Backstretch Motorsports

Season Finale Crowns 2008 Grand-Am Class Champions

TOOELE, Utah (Sept. 20, 2008) - Raphael Matos bookended the 2008 Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16 season. After winning the GT class in the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona back in January, Matos made his return to the series by winning in his first Daytona Prototype start.

Matos joined regular drivers Ian James and John Pew to give the No. 6 Michael Shank Racing Ford Riley its first Rolex Series victory in the SunRichGourmet.com 1000 presented by The Grand and Little America Hotels. The team became the third first-time Daytona Prototype winner in three races at Miller Motorsports Park.

Meanwhile, Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas wrapped up the 2008 Daytona Prototype championship with a ninth place finish in the No. 01 TELMEX Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Lexus Riley, joined by Alex Lloyd.

The 137-lap race on the 4.486-mile circuit saw 16 lead changes among 14 drivers and 10 cars. A record nine of the 10 lead-lap finishers led the race. However, Matos pulled away on the restart following the sixth and final caution. He lead the final 28 laps - most in the event - cruising to a 29.398-second margin of victory over the No. 10 SunTrust Racing Pontiac Dallara of Max Angelelli and Michael Valiante.

“The car was very strong at the end of the race and that’s why I was able to pull a gap,” said Matos, the 2008 IRL Firestone Indy Lights championship. “I love this series and I love the cars. I love driving them. I had a great team - Mike Shank did an amazing job, and John Pew and Ian James did a great job. The crew had an amazing pit stop, and that’s what put us in first position. This is a happy moment for everyone and a great way to finish the season.”

Michael Shank Racing scored its first victory at Miller in 2006 when Oswaldo Negri and Mark Patterson took the team’s No. 60 entry to victory. That was their first triumph until the most recent Rolex Series race, when Negri and Patterson brought the No. 60 Ford Riley to victory lane at New Jersey Motorsports Park.

Fogarty and Alex Gurney concluded their season as the reigning series champions in the No. 99 GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing Pontiac Riley with Jimmy Vasser, taking third place. The outgoing titlists won once in 2008.

Joao Barbosa and JC France finished fourth for the fifth time in six races in the No. 59 Brumos Racing Porsche Riley, taking third in the final team standings behind the No. 01 and No. 99 teams.

Polesitter Ricardo Zonta and Nic Jonsson finished fifth in the No. 76 Krohn Racing Pontiac Lola. The race was marked by a mid-race deluge that led to five laps under caution, although the track quickly dried as the percipitation dissipated.

Needing just to complete the series mandated 30-minute minimum to score points, Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas turned in a workman-like effort to place ninth in their #01 Telmex Lexus and win the Rolex Sports Car Series championship in today’s SunRich Gourmet.com 1000 at the Miller Motorsports Park in Toelle, Utah.

In wrapping up the title, both drivers achieved historic feats. For Pruett, it marks a record eighth American sports car championship, breaking the mark he previously held along with the late Peter Gregg. It’s his second Rolex Series title to go along with previous championships in IMSA GTO (1986, 1988), Trans-Am (1987, 1994, 2003) and IMSA GT Endurance (1986).
While it was the latest in a long line of titles for Pruett, the championship was not only the first for Rojas, but the first major championship ever won by a Mexican driver. The Lexus-powered duo closed out the 2008 campaign 30 points ahead of their closest competitor.

Pruett started today’s race in second and the team, which included 2007 Indy Lights champion Alex Lloyd this weekend, ran in the top-five for much of the race, including Rojas taking a turn in the race lead. Pruett was contending for a top-five finish late in the race before he was spun around by the #58 car, which was subsequently penalized for the contact. For the second consecutive race, the team was forced to campaign their older back-up chassis after their primary car was destroyed in testing at New Jersey.. Pruett drove the first stint from the second starting position, driving an hour-and-a-half before Rojas got in. Alex Lloyd, the 2007 Firestone Indy Lights champion, also earned seat time.

Kelly Collins and Paul Edwards, driving their No. 07 Banner Racing Pontiac GXP.R, won the Grand-Am Rolex Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16 Sunrichgourmet.com 1000k race today and the GT championship.

