Frisselle and Wilkins bring AIM Second Victory
Brian Frisselle and Mark Wilkins led 78 of the 82 laps to win the Crown Royal 200, Round 12 of the 2008 Rolex Series season showcasing the Daytona Prototypes.
Wilkins took the checkered flag in last Saturday's Montreal 200 only .064 seconds ahead of Antonio Garcia to win the closest finish in series history. Friday evening, Wilkins won by 1.986 seconds over Alex Gurney.
Gurney and Jon Fogarty finished second in the No. 99 GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing Pontiac Riley, cutting the championship lead of Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas to 49 points with three races remaining. The six-time race winning No. 01 TELMEX Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Lexus Riley was never a factor, placing 13th – two laps down – for the team's worst finish of the season after scoring eight podium finishes in 10 races.
Law and David Donohue finished third in the No. 58 Brumos Racing Porsche Riley, followed by Joey Hand and Bill Auberlen in the No. 23 Ruby Tuesday Porsche Riley and the No. 76 Krohn Racing Pontiac Lola of Ricardo Zonta and Nic Jonsson.
Frisselle started from the pole and led throughout his 30-lap shift. Wilkins took over and led the 31st lap in the pits, before being passed by Christian Fittipaldi in the No. 16 Crown Royal Cask No. 16 Pontiac Coyote. Fittipaldi pitted for a driver change four laps later, turning the lead back over to Wilkins.
Wilkins had built up a 19.939-second lead over Gurney on lap 56, when caution waved to retrieve the stalled No. 4 AT&T Childress-Howard Motorsports Pontiac Crawford of Andy Wallace.
On the restart, Eric van de Poele lost control, spun in turn 11 and slammed the tire wall, nearly flipping the No. 75 Krohn Racing Pontiac Lola.
That bunched the field for the restart with 19 laps/32 minutes remaining, but Wilkins pulled away. He was passed by Joao Barbosa in the late stages of the race, but the No. 59 Brumos Racing Porsche Riley was two laps down.
The No. 91 Bob Stallings/Riley-Matthews Motorsports Pontiac Riley was eliminated in a first lap incident when the No. 47 Brach's/CDOC Ford Dallara of Ricky Taylor was turned around in turn one and was T-boned by Jim Matthews. It marked the fifth time in six races that the Riley-Matthews team was involved in an incident, threatening to drop Matthews and Marc Goossens out of the top 10 in the point standings.
The next action for the Grand-Am Rolex Series will be held August 23 at Infineon Raceway, featuring the Daytona Prototypes sharing an event weekend with the IRL IndyCar Series. The next combined Daytona Prototype/GT race will be August 31, the Supercar Life 250 at New Jersey Motorsports Park.
Results
|
POS |
NO. | CLASS | CLPOS. | DRIVER | TEAM/CAR | LAPS | SPONSORS |
| 1 | 61 | DP | 1 | Frisselle / Wilkins | AIM Autosport / Ford Riley | 82 | Exchange Traded Gold, Mike Direct Connect |
| 2 | 99 | DP | 2 | Fogarty / Gurney | GAINSCO/ Bob Stallings Racing / Pontiac Riley | 82 | GAINSCO Auto Insurance |
| 3 | 58 | DP | 3 | Donohue / Law | Brumos Racing / Porsche Riley | 82 | Brumos Porsche, Kendall |
| 4 | 23 | DP | 4 | Auberlen / Hand | Alex Job Racing / Porsche Riley | 82 | Ruby Tuesday |
| 5 | 76 | DP | 5 | Jonsson / Zonta | Krohn Racing / Pontiac Lola | 82 | |
| 6 | 16 | DP | 6 | Fittipaldi / Garcia | Cheever Racing / Pontiac Coyote | 82 | Crown Royal Cask No. 16 |
| 7 | 10 | DP | 7 | Angelelli / Valiante | SunTrust Racing / Pontiac Dallara | 82 | SunTrust |
| 8 | 60 | DP | 8 | Negri / Patterson | Michael Shank Racing / Ford Riley | 81 | Hospital for Special Surgery |
| 9 | 6 | DP | 9 | James / Pew | Michael Shank Racing / Ford Riley | 81 | |
| 10 | 77 | DP | 10 | Gidley / Jaeger | Doran Racing / Ford Dallara | 81 | Kodak |
| 11 | 7 | DP | 11 | Plumb / Sigal | Rum Bum Racing / BMW Riley | 81 | Rum Bum, Big Vision Miami, Caramba Tequila |
| 12 | 59 | DP | 12 | Barbosa / France | Brumos Racing / Porsche Riley | 80 | Brumos Porsche, Kendall |
| 13 | 01 | DP | 13 | Pruett / Rojas | Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates / Lexus Riley | 80 | TELMEX |
| 14 | 09 | DP | 14 | Camirand / Cosmo | Spirit of Daytona Racing / Porsche Coyote | 80 | |
| 15 | 3 | DP | 15 | Lester / Lewis | Southard Motorsports / Lexus Riley | 78 | |
| 16 | 22 | DP | 16 | de Quesada / Dumoulin / Gabel | Alegra Motorsports / Porsche Riley | 77 | Gatorade, Today MD |
| 17 | 47 | DP | 17 | Frisselle / Taylor | Doran Racing / Ford Dallara | 75 | Brach's, CDOC |
| 18 | 75 | DP | 18 | Krohn / van de Poele | Krohn Racing / Pontiac Lola | 53 | |
| 19 | 4 | DP | 19 | Lally / Wallace | Childress-Howard Motorsports / Pontiac Crawford | 42 | AT&T |
| 20 | 91 | DP | 20 | Goossens / Matthews | Bob Stallings/ Riley-Matthews / Pontiac Riley | 0 | Riley-Matthews Motorsports |