Fogarty, Gurney Team to Win Second Race of Season

Gurney (L) and Fogarty(R)
Bob Heathcote/AR1.com

Jon Fogarty passed Scott Pruett at the entrance to the Corkscrew with 22 laps remaining in Sunday's 106-lap Verizon Festival of Speed and held on to give the No. 99 GAINSCO Pontiac Riley its second Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16 victory of the season at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

In GT, Nick Ham and Sylvain Tremblay teamed to score their first victory of the season in the SpeedSource No. 70 Castrol Syntec/Mazdaspeed Mazda RX-8.
Fogarty started and finished the race, run under sunny skies and 91-degree temperatures. Alex Gurney drove the middle shift to give the team its 10th Rolex Series victory, beating the No. 01 TELMEX Lexus Riley started by pole sitter Memo Rojas by 7.228 seconds.
While it was the 10th time Fogarty and Gurney co-drove to win – following up their seven-victory championship season in 2007 – it marked the first time Fogarty actually took the checkered flag at the finish.
"We weren't sure if I had been in the car the required 30 minutes to score points," Fogarty said. "We considered leaving Alex in, but we figured since it's early in the season it was important for both of us to score points. On the winning pass, Scott got caught up in traffic in Turn 6 – and your momentum gets killed at that part of the track – so I had a good run and made it three-wide at that point. I got off into the gravel, but I was able to get back on the tarmac and outbraked him. I really almost didn't make it."
The victory allowed Fogarty and Gurney to take the Daytona Prototype point lead. Rolex 24 At Daytona winners Darren Law and David Donohue finished eighth in the Brumos Porsche Riley, and fell to second in the standings, eight points behind (119-111).
Rojas led the an event-high 44 laps in the race, with Pruett pacing 20 circuits in a bid to give them their first victory of the season.
The final 18 minutes were run under the green flag. Fogarty made his pass for the lead moments before the fourth and final caution, and then slowly pulled away after the final restart.
"We got caught up behind a GT car and had our momentum broke," Pruett said. "It was good, hard racing. He got his nose in there and I couldn't do anything about it."
Max Angelelli finished third in the No. 10 SunTrust Ford Dallara started by Brian Frisselle, followed by Burt Frisselle in the No. 61 AIM Autosport Ford Riley started by Mark Wilkins. For Wilkins and Burt Frisselle, it was their best finish of 2009.
Michael Shank Racing took fifth and seventh positions, with Ozz Negri and Mark Patterson fifth in the No. 60 Ford Riley, and Michael Valiante and John Pew taking seventh in the team's No. 6. In between was the Penske Racing No. 12 Verizon Wireless Porsche Riley of Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhard.
Much of the race was run under the green flag, with two cautions early in the event and a pair during the closing half-hour. The first incident occurred when Rolex 24 winner Justin Marks had a water leak in the TRG No. 67 Construct Corps Porsche GT3 and spun directly in front of the leaders on lap 10. Marks stopped on course to bring out the caution. The car co-driven by Andy Lally was able to continue after losing 30 laps in the pits.
"I saw the car spinning, but I was able to get our car in a direction where I would not hurt anything," said Rojas, who was pressured by Fogarty and Brian Frisselle at the time.
The second caution waved 30 minutes into the race when Scott Tucker went off and was stuck in a gravel trap. He was able to continue, with Christophe Bouchut taking over the No. 55 Supercar Life Racing BMW Riley to finish ninth in class.
After a long green-flag stretch, Wayne Nonnamaker was stranded in the gravel in the No. 43 Sahlen's Corvette with less than an hour remaining – erasing a seven-second lead for Pruett.
The fourth caution waved with 30 minutes remaining, when Mike Forest lost power in the Beyer Racing No. 13 Honda Riley and stopped on the track.
The Comptech Honda engine made its Daytona Prototype debut in the No. Beyer Racing No. 5 Lennox Riley Comptech Honda Riley. Jordan Taylor went out eight laps into the race with an electrical systems problem.
Also experiencing problems was the No. 76 Krohn Racing Ford Lola. Nic Jonsson – winner with Ricardo Zonta in the most recent race at New Jersey Motorsports Park – spun in the Corkscrew while trying to hold off Alex Gurney. A broken splitter resulted in the team's third DNF in four races.
Fogarty and Gurney completed 106 laps on the 2.238-mile circuit, averaging 85.807 mph.

