Chevrolet Unveils 2012 Corvette Daytona Prototype

[Shifty]

Other than Daytona, teh Vette DP's seem to be pretty dominant!

[MOTV8]

Other than Daytona, teh Vette DP's seem to be pretty dominant!

Careful with what you say, we wouldn't want any penalty weight or engine restrictions....

GRAND-AM: Pole At Mid-Ohio Goes To Gainsco’s Fogarty

Jon Fogarty followed up his pole from last weekend's Rolex Series race at Detroit with pole today for Saturday's EMCO Gears Classic, Live! on SPEED.

Detroit Grand Prix pole winner Jon Fogarty went two for two on Friday as he scored his second GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series pole position in as many weeks, snaring the top spot for Saturday’s EMCO Gears Classic (LIVE on SPEED, 4:30 p.m. ET....that's TODAY Dawg) with a fast lap time of 1:18.079-seconds at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

The pole is the 21st of Fogarty’s GRAND-AM career, burnishing his current status as GRAND-AM’s most successful qualifier.

Starting alongside Fogarty will be fellow Corvette racer Michael Valiante in the No. 90 Spirit of Daytona Corvette after his fastest lap of the 15-minute session came up just .364-seconds short as Corvettes locked out the first five spots on the starting grid.

The qualifying session was a hard-fought affair, as three Corvettes went off track in pursuit of the point for the 26-car combined field. Fogarty was the first to push too far as he went off track in the Keyhole corner. Not to be outdone, both the No. 5 Action Express Corvette of Terry Borcheller and the No. 10 SunTrust machine of Ricky Taylor both exceeded the limit as they navigated through the keyhole corner.

“We definitely made some pretty aggressive moves for qualifying and we were hopeful they were going to be the right moves and they obviously were,”said Fogarty, who also won the pole in the 2011 visit to Mid-Ohio. “We kind of wanted to make a jump and find something and I hope we did. I think tomorrow’s race is going to be a different story. Qualifying here and racing here are definitely two different things and we have a car that’s good for qualifying. So we are going to have to put our thinking caps on. But our engineer John Ward and the GAINSCO guys are capable of that. I’m just really happy for the GAINSCO team, though. It’s nice to have two poles in a row and show good pace. It was pretty bold changes and I’m happy we made them for qualifying.”

The leading Riley qualifier was Memo Rojas in the No. 01 BMW-powered Ganassi machine, with John Pew posting a quick time just over .6-seconds adrift of the multi-time Rolex Series champion. The two Starworks entries, including the championship-leading No. 8 of Ryan Dalziel and Enzo Potolicchio, sat out the qualifying session.

The first six cars on the GT Class field were within one second of John Edwards’ pole-winning time of 1:25.083-seconds in the No. 57 Stevenson Motorsports Camaro GT.R that he will share with Robin Liddell. Andrew Davis notched a front row start with the Brumos Racing Porsche 911 GT3 entry, as Paul Edwards confirmed the recent strong form of Detroit-winning Autohaus Motorsports with his run to third on the grid.

Edwards, who had to sit out several early rounds of the 2012 season after a ski injury, was relishing the run to pole but knows that Saturday’s race will likely see a lot of action up front. And after his NJMP pole didn’t convert into the lead that he wanted, he’s got a different plan for Saturday’s race start.

“Well, after my last pole at New Jersey, I made a mistake being a little too cautious into turn one, letting Sylvain (Tremblay) ride around the outside of me,” said Edwards. “So, I won’t be making that mistake tomorrow, definitely. I’ve got to be on my game from the very start. We’ll see if we can execute well tomorrow-I think we’ll be one of the favorites. We never had to make a big change today, so I think rolling off the truck with a good set-up was key to putting us in a good starting position for practice and so we could just tune and make small adjustments from there.

[MOTV8]

Whup ass.

GRAND AM: SDR Corvette Wins Mid-Ohio Thriller

Michael Valiante Takes Two Wins in One Day as Spirit of Daytona Scores Mid-Ohio Victory at Mid-Ohio.

One driver made history, and the other made amends as Michael Valiante and Richard Westbrook delivered a command performance for Spirit of Daytona to win the EMCO Gears Classic at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on Saturday.

While the Ganassi group was racing with heavy hearts after crew member Trevor Montgomery’s mother passed away during the race weekend, Scott Pruett’s drive to second place with Memo Rojas will see the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates BMW-Riley machine emerge from the race weekend with the provisional championship points lead.

Terry Borcheller and David Donohue made their second Rolex Series podium appearance in as many races as the Action Express driver line up change that preceded the Detroit Grand Prix continues to pay dividends for the red, white, and blue squad.

For the second race in a row, both the GAINSCO and SunTrust Racing Corvettes had excellent race-day pace, only to see their chances of victory disappear.

