Backstretch Motorsports

New Jersey Motorsports Park played host to the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series on Sunday, with Mother Nature doing the majority of the talking. When the rooster-tails from the excessively wet track had settled the No. 76 Krohn Racing Ford Lola with drivers Ricardo Zonta and Nic Jonsson stood atop the podium as victors.

The win may have been surprising but it also was commanding; the margin of victory was 44.752 seconds, over the runner-up No. 10 SunTrust Racing Ford Dallara co-driven by Max Angelelli and Brian Frisselle.

For Zonta, this was his first win in the Rolex Sports Car Series. Jonsson’s only previous victory in the series came in 2005 at Waktins Glen International.

Sunday’s race, Round 3 of the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16, started amid a steady rain - on an increasingly challenging 2.25-mile, 14-turn road course. Conditions got the upper hand on competitors immediately, in the form of a two-car Daytona Prototype mishap on the very first turn of the opening lap of the two-hour, 45-minute event. The wreck involved two cars - and ruined the chances of the race’s defending champions repeating.

Rain fell throughout the race and Grand-Am officials even ran 12 laps under caution because track conditions were so treacherous – unusual for normally all-weather sports car racing.

Mark Patterson, sharing the No. 60 Michael Shank Racing Ford Riley with Ozz Negri - they won here last autumn - rammed the back of the No. 13 Beyer Racing Pontiac Riley, being driven by Ricky Taylor. The impact sheared off the No. 60’s front cowling and sent the car to the garage, its day done as far as contending was concerned.

The production-based GT class was won by Dirk Werner and Leh Keen, in the No. 87 Farnbacher Loles Racing Porsche GT3. They ended with a margin of victory of one lap over the runner-up No. 66 AXA/Mitchell Rubber/Wealth Management Strategies Porsche GT3 of Spencer Pumpelly and Ted Ballou.

Verizon Wireless 250
New Jersey Motorsports Park
Millville, NJ
Official Race Results

POS NO. CLASS PIC DRIVER TEAM/CAR LAPS BEST LAP (#) AVG MPH SPONSORS
1 76 DP 1 Jonsson / Zonta Krohn Racing / Ford Lola 87 1:30.487 81 70.820
2 10 DP 2 Angelelli / Frisselle SunTrust Racing / Ford Dallara 87 1:31.198 86 70.503 Suntrust
3 12 DP 3 Bernhard / Dumas Penske Racing / Porsche Riley 87 1:28.544 84 70.467 Verizon Wireless
4 58 DP 4 Donohue / Law Brumos Racing / Porsche Riley 87 1:30.519 84 70.432 Brumos Porsche, Kendall
5 61 DP 5 Frisselle / Wilkins AIM Autosport / Ford Riley 87 1:29.949 86 70.340
6 99 DP 6 Fogarty / Gurney GAINSCO/ Bob Stallings Racing / Pontiac Riley 87 1:29.332 87 70.314
7 77 DP 7 Gidley / Jaeger Doran Racing / Ford Dallara 86 1:30.780 84 69.554 McDonalds
8 87 GT 1 Keen / Werner Farnbacher Loles Racing / Porsche GT3 86 1:34.349 86 69.413
9 66 GT 2 Ballou / Pumpelly TRG / Porsche GT3 85 1:37.405 78 69.016 AXA, Mitchell Rubber, Wealth Management Strategies
10 86 GT 3 Lux / Sellers Farnbacher Loles Racing / Porsche GT3 85 1:35.391 80 68.814
11 6 DP 8 Pew / Valiante Michael Shank Racing / Ford Riley 85 1:27.355 85 68.721
12 67 GT 4 Lally / Marks TRG / Porsche GT3 85 1:36.706 79 68.680 Construct Corp., No Fear Energy Drinks, Voodoo Ride, K1 Speed
13 57 GT 5 Davis / Liddell Stevenson Motorsports / Pontiac GXP.R 84 1:35.543 83 68.369 Bryan Mark, Stevenson Automotive Group, VIN Solutions
14 31 GT 6 Groenewald / von Moltke Battery Tender/ MCM Racing / Porsche GT3 84 1:39.216 73 68.013 South African Airways, Cadac, P1 Groupe
15 40 GT 7 Dempsey / Foster Dempsey Racing / Mazda RX-8 83 1:37.438 81 67.475 Mazda
16 65 GT 8 Potter / Stanton TRG/ Riegel/ Stanton / Porsche GT3 83 1:37.710 80 67.437 Magnus Racing
17 30 GT 9 Cameron / Miller Racers Edge Motorsports / Mazda RX-8 83 1:36.809 83 67.369 Marquis Jet, IPC, 3Dimensional.com, Total
18 68 GT 10 George Jr / Valentine TRG / Porsche GT3 83 1:39.518 81 67.261 Cabana Cachaca, CRG, Ruby Tuesday, F1 New Jersey Motorsports Park, Maxter
19 70 GT 11 Ham / Tremblay SpeedSource / Mazda RX-8 83 1:37.987 78 67.130 Castrol Syntec, Mazda
20 32 GT 12 Aschenbach / Forest PR1 Motorsports / Pontiac GXP.R 83 1:38.366 76 66.931
21 01 DP 9 Pruett / Rojas Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates / Lexus Riley 82 1:29.035 81 66.550 TELMEX
22 43 GT 13 Nonnamaker / Nonnamaker Team Sahlen / Corvette 82 1:40.288 81 66.504
23 42 GT 14 Nonnamaker / Sahlen Team Sahlen / Corvette 79 1:38.884 78 64.277
24 13 DP 10 Beyer / Taylor Beyer Racing / Pontiac Riley 79 1:35.484 46 63.710
25 07 GT 15 Collins / Edwards Banner Racing / Pontiac GXP.R 79 1:35.658 73 63.704 Pontiac
26 09 DP 11 Cosmo / Russell Spirit of Daytona Racing / Porsche Coyote 78 1:35.543 76 63.068
27 69 GT 16 Assentato / Segal SpeedSource / Mazda RX-8 63 1:36.645 63 51.209 FXDD
28 2 DP 12 Finlay / Wallace Childress-Howard Motorsports / Pontiac Crawford 59 1:34.271 59 47.900 Gentleman Jack
29 60 DP 13 Negri / Patterson Michael Shank Racing / Ford Riley 57 1:30.620 50 46.191
30 59 DP 14 Barbosa / France Brumos Racing / Porsche Riley 34 1:38.469 15 60.452 Brumos Porsche, Kendall
31 21 GT 17 Kapudija / Phinny Battery Tender/ MCM Racing / Pontiac GTO.R 34 1:46.462 6 44.834 Battery Tender, Find.com, P1 Groupe

* - Withdrew