Backstretch Motorsports

WATKINS GLEN, NY (June 7, 2008) – Scott Pruett took the lead with 45 minutes remaining and was never headed as he and Memo Rojas drove the #01 Telmex Lexus to 3.033-second victory in today’s Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen Rolex Sports Car Series race at Watkins Glen International.

The win is the fourth in six races for the Ganassi/Lexus team and gives both the drivers and the team a 36-point championship lead heading into the midway point of the season at Mid-Ohio. In addition, Lexus continued its domination of endurance racing with its fifth win in the last eight Grand-Am endurance events and now holds a 15-point lead in the manufacturer’s championship.

The victory was anything but easy, though. After starting last from the pit lane after Saturday’s qualifying session was abbreviated to just four minutes of track time, Pruett and Rojas had to charge through the field almost non-stop until taking the lead for the first time on Lap 115. After pitting and dropping back to fourth on Lap 130, Pruett quickly moved up to second and then finally took the lead for good on Lap 156 of the 179-lap event as he passed former Toyota Formula One driver Ricardo Zonta.

“The car was very good and the Ganassi guys did a great job on pit stops,” Pruett said. “The Lexus engine was great and the tires were very consistent.”

“Conditions were difficult,” Rojas said. “Staying out there three hours was a great effort by Scott.”

Max Angelelli secured a podium finish with a side-by-side pass of Oswaldo Negri with three laps remaing. Angelelli was driving the pole-winning No. 10 SunTrust Pontiac Riley with Michael Valiante, with the team making a remarkable comeback from a highway fire that destroyed the team’s primary Dallara race car, along with its equipment and spares, following the most recent Daytona Prototype race at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

Angelelli started the weekend Friday in fairy tale fashion by qualifying the SunTrust car on the pole. And he finished it just before the six-hour mark of the race today with a stellar pass of third-place Oswaldo Negri in the No. 60 Michael Shank Racing Ford, securing SunTrust Racing’s first podium finish since a second-place run at this very track last August. Angelelli’s late-race pass was all the more remarkable considering the car’s cool suit unit failed to work during his entire 64-lap stint to the finish, forcing him to endure the race’s frantic pace for more than two hours inside a cockpit with temperatures well above the 120-degree mark.

“I wanted this for the guys because they deserve so much,” said Angelelli when asked how he mustered the energy to make the pass for third with just two laps to go. “When I say they lost everything, I mean they lost everything, including helmets, firesuits, tools. Everything. I have to thank the guys, and also the entire Ganassi team for giving us pit equipment, tools, a transporter, and also to Penske Racing, which gave us so much. If we’re here, it’s because of our guys, SunTrust, our partners, and those teams that I mentioned.”

Negri and Mark Patterson took fourth in the No. 60 Michael Shank Racing Ford Riley, followed by the No. 77 Doran Racing Kodak Ford Dallara of Memo Gidley and Brad Jaeger.

The GT race came down to the wire, with Jeff Segal passing Paul Edwards in the Esses with 33 minutes remaining and going on to score the first Grand-Am Rolex Series victory for the No. 69 SpeedSource FXDD Mazda RX-8 co-driven by Emil Assentato and Nick Longhi.

Longhi won by 5.817 seconds over the No. 57 Stevenson Motorsports Pontiac GXP.R of Robin Liddell and Andrew Davis. Third went to the No. 07 Banner Racing Pontiac GXP.R of Edwards and Kelly Collins.

The race was slowed by nine cautions.

Tim George Jr. lost the brakes on the No. 67 TRG Porsche GT3 in the Inner Loop on the opening lap, collecting the No. 40 Hyper Sport Mazda RX-8 of Joe Foster. George and co-driver Spencer Pumpelly entered the race 19 points behind GT leaders Edwards and Collins. The Porsche duo managed to return to action.

Other victims included the No. 87 Farnbacher Loles Porsche GT3 of Wolf Henzler, taken out by a spinning car in Turn 6, and the No. 47 Doran Racing Ford Dallara of Richard Antinucci, which caught fire in the boot section of the 3.4-mile circuit.

