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GRAND-AM
GRAND-AM: News & Notes, March 26
News & notes ahead of this weekend's Porsche 250 at Barber Motorsports Park...
The Rolex Sports Car Series roars back into action this weekend at Barber Motorsports Park. (Photo: John Dagys)
Season’s Second Race Adjusts Focus To Series Regulars; Reigning Champions A Surprising Sixth In DP Points
The spectacle that is the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona also is an anomaly.
The event’s inherent all-star appeal results in some quite misleading Rolex Series point standings when the checkered flag waves. For a number of the drivers who competed at Daytona, that will be their only GRAND-AM appearance of the season.
In terms of standings truly reflective of what promises to be outstanding champion-ship battles in the DP and GT classes this year, it will all ―shake out this weekend at Barber Motorsports Park, site of Saturday’s Porsche 250.
To help that process, the respective class standings list only Rolex Series regulars, with standings topped by drivers from the respective winning teams at Daytona — Ozz Negri and John Pew (No. 60 Ford/Riley) of Michael Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian, who co-drove to the overall and Daytona Prototype victory; and Magnus Racing’s Andy Lally and John Potter (No. 44 Porsche GT3), who co-drove to the GT class victory.
One thing is quite obvious coming into this weekend. The reigning champions of the Rolex Series’ DP class, Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas (No. 01 TELMEX BMW/Riley) have some early-season rebounding to do; they come in a surprising sixth in the standings — fourth when you count only series regulars.
Barber, though, looks like prime bounce-back material. Pruett and Rojas are the two-time defending champions of the Porsche 250 and also won the event in 2008.
“This will be an incredibly interesting DP championship” Pruett said. “Our finish at Daytona hurt us, no question. We have a big deficit to overcome, but there are a lot of pieces in play this year with the new Corvette DPs and new Riley bodywork, plus our changeover to the BMW M3 engine later in the season.
“Nothing’s really changed for us; our focus is winning races and the championship.”
Taylor Holds Barber Qualifying Record ― No Surprise Now
Ricky Taylor (No. 10 SunTrust Corvette DP) established himself as one of the top qualifiers in GRAND-AM history last season with six consecutive poles, one short of Jon Fogarty’s DP record.
But in 2010 at Barber’s challenging natural road course, Taylor provided a preview of things to come, taking the DP pole with a 103.989 mph lap — still the DP track record.
That was his first career pole. Who knew it would be-come habit-forming?
“I’ve always liked Barber,” said Taylor, who has eight career DP poles. “The Corvette guys have done a lot of work since the Rolex 24 in the wind tunnel. I think when we get back to Barber we’ll be fast and we’ll have a good starting spot, for sure.”
Taylor and co-driver Max Angelelli are perhaps the most visible competitors among the new Corvette DP contingent, the standard-bearer for GRAND-AM’s new third generation Daytona Prototypes which debuted at the season-opening Rolex 24.
Angelelli demonstrated his own qualifying proficiency at Daytona, putting the No. 10 on the outside of the front row, an effort overshadowed by early-race mechanical problems that took the car out of contention.
The spectacle that is the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona also is an anomaly.
The event’s inherent all-star appeal results in some quite misleading Rolex Series point standings when the checkered flag waves. For a number of the drivers who competed at Daytona, that will be their only GRAND-AM appearance of the season.
In terms of standings truly reflective of what promises to be outstanding champion-ship battles in the DP and GT classes this year, it will all ―shake out this weekend at Barber Motorsports Park, site of Saturday’s Porsche 250.
To help that process, the respective class standings list only Rolex Series regulars, with standings topped by drivers from the respective winning teams at Daytona — Ozz Negri and John Pew (No. 60 Ford/Riley) of Michael Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian, who co-drove to the overall and Daytona Prototype victory; and Magnus Racing’s Andy Lally and John Potter (No. 44 Porsche GT3), who co-drove to the GT class victory.
One thing is quite obvious coming into this weekend. The reigning champions of the Rolex Series’ DP class, Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas (No. 01 TELMEX BMW/Riley) have some early-season rebounding to do; they come in a surprising sixth in the standings — fourth when you count only series regulars.
Barber, though, looks like prime bounce-back material. Pruett and Rojas are the two-time defending champions of the Porsche 250 and also won the event in 2008.
“This will be an incredibly interesting DP championship” Pruett said. “Our finish at Daytona hurt us, no question. We have a big deficit to overcome, but there are a lot of pieces in play this year with the new Corvette DPs and new Riley bodywork, plus our changeover to the BMW M3 engine later in the season.
“Nothing’s really changed for us; our focus is winning races and the championship.”
Taylor Holds Barber Qualifying Record ― No Surprise Now
Ricky Taylor (No. 10 SunTrust Corvette DP) established himself as one of the top qualifiers in GRAND-AM history last season with six consecutive poles, one short of Jon Fogarty’s DP record.
But in 2010 at Barber’s challenging natural road course, Taylor provided a preview of things to come, taking the DP pole with a 103.989 mph lap — still the DP track record.
That was his first career pole. Who knew it would be-come habit-forming?
“I’ve always liked Barber,” said Taylor, who has eight career DP poles. “The Corvette guys have done a lot of work since the Rolex 24 in the wind tunnel. I think when we get back to Barber we’ll be fast and we’ll have a good starting spot, for sure.”
Taylor and co-driver Max Angelelli are perhaps the most visible competitors among the new Corvette DP contingent, the standard-bearer for GRAND-AM’s new third generation Daytona Prototypes which debuted at the season-opening Rolex 24.
Angelelli demonstrated his own qualifying proficiency at Daytona, putting the No. 10 on the outside of the front row, an effort overshadowed by early-race mechanical problems that took the car out of contention.
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