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GRAND-AM: Ganassi, Marsh Win Road America Thriller
Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas return to victory lane; Marsh Racing Corvette wins down-to-the-wire battle in GT...
John Dagys  |  Posted June 25, 2011   Elkhart Lake, WI
While Telmex Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas cruised to their fourth GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series victory of the season, the story of Saturday’s two-hour sprint at Road America came in the thrilling down-to-the-wire battle for top honors in the GT class.

A heavy crash between the No. 07 Banner Racing Camaro of Gunter Schaldach and the Joe Foster-driven No. 40 Dempsey Racing Mazda on Lap 5, which saw Schaldach’s Camaro go up and over the Turn 1 catch fence, kept the field under caution for nearly half the race.

READ: Gunter Schaldach's Massive Road America Accident

The lengthy safety car period effectively set up a one-hour dash to the finish, with teams opting for different strategies, particularly in GT.
Marsh Racing took top honors in a frantic late-race battle in GT. (Photo: Brian Cleary/GRAND-AM)

While the class-leading Stevenson Motorsports Camaro of Robin Liddell fell by the wayside after a spin, it appeared one of the three Porsches could have claimed honors.

Leh Keen held the top spot in his No. 59 Brumos Racing Porsche but had to pit with eight laps to go for a splash of fuel. The same was the case for the No. 44 Magnus Racing entry of Craig Stanton just two laps later.

With less than ten minutes remaining, the No. 88 Autohaus Motorsports Camaro of Jordan Taylor emerged as the likely victor. But Taylor’s tank ran dry just after getting the white flag, handing the lead to the No. 67 TRG Porsche of Spencer Pumpelly.

Pumpelly, in the midst of a hard-fought battle with the No. 31 Marsh Racing Corvette of Eric Curran, appeared to have taken the spoils. But he too ran out of fuel, with just two corners to go.

The late-race drama no doubt played into the hands of Curran, who took his Whelen Corvette to an unlikely victory, 0.559 seconds ahead of the John Edwards-driven No. 42 Team Sahlen Mazda RX-8 in a close second.

“I didn’t think I could have pulled it off today,” Curran said. “I was on the radio with the guys and thought we were in fourth place. I tried everything at Spencer, and tried to out-brake him and get the power down early. I was slipping and sliding and overshot a brake zone and couldn’t get him in the end. Unfortunately for those guys, they ran out of gas.”

“I didn’t even realize we had the win. I came across the line and they said, ‘You won, you won!’ I said, ‘Did you say we were in fourth or first on the last lap?’ It was very exciting and an eventful couple of last laps. These guys have been working so hard on this program and we needed to have a good result.”

It marked Marsh Racing’s first victory in Rolex Series competition after entering the highly competitive category last year with its self-built Prep 1 Corvette.

Curran, who celebrated his second career victory, shared the wheel with veteran road racer and former Corvette engineer John Heinricy this weekend, as regular co-driver Boris Said was on NASCAR Sprint Cup Series duty at Infineon Raceway.

The pole-sitting Team Sahlen Mazda of Edwards and Wayne Nonnamaker came home second after a fuel-only stop by the family-run crew got Mazdaspeed development driver Edwards out ahead of the competition.
Team owner Ted Marsh celebrates his first victory in Rolex Series competition. (Photo: Brian Cleary/GRAND-AM)

“I’ve never worked so hard in my life,” Edwards said. “We left our tires on so we didn’t have new tires and [Jonathan] Bomarito in the No. 70 car did. So I was really working hard to hang on. He was killing me on the corners, as was Eric in the 31 car. It was a lot of hard work, but the car was really good, even with the old tires.”

Pumpelly managed to get his sputtering TRG Porsche across the line in third, ahead of Stanton’s Magnus Porsche, who rallied to fourth after a late splash-and-go. Taylor’s Autohaus Camaro rounded out the top-five, which was also on empty by the checkered flag.

The final lap was no doubt a range of emotions for Pumpelly, who's hopes ran dry while exiting Canada Corner on the final lap.

“Unfortunately we missed it by a couple corners on the fuel mileage,” Pumpelly said. “The guys behind me were coming... I really thought we were able to pull them off, but [to run out of gas] with two [corners to go] is just heart-breaking. Then I had to muster enough gas in the tank to hold onto the podium, which was a really close race there.”

Despite their fourth-place finish, Taylor and co-driver Bill Lester maintain the lead in the GT standings, four points ahead of Brumos’ Keen and Andrew Davis, who finished sixth.

PHOTOS: Road America Race Gallery



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