Jon Fogarty led the opening 17 laps before a power steering unit failed on his Corvette, allowing Valiante to pounce and take the lead. The Canadian Super Sub grew his gap over the field until lap 40 when he brought the car in for service and leapt out for Westbrook to take the controls. Alex Popow recovered from contact with a GT machine to then assume the lead from lap 42 to 46 before Westbrook retook the lead as the field cycled through pit stops.

The Briton grew his lead to nearly 10 seconds before a final caution set the stage for a shootout. Pruett was breathing down his back and looked to grow his record GRAND-AM win count. But Westbrook was more than up to the task as he mastered the restart and brought home a win by just .236-seconds over Pruett.

It would be understandable to find out that Valiante was considering buying real estate in the area, as the affable Canadian could consider making the track his home as he opened the day with a big win in the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge. The Rolex Sports Car Series win is his second career triumph in the category, and the former karting phenom is relishing every minute of it.

“I don’t even know what to say,” said Valiante. “Having not driven as much last year and now having two very strong rides this year, it’s just awesome. The car was good. I didn’t have the best start. Today we had a car that I could challenge like we did in Detroit. I mean, the team did an awesome job. This is almost too good to be true to win two races in one day. Both teams (HART and Spirit of Daytona) put in a ton of effort and it is great to be a part of big results.”

For his co-driver Westbrook, the day brought some salvation after last week’s Grand Prix, where he stormed to the lead, only to bring too much confidence into the same corner as a GT entry, making race-ending contact as the squad chased a second victory of the year.

“Detroit was heartbreaking for us, so it was important to come here and put it right,” said Westbrook. “We had a good car, but it wasn’t as easy as it looked. Thanks to Michael for the drive he put in, moving us to the front for me to just bring it home. I knew (Pruett) was going to be coming. He tried to force his way, but he wasn’t in a position to. My hat’s off to the Chevy guys, an outstanding job once again.”

“The win means a bunch,” offered team owner Troy Flis in his SPEED broadcast interview. “We let a couple slip away. Richard, Michael, did just a great job today. Great team, great effort. Chevy, Daytona Prototype is awesome. Great job. I mean, we deserve this and we’re going to keep coming. We’re coming to the front.”

The final caution period was set up as one of GRAND-AM’s most venerable rivalries opened another chapter. Angelelli held second place but Pruett coveted the spot. Heading down the long back stretch, Pruett moved to the inside of the SunTrust car and made his way through. Angelelli moved to defend against a hard-charging Joao Barbosa that was following through and closed the door so hard that it caused race-ending contact for the team for the second race in a row.

“Yeah, he is kind of notorious for using up all the track and so I had a bit of a run on him and he came over and blocked me, but still left a lane up the inside,” said Pruett. “I just continued-he came over and blocked, but there was a lane open and then was onto the brakes, but I still could go deeper. So that is exactly what I did and we had minor contact and I guess all hell broke loose behind me. It’s a good result. We’re just trying to get every point out of every race we can. We certainly, I wouldn’t say have the best package, but we’re trying to get the most out of every race.”

The GT battle also came down to the final laps as Turner Motorsport pilot Bill Auberlen made the most of the life that was still left in his Continental Tires to come home with a victory with co-driver Paul Dalla Lana. With Auberlen driving the closing stages of the race, the Turner BMW M3 held off the advances of Jeff Segal’s Ferrari 458 for the duo’s best finish of the season.

“Grand-Am has come up with these great finishes and I have to tell you, sometimes we are hoping to be looking on someone’s doorstep,” said Dalla Lana. “This time, we were playing for a nice, clean, easy finish and to see the #69 and #57 behind you is always intimidating, but we knew that we had a guy that could carry the torch. We’re always comfortable to have Bill (Auberlen) take it right to the finish line.”

With the No. 57 Stevenson Motorsport entry of Robin Liddell and John Edwards finishing third, the runner-up result saw the AIM Autosport Team FXDD Racing with Ferrari growing its lead in the GT Class Team Championship standings.

The previous time that a driver won both the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge race and Rolex Sports Car Series race on the same day was the Turner Motorsport squad of Auberlen and Dalla Lana. Having had Valiante encroach on their record, Turner is hoping to do it again soon after recent competition adjustments seem to allow the M3 to show more strength.

“That’s not cool, so we’ll just have to do it again!” said Turner. “ It would have been nice to do a double again if we get the chance. It’s hard to win in Rolex in GT, right? We’re cautiously optimistic that the 50 lbs. helped us because, if you remember back, we won here in that car before. Either Turner Motorsport or Bill Auberlen or a combination does, we like this place. BMW likes Mid-Ohio. So hopefully it’s not an anomaly that we won here today, but the 50 lbs. has got to help something. We’re happy and we’ll see what happens at Road America.”

[Shifty]

I think you can pretty much count on those restrictions at this point...