Tremblay, Ham Win First GT Race of Season for Mazda

Nick Ham and Sylvain Tremblay teamed to lead 84 laps to give the SpeedSource No. 70 Castrol Syntec Mazda RX-8 its first Grand-Am Rolex Series Acxiom GT victory of the campaign.
Ham started on the pole and led four times for 50 laps. Tremblay took over and led the final 34 circuits after taking the lead from Paul Edwards.
"Last year I made a small mistake here and went from first to third," Tremblay said. "This year I wasn't going to make that mistake. Our car did a great job preparing our Mazda RX-8, and how can you not capitalize on that, our car was that good."
Ham, who won his series-leading second pole on Saturday, agreed with his co-driver.
"Our car was that good; it was just a matter of grinding out the laps," Ham said. "It was my job just to get the car to halfway."
Edwards and Kelly Collins teamed to lead for nine laps in the No. 07 Banner Racing Pontiac GXP.R. They held on to finish second, 8.23 seconds behind.
Leh Keen and Dirk Werner, winner of the most recent event at New Jersey Motorsports Park, finished third in the No. 87 Farnbacher Loles Racing Porsche GT3.
Fourth went to Ted Ballou and Spencer Pumpelly in the TRG No. 66 AXA/Mitchell Rubber Porsche GT3, followed by Emil Assentato and Jeff Segal in the SpeedSource No. 69 FXDD Mazda RX-8.
Pumpelly retains the Acxiom GT point lead, one ahead of Keen and Werner (117-116).
The next action for the Grand-Am Rolex Series will be the Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen on June 6 at Watkins Glen International. The Grand-Am KONI Sports Car Challenge will race May 23-25 in the traditional Memorial Day weekend event at Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, Ct.
News and Notes (Daytona Prototype):

– This is the second win of the season for Jon Fogarty and Alex Gurney in the Daytona Prototypes. They won together two races ago at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Both victories came from the third starting position.
– This is the 10th Daytona Prototype victory for Fogarty and Gurney, all of which have come together. The two have the most victories for a duo in Daytona Prototype history. The victory keeps the two third in all-time Daytona Prototype victories, two behind Max Angelelli.
– Fogarty and Gurney are the only two drivers with multiple victories this season in Daytona Prototype competition.
– GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing remains third in all-time Daytona Prototype team victories with 10, two behind SunTrust Racing.
– Gurney moved into a tie with Wayne Taylor for third in Daytona Prototype podium finishes with 21, while Fogarty moved to fourth in GT podiums with 20.
– Fogarty turned the race's fastest lap, 1:20.533, on Lap 97. This is also the first time Fogarty has finished a race in which he and Gurney have won in Rolex Series competition.

– This is the 33rd victory for a Pontiac engine in Daytona Prototype competition. Pontiac has two victories this season to lead all manufacturers – Ford and Porsche have one each.
– All three podium positions were represented by different manufacturers – Pontiac, Ford and Lexus. Ford put three cars in the top five.
– Pontiac tied Porsche with most Rolex Series overall victories at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca with two.
– Riley earned its 57th victory in the Daytona Prototypes and third in four races on the 2009 season. Rileys have three victories this season, while Lola is the only other chassis constructor with a victory. Rileys took four of the top five finishes and nine of the top-10 Daytona Prototype results.
– Riley has won four of five Rolex Series races at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.
– Max Angelelli and Brian Frisselle earned their second straight runner-up finish in the No. 10 SunTrust Ford Dallara. Angelelli increased his all-time Daytona Prototype career podium mark to 37, which remains second. The duo also made Dallara the only constructor other than Riley with a top-10 result. Frisselle is the only driver this season who has led all four Daytona Prototype races.
– Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas earned their second podium finish of the season in the No. 01 TELMEX Lexus Riley. Pruett earned his series-leading 42nd career Daytona Prototype podium finish in the process, and the pair broke a two-race streak of finishing outside the top five. Rojas led a race-high 44 laps, nearly doubling his previous count of 45 to 89 total for the season.
– Burt Frisselle and Mark Wilkins started and finished fourth in the No. 61 AIM Autosport Ford Riley, both season bests.
– Mark Patterson and Ozz Negri earned their best finish of the season – fifth – in the No. 60 Michael Shank Racing Ford Riley. The two have three top-10 finishes together at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.
– The highest running Porsche-powered car was sixth, with Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhard in the No. 12 Verizon Wireless Porsche Riley for Penske Racing. The team incurred a stop-and-go penalty for jumping a late restart. Though he did not lead a lap, Bernhard remains the season's lap leader with 117 in front.
(over)
– The average speed of 85.807 mph was a track record, besting the previous mark of 80.606 mph.
– Sunday's race tied a track record for fewest caution periods (four) and caution laps (15) in a Rolex Series race. In 2007, the GT race had only four caution periods.
– The 106 laps, and 237-plus miles, completed were race records.
– Eight cars finished on the lead lap (106).
– Six drivers in four cars led laps: Memo Rojas (44), Jon Fogarty (23), Scott Pruett (20), Brian Frisselle (17), Romain Dumas (1), Alex Gurney (1).
– Climbing the most sports in the race was the No. 55 SuperCar Life Racing BMW Riley with Christophe Bouchut and Scott Tucker behind the wheel.
– A total of 1,009 laps have been completed in Daytona Prototype competition this season.