The next race for the Grand-Am Rolex Series will be the June 21 EMCO Gear’s Classic presented by KeyBank at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. The race will be televised live on SPEED at 5 p.m. ET.

Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen Race Results
Watkins Glen International - Long Course
Watkins Glen, NY

POS NO. CLASS CLASS POS. DRIVER TEAM/CAR LAPS BEST LAP (#) AVG MPH SPONSORS
1 01 DP 1 Pruett / Rojas Chip Ganassi with Felix Sabates / Lexus Riley 179 1:43.151 147 101.018 TELMEX
2 58 DP 2 Donohue / Law Brumos Racing / Porsche Riley 179 1:43.381 18 101.004 Brumos Porsche, Kendall
3 10 DP 3 Angelelli / Valiante SunTrust Racing / Pontiac Riley 179 1:43.610 159 100.988 Suntrust
4 60 DP 4 Negri / Patterson Michael Shank Racing / Ford Riley 179 1:44.032 160 100.987
5 77 DP 5 Gidley / Jaeger Doran Racing / Ford Dallara 179 1:43.292 18 100.984 Kodak
6 6 DP 6 James / Pew Michael Shank Racing / Ford Riley 179 1:43.742 25 100.982
7 61 DP 7 Frisselle / Wilkins AIM Autosport / Ford Riley 179 1:43.534 140 100.981 Exchange Traded Gold, Mike Direct Connect
8 99 DP 8 Fogarty / Gurney GAINSCO/ Bob Stallings Racing / Pontiac Riley 179 1:43.265 30 100.976 GAINSCO Auto Insurance
9 59 DP 9 Barbosa / France / Haywood Brumos Racing / Porsche Riley 179 1:43.516 144 100.945 Brumos Porsche, Kendall
10 76 DP 10 Jonsson / Zonta Krohn Racing / Pontiac Lola 179 1:43.301 151 100.937
11 09 DP 11 Borcheller / Camirand / Cosmo Spirit of Daytona Racing / Porsche Coyote 178 1:44.863 124 100.327
12 7 DP 12 Plumb / Sigal Rum Bum Racing / BMW Riley 178 1:44.276 32 100.193 Rum Bum, Big Vision Miami, Caramba Tequila
13 91 DP 13 Goossens / Matthews / Tiemann Bob Stallings/ Riley-Matthews / Pontiac Riley 177 1:43.767 147 99.649 Riley-Matthews Motorsports
14 75 DP 14 Krohn / van de Poele Krohn Racing / Pontiac Lola 176 1:45.000 27 99.203
15 2 DP 15 Dalziel / Empringham / Zogaib SAMAX / BMW Riley 175 1:43.940 114 98.318
16 23 DP 16 Auberlen / Hand Alex Job Racing / Porsche Crawford 173 1:44.279 172 99.512 Ruby Tuesday
17 69 GT 1 Assentato / Longhi / Segal SpeedSource / Mazda RX-8 170 1:52.948 149 95.469 FXDD
18 57 GT 2 Davis / Liddell Stevenson Motorsports / Pontiac GXP.R 170 1:53.581 149 95.443 Stevenson Auto, Bryan Mark Financial
19 07 GT 3 Collins / Edwards Banner Racing / Pontiac GXP.R 170 1:53.692 164 95.417 Banner Engineering
20 72 GT 4 Aschenbach / Lewis Jr Autohaus Motorsports / Pontiac GXP.R 169 1:54.509 149 95.319 Autohaus Motorsports
21 27 GT 5 O’Connell / Roush O’Connell Racing / Porsche GT3 Cup 168 1:55.107 164 94.731
22 06 GT 6 Bunting / Pilgrim / Reese Banner Racing / Pontiac GXP.R 168 1:54.691 16 94.730 Banner Engineering
