Backstretch Motorsports

Richardo Zonta (Grand-Am Photo)

TOOELE, Utah (Sept. 19, 2008) - Ricardo Zonta saved his best for last Friday at Miller Motorsports Park, running a lap of 2:35.664 (103.747 mph) to capture the pole for Saturday’s SunRichGourmet.com 1000 presented by The Grand and Little America Hotels, the final event of the 2008 Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16.

It was the first career pole for Zonta, a former Formula One regular, and also the first time the Lola chassis captured a pole in Daytona Prototype competition. Zonta will co-drive the No. 76 Krohn Racing Pontiac Lola with Nic Jonsson in search of his first career Rolex Series victory.

Taking advantage of drying conditions on the mammoth 4.486-mile, 24-turn circuit, Zonta ran his fastest lap at the end of the 15-minute session, knocking the No. 01 TELMEX Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Lexus Riley of Scott Pruett from the pole. Pruett and teammate Memo Rojas need to each run 30 minutes in the 139 lap, six-hour and 45-minute race to share the 2008 Daytona Prototype championship.

“It’s a long track to do a lap without making a mistake,” Zonta said. You have to be very focused here. It helps to have a very good car, and the team has improved it a lot since the race at Barber in July. Now, it’s quite quick. We had a good chance to win the last race at New Jersey, but had radiator problems.

David Donohue will start third in the No. 58 Brumos Racing Porsche Riley he co-drives with Darren Law and Buddy Rice, 2:35.823 (103.641 mph), while Max Angelelli ran a lap of 2:36.001 (103.522 mph) in the No. 10 SunTrust Racing Pontiac Riley co-driven by Michael Valiante to start fourth. Donohue and Valiante end the season tied atop the 2008 leaders with three poles apiece.

Fastest in practice, Joey Hand ran a lap of 2:36.131 (103.436 mph) in the No. 23 Ruby Tuesday Porsche Riley co-driven by Bill Auberlen to start fifth.

While Daytona Prototype qualifying was run in mixed drizzle and drying conditions, steady rain fell through much of the GT qualifying session, only to let off in the closing minutes. Leh Keen took advantage of the changing conditions to capture his first GT pole in the final seconds, running a lap of 2:52.252 (93.756 mph) in the No. 86 Farnbacher Loles Racing Porsche GT3 co-driven by Eric Lux. He knocked teammate Wolf Henzler off the pole, with Henzler running a lap of 2:52.724 (93.499 mph) in the No. 87 Porsche GT3 co-driven by Bryce Miller and Dirk Werner.

Spencer Pumpelly will start third in the No. 66 TRG Porsche GT3, 2:55.203 (92.177 mph), while points leader Paul Edwards was fourth fastest in the No. 07 Banner Racing Pontiac GXP.R at 2:55.323 (92.113 mph).

Edwards and Kelly Collins enter the finale six points ahead of Andrew Davis, who qualified 10th in the No. 57 Stevenson Motorsports Pontiac GXP.R co-driven by Robin Liddell. Also in championship contention, 13 points behind, is the No. 70 SpeedSource Castrol Synetec/Mazdaspeed Mazda RX-8, qualified fifth by Sylvain Tremblay with a lap of 2:56.254 (91.627 mph). SpeedSource co-driver Nick Ham was the only driver to win multiple poles in GT competition in 2008, setting fastest time on three occasions.

The SunRichGourmet.com 1000 takes the green flag at 11:08 a.m. (MT). The race will be televised live flag to flag on SPEED, beginning at 1 p.m. ET.

