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GRAND-AM: Donohue Takes Laguna Pole
Written by: Grand-Am Communications   http://www.grand-am.com
05/17/2008 - 01:16 AM
Monterey, Calif.
 
Donohue took his second Rolex Series pole of the year. (LAT photo) ยป More Photos

David Donohue saved his best qualifying lap for his last Friday afternoon at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, running his fastest lap near the end of the session to win the pole for Saturday’s RumBum.com 250 at the 2.238-mile, 11-turn track, the fifth race on the 2008 Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16 schedule.

Donohue ran a lap of 1:19.843 (100.908 mph) on the eighth of his nine qualifying laps to win his second pole of the season in the No. 58 Brumos Racing Porsche Riley, and will lead the field to the green flag for the 112-lap, 250-mile race, (two-hour, 45-minute time limit), which will fly at 1:45 p.m. PT Saturday (SPEED, Noon ET Sunday). It marks his second pole position of the season, as he also topped qualifying at Homestead-Miami Speedway in March.

Donohue will be joined on the front row by Jon Fogarty, who gave the No. 99 GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing GAINSCO Auto Insurance Pontiac Riley its first front row start of the season with a lap of 1:19.951 (100.772 mph). Fogarty was also contending for the pole late in the session but a suspension failure led to an off-course excursion in the famed Corkscrew turn on his final lap.

Starting the race in the second row will be Memo Rojas (1:20.371; 100.371 mph) in the No. 01 TELMEX Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Lexus Riley he shares
with Scott Pruett, and the No. 23 Ruby Tuesday Championship Racing Team Porsche Crawford of Bill Auberlen and Joey Hand (1:20.318; 100.311 mph). Rojas – serving a two-race probation period starting with this weekend – and Pruett will be seeking their fourth victory in five races this season in Saturday’s event.

Brian Frisselle was fifth in the No. 61 AIM Autosport Ford Riley co-driven by Mark Wilkins, while Jimmy Vasser timed in sixth in the No. 98 GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing Pontiac Riley he shares with Cristiano da Matta. The latter is making his comeback to racing following a two-year layoff after a testing accident in the Champ Car World Series.

In GT, Nick Ham won his first pole of the season for SpeedSource, and second for the team after co-driver Sylvain Tremblay won the pole at the Rolex 24 At Daytona. Ham ran a lap of 1:27.014 (92.592 mph) in the No. 70 SpeedSource Mazdaspeed/Castrol Syntec Mazda RX-8.

Pierre Kaffer, making his third start of the season for Farnbacher Loles Racing, was second fastest in the No. 87 Porsche GT3. Kaffer, who shares the car with defending Rolex Series GT driving champion Dirk Werner, was the polesitter for the Mexico City 250 last month.

Saturday’s schedule opens with final practice at 10 a.m. PT, with the race starting at 1:45 p.m. PT.
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