[MOTV8]

I think you can pretty much count on those restrictions at this point...

I can already hear violins playing....oh wait, that's Pruett crying!

Ganassi Team Facing Big Challenge At Big Track

Scott Pruett let loose with some very nice words about Road America this past week. Words that indicated that the central Wisconsin road circuit is among his very favorite race tracks. But the veteran sports car driver also indicated that he’s not all that confident about racing at Road America this weekend.

Not enough horsepower under the bonnet of his Chip Ganassi Racing BMW Riley, he said. Not enough downforce in the body work.

And not enough help from the GRAND-AM Rolex Series rule-makers in remedying those problems.

At over 4-miles around, Road America, the scenic and historic circuit located just south of the hamlet of Elkhart Lake, is the biggest track on the GRAND-AM schedule. While it has 14 curves, it also has some of the longest and fastest straightaways on the schedule.

For Pruett, co-driver Memo Rojas and the rest of the TELMEX Ganassi team, its going to be a major challenge.

“Well,” Pruett said during a teleconference this week, “I think that most certainly we all know that Road America is a horsepower place.”

“But also with that, you have to make whatever downforce you can as efficiently as you can, because that’s just straight power, if you’re able to generate downforce real efficiently, then that will let you go faster down the straightaways. So I think on both sides we are lacking a little bit.”

Pruett and Rojas won at Road America a year ago. It was one of five places where they won on their way to a second-straight – and third in four years – GRAND-AM prototype championship.

But things have changed for them this season. Their BMW Riley is no longer the baddest DP car on the block. While their team does have the points lead after the first six races of the season – by just two points over the Starworks Motorsports team’s Ford Riley – it has yet to win a race.

And it certainly appears that the new DP Corvettes of the SunTrust and Spirit of Daytona teams are the new bad boys as the current GRAND-Am rules appear to be highlighting those cars’ racing characteristics.

Pruett, asked if the Corvettes are the car to beat, said, “As we have seen so far, I mean, we were a second off the pace (this year). If you had a Riley standard body work, there was no way you could compete.”

The difference between the Corvettes and the other cars should be even more pronounced at big old Road America.

“What we are seeing with the Corvettes is,” Pruett said, “it seems like the body work, they are a little more slippery or efficient on the way they make downforce. We are looking for a balance on it. I know that Riley is spending a lot of time, designing our body work, they spend a lot of time looking at options and things that we can do for our current body work to be more on par with Corvette.

“So it’s all of the pieces put together. It’s horsepower and efficiency on how you make downforce, and also the other piece with Road America, you’ve still got to have mechanically a good car, your springs and shocks and the way that those pieces tie together, they have patches on some of the turns, so you have to be able to getover the patches and still be efficient on the mechanical side of things, making grip.”

GRAND-AM has granted some relief to the Ganassi team, Pruett said. Relief in the form of allowing the car an extra 100 RPMs or so.

Pruett called that a good start but, he said, it probably won’t make a big difference this weekend.

“The extra RPM is not much,” he said. “When we saw the Fords got significantly more than we did and they have been leading the championship. I think if nothing else, we should have matched with what the other manufacturer was doing. I don’t really understand that.

“However, anything we can get is better, and I know that they (GRAND-AM officials) are looking at the aero side of things, as well.”

The last time out, at Mid-Ohio two weeks ago, Pruett and Rojas finished just .23 seconds behind the winning Corvette of the Spirit of Daytona team. And that provides hope.

Plus, because rain washed out qualifying on Friday, the points-leading Pruett-Rojas team will start from the pole.

“We are having to overcome the horsepower side of things and take the downforce out and try to make it up mechanically, and it played out well for us at Mid-Ohio,” Pruett said. “Hopefully we can do the same this weekend.”

-and-

(gratuitous Whelan Corvette picture included)

GRAND-AM: Qualifying Rained Out At Road America

Chip Ganassi Racing, AIM Autosport Team FXDD to start from pole following qualifying wash-out...

For the second time this year, qualifying for the Rolex Sports Car Series has been rained out, with the field for Saturday's two-hour sprint at Road America being set on owner's points.

A patch of showers blanketed the four-mile Wisconsin circuit just moments before GT cars were given the green flag for its 15-minute session.

With the rain intensifying, GRAND-AM officials made the decision to abandon qualifying, not only for the production-based machinery, but also for the Daytona Prototypes, which didn't even take to the circuit.

Ironically, the rain had stopped and the sun resurfaced less than 15 minutes after the session's cancellation.

The wash-out resulted in the 26-car field being set by team points, with the championship-leading No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Riley-BMW of Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas starting from the pole position for tomorrow's race. (12 p.m., Live! SPEED).

"I think this is the easiest pole we've ever got," Rojas said with a smile. "We were really excited to go qualify today because we felt that we had a pretty good car this weekend. But we're fine with pole.

