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GRAND-AM

Point Standings
GRAND-AM DP
After Watkins Glen

Rank Driver Points
1 Memo Rojas 228
Scott Pruett 228
3 Max Angelelli 204
Ricky Taylor 204
5 JC France 188
Joao Barbosa 188
Terry Borcheller 188
8 Darren Law 187
David Donohue 187
10 Alex Gurney 185
Jon Fogarty 185
12 John Pew 179
Ozz Negri 179
14 Brian Frisselle 151
Henri Richard 151
16 Antonio Garcia 148
Paul Edwards 148
18 Burt Frisselle 146
19 Mike Forest 123
20 Mark Wilkins 121
21 Alex Popow 110
Enzo Potolicchio 110
23 Ryan Dalziel 93
24 Mark Blundell 53
25 Michael Valiante 46
26 Matt Bell 41
27 Graham Rahal 35
Joey Hand 35
29 Dario Franchitti 32
Jamie McMurray 32
Juan Pablo Montoya 32
Scott Dixon 32
33 Christian Fittipaldi 30
Max Papis 30
35 Mark Patterson 28
Martin Brundle 28
Zak Brown 28
38 Ryan Briscoe 26
Wayne Taylor 26
40 Nic Jonsson 25
Nicolas Minassian 25
Ricardo Zonta 25
Tracy Krohn 25
44 AJ Allmendinger 24
Justin Wilson 24
Michael McDowell 24
47 Christophe Bouchut 23
Luis Diaz 23
Scott Tucker 23
50 Buddy Rice 22
51 Henry Gilbert 21
Marc Goossens 21
Shane Lewis 21
54 Raphael Matos 20
Richard Westbrook 20
Ryan Hunter-Reay 20
57 Jimmie Johnson 19
58 Johannes van Overbeek 18
Jorg Bergmeister 18
Patrick Long 18
Seth Neiman 18
62 Sascha Maassen 17
63 Colin Braun 16
Doug Peterson 16
Jan Heylen 16
Jared Beyer 16
Jim Lowe 16
RJ Valentine 16
Romain Iannetta 16
Ross Kaiser 16
Scott Mayer 16
Tomas Enge 16
 

Pruett wins Grand-Am pole at The Glen

Rolex Series
Friday, June 05, 2009

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Scott Pruett
Scott Pruett bettered the Watkins Glen International track record by two seconds Saturday, winning his 12th career pole position for Saturday's Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen.

The event, Round 5 of the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16, takes the green flag at 2:15 p.m. Saturday. The race will be televised live on SPEED from 2-4 p.m. and resuming from 6-8:30 p.m.

Pruett ran a lap of 1:40.744 (121.496 mph) in the No. 01 TELMEX Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Lexus Riley he co-drives with Memo Rojas. It was the team's third pole of the season, with Rojas leading qualifying at Virginia International Raceway and Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Pruett and Rojas won six races en route to capturing the Daytona Prototype title in 2008, but are winless this season.

"Hopefully, we can start turning poles into victories," Pruett said. "I've always liked this track, and the Ganassi guys have done well here. It's nice to have the TELMEX car up front. But six hours is a long race."

Pruett will be joined on the front row by Alex Gurney, who ran a lap of 1:41.442 (120.660 mph) in the No. 99 GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing Pontiac Riley co-driven by Jon Fogarty. The pair enter Saturday's race with an eight-point lead (119-111) in the Daytona Prototype point standings over David Donohue and Darren Law.

"The No. 01 got in a really good lap," Gurney said. "They put a good car out there, and Scott did a real good job. It's nice for us to be on the front row. It's going to be a long, tough day tomorrow. Hopefully, we can keep it clean."

The top 11 drivers broke Max Angelelli's existing track record, set in qualifying for last year's race. Angelelli qualified third in the No. 10 SunTrust Ford Dallara, running a lap of 1:41.488 (120.605 mph), after the team missed most of Friday's practice due to a broken oil line.

"I felt I had to do it for the guys," Angelelli said. "There was no other option. I had to deliver - that's it."

Rounding out the top five in qualifying were the two Michael Shank Racing Ford Rileys. Michael Valiante was fourth in the No. 6, 1:41.520 (120.567 mph), followed by Ozz Negri in the No. 60, 1:41.587 (120.488 mph).

Timo Bernhard in the No. 12 Penske Racing Verizon Porsche Riley, Mark Wilkins in the No. 61 AIM Autosport Ford Riley, Ricardo Zonta in the No. 76 Krohn Racing Ford Riley, Ricky Taylor in the No. 13 Beyer Racing Pontiac Riley and Christophe Bouchut in the No. 55 Supercar Life Racing BMW Riley completed the top 10 qualifiers. Also under the track record was Law in the No. 58 Brumos Racing Porsche Riley.

Pruett's pole extended his record in the Daytona Prototypes, and pulled to within one of all-time Rolex Series leader James Weaver, who recorded 13 overall poles.

Farnbacher Loles Racing Sweeps GT Front Row

Dirk Werner captured his first career Rolex Series Acxiom GT pole position to lead a front row sweep for Farnbacher Loles Racing.

Werner led qualifying with a lap of 1:51.007 (110.263 mph) in the No. 87 Farnbacher Loles Racing Porsche GT3 co-driven by Eric Lux. Teammate Wolf Henzler took second after running a lap of 1:51.019 (110.251 mph) in the No. 86 co-driven by Eric Lux.

"I found that my car was really, really good on my first lap out of the pits," said Werner, the 2007 Rolex Series GT champion. "On my first timed lap, my tire pressures and temperatures were perfect. The car handled really well, and I put in a good lap. Our setups were very good, allowing us to take the front row. Now, we want to stay out of trouble for the first part of the race. We had an issue here last year, so we worked on getting a good qualifying time and it worked out perfectly."

It was Porsche's first GT pole of the season, and 75th in Rolex Series GT history.

Pontiacs swept the second row. Robin Liddell was third fastest in the No. 57 BryanMark Financial/Stevenson Automotive Pontiac GXP.R, 1:51.466 (109.809 mph) co-driven by Andrew Davis. Fourth was Paul Edwards in the No. 07 Pontiac/LRPG Pontiac GXP.R co-driven by Kelly Collins, 51.498 (109.778 mph).

Mazdas took the next three positions. Defending Sahlen's Six Hour winner Jeff Segal was fifth in the No. 69 SpeedSource FXDD Mazda RX-8 co-driven by Emil Assentato and Nick Longhi. Dane Cameron will start fourth, joined by Bryce Miller and Peter Ludwig in the No. 30 Marquis Jet/IPC Mazda RX-8, 1:52.173 (109.117 mph). Seventh was Sylvain Tremblay in the No. 70 SpeedSource Castrol Syntec Mazda RX-8, 1:52.593 (108.710 mph). His co-drivers are Nick Ham and David Haskell.

The Rolex 24 At Daytona-winning No. 67 TRG Porsche GT3 of Andy Lally, Justin Marks and RJ Valentine missed qualifying when Valentine spun and was hit by a Daytona Prototype in Friday morning practice. Team owner Kevin Buckler said the team plans to repair the car in time for Saturday's race.

Saturday's schedule opens with final practice from 8:30 - 8:50 a.m. The race will be preceded by the Tioga Downs Casino 125 for the NASCAR Camping World East Series.

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