News and Notes (GT):

– This is the first victory of the season for Sylvain Tremblay, Nick Ham and their No. 70 Castrol Syntec/Mazdaspeed Mazda RX-8. The two won from the pole position, their third for four races.

Tremblay and Ham each earned their seventh victories – all coming together. Their last victory came in 2008 at Barber Motorsports Park. The pair finished second at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in 2008.
– Ham led a race-high 50 of 101 laps, or just under 50 percent. Total, Ham and Tremblay led 84 laps.
– This is the first time this season a polesitter has won a race in GT competition.
– Ham and Tremblay are the 10th and 11th drivers to win in GT competition in 2009.
– Tremblay turned the race's fastest lap, 1:27.157, on Lap 91.
– Mazda earned its eighth GT manufacturer victory, tying the marquee with Ferrari for sixth on the list. Mazda also earned its 15th podium finish.
– There were three different manufacturers represented on the podium – Mazda, Pontiac and Porsche. It marked the first time this season that this has occurred.
Reigning race winners Kelly Collins and Paul Edwards finished second in the No. 07 Banner Racing Pontiac GXP.R. The two have finished first or second in each of the last three races at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Collins, who led five laps, is the only driver this season to have led all four GT races.
– Finishing third in the No. 87 Farnbacher Loles Racing Porsche GT3 were Dirk Werner and Leh Keen. It marked the pair's second straight podium finish, as they won the most previous race at New Jersey Motorsports Park. Their result gave Porsche earned its 245th GT podium finish.
– TRG, based in Petaluma, Calif., earned a race-best fourth with Spencer Pumpelly and Ted Ballou driving the No. 66 AXA/Mitchell Rubber Porsche GT3. The two also made up a race-high six positions from start (10th) to finish.
SpeedSource put two cars in the top five, as the No. 69 FXDD Mazda RX-8 finished fifth with Jeff Segal and Emil Assentato behind the wheel. It was the pair's best finish of 2009 in GT competition.
– Six cars finished on the GT lead lap (101).
– Seven drivers in five GT cars led laps: Nick Ham (50), Sylvain Tremblay (34), Robin Liddell (5), Kelly Collins (5), Paul Edwards (4), Leh Keen (2), Ted Ballou (1).
– A total of 960 laps have been completed in Rolex Series GT competition this season.
Quotes:
Jon Fogarty (No. 99 GAINSCO Auto Insurance Pontiac Riley; first, Daytona Prototype): "Fantastic day for the GAINSCO Auto Insurance car. We did not have me in the car long enough early on and the team decided to put me back in. The first time I've gotten to finish a race and take the checker. Really, really stoked.
"Scott got held up in Turn 6 and I had a good run. He left me — some room, but we got by and I stayed on the track. Fantastic. Alex had an awesome deal. He definitely took his pride to ask him to get out of the car. Not our usual driver change, but we recouped thing and it's worked out.
"He (Scott Pruett) said great job. It's clean. He left me just enough room down the front straight away and he knew he got boxed going through Turn 6. Not much he could do. I think we had the pace on the (No.) 01 guys today. Bodes well for the future, I think."
Alex Gurney (No. 99 GAINSCO Auto Insurance Pontiac Riley; first, Daytona Prototype): "I think so. I mean Jon made a great pass into the Corkscrew. Looked like Scott tried to immediately tried to hit him and you know, a little unsportsmanlike there but they don't like it when we beat them. We'll see. We have a great car. I think we're good to the end, so we'll see how it goes.

