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Qualifying report

Jon Fogarty qualify 8th in Monterey

Jon Fogarty and Alex Gurney ready to make a championship move Sunday at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca

#99 GAINSCO/ Bob Stallings Racing Corvette DP: Jon Fogarty, Alex Gurney

#99 GAINSCO/ Bob Stallings Racing Corvette DP: Jon Fogarty, Alex Gurney

Jeff Davidson

MONTEREY, Calif. (September 7, 2013) – GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing and driver Jon Fogarty qualified eighth Saturday at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and will take the green flag for tomorrow’s Continental Tire Sports Car Festival from the outside of row four in the No. 99 GAINSCO Auto Insurance® Corvette Daytona Prototype.

The 11th and next-to-last round of this year’s 12-race schedule, the featured Continental Tire Sports Car Festival GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series race can be seen live on FOX Sports 1 tomorrow, Sunday, September 8, at 5 p.m. EDT/2 p.m. PDT.

GAINSCO, Fogarty and Alex Gurney have finished no lower than second in the last three races at Laguna Seca, including back-to-back victories in 2009 and 2011 (GRAND-AM Road Racing did not run at Laguna Seca in 2010). Despite the unaccustomed eighth-place starting spot tomorrow, the GAINSCO team is