SunRichGourmet.com 1000
Miller Motorsports Park
Tooele, UT

POS NO. CLASS PIC DRIVER TEAM/CAR TIME SPEED SPONSORS
1 76 DP 1 Jonsson / Zonta Krohn Racing / Pontiac Lola 2:35.664 103.746
2 01 DP 2 Lloyd / Pruett / Rojas Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates / Lexus Riley 2:35.819 103.643 TELMEX
3 58 DP 3 Donohue / Law / Rice Brumos Racing / Porsche Riley 2:35.823 103.640 Brumos Porsche/Kendall
4 10 DP 4 Angelelli / Valiante SunTrust Racing / Pontiac Dallara 2:36.001 103.522 Sun Trust
5 23 DP 5 Auberlen / Hand Alex Job Racing / Porsche Riley 2:36.131 103.436 Ruby Tuesday
6 16 DP 6 Babini / Fittipaldi / Garcia Cheever Racing / Pontiac Coyote 2:36.888 102.937 Crown Royal Cask No. 16
7 99 DP 7 Fogarty / Gurney / Vasser GAINSCO/ Bob Stallings Racing / Pontiac Riley 2:36.908 102.924 GAINSCO Auto Insurance
8 6 DP 8 James / Matos / Pew Michael Shank Racing / Ford Riley 2:37.726 102.390
9 61 DP 9 Frisselle / Wilkins / da Matta AIM Autosport / Ford Riley 2:37.839 102.316 Exchange Traded Gold, Mike Direct Connect
10 7 DP 10 Gregoire / Plumb / Sigal Rum Bum Racing / BMW Riley 2:38.388 101.962 RumBum.com, Big Vision Miami, Caramba Tequila
11 77 DP 11 Frisselle / Gidley / Jaeger Doran Racing / Ford Dallara 2:38.560 101.851 Kodak
12 60 DP 12 Dalziel / Negri / Patterson Michael Shank Racing / Ford Riley 2:38.790 101.704
13 91 DP 13 Goossens / Hunter-Reay / Matthews Bob Stallings/ Riley-Matthews / Pontiac Riley 2:41.397 100.061 Riley-Matthews Motorsports
14 59 DP 14 Barbosa / France / Haywood Brumos Racing / Porsche Riley 2:41.553 99.964 Brumos Porsche/Kendall
15 86 GT 1 Farnbacher / Keen / Lux Farnbacher Loles Racing / Porsche GT3 2:52.252 93.755 The Media Barons, Power Plus-Porsche Performance Systems
16 87 GT 2 Henzler / Miller / Werner Farnbacher Loles Racing / Porsche GT3 2:52.724 93.499 Marquis Jet, Resorts Int’l, Power Plus, IPC, Modified L&E Magazine, Total Lubricants
17 66 GT 3 Ballou / Pumpelly / Sellers TRG / Porsche GT3 2:55.203 92.176 Mitchell Rubber
18 07 GT 4 Collins / Edwards Banner Racing / Pontiac GXP.R 2:55.323 92.113
19 70 GT 5 Ham / Haskell / Tremblay SpeedSource / Mazda RX-8 2:56.254 91.626 Castrol Syntec, Mazda
20 69 GT 6 Assentato / Longhi / Segal SpeedSource / Mazda RX-8 2:56.458 91.520 FXDD
21 30 GT 7 Armengol / Herrington / Peterson Racers Edge Motorsports / Mazda RX-8 2:56.814 91.336 3 Dimensional.com, Mondial Forwarding, Idemitsu, P1 Groupe
22 27 GT 8 O’Connell / Roush O’Connell Racing / Porsche GT3 2:58.020 90.717 General Environmental Management Inc., Taleo Grill
23 67 GT 9 George Jr / Lally / Long TRG / Porsche GT3 2:58.795 90.324
24 57 GT 10 Davis / Liddell Stevenson Motorsports / Pontiac GXP.R 2:59.094 90.173 Stevenson Auto, Bryan Mark Financial
25 32 GT 11 Barrett / Forest PR1 Motorsports / Pontiac GXP.R 2:59.249 90.095
26 55 GT 12 Bouchut / Tucker / Zabinski LevelFive Motorsports / Ferrari 430 Challenge 2:59.484 89.977 Priority
27 21 GT 13 Alessi / Kapudija / Reindler Matt Connolly Motorsports / Pontiac GTO.R 2:59.657 89.891 P1 Groupe, Lucy Plast S.P.A., Barbetti, Davide Cenci, ERREMME, Black Flag Gear, Pacific Teaze
28 40 GT 14 Dempsey / Espenlaub / Foster Hyper Sport / Mazda RX-8 3:00.348 89.546
29 06 GT 15 Edwards / Reese Banner Racing / Pontiac GXP.R 3:00.879 89.283
30 72 GT 16 Borcheller / Lewis Jr Autohaus Motorsports / Pontiac GXP.R 3:03.639 87.942 Autohaus Motorsports
31 88 GT 17 Johnson / Lacey Farnbacher Loles Racing / Porsche GT3 3:04.518 87.523
32 43 GT 18 Nonnamaker / Nonnamaker / Nonnamaker Team Sahlen / Corvette 3:07.350 86.200
33 42 GT 19 Nonnamaker / Nonnamaker / Nonnamaker / Sahlen Team Sahlen / Corvette 3:08.604 85.627
34 53 GT 20 Borkowski / Constantine Playboy Racing / BMW M6 3:13.047 83.656 Playboy, Verve, Taser, Palms, Aprilia, Dinan, Fall-line
35 65 GT 21 Gutierrez / Potter / Stanton TRG/Riegel Autosport / Porsche GT3 3:18.058 81.539 Mike Wiegel Helicopter Skiing, Total-R Insulation Solutions
36 75 DP 0 Krohn / Said / van de Poele Krohn Racing / Pontiac Lola - -
37 22 DP 0 Basseng / de Quesada / Dumoulin Alegra Motorsports / Porsche Riley - - Gatorade, Today MD

* - Withdrew