"It's really important. We've never won with this car. It will be really special. We both have our families here and a bunch of GAINSCO people. We'd love to pull it off.

"The way it worked out a bunch of the other drivers had to do their driver change when we did our stop. There wasn't that much of a penalty. We had a lot of speed and Jon drove an amazing stint at the end. We couldn't be happier. We finally won here at (Mazda Raceway) Laguna Seca."
Scott Pruett (No. 01 TELMEX Lexus Riley, second, Daytona Prototype): "It is and you know, the (No.) 99 guys ran strong. Traffic didn't work our way today. The Ganassi guys we needed to get the momentum going, get back on the podium. Memo did a great job, so did the crew. We're real happy. My family is here. Hi to my family at home that is not here. We're real happy. Everybody did what we should be doing now we're back at the front and we can stay at the front and fight for a championship. Not an easy fight. The cars got some nicks, missing a couple of dive planes out front.

"That is part of (Mazda Raceway) Laguna Seca. It's touch and go all the time literally. It's real close, real tight, even when you are not trying to get into guys, they may be checking for a guy in front of them. It's part of the track."

Memo Rojas (No. 01 TELMEX Lexus Riley; second, Daytona Prototype): "Luckily we were able to take a direction, pass him on the left. The car kept spinning in that direction; it didn't hurt anything. We really struggled Friday and we took a good direction on Saturday and made the car right. We struggled the last two races and hopefully we'll keep the ball rolling and keep on the podium the rest of the season."

Max Angelelli (No. 10 SunTrust Ford Dallara; third, Daytona Prototype): "We had the best car on the track. I set my fastest lap when I overtook (Burt) Frisselle. It's a shame the No. 2 car got between me and Pruett on the last lap because I was sure I was going to get around him. That is what took the second-place finish away from us. This was good for the championship today, but we need to win. Third is good. Second is good. But, we definitely need to win. We're strong. We're fast. We're capable. And we're definitely going to do it, I believe."
Brian Frisselle (No. 10 SunTrust Ford Dallara; third, Daytona Prototype): "Overall, it was a good effort by the team. The SunTrust car was, arguably, the best car on the track. Both Max and I set some of the fastest laps of the race during our stints. So, it's a little disappointing when you have a car that's that good and come away with third. But, in the big picture of things, it's a good points day and we've just got to take it from here and keep on digging and working toward making the car this good at every track."

Sylvan Tremblay (No. 70 Castrol Syntec/Mazdaspeed Mazda RX-8; first, GT): "This is our home track, man. I mean just all the credit to the crew. The car was so — I've never driven car as good as this Mazda RX8 was here at Mazda raceway. Nick did the perfect stint. David Haskell, Matt, Marc, everybody the strategy was spot on. We were hooked up and gone." (I know you really wanted the championship last year. things got out of hand. how big is this win this early on?) "It's huge. we needed this. the team needed this. we're back now. ready to just start grinding out results, and trying to win it for Mazda."

Nick Ham (No. 70 Castrol Syntec/Mazdaspeed Mazda RX-8; first, GT): "We just had a good car. I had so much confidence starting this race. We changed some sway bars yesterday and I had just so much confidence in our game plan. It was just a delight to drive; credit to the team. I'm really happy for my buddy Sylvain. I'd have to say it's a huge win for him. He's had a tough year so far."

Paul Edwards (No. 07 Pontiac/Las Vegas Bike Fest Pontiac GXP.R; second, GT): "How we started the weekend we were behind the eight ball. The Mazdas and Porsches were on top of their game. Shows the effort the banner team has. We had five more setup changes before the race. The longevity of the car came to me. We're really happy for the whole team. It was a tough weekend and coming out of here second after 15th at jersey is a good result."

