Backstretch Motorsports

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (July 20, 2008) – With track temperatures soaring over 120 degrees, the Lexus duo of Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas remained the hottest thing on the track as they registered their sixth Rolex Sports Car Series victory of the season in Sunday’s Porsche 250 at the Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama.

The win comes in just the ninth race of the season for the #01 Ganassi/Lexus team and gives both the drivers and the team a commanding 60-point championship lead with just five races remaining. In addition, Lexus stretched out its manufacturer’s championship to 16 points.

The race proved to be as much a battle of survival in the Alabama heat as it was a battle of speed. Yet, as contenders fell by the wayside, the ultra-consistent Ganassi team never missed a beat as the team continued a streak that has seen it complete every lap run in Daytona Prototype competition over the past two seasons.

Pruett prevailed on a hot and humid day, with 102-degree temperatures taking their toll on both participants and machinery.

“All the alarms were on today - the oil temp, water temp - and you just had to ignore it all,” said Pruett, who extended his Rolex Series record to 20 career victories. “Everything was overheating, including the drivers. We just took it to the checkered flag. This is a big win for us as a team. We’ve only finished once on the podium at Barber since 2004.”

Law and David Donohue scored their third runner-up finish in the last four races sharing the No. 58 Brumos Racing Porsche Riley. It was their fifth consecutive top-five finish.

“In the end, it was a three-lap run,” Law said. “The motors were hot. I just couldn’t make up any more ground than I did. It was close. It was a great run.”

Pruett was the lone race leader to finish in the top 10. Six other cars led the event, but all of them finished outside of the top 10.

Ricardo Zonta started third in the No. 76 Krohn Racing Pontiac Lola. He led the opening 25 circuits before pitting. Nic Jonsson took over, but skidded off course in turn nine early in his run and lost three laps. He returned to finish 13th.

Guy Cosmo led a lap in the Spirit of Daytona Porsche Coyote and co-driver Marc-Antoine Camirand ran second later in the race, but the car lost power late in the race to bring out the final caution period.

Brad Jaeger led three laps in the No. 77 Kodak Doran Racing Ford Dallara, but co-driver Memo Gidley pulled off and retired when the car briefly caught fire. He escaped without injury.

The turn of events gave Joey Hand a sizeable lead in the No. 23 Ruby Tuesday Porsche Riley started by Bill Auberlen. Hand had a 45-second lead over Camirand and more than a minute over the third place car of Gurney, when the caution for Gidley’s incident brought out the caution.

Gurney led Pruett on the restart. Gurney led a race-high 35 laps, but Brian Frisselle passed both Pruett and Gurney in the No. 61 AIM Autosport Ford Riley started by Mark Wilkins and took the lead on Lap 76. Frisselle led the next 15 circuits, but suddenly lost power with mechanical problems with 13 laps remaining.

“We thought we had it today, but it wasn’t meant to be,” said Wilkins, whose team has yet to score a podium finish. “We’re not sure what it was, but it was an engine issue. We’ve been knocking on the door, and we know it’s going to come our way eventually.”

That left Pruett out front, followed by Gurney. However, the GAINSCO car suddenly fell back following the restart for Frisselle’s problems, and Gurney retired with clutch problems.

“We had clutch problems from the start, but the cautions made it worse,” Fogarty said. “Finally, it totally went away.”

Law made a challenge in the closing laps, running side-by-side through Turn 6. Pruett maintained the lead, and then held off Law’s final challenge on the three-lap sprint following the final caution for Cosmo’s problem.

Ian James and John Pew finished third in the No. 6 Ford Riley, followed by Michael Shank Racing teammates Oswaldo Negri and Mark Patterson in the No. 60. Burt Frisselle and Ricky Taylor placed fifth in the No. 47 Doran Racing Ford Dallara, followed by the pole-winning No. 10 SunTrust Pontiac Dallara of Michael Valiante and Max Angelelli.

In GT, Nick Ham passed Robin Liddell eight laps from the checkered flag to score the third victory for the No. 70 SpeedSource Castrol Syntec/ Mazdaspeed Mazda RX-8 he shared with Sylvain Tremblay. Ham started from the pole and led 28 laps before turning the car over to Tremblay. Ham returned to the car for the sprint to the finish.

Liddell led a race-high 55 laps in the No. 57 Stevenson Racing Pontiac GXP.R started by Andrew Davis. He was passed for the lead following the penultimate restart, and then fell to fourth after the final caution to finish fourth.

Bryce Miller and Dirk Werner finished second for the second straight race in the No. 87 Farnbacher Loles Porsche GT3, gaining two positions in the closing laps. Andy Lally and Tim George Jr. finished third in the TRG Porsche GT3.

Kelly Collins led eight laps in the No. 07 Banner Racing Pontiac GXP.R he shared with fellow three-time winner Paul Edwards. They finished sixth, allowing Tremblay and Ham to pull within 14 points of the GT lead.

The race was slowed by five cautions for 18 laps, with Pruett and Rojas averaging 85.694 mph.