In ever changing weather conditions at Miller Motorsports Park the duo of Edwards and Collins were able to defend their race win from last year as well as close the 2008 Rolex Series season as the GT champions. The race had plenty of drama including a rain storm that saturated the racing surface. Collins was caught in the downpour and pitted on lap 77 for a driver change and rain tires under caution. The team then had Edwards return to pit lane before the race went green on lap 81 for slicks and this gave the team nearly a lap advantage on the rest of the GT field and was the deciding moment of the race.

“A dream come true,” Edwards said. “A championship is something you dream about when you first start racing. It has been a tough couple of weeks since New Jersey thinking about the last race. We had a strong start to the season and accumulated a lot of points. We led the series since Mexico City and then Davis and Liddell started to put a lot of pressure on us. We had a great car today. The team made an excellent call to go to slicks before the green came out and that gave us a big gap especially when a yellow did not follow. Also one of our pit stops gave us a lead of about 17 seconds on the 70 and about 10 on the 57, so that made our job on the track a little easier.”

“The car was unbelievably hard to drive in the wet,” Collins said. “We could barley go 25 mph and the thing was aqua-planning off of the track and cars were spinning everywhere. It was touch and go there for a while. I think that was the toughest four laps of the season just putting around in first gear under yellow waiting for the pits to open. It was a fantastic weekend. We took a conservative approach after we got the points lead early in the season. Paul and I just had to get back to what we do best and that is be aggressive and go for the win.”

“The 70 and the 57 guys gave us a great run the second half of the season,” Leighton Reese, Banner team owner said. “We had an uphill battle with the weight adjustment and some other things during the middle of the schedule. We have the best drivers, mechanics, engineers and overall team. We have a lot of fun people on the team which has made this that much more special. It was a big test of our character the second half of the season. But we came here to Miller and took it back with a big win and the championship for Banner Engineering.”

“A great win and championship,” Steve Wesoloski, GM Racing, road racing manager said. “Paul and Kelly drove aggressive yet smart all day. The team did a super job on car preparation and with the pit stops. Stevenson kept the pressure on all day and did a great job to finish second. The Stevenson guys really helped us to secure the GT manufacturers championship with their three wins and consistency all year. In DP the 99 and the 10 had a great race today. Although we did not have a lot of wins in DP the depth of our teams made the manufacturer championship possible.”

