Backstretch Motorsports

DAYTONA BEACH, Florida – January 25 – On the 40th anniversary of his father’s victory at the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona, David Donohue, of Malvern, Penn., drove a gripping last hour of the 2009 sports car classic to pass, and then hold off, former Formula 1 champion and NASCAR star Juan Pablo Montoya to score an overall win for him and his teammates Antonio Garcia (Madrid, Spain), Darren Law and Buddy Rice (both Phoenix, Ariz.) in the Brumos Porsche Riley prototype at Daytona International Speedway.

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Jan. 22, 2009) - Forty years after his father won the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona (Mark Donohue with Chuck Parsons in 1969 in a Lola), David Donohue, from Malvern, Penn., put his #58 Brumos Porsche Riley on the pole by the slimmest of margins – one-thousandth of second – for Saturday’s 47th running of the Rolex 24 at DaytonaDavid Donohue edged Timo Bernhard by a scant .001 seconds Thursday to capture the pole position for the 47th Rolex 24 At Daytona, breaking the Daytona Prototype track record in the process.

Donohue turned in a lap of 1:40.540 (127.472 mph) in the No. 58 Brumos Porsche Riley he will share with Darren Law, Buddy Rice and Antonio Garcia. The race will take the green flag at 3:30 p.m. Saturday. FOX will open live network coverage at 3 p.m. Saturday. SPEED will resume coverage at 4:30 p.m. Saturday, continuing until 10 p.m. Sunday coverage on SPEED will run from 7 a.m. - 4 p.m.

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Wolf Henzler and Jorg Bergmeister, both Porsche factory drivers and 2008 American Le Mans Series GT champions with their Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, received the All-American First Team At Large award at Saturday night’s 39th annual American Auto Racing Writers and Broadcasters Association (AARWBA) All-America Team ceremony, presented by A1GP World Cup of Motorsport. AARWBA members annually elect drivers to the Team from seven categories: Stock car, open-wheel, drag racing, road racing, short track, touring series and at-large.

Penske Porsche RS Spyder drivers Romain Dumas (France) and Timo Bernhard (Germany) were elected to the All-American Second Team in the road racing category as well. Other All-American Team drivers to earn Horsepower Trophies were: Tony Schumacher and Cruz Pedregon (drag racing); Jimmie Johnson and Carl Edwards (stock car); Scott Dixon and Helio Castroneves (open wheel); Scott Pruett/Memo Rojas and David Brabham/Scott Sharp (road racing); Johnny Benson and Justin Allgaier (touring series); Jerry Coons Jr. and Donny Schatz (short track); and Raphael Matos (at-large).

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BRASELTON, Ga., Oct. 4, 2008 – A race that began with Johnny O’Connell’s daughter singing the national anthem on the starting grid at Road Atlanta ended 9 hours and 41 minutes later with a victory in the 1,000-mile Petit Le Mans for O’Connell and his teammates Jan Magnussen and Ron Fellows. O’Connell and Magnussen clinched the American Le Mans Series GT1 drivers championship with their eighth win of the season in the No. 3 Compuware with one race still to run.

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The battle that everyone expected at Petit Le Mans powered by the Totally New MAZDA6 lived up to its billing. Audi remained unbeaten at Road Atlanta as Allan McNish, Dindo Capello and Emanuele Pirro spotted the field two laps at the start of the race but came back for a stunning victory in the 11th annual 1,000-mile/10-hour endurance classic.

McNish and his Audi R10 TDI crossed the finish line 4.512 seconds ahead of Peugeot’s Christian Klien and the Peugeot 908 HDi that he drove with Stephane Sarrazin and Nic Minassian. A record weekend crowd of 113,000 witnessed the week-long fight between the top two powers in sports car racing.

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All four classes set qualifying records Friday at Petit Le Mans powered by the Totally New MAZDA6, highlighted by Stephane Sarrazin’s run to the overall pole position for Saturday’s 1,000-mile/10-hour endurance classic at Road Atlanta. Sarrazin’s time of 1:06.242 (138.039 mph) nipped Audi Sport North America’s Allan McNish by 0.085 seconds as the battle between the two marques intensified even more.

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By J.J. O’Malley

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.

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Friday has turned out to be quite a day for Patrón Highcroft Racing. David Brabham captured the overall pole position for the Detroit Sports Car Challenge presented by Bosch, only hours after Acura announced that Patrón Highcroft would be one of its two LMP1 entries for the 2009 American Le Mans Series season.

Brabham put in a quick lap of 1:13.483 in the Patrón Highcroft Acura ARX-01b. He and Scott Sharp will start first overall for the first time since Lime Rock Park, where the duo captured the first overall victory for Acura. The pairing have won three of the last four rounds in LMP2 including the last two races at Road America and a week ago at Mosport.

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The front of any American Le Mans Series grid gets plenty of attention. But the GT2 action has been fast and furious all season. It also has been the closest championship battle throughout the 2008 season, which is starting to wind down.

Entering this weekend’s Detroit Sports Car Challenge presented by Bosch, Flying Lizard Motorsports’ Jörg Bergmeister and Wolf Henzler own a 10-point lead over Tafel Racing’s Dirk Mueller and Dominik Farnbacher for the class driver championship. The Lizard duo has been leading for most of the season, which started with a victory at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring to start the season, a race that currently is the difference. While the Lizards won 30 points for their victory, Tafel finished seventh in class and received just 14 points.

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Audi Sport North America’s Dindo Capello made Mosport International Raceway the fastest circuit in the American Le Mans Series with a stunning lap time of 1:04.318 (138.116 mph) in qualifying Saturday for the Mobil 1 presents the Grand Prix of Mosport. Capello smashed his own previous record at the track by 1.735 seconds, one of 10 cars to go under last year’s pole time.

Audi swept the front row with its two diesel-powered Audi R10 TDIs. Marco Werner was just 0.094 seconds behind his teammate as Audi asserted itself for the first time on the weekend. The top five cars qualified within 0.525 seconds of each other.

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