July 20, 2008
Porsche 250 by Bradley Arant
Barber Motorsports Park
Birmingham, Alabama
Official Results

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 103 1:22.562 84 85.694 TELMEX
2 58 DP 2 Donohue / Law Brumos Racing / Porsche Riley 103 1:22.619 84 85.691 Brumos Porsche, Kendall
3 6 DP 3 James / Pew Michael Shank Racing / Ford Riley 103 1:22.780 70 85.673
4 60 DP 4 Negri / Patterson Michael Shank Racing / Ford Riley 103 1:22.944 30 85.666
5 47 DP 5 Frisselle / Taylor Doran Racing / Ford Dallara 103 1:23.246 69 85.663 CDOC
6 10 DP 6 Angelelli / Valiante SunTrust Racing / Pontiac Dallara 103 1:22.913 68 85.659 SunTrust
7 59 DP 7 Barbosa / France Brumos Racing / Porsche Riley 103 1:22.428 69 85.635 Brumos Porsche, Kendall
8 91 DP 8 Goossens / Matthews Bob Stallings/ Riley-Matthews / Pontiac Riley 103 1:23.022 68 85.621 Riley-Matthews Motorsports
9 3 DP 9 Lester / Lewis Southard Motorsports / Lexus Riley 103 1:23.951 71 85.614
10 16 DP 10 Garcia / Kimber-Smith Cheever Racing / Pontiac Coyote 102 1:22.782 85 84.787 Crown Royal Cask No. 16
11 7 DP 11 Plumb / Sigal Rum Bum Racing / BMW Riley 102 1:23.983 71 84.730 Rumbum.com, Big Vision Miami, Caramba Tequila
12 23 DP 12 Auberlen / Hand Alex Job Racing / Porsche Riley 102 1:22.840 42 84.559 Ruby Tuesday
13 76 DP 13 Jonsson / Zonta Krohn Racing / Pontiac Lola 101 1:21.740 83 83.993
14 70 GT 1 Ham / Tremblay SpeedSource / Mazda RX-8 99 1:29.213 65 82.120 Castrol Syntec, Mazda
15 87 GT 2 Miller / Werner Farnbacher Loles Racing / Porsche GT3 Cup 99 1:29.851 37 82.113 Marquis Jet, Resorts International, PowerPlus-Porsche Performance Systems, IPC, Modified Luxury & Exotics Magazine, Total Lubricants
16 67 GT 3 George Jr / Lally TRG / Porsche GT3 Cup 99 1:29.463 66 82.095
17 57 GT 4 Davis / Liddell Stevenson Motorsports / Pontiac GXP.R 99 1:29.145 64 82.079 Stevenson Auto, Bryan Mark Financial
18 66 GT 5 Ballou / Pumpelly TRG / Porsche GT3 Cup 99 1:29.883 66 82.057 Mitchell Rubber
19 07 GT 6 Collins / Edwards Banner Racing / Pontiac GXP.R 99 1:29.123 92 81.979 Banner Engineering
20 06 GT 7 Bunting / Reese Banner Racing / Pontiac GXP.R 99 1:31.528 65 81.972 Banner Engineering
21 43 GT 8 Nonnamaker / Nonnamaker Team Sahlen / Corvette 98 1:30.578 79 81.181 Theracesite.com
22 42 GT 9 Nonnamaker / Sahlen Team Sahlen / Corvette 98 1:31.340 77 81.171 Theracesite.com
23 86 GT 10 Keen / Lux Farnbacher Loles Racing / Porsche GT3 Cup 98 1:31.513 71 81.051 The Media Barons, PowerPlus-Porsche Performance Systems, Modified Luxury & Exotics Magazine
24 30 GT 11 Sellers / Smith Racers Edge Motorsports / Mazda RX-8 98 1:30.223 27 80.964 Maxwell Paper Company, Idemitsu Racing Oil
25 21 GT 12 Alessi / Phinny Matt Connolly Motorsports / Pontiac GTO.R 97 1:29.802 63 80.374 Barbetti, Erremme, APCO, Lucy Plast, P1 Groupe, Pacific Teaze, Baja Cantina
26 53 GT 13 Borkowski / Constantine Playboy Racing / BMW M6 96 1:30.853 69 79.517 Playboy, Verve, Taser, Palms, Aprilia, Original BMW Parts, Fall-Line
27 09 DP 14 Camirand / Cosmo Spirit of Daytona Racing / Porsche Coyote 95 1:23.619 3 87.213
28 40 GT 14 Dempsey / Foster Hyper Sport / Mazda RX-8 94 1:30.003 74 77.905
29 71 GT 15 Grant / Grant / Grant Synergy Racing / Porsche GT3 Cup 93 1:34.926 62 76.885 Courtyard by Marriott
30 61 DP 15 Frisselle / Wilkins AIM Autosport / Ford Riley 90 1:22.736 83 89.081 Exchange Traded Gold, Mike Direct Connect
31 65 GT 16 Maher / Stanton TRG/Riegel Autosport / Porsche GT3 Cup 81 1:30.684 21 80.836 Mike Wiegel Helicopter Skiing, Total-R Insulation Solutions
32 99 DP 16 Fogarty / Gurney GAINSCO/ Bob Stallings Racing / Pontiac Riley 80 1:22.887 38 87.938 GAINSCO Auto Insurance
33 69 GT 17 Assentato / Segal SpeedSource / Mazda RX-8 72 1:30.624 3 59.608 FXDD
34 68 GT 18 Gutierrez / Schroeder TRG / Porsche GT3 Cup 72 1:32.005 38 59.578
35 75 DP 17 Krohn / van de Poele Krohn Racing / Pontiac Lola 70 1:23.604 69 88.274
36 77 DP 18 Gidley / Jaeger Doran Racing / Ford Dallara 60 1:22.723 56 90.538 Kodak
37 88 GT 19 Johnson / Westbrook Farnbacher Loles Racing / Porsche GT3 Cup 32 1:32.578 2 78.708
38 72 GT 20 Borcheller / Lewis Jr Autohaus Motorsports / Pontiac GXP.R 5 1:31.626 2 64.461 Autohaus Motorsports
39* 15 GT 0 Dumoulin / Nastasi Blackforest Motorsports / Ford Mustang 0 0 0.000 USG, Guardian, DeWalt

* - Withdrew