Have a FaceBook, Twitter, or other social networking account?

Link them to your fanatic account!

Add An Account

TAKE ME TO...
Grand Am
GRAND-AM: Pruett Soaking Up Fourth DP Title
“Quite frankly, I never thought I’d still be winning championships at this point of my career,” Scott Pruett says...
John Dagys  |  Posted September 20, 2011   Chicago, IL
Scott Pruett celebrated his record fourth Daytona Prototype title last weekend in the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series season finale at Mid-Ohio. (Photo: LAT)
It’s hard to imagine that in the nine short years of the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series’ Daytona Prototype category, one driver has racked up championships for nearly half of those years. But then again, you’re not talking about any average driver. You’re talking about Scott Pruett.

The open-wheel turned sportscar veteran notched his record fourth Daytona Prototype crown in last weekend’s season-ending EMCO Gears Classic, teaming with now three-time DP champ Memo Rojas in the No. 01 Telmex Chip Ganassi Racing Riley-BMW for a second-place finish.

The duo clinched the championship after Rojas completed the opening 30 minutes of the two-hour and 45-minute contest. It capped off another memorable season that included five wins and ten podium finishes out of 12 races. The dominating performance also gave BMW the manufacturers championship for the second consecutive year.

“It’s been an incredible year for us,” Pruett said. “We’ve had ups and downs. We really focused on doing what we could as a team to get the car up front continually. That was the same focus [last weekend].”

The season started off strong, with Pruett and Rojas teaming with fellow Chip Ganassi Racing driver Graham Rahal and BMW factory driver Joey Hand with victory at the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

The pair then went on to claim wins in the following two rounds at Homestead-Miami Speedway and Barber Motorsports park, triggering GRAND-AM to post a bounty to the first team that could derail the Ganassi freight-train.

While only took one race for Action Express Racing’s Terry Borcheller, Joao Barbosa and J.C. France to break through, Pruett and Rojas showed a level of consistency like no other team, having finished on the lead lap in all but one race this season.

With this fourth DP title now in the bag, Pruett also extended his margin as the winningest driver in Rolex Series’ history with 36 victories, all of them coming in a Ganassi Riley.

“Quite frankly, I never thought I’d still be winning championships at this point of my career,” Pruett said. “Going out there every weekend... The Good Lord has blessed me with having a longer career than I could have ever imagined.

“Every victory is sweet and this race [on Saturday] turned out a lot better than what we expected. Everybody just continued to work hard and dug deep to go out and finish big. We didn’t want to go out and just drive around. We wanted to finish in a big way.”

John Dagys is SPEED.com’s Sportscar Racing Reporter, focusing on all major domestic and international championships. You can follow him on Twitter @johndagys or email him at
john_dagys's avatar

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

John Dagys

MORE BY THIS AUTHOR
Advertising | Jobs | Feedback | FAQ | Terms of Use | NEW Privacy Policy | Ad Choices | Site Map
Fox Sports | FUEL TV | FX Network | National Geographic | IGN | AskMen
The Motor Sports Authority, SPEED and associated logos are registered trademarks of Speed Channel Inc.
All Rights Reserved © Speed Channel, Inc. 2012

All external links will open in a new browser window. SPEED.com does not endorse external sites.