"It's going to be a tough race tomorrow. We're not exactly sure how the competition will be... But overall we have a good race car and a top-three race car at least and we're leading the points. We just need to keep doing what we're doing to win our first race [of the season]."

The No. 5 Action Express Racing Corvette DP of Terry Borcheller and David Donohue will roll off second, ahead of the Ryan Dalziel and Enzo Potolicchio-driven No. 8 Starworks Motorsport Riley-Ford, which paced two of the three practice sessions this weekend.

While the BMW and Ford-powered Rileys have showed improved pace, partially due to the latest Balance of Performance adjustment handed out by GRAND-AM, the Corvette DPs, winners in the last five rounds, are expected to be strong again.

That includes the No. 90 Spirit of Daytona machine of Richard Westbrook and Antonio Garcia, fresh off victory in the last round at Mid-Ohio, which will start fourth on Saturday, as well as the No. 10 SunTrust Racing Corvette of Ricky Taylor and Max Angelelli, which will be looking to end a streak of two DNFs.

In GT, the No. 69 AIM Autosport Team FXDD Ferrari F458 Italia Grand Am of Jeff Segal and Emil Assentato will start from the class pole, ahead of Robin Liddell and John Edwards in the No. 57 Stevenson Motorsports Camaro GT.R in second.

Assentato was tasked with qualifying duties and completed an out-lap in his Prancing Horse until the GT session was called.

"Before I finished existing the Carousel, the rain was coming down quite hard," Assentato explained. "I could see rooster tails coming off the back of the car and I could see the [APR Audi] spinning in Canada Corner, so it looked kind of treacherous. We were really off the throttle and then I heard the black flag just as I entered the front straight.

"It's a good decision by GRAND-AM as it was pretty dangerous conditions."

Rolex 24 at Daytona winners Magnus Racing will roll off the GT grid in third.

The Rolex Sports Car Series 250 Driven by VisitFlorida.com will take the green flag, rain or dry, Saturday at 12 p.m. ET.

[Shifty]

Wow! That's some World-Class sniveling....(Mom! He got more ice cream than me!)

[MOTV8]

Wow! That's some World-Class sniveling....(Mom! He got more ice cream than me!)

LMAO!

Teh Corvette DP's are walking teh BMW/Ford powerplants on teh straights, even with teh extra rpm they were given! SDR, Suntrust running 1-2

Gainsco DP out with a broken front suspension tho...

[MOTV8]

[MOTV8]

GRAND-AM: Ganassi Breaks Through At Road America

Scott Pruett, Memo Rojas return to victory lane, AIM Autosport Team FXDD takes third win of season in GT...

After going winless for nearly a year, Chip Ganassi Racing broke through to take its first victory of the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series season Saturday at Road America.

The No. 01 Telmex Riley-BMW of Scott Pruett capitalized on late-race misfortune for the SunTrust Racing Corvette of Ricky Taylor to claim a 3.747-second victory over Ryan Dalziel in the No. 8 Starworks Motorsport Riley-Ford, which finished second.

A call to top off the defending Daytona Prototype champion's fuel tank while under an early yellow proved to be pivotal, with Memo Rojas leading at the halfway point.

The strongest challenger through the two-hour sprint came from the No. 10 SunTrust machine of Taylor and Max Angelelli, which was on top after the final round of pit stops.

Taylor appeared to be en route to victory until a late yellow, when the second-generation driver lost control of his Dallara-chassied Corvette while under the safety car and slammed into the wall.

It handed the lead back to Pruett, who ended Ganassi's nine-race winless streak to earn back-to-back victories at the famed four-mile course.

"With four or five to go, all I could do was just go like it was qualifying," Pruett said of the final restart. "We've always had real good cars at the end of stints on old tires. At the end, we could pace, pretty consistently, fast laps, and just had to go like hell to the checkered."

The win for Pruett and Rojas extended their lead in the championship to five points over Starworks' Dalziel and Enzo Potolicchio, who enjoyed a solid opening stint running inside the top-three.

"We ran a little bit different strategy as we stayed out longer," Dalziel explained. "We managed to run our middle stint all the way and the tires were still good. Ultimately, I think it would have been the same result. I don't think we had quite enough for the 01 car."

The No. 60 Michael Shank Racing Riley-Ford of Ozz Negri managed to get by both Action Express Racing Corvettes on the final restart to take third, marking a sweep of the podium for the Gen-3 Rileys.

Negri and co-driver John Pew's result, however, would not come without controversy, as the Brazilian and the No. 9 Action Express entry of Joao Barbosa had a close call on the final lap that ended with Barbosa in the wall near the start/finish line.

No penalty was taken for the incident, which dropped Barbosa and co-driver Darren Law to a 6th place result.