POS NO. CLASS PIC DRIVER TEAM/CAR LAPS BEST LAP (#) AVG MPH SPONSORS
1 6 DP 1 James / Matos / Pew Michael Shank Racing / Ford Riley 137 2:37.323 130 90.636
2 10 DP 2 Angelelli / Valiante SunTrust Racing / Pontiac Dallara 137 2:37.879 107 90.527 Sun Trust
3 99 DP 3 Fogarty / Gurney / Vasser GAINSCO/ Bob Stallings Racing / Pontiac Riley 137 2:38.540 132 90.503 GAINSCO Auto Insurance
4 59 DP 4 Barbosa / France / Haywood Brumos Racing / Porsche Riley 137 2:38.453 133 90.501 Brumos Porsche/Kendall
5 76 DP 5 Jonsson / Zonta Krohn Racing / Pontiac Lola 137 2:38.162 36 90.499
6 61 DP 6 Frisselle / Wilkins / da Matta AIM Autosport / Ford Riley 137 2:37.777 132 90.498 Exchange Traded Gold, Mike Direct Connect
7 91 DP 7 Goossens / Hunter-Reay / Matthews Bob Stallings/ Riley-Matthews / Pontiac Riley 137 2:38.776 102 90.461 Riley-Matthews Motorsports
8 23 DP 8 Auberlen / Hand Alex Job Racing / Porsche Riley 137 2:38.578 55 90.460 Ruby Tuesday
9 01 DP 9 Lloyd / Pruett / Rojas Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates / Lexus Riley 137 2:37.846 133 90.426 TELMEX
10 58 DP 10 Donohue / Law / Rice Brumos Racing / Porsche Riley 137 2:38.135 27 90.295 Brumos Porsche/Kendall
11 7 DP 11 Gregoire / Plumb / Sigal Rum Bum Racing / BMW Riley 133 2:40.456 18 87.613 RumBum.com, Big Vision Miami, Caramba Tequila
12 07 GT 1 Collins / Edwards / Wilson Banner Racing / Pontiac GXP.R 130 2:51.850 97 85.412
13 57 GT 2 Davis / Liddell Stevenson Motorsports / Pontiac GXP.R 129 2:52.420 124 85.273 Stevenson Auto, Bryan Mark Financial
14 67 GT 3 George Jr / Lally / Long TRG / Porsche GT3 129 2:51.580 126 85.240
15 32 GT 4 Barrett / Forest / Gue PR1 Motorsports / Pontiac GXP.R 129 2:53.482 123 85.126
16 70 GT 5 Ham / Haskell / Tremblay SpeedSource / Mazda RX-8 129 2:51.716 95 85.072 Castrol Syntec, Mazda
17 72 GT 6 Borcheller / Lewis Jr Autohaus Motorsports / Pontiac GXP.R 129 2:52.677 98 84.943 Autohaus Motorsports
18 66 GT 7 Ballou / Pumpelly / Sellers TRG / Porsche GT3 129 2:52.697 91 84.683 Mitchell Rubber
19 87 GT 8 Henzler / Miller / Werner Farnbacher Loles Racing / Porsche GT3 128 2:52.070 110 84.668 Marquis Jet, Resorts Int’l, Power Plus, IPC, Modified L&E Magazine, Total Lubricants
20 88 GT 9 Farnbacher / Henzler / Johnson / Lacey Farnbacher Loles Racing / Porsche GT3 128 2:51.961 15 84.116
21 53 GT 10 Borkowski / Constantine / Lazzaro Playboy Racing / BMW M6 126 2:53.464 119 83.210 Playboy, Verve, Taser, Palms, Aprilia, Dinan, Fall-line
22 30 GT 11 Armengol / Herrington / Peterson Racers Edge Motorsports / Mazda RX-8 124 2:52.862 116 81.727 3 Dimensional.com, Mondial Forwarding, Idemitsu, P1 Groupe
23 06 GT 12 Bunting / Reese Banner Racing / Pontiac GXP.R 123 2:54.606 95 81.331
24 75 DP 12 Krohn / Said / van de Poele Krohn Racing / Pontiac Lola 117 2:39.554 56 77.016
25 86 GT 13 Farnbacher / Keen / Lux Farnbacher Loles Racing / Porsche GT3 114 2:51.745 14 75.214 The Media Barons, Power Plus-Porsche Performance Systems
26 40 GT 14 Dempsey / Espenlaub / Foster Hyper Sport / Mazda RX-8 114 2:53.410 109 75.189
27 43 GT 15 Nonnamaker / Nonnamaker Team Sahlen / Corvette 111 2:54.720 13 73.846
28 42 GT 16 Nonnamaker / Nonnamaker / Sahlen Team Sahlen / Corvette 110 2:57.644 43 79.661
29 65 GT 17 Gutierrez / Potter / Stanton TRG/Riegel Autosport / Porsche GT3 108 2:54.898 63 71.410 Mike Wiegel Helicopter Skiing, Total-R Insulation Solutions
30 60 DP 13 Dalziel / Negri / Patterson Michael Shank Racing / Ford Riley 104 2:39.671 29 87.322
31 27 GT 18 O’Connell / Roush O’Connell Racing / Porsche GT3 101 2:53.843 90 79.168 General Environmental Management Inc., Taleo Grill
32 21 GT 19 Alessi / Kapudija / Reindler Matt Connolly Motorsports / Pontiac GTO.R 78 2:54.770 66 62.962 P1 Groupe, Lucy Plast S.P.A., Barbetti, Davide Cenci, ERREMME, Black Flag Gear, Pacific Teaze
33 16 DP 14 Babini / Fittipaldi / Garcia Cheever Racing / Pontiac Coyote 76 2:39.682 75 92.959 Crown Royal Cask No. 16
34 55 GT 20 Bouchut / Tucker / Zabinski LevelFive Motorsports / Ferrari 430 Challenge 52 2:53.281 7 64.112 Priority
35 69 GT 21 Assentato / Longhi / Segal SpeedSource / Mazda RX-8 7 2:54.976 2 88.164 FXDD
36 22 DP 15 Basseng / de Quesada / Dumoulin Alegra Motorsports / Porsche Riley 3 3:34.034 1 46.663 Gatorade, Today MD
37* 77 DP 16 Frisselle / Gidley / Jaeger Doran Racing / Ford Dallara 0 0 0.000 Kodak

* - Withdrew