. Bryce did an awesome finish passing Robin on the last lap."
"It's nice to have the exposure and experience to close the race and for Dirk to give that to me is special," Miller added. "I thought Robin had me there going into the Bus Stop turn, but the Pontiac punched such a big hole I was able to get by. It's a good feeling." TRG also placed three cars in the top 10 in GT Class. Ted Ballou of Coronado Del Mar, Cal., and Andy Lally of Dacula, Ga., took team honors by finishing fifth in the No. 66 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup entry while Canada's Hima Maher and Craig Stanton of Long Beach, Cal., placed eighth in the No. 65 TRG/Riegel Autosport entry. Tim George Jr. of New York, N.Y., and Spencer Pumpelly of Mason Neck, Va., finished ninth in the No. 67 entry. To update your email address or to change the format of the emails you are sent, click to this link. This email was individually sent to you, however if you wish to unsubscribe, please click here.
Ganassi
Pruett Makes Last Lap Pass to Win at Daytona International Speedway
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (July 3, 2008)-Scott Pruett won the closest finish in Grand-Am Rolex Series history Thursday night at Daytona by 0.081-second with a pass of Alex Gurney coming out of the final turn. The move to win the race was made on the high side of the No.99 car and gave the No.01 TELMEX Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates (CGRFS) team its fifth visit to victory lane through the first eight races of the 2008 season.
Co-driver Memo Rojas' fourth place starting position enabled him to maintain a hold in the top-four positions throughout the first 18 laps. The TELMEX team employed an off-sequence pit strategy to make a driver change and put Pruett in the car on lap 18 and continued to progress from 12th place to the top-three positions by lap 30 of the 70-lap event. Pruett gained the lead from laps 50-57 and trailed in second position behind the No.99 in the caution-marred final seven laps, until regaining the lead on the last corner.
Thursday's record-breaking finish marked Chip Ganassi Racing Teams, Inc.'s 99th career win and 20th victory for CGRFS' Rolex Series team. Pruett continues to extend his record Rolex Series career victories (19). The No.01 TELMEX team has now scored top-10 finishes and completed every lap for two straight seasons (since June 29, 2006).
Pruett and Rojas currently lead the Rolex Series driver and team championship race with their largest margin of the season with 260 points, 40 points over the No.99 Fogarty/Gurney car (220).
Scott Pruett "Winning here tonight means so much. This is our first win at Daytona in July and it just feels great. I was battling a loose car yet we were still able to run times with the leader if we weren't at the front. When it's a green/white restart we had no other option than to give it all we had. I went to the high side of Gurney coming onto the front stretch (for the checkered) and chose that line because I figured he'd be protecting the bottom line. Lucky for the two of us he didn't go high! But tonight was outstanding and it definitely holds true that it's not over until it's over. I can't say enough about TELMEX, Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates and the Lexus engine."
Memo Rojas "I am so proud of Scott right now. In my stint I just wanted to be smart with car and make good moves so when I handed the car over to Scott, he'd be in a position to be at the front. We started out running an off-sequence pit stop strategy than the leaders and by the end I think our strategy paid off because we were right there after our final stop. Scott did an amazing job -- I am so excited for this win. Thank you to Chip and Felix, TELMEX and Lexus."
Suntrust Racing
On a day when SunTrust announced to the racing world that it is proud to extend sponsorship agreements with Grand-Am and Wayne Taylor Racing for many years to come, Thursday night's Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series Brumos Porsche 250 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway started with a flourish but ended rather unceremoniously for Max Angelelli and Michael Valiante in the brand new No. 10 SunTrust Racing Pontiac Dallara.
The new Dallara, which replaces the original model that burned to the ground in a transporter fire May 19, picked up right where its predecessor left off by qualifying at the front of the grid, getting off to a strong start in the race, and putting SunTrust in the lead for the seventh time in eight races this season.
After the SunTrust Racing driving duo reeled off solid practice results to start the day - recording top-six lap times in all three sessions - Valiante qualified the new Dallara third behind the polesitting No. 61 AIM Autosport entry, and its fellow front-row-starting No. 99 Gainsco/Bob Stallings Racing entry, which won last year's series championship and the most recent race on the schedule at Mid-Ohio.
Valiante made short work of getting by Jon Fogarty in the No. 99 on the very first lap of tonight's 70-lap event around the 3.56-mile, 12-turn superspeedway road course. He then was in close pursuit of Mark Wilkins in the race-leading No. 61 Ford for the first seven tours of the circuit before the team's first strategic move of the night - a fuel-only stop that also allowed the SunTrust crew to reset the on-board computer in an effort to repair a power steering problem Valiante was reporting. That stop dropped Valiante back to 15th, but over the next 13 laps, Valiante passed several cars in front of him while others gradually peeled off one-by-one to top off fuel tanks in strategy moves of their own.
By lap 20, Valiante was in the lead and pulling away from the field with what he later told the SunTrust crew just might be the best race car he had ever driven. Six laps later, however, Valiante's right-rear tire blew as the result of a puncture just past the start-finish line. From there, he had to limp around the entire road circuit before making his way down pit road for a fresh set of Pirellis and a driver change on lap 27. The slow roll back to the pits put the No. 10 SunTrust Pontiac a lap down, in 17th position, when Angelelli took control with 43 laps to go.
"I had a really bad vibration about 20 laps before the tire blew up," Valiante said. "I slowed down because it was so loud that I couldn't even hear the engine. And then, when I was headed into turn 1, it just blew up and I almost went off. It's tough for this SunTrust team because it's been working so hard. We lost the power steering, but the car was still quick enough to win."
Angelelli was back up to speed in no time, clicking off lap times consistent with the fastest laps of the race. But his efforts to unlap himself and move up in the finishing order came to an abrupt end some 30 laps later when, entering the chicane on the back-straight known as the "Bus Stop," he and a number of other cars bunched up, and a GT-class Porsche forced him off the track and spinning into a tire barrier. That was the end of the new Dallara's once-promising debut on the Rolex Series' most high-profile track, and one where SunTrust had enjoyed numerous shining moments in its four-plus seasons on the circuit.
"It happened in the ‘Bus Stop,'" Angelelli said of the incident that put him out of the race. "A Porsche came down. I don't think it saw me. It came down, I was right there, and I spun. There were times the car was really, really good. It's just a shame what happened. Everything started to go bad with the tire puncture. But I was very excited about how good the car felt, so I wanted to have a strong finish. Michael qualified well and put the car in the lead, so we had a very strong day at the beginning. He said the car felt good, too. The car definitely is fast. It's just disappointing to not get the good result tonight."
Scott Pruett, in the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Lexus Riley, passed Alex Gurney in the No. 99 on a last-lap restart to win tonight's Brumos Porsche 250. It was the fifth win of the season for Pruett and co-driver Memo Rojas.
After taking next weekend off, the second half of the 2008 Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series kicks off July 20 with the Porsche 250 at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Ala.