Kelly Collins (No. 07 Pontiac/Las Vegas Bike Fest Pontiac GXP.R; second, GT): "My stint was really short. We had a game plan that I was going to drive to 30 or 40 minutes, Paul was going to get in. Basically, my stint went pretty good. When everybody else pitted, I tried my best to hold them off. We'd been having problems with my car all weekend. The greasiness of the track allowed our performance to get better matched to the traffic. The track wasn't as bad as we thought it would be. All in all a second place is a really good finish."
Leh Keen (No. 87 Farnbacher Loles Racing Porsche GT3; third, GT): "The best thing for us was to stay out and we had better tires than the rest of the guys."
Dirk Werner (No. 87 Farnbacher Loles Racing Porsche GT3; third, GT): "I'm really happy to be in the series. My goal is to be successful and we're successful like we are now in the series especially with the competition. The Grand-Am Series was very close today to race against. I didn't have any more at the end of the race. I just didn't want to make a mistake. The problem right now is we can't really push too hard. We always have to try to be conservative but not to be too slow. This race really was a good race for us I think because we're close to the championship lead now and I think that's what matters."
Results

Pos

No. Class Pic Drivers Team/Car Laps (#)
1 99 DP 1 Fogarty / Gurney GAINSCO/ Bob Stallings Racing / Pontiac Riley 106 97
2 01 DP 2 Pruett / Rojas Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates / Lexus Riley 106 80
3 10 DP 3 Angelelli / Frisselle SunTrust Racing / Ford Dallara 106 44
4 61 DP 4 Frisselle / Wilkins AIM Autosport / Ford Riley 106 73
5 60 DP 5 Negri / Patterson Michael Shank Racing / Ford Riley 106 81
6 12 DP 6 Bernhard / Dumas Penske Racing / Porsche Riley 106 82
7 6 DP 7 Pew / Valiante Michael Shank Racing / Ford Riley 106 72
8 58 DP 8 Donohue / Law Brumos Racing / Porsche Riley 106 100
9 55 DP 9 Bouchut / Tucker Supercar Life Racing / BMW Riley 105 98
10 45 DP 10 Lester / Manning Orbit Racing / BMW Riley 105 98
11 77 DP 11 Gidley / Jaeger Doran Racing / Ford Dallara 105 96
12 2 DP 12 Finlay / Wallace Childress-Howard Motorsports / Pontiac Crawford 103 82
13 70 GT 1 Ham / Tremblay SpeedSource / Mazda RX-8 101 91
14 07 GT 2 Collins / Edwards Banner Racing / Pontiac GXP.R 101 93
15 87 GT 3 Keen / Werner Farnbacher Loles Racing / Porsche GT3 101 77
16 66 GT 4 Ballou / Pumpelly TRG / Porsche GT3 101 92
17 69 GT 5 Assentato / Segal SpeedSource / Mazda RX-8 101 97
18 57 GT 6 Davis / Liddell Stevenson Motorsports / Pontiac GXP.R 101 25
19 65 GT 7 Potter / Stanton TRG / Porsche GT3 100 90
20 86 GT 8 Lux / Roush Farnbacher Loles Racing / Porsche GT3 100 92
21 32 GT 9 Aschenbach / Merrill PR1 Motorsports / Pontiac GXP.R 99 75
22 40 GT 10 Dempsey / Foster Dempsey Racing / Mazda RX-8 99 75
23 68 GT 11 Gutierrez / Schroeder TRG / Porsche GT3 99 99
24 63 GT 12 Richard / Villeneuve TRG / Porsche GT3 99 29
25 59 DP 13 Barbosa / France Brumos Racing / Porsche Riley 96 53
26 13 DP 14 Forest / Taylor Beyer Racing / Pontiac Riley 92 43
27 31 GT 13 Kapudija / von Moltke Battery Tender/ MCM Racing / Porsche GT3 84 48
28 42 GT 14 Nonnamaker / Sahlen Team Sahlen / Corvette 78 67
29 67 GT 15 Lally / Marks TRG / Porsche GT3 71 47
30 43 GT 16 Nonnamaker / Nonnamaker Team Sahlen / Corvette 67 39
31 30 GT 17 Cameron / Miller Racers Edge Motorsports / Mazda RX-8 35 31
32 76 DP 15 Jonsson / Zonta Krohn Racing / Ford Lola 33 3
33 5 DP 16 Beyer / Taylor Beyer Racing / Honda Riley 8 4

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