Gurney blisters Mazda Raceway

Alex Gurney blistered the fresh pavement on the famed 2.23-mile Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, as he turned laps in the No. 99 GAINSCO Auto Insurance Pontiac-powered Riley that were more than half a second quicker than anyone else in the Daytona Prototype field for Sunday’s Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series U.S. Sports Car Invitational delivered by Luggage Express. Gurney, whose father Dan is on hand this weekend to cheer him on, set the pace at 1:20.980 at an average speed of 99.491 mph. Co-driver Jon Fogarty, who will qualify the car tomorrow, wasn’t far behind – and the duo is brimming with confidence. Fogarty will seek to keep the team’s season-long front-row streak alive, and potentially even score his first career Rolex Series pole.

[Editor's Note: The track record in a Champ Car is 1m06s, some 14 seconds per lap faster that these Grand-Am Daytona prototype cars, meaning the Champ Car would lap the entire Grand-Am field every 5 laps. Even the Atlantic cars were turning laps at 1m16s, over 3 seconds per lap faster than the premier series in Grand-Am. So to say that Gurney blistered Mazda Raceway is a bit of a misnomer to say the least. The Grand-Am cars are so slow it's like watching paint dry.]

“This is a great way to start off the weekend – the GAINSCO Pontiac is really hooked up all around the track," said Gurney. "We’ve even surprised ourselves a little bit but we’ll take it for sure. The new track surface is all-around grippier, and thanks to our engineer Kyle Brannan, I think we’ve got a setup that takes advantage of that grip better than anyone else. We don’t seem to have a weak spot anywhere so we’ll just try to keep this going into tomorrow and give Jon a shot at the pole in qualifying."

Pos No. Class Driver Team Car Best Lap Speed
1 99 DP Fogarty/ Gurney Pontiac Riley 1:20.980 99.491
2 01 DP Pruett/ Rojas Lexus Riley 1:21.499 98.858
3 39 DP Fittipaldi/ Brix Porsche Fabcar 1:21.697 98.618
4 60 DP Patterson/ Negri Jr Lexus Riley 1:21.752 98.552
5 10 DP Taylor/ Angelelli/ Magnussen Pontiac Riley 1:21.880 98.398
6 23 DP Long/ Bergmeister Porsche Crawford 1:21.940 98.326
7 75 DP Braun/ Papis Pontiac Riley 1:21.973 98.286
8 11 DP Dalziel/ Carpentier Pontiac Riley 1:22.078 98.160
9 91 DP Matthews/ Goossens Pontiac Riley 1:22.223 97.987
10 19 DP Finlay/ Valiante Lexus Riley 1:22.226 97.984
11 6 DP Pew/ James Lexus Riley 1:22.486 97.675
12 61 DP Frisselle/ Wilkins/ Frisselle Lexus Riley 1:22.868 97.225
13 58 DP Donohue/ Law Porsche Riley 1:22.975 97.099
14 77 DP Gidley/ Cosmo Ford Doran 1:23.172 96.869
15 12 DP Schramm/ Bell Pontiac Riley 1:24.203 95.683
16 3 DP Lewis/ Ruhlman Lexus Riley 1:24.477 95.373
17 59 DP Haywood/ France Porsche Riley 1:24.655 95.172
18 05 DP Auberlen/ Alhadeff BMW Riley 1:24.694 95.128
19 76 DP Krohn/ Jonsson Pontiac Riley 1:25.472 94.262