23 22 GT 7 Basseng / Dumoulin / de Quesada Alegra Motorsports / Porsche GT3 Cup 168 1:54.830 29 94.640 Gatorade, Today MD
24 70 GT 8 Ham / Haskell / Tremblay SpeedSource / Mazda RX-8 167 1:53.670 14 94.218 Castrol Syntec, Mazda
25 65 GT 9 Gutierrez / Maher / Stanton TRG/Riegel Autosport / Porsche GT3 Cup 167 1:55.195 109 94.152 Mike Wiegele Helicopter Skiing, Total R Solutions
26 88 GT 10 Johnson / Lacey / Potter Farnbacher Loles Racing / Porsche GT3 Cup 167 1:55.758 126 93.812
27 66 GT 11 Ballou / Miller / Westbrook TRG / Porsche GT3 Cup 166 1:54.831 109 93.584 Marquis Jet, Mitchell Rubber, Resorts International, IPC, Total Lubricants
28 32 GT 12 Forest / Merrill PR1 Motorsports / Pontiac GXP.R 166 1:55.249 110 93.508 Miracle Sealants, Konika Minolta
29 3 DP 17 Lester / Lewis Southard Motorsports / Lexus Riley 165 1:44.836 144 92.998
30 68 GT 13 Pobst / Sellers / Valentine TRG / Porsche GT3 Cup 165 1:54.799 126 92.591 CRG, Maxter, Rotex, MBA Group, F1 Air
31 29 GT 14 Gabel / Garcia Alegra Motorsports / Porsche GT3 Cup 161 1:55.949 54 90.812 Gatorade, Today MD
32 43 GT 15 Nonnamaker / Nonnamaker Team Sahlen / Corvette 161 1:55.058 144 90.546 TheRaceSite.com
33 14 GT 16 Baas / Friedman / McGehee Autometrics Motorsports / Porsche GT3 Cup 156 1:55.156 145 92.400 Mac Papers, Mac Business Products, Team Janica Racing, EP Werks
34 64 GT 17 Lowe / Pace / Sugden TRG / Porsche GT3 Cup 151 1:55.113 127 86.008 SRS, Globus, Adopt A Pig
35 30 GT 18 Bomarito / Riley / Stone Racers Edge Motorsports / Mazda RX-8 115 1:53.219 29 64.770 MAKSON Construction
36 40 GT 19 Dempsey / Espenlaub / Foster Hyper Sport / Mazda RX-8 104 1:55.648 89 58.419
37 21 GT 20 Alessi / Long / Nastasi Matt Connolly Motorsports / Pontiac GTO.R 97 1:54.498 7 77.604 Lucy Plast, Erremme, Barbetti, P1 Groupe, Pacific Teaze
38 16 DP 18 Babini / Bobbi / Garcia Cheever Racing / Pontiac Coyote 79 1:43.678 35 97.256 Crown Royal Cask No. 16
39 47 DP 19 Antinucci / Frisselle / Gardel Doran Racing / Ford Dallara 78 1:44.506 21 97.389 BSI, CDOC, Anasten Plus
40 86 GT 21 Kaffer / Keen / Lux Farnbacher Loles Racing / Porsche GT3 Cup 72 1:55.819 57 85.112
41 42 GT 22 Nonnamaker / Sahlen Team Sahlen / Corvette 62 2:00.182 20 88.018 TheRaceSite.com
42 26 GT 23 Jacalone / Jacalone Gotham Competition / Porsche GT3 Cup 48 2:01.536 13 49.162 Jacalone Fine Art
43 67 GT 24 George Jr / Lally / Pumpelly TRG / Porsche GT3 Cup 37 1:56.728 15 23.021
44 87 GT 25 Farnbacher / Henzler / Werner Farnbacher Loles Racing / Porsche GT3 Cup 8 2:02.421 1 40.538
45 74 GT 26 Brumbaugh / Michaelian / Patch GTS Racing with Mitchum Motorsports / Porsche GT3 Cup 6 1:59.404 6 76.319 BLPatch and Associates, Carolina Motorsports Park, Churchill Transport, DUB, Haimov Watches, Strut, InterMedia

* - Withdrew