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GRAND-AM
GRAND-AM: Ganassi Breaks Through At Road America
Scott Pruett, Memo Rojas return to victory lane, AIM Autosport Team FXDD takes third win of season in GT...
After a nine-race drought, Ganassi returned to victory lane Saturday at Road America. (Photo: John Dagys)
After going winless for nearly a year, Chip Ganassi Racing broke through to take its first victory of the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series season Saturday at Road America.
The No. 01 Telmex Riley-BMW of Scott Pruett capitalized on late-race misfortune for the SunTrust Racing Corvette of Ricky Taylor to claim a 3.747-second victory over Ryan Dalziel in the No. 8 Starworks Motorsport Riley-Ford, which finished second.
A call to top off the defending Daytona Prototype champion's fuel tank while under an early yellow proved to be pivotal, with Memo Rojas leading at the halfway point.
The strongest challenger through the two-hour sprint came from the No. 10 SunTrust machine of Taylor and Max Angelelli, which was on top after the final round of pit stops.
Taylor appeared to be en route to victory until a late yellow, when the second-generation driver lost control of his Dallara-chassied Corvette while under the safety car and slammed into the wall.
It handed the lead back to Pruett, who ended Ganassi's nine-race winless streak to earn back-to-back victories at the famed four-mile course.
"With four or five to go, all I could do was just go like it was qualifying," Pruett said of the final restart. "We've always had real good cars at the end of stints on old tires. At the end, we could pace, pretty consistently, fast laps, and just had to go like hell to the checkered."
The win for Pruett and Rojas extended their lead in the championship to five points over Starworks' Dalziel and Enzo Potolicchio, who enjoyed a solid opening stint running inside the top-three.
"We ran a little bit different strategy as we stayed out longer," Dalziel explained. "We managed to run our middle stint all the way and the tires were still good. Ultimately, I think it would have been the same result. I don't think we had quite enough for the 01 car."
The No. 60 Michael Shank Racing Riley-Ford of Ozz Negri managed to get by both Action Express Racing Corvettes on the final restart to take third, marking a sweep of the podium for the Gen-3 Rileys.
Negri and co-driver John Pew's result, however, would not come without controversy, as the Brazilian and the No. 9 Action Express entry of Joao Barbosa had a close call on the final lap that ended with Barbosa in the wall near the start/finish line.
No penalty was taken for the incident, which dropped Barbosa and co-driver Darren Law to a 6th place result.
It ended up being a race to forget for the Corvette contingent, with SunTrust recording its third consecutive DNF and the No. 99 GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing entry of Jon Fogarty dropping out with suspension failure.
The No. 90 Spirit of Daytona Corvette, which led early in the hands of Antonio Garcia, had a coming together with a GT-class Mazda in the opening hour and lost eight laps due to a broken upper control arm.
Starworks Motorsport also suffered misfortune for its No. 2 Riley-Ford of Lucas Luhr and Alex Popow, which suffered gearbox failure mid-race while running in the top-three.
PHOTOS: GRAND-AM At Road America
The No. 01 Telmex Riley-BMW of Scott Pruett capitalized on late-race misfortune for the SunTrust Racing Corvette of Ricky Taylor to claim a 3.747-second victory over Ryan Dalziel in the No. 8 Starworks Motorsport Riley-Ford, which finished second.
A call to top off the defending Daytona Prototype champion's fuel tank while under an early yellow proved to be pivotal, with Memo Rojas leading at the halfway point.
The strongest challenger through the two-hour sprint came from the No. 10 SunTrust machine of Taylor and Max Angelelli, which was on top after the final round of pit stops.
Taylor appeared to be en route to victory until a late yellow, when the second-generation driver lost control of his Dallara-chassied Corvette while under the safety car and slammed into the wall.
It handed the lead back to Pruett, who ended Ganassi's nine-race winless streak to earn back-to-back victories at the famed four-mile course.
"With four or five to go, all I could do was just go like it was qualifying," Pruett said of the final restart. "We've always had real good cars at the end of stints on old tires. At the end, we could pace, pretty consistently, fast laps, and just had to go like hell to the checkered."
The win for Pruett and Rojas extended their lead in the championship to five points over Starworks' Dalziel and Enzo Potolicchio, who enjoyed a solid opening stint running inside the top-three.
"We ran a little bit different strategy as we stayed out longer," Dalziel explained. "We managed to run our middle stint all the way and the tires were still good. Ultimately, I think it would have been the same result. I don't think we had quite enough for the 01 car."
The No. 60 Michael Shank Racing Riley-Ford of Ozz Negri managed to get by both Action Express Racing Corvettes on the final restart to take third, marking a sweep of the podium for the Gen-3 Rileys.
Negri and co-driver John Pew's result, however, would not come without controversy, as the Brazilian and the No. 9 Action Express entry of Joao Barbosa had a close call on the final lap that ended with Barbosa in the wall near the start/finish line.
No penalty was taken for the incident, which dropped Barbosa and co-driver Darren Law to a 6th place result.
It ended up being a race to forget for the Corvette contingent, with SunTrust recording its third consecutive DNF and the No. 99 GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing entry of Jon Fogarty dropping out with suspension failure.
The No. 90 Spirit of Daytona Corvette, which led early in the hands of Antonio Garcia, had a coming together with a GT-class Mazda in the opening hour and lost eight laps due to a broken upper control arm.
Starworks Motorsport also suffered misfortune for its No. 2 Riley-Ford of Lucas Luhr and Alex Popow, which suffered gearbox failure mid-race while running in the top-three.
PHOTOS: GRAND-AM At Road America
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