It ended up being a race to forget for the Corvette contingent, with SunTrust recording its third consecutive DNF and the No. 99 GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing entry of Jon Fogarty dropping out with suspension failure.

The No. 90 Spirit of Daytona Corvette, which led early in the hands of Antonio Garcia, had a coming together with a GT-class Mazda in the opening hour and lost eight laps due to a broken upper control arm.

Starworks Motorsport also suffered misfortune for its No. 2 Riley-Ford of Lucas Luhr and Alex Popow, which suffered gearbox failure mid-race while running in the top-three.

In GT, Jeff Segal and Emil Assentato gave AIM Autosport Team FXDD its third class victory of the season following another flawless performance in their Ferrari F458 Italia Grand Am.

Having made an early race pit stop, just like the DP race winners, Assentato managed to stretch the fuel of their Prancing Horse until a final stop with 48 minutes to go when Segal climbed aboard.

From there, it was clear sailing for the 2010 Rolex Series GT champions, who took a 2.54-second victory over the No. 94 Turner Motorsport BMW of Bill Auberlen and Paul Dalla Lana in second.

"It was a pretty straightforward race from my standpoint," Segal said. "It played out strategically pretty early and Emil did a great job keeping the car out front. When you get the car in first place, you better bring it back in first place. That was the goal."

The final restart saw a fierce battle for the final podium position, which ultimately went to the No. 70 SpeedSource Mazda RX-8 of Jonathan Bomarito and Sylvain Tremblay.

Dane Cameron muscled his Team Sahlen's Mazda to fourth, with the No. 59 Brumos Racing Porsche of Leh Keen and Andrew Davis completing the top-five in class.

The two-hour race saw only one major incident, with the No. 67 TRG Porsche of Steven Bertheau slamming into the Turn 11 wall after making initial contact with the No. 51 APR Audi of Dr. Jim Norman.

Bertheau was transported to Froedtert Hospital in Milwaukee, awake and alert with no indications of serious injury.

There's no let up in sight for the Rolex Series stars, with the Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen on tap for next weekend.

[MOTV8]

Let's see if they can wipe teh egg off their faces this week, Corvette DP's quickest at teh Glen...so far...

GRAND-AM: GAINSCO Quickest On Friday At The Glen

Alex Gurney tops time charts in Practice 3, quickest on the day at Watkins Glen...

GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing ended Friday's third and final practice session on the top of the time charts and quickest of the day at Watkins Glen, as GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series teams prepare for Sunday's Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen (11 a.m. ET, Live! SPEED).

Piloting his No. 99 Corvette DP, Alex Gurney turned a best time of 1:42.532 early in the 60-minute session, edging out the No. 10 SunTrust Racing Corvette of Max Angelelli by 0.042 seconds.

Times were significantly quicker in the late afternoon, with nearly the entire Daytona Prototype field making improvements in the cooler conditions.

“We’re pretty happy, but it’s awfully close,” Gurney said. “You have three guys within one tenth, so there’s no breathing room there. We’re not sure what exactly everyone did with their tires, but we’re pretty happy with the balance, so it’s a good start to the weekend.”

The No. 90 Spirit of Daytona Corvette of Richard Westbrook, Antonio Garcia and Oliver Gavin was third quickest with a 1:42.612, while the Darren Law and Joao Barbosa-driven No. 9 Action Express entry made it a Corvette 1-2-3-4 sweep of the day.

Quickest of the non-Chevys was the No. 8 Starworks Motorsport Riley-Ford of Ryan Dalziel, Enzo Potolicchio and Sebastien Bourdais, making his first start at Watkins Glen, which slotted in fifth fastest but more than a half-second behind the Red Dragon's pace-setting time.

Starworks' sister Gen-3 Riley-Ford of Lucas Luhr and Alex Popow again did not set a time following Luhr's accident in morning practice. The car, however, is expected to return to action tomorrow.

The GT category again saw the No. 42 Team Sahlen's Mazda RX-8 of Dane Cameron quickest, thanks to his 1:51.666 lap time, which also stood as the top time of the day.

Robin Liddell continued to show pace in the No. 57 Stevenson Motorsports Camaro GT.R, slotting in second best in Practice 3. However, the car suffered a left-rear tire puncture late in the session.

Stevenson's No. 75 Camaro ended the day second quickest overall, marginally faster than Liddell and John Edward's similarly prepared machine.

A 30-minute practice session is on-tap for Saturday at 9:40 a.m., followed by qualifying at 11:40 a.m. to set the field for the Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen, Live! on SPEED.

[VenomOnWheels]

Let's see if they can wipe teh egg off their faces this week, Corvette DP's quickest at teh Glen...so far...

Maybe, if Ricky can stay out of the walls and the Spirit of Daytona boys quit making bone-headed moves and pit violations and the Red Dragon quits breaking down.

[MOTV8]

THAT was a great freakin race! A.E. Corvette DP takes 1st away from Gainsco Corvette DP, and #57 Camaro GT.R takes first over teh Bimmer!

[Shifty]

Since I no longer have cable tv, it's too bad G/A isn't streamed like ALMS...

[MOTV8]

Since I no longer have cable tv, it's too bad G/A isn't streamed like ALMS...

Are you sure? A quick google turned up http://www.ustream.tv/channel/ga-test

GRAND-AM: Action Express Wins Watkins Glen 6H

Joao Barbosa, Darren Law win frantic Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen...

After a race that saw strong runs by both Chip Ganassi Racing and GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing, it was Action Express Racing that broke through for the win in Sunday's Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen, the eighth round of the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series.

An impressive closing stint by Joao Barbosa, who restarted in third with 38 minutes to go, took over the lead with 16 minutes left on the clock. He then held off a hard-charging Alex Gurney to eek out a narrow 0.238 second victory over the No. 99 GAINSCO entry of Gurney and Jon Fogarty.

It marked Barbosa and co-driver Darren Law's second win of the season following a similar late-race charge by the Portuguese star in last month's street fight in Detroit.

"I was able to use the traffic to my advantage," Barbosa said. "It was enough to be close enough to make the move for the lead. It worked out really good. I think that was the best shot and the closest I ever was to the 99. I just had to go.

"It's such a competitive series that you have to use everything you can to your advantage to be able to do a move or take a position."

Gurney and Fogarty, which broke the Red Dragon's streak of unlucky runs, nearly pulled off the win but battled intermittent power steering issues, settling for a season-high second place result.

It nonetheless gave Corvette a 1-2 finish in the second round of the North American Endurance Championship.

"I caught a GT at the worst place on the track," Gurney explained. "It was a corner that I didn't feel like we were very hooked up and Joao was. He got a good run and got by. I had some harder time with traffic right after that but managed to claw back and get right behind with him."

The No. 8 Starworks Motorsport Riley-Ford of Ryan Dalziel, Enzo Potolicchio and open-wheel ace Sebastien Bourdais also played a factor in the six-hour enduro, with Dalziel leading the middle portion.

While Bourdais took the final restart in second, the Frenchman lost the position to Barbosa with less than 25 minutes to go, relegating the Starworks machine to third in the end.

Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas rallied to a fourth place result after making an unscheduled radiator change in the fourth hour, which dropped the No. 01 Telmex Riley-BMW from the lead to one lap down.

Pruett managed to recover the lost lap during a late-race yellow, putting them back in contention for a top-five finish.

While the Ganassi duo maintain the Daytona Prototype championship lead, the gap has now been reduced to three points between they and Starworks' Dalziel and Potolicchio.

In the North American Endurance Championship, Action Express holds a narrow two-point lead over Starworks heading into the third and final round of the championship in Indianapolis later this month.

The No. 90 Spirit of Daytona Corvette of Antonio Garcia, Richard Westbrook and Oliver Gavin completed the top-five in Sunday's race.

Westbrook was forced to make an unscheduled stop in the third hour after making contact with the No. 56 AF Waltrip Ferrari of Rui Aguas, which resulted in a bent wheel and tire puncture. He then had to also rebound from a drive-through penalty for having been determined to have jumped a restart.

A mighty triple stint by Ozz Negri, and lucky late-race safety car, put the No. 60 Michael Shank Racing Riley-Ford back en route for a sixth place finish. The Rolex 24-winning team rebounded from a spin involving GT traffic with John Pew at the wheel, which put them one lap behind early on.

SunTrust Racing recorded its fourth straight DNF after suspension failure knocked the No. 10 Corvette DP of Max Angelelli and Ricky Taylor out of contention in the third hour.

Robin Liddell and John Edwards gave Stevenson Motorsports its first class victory of the season following a frantic race in GT.

The Scot, piloting his No. 57 Camaro GT.R, edged out the No. 94 Turner Motorsport BMW M3 of Bill Auberlen by 1.34 seconds at the line, handing Chevrolet a DP-GT sweep of the weekend.

"Every time we hit some traffic, or a slow GT out of the pits or a DP that was coming behind us, I got screwed and then [bill] got screwed and it just seemed to work that we evened ourselves out perfectly," Liddell said.

The Mike Johnson-led crew, like the majority of the class runners, stretched their fuel mileage to the maximum following the final 38-minute run to the flag. Liddell took over the lead when the class-leading No. 59 Brumos Porsche of Leh Keen was forced to make his final stop with 30 minutes to go.

"We were extremely nervous as Robin did that last lap. I don't think I've ever been so nervous in my life," Edwards said. "He wasn't going to make a mistake so I figured we were either going to win or run out of fuel and be stuck on the [track]. Fortunately, half a gallon stayed in the tank and we came away with the win."

Both Liddell and Edwards also overcame a number of obstacles along the way, including a stop/go penalty for being determined to have jumped the start, as well as a broken air-conditioning system. The Camaro also suffered two punctures on Friday, forcing the team to make adjustments to the setup heading into the race.

Auberlen and co-drivers Paul Dalla Lana and Billy Johnson came home second, ahead of the No. 69 AIM Autosport Team FXDD Ferrari of Anthony Lazzaro and Jeff Segal and Emil Assentato, who remain atop the championship lead with five races to go.

Stevenson, meanwhile, move into the lead in the NAEC.

The No. 03 Extreme Speed Motorsports Ferrari was fourth in the race, while Stevenson's sister Camaro, which dominated early in the hands of Jordan Taylor, rounded out the top-five in class.

All focus now shifts towards the inaugural running of the Brickyard Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The majority of GRAND-AM teams will take part in a two-day test next week, ahead of the race itself, scheduled for July 27.

[Shifty]

Sumabitch....

[MOTV8]

I blame the midget hookers.

[MOTV8]

In this week's installment of "Oh...btw, shit happened" teh Rolex version of Indy was teh suck, except for JPM ruffling feathers...

Starworks, Magnus secure Indy, NAEC Rolex wins

Starworks Motorsport and Magnus Racing took the Daytona Prototype and GT class victories in the inaugural Brickyard Grand Prix for Grand-Am's Rolex Series at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Sebastien Bourdais took his first Rolex win with Alex Popow in the No. 2 Riley-Ford DP, with Magnus' pair of Andy Lally and John Potter scoring their second win of the season in the No. 44 Porsche GT3 Cup.

Both teams also took the championships in the three-race North American Endurance Championship, with respective cash bonuses of $100,000 (Starworks, DP) and $50,000 (Magnus, GT) for the honor. Starworks finished on the podium, with second, third and first results at Daytona, Watkins Glen and Indy, with Magnus adding the Indy win to its triumph at the Rolex 24 at Daytona in January.

The event ended under caution after a three-hour race split between wet/dry conditions.

The sister Starworks car driven by Ryan Dalziel and Enzo Potolicchio led the most laps, 36 of 91, before Bourdais passed Dalziel on lap 75. Later contact between Dalziel and Juan Pablo Montoya affected the his and Potolicchio's overall championship position, as the duo fell 11 points back of Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas, who finished second.

“It was a pretty sweet achievement,” said Bourdais. “The car was so switched on from the test. To put it together was awesome.”

The No. 01 car was second ahead of SunTrust's No. 10, sporting a revised livery this race, the sister Ganassi car and No. 9 Action Express Corvette.

Starworks' Popow/Bourdais car was one of few DPs which didn't encounter some sort of problems, or the "chrome horn" employed by one of the TELMEX Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates drivers.

At half-distance, Rojas ran wide at Turn 6, the left-hander, then on the same lap pitched Ronnie Bremer's Stevenson Camaro into the wall on the front straight. Rojas caught Bremer, went to his outside exiting Turn 13 (oval Turn 1), bounced off the wall and back into Bremer, who then veered across the track into the outside retaining wall.

“He's passing where you can't pass, he needed to wait and be patient – you can't pass on the way out,” said an understandably frustrated Bremer.

Rojas avoided a penalty call, as did teammate Montoya in the heralded sister car co-driven by Jamie McMurray (who didn't actually race) and Scott Dixon, who started and ran as high as third from 11th on the grid. In his hour-and-a-half stint, Montoya hit Joao Barbosa (Action Express) and Dalziel (Starworks), pitching both into the gravel.

Starworks team principal Peter Baron in the heat of the moment after Dalziel's hit: “Montoya's here to do one thing, wreck our race and our championship. It was absolutely bogus. We told the series it was going to happen. The entire world knew he'd take somebody out. It didn't take Nostradamus to figure out Montoya was going to take somebody out.”

Spirit of Daytona, sporting a new G-Oil livery this race, had a broken axle early which sent its Corvette DP to the garage and out of contention. Action Express spent some time in the gravel with its two Corvettes. And GAINSCO/Bob Stallings, which took the pole by Jon Fogarty, fought visibility issues, was lapped and retired slightly with over an hour remaining. That left the historic names of Donohue (David, Action Express) and Gurney (Alex, GAINSCO) never in the running.

Elsewhere, Paul Tracy ran as high as fourth in the older Dallara-Ford for Doran Racing, but incurred a drive-through penalty for jumping a restart. Tracy and Dr. Jim Lowe ended in P6.

The win for Magnus in GT was particularly impressive given the damage incurred to its primary car from an electrical fire on the dashboard at Watkins Glen. In a back-up car, the second GT3 Cup that ran at the Rolex 24, the team re-assembled all the bits to make the race.

“It's very special. I felt more anxiety for this than the 24,” Potter said. “This was just down to the end. Crew did such a great job bringing the car back from the dead. We were just tooling around.”

GT saw Lally have to survive the several late-race restarts, in charges brought on from Jonathan Bomarito in the pole-sitting SpeedSource Mazda RX-8 and Leh Keen in the Brumos Racing Porsche. Bomarito made a late pass of Keen for second, but with the race ending under yellow, he was unable to make a final attempt to pass Lally. Bomarito co-drove with SpeedSource team principal Sylvain Tremblay, and Keen with Andrew Davis. DP attrition meant the top 10 GT cars finished in positions 5 through 14 overall.

“It's Indianapolis, and we've won. It didn't hit me until the end. I'm a fortunate guy,” Lally added, succinctly.

BMW and Ferrari got a car into the top five apiece, the Turner No. 94 (Bill Auberlen, Paul Dalla Lana, Billy Johnson) and AIM Autosport Team FXDD No. 69 (Jeff Segal, Emil Assentato) finishing behind the podium runners. The part-time Burtin Racing Porsche finished sixth with Claudio Burtin and Martin Ragginger behind the wheel. Only 10 of the 23 GT class entries finished on the lead lap.

[/fart]

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[/sniff] phewweee Corvette DPs get whupped at teh Glen, finished 4-5-6, 8-9, and teh afro Boris Said/Eric Curran brought teh Whelan Corvette home second to Auberlen's Bimmer.

[MOTV8]

Fogarty On Pole In Montreal

Jon Fogarty put the “Red Dragon”, No. 99 GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing Corvette DP, on the pole for Saturday’s GRAND-AM Series race at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal on Friday.

It is his fourth pole of the season, and the 23rd of his GRAND-AM road racing career.

John Edwards was the fastest qualifier in GT behind the wheel of the No. 57 Stevenson Motorsports Camaro GT.R. It is his Edwards third pole of the 2012 season.

Fogarty, who will partner with teammate Alex Gurney in Saturday’s two-hour race, clocked a lap at 104.712 mph (1 minute, 33.135 seconds) in qualifying. Despite the qualifying prowess, the Fogarty-Gurney pairing has yet to produce a victory this year. The most recent win for the teammates came on the Montreal circuit last season.

“We’ve taken a little bit of a different approach to find the time around here than a lot of the other competitors, but it seems to have worked,” Fogarty said. “We’re just happy to be up front, especially in a slightly shortened race like we’re having. Hopefully we can just keep it up there.”

Memo Rojas qualified second in the No. 01 TELMEX Chip Ganassi Racing entry, which he will share with Scott Pruett on Saturday. Rojas spun his BMW/Riley in Turn 2 moments after crossing the start-finish line on his fastest lap, but avoided damage. Hometown favorite Alex Tagliani qualified third in the No. 8 Starworks Motorsport Ford/Riley. The Montreal native will share both the No. 8 with Ryan Dalziel and the No. 2 Ford/Riley with Alex Popow on Saturday.

Edwards turned a lap at 98.343 mph (1 minute, 39.167 seconds). He’ll co-drive with Englishman Robin Liddell on Saturday.

“We’ve always got decent speed and even when we’re not on pole, we seem to be second or third,” Edwards said. “We’re always close, but I think the thing we need to fight for is keeping the speed over a stint. The races are a tougher fight than qualifying, I think.”

Andrew Davis will start second in GT, driving the No. 59 Brumos Racing Porsche GT3 with Leh Keen. Boris Said will take the green flag third in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Corvette.

Saturday’s two-hour race, the 11th round in the Rolex Series, is scheduled for an 11:15 a.m. ET start. The race airs live on MRN Radio and on SPEED television at 7 p.m. ET Saturday night.

RacinToday.com

[MOTV8]

Ganassi Racing gets 150th victory

MONTREAL -- Points leaders Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas raced to their second victory of the Grand-Am Rolex Series season, winning the Montreal 200 on Saturday at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve to give Chip Ganassi Racing its 150th win in all forms of motorsports.

The Pruett-Rojas pairing started second in the featured Daytona Prototype class and led the final 37 laps in the No. 01 TELMEX BMW/Riley. Pruett drove the anchor leg, passing Ryan Dalziel's No. 8 Starworks Motorsport Ford/Riley for the lead just past the halfway mark.

Alex Gurney and pole winner Jon Fogarty finished second in the No. 99 GAINSCO Bob Stallings Racing Corvette DP, 22.902 seconds behind at the end of the two-hour race.

The No. 5 Action Express Racing Corvette DP of David Donohue and Paul Tracy finished third, rallying from contact with a spinning car on the opening lap.

Four-time Montreal winner Robin Liddell and John Edwards topped the GT class in the No. 57 Stevenson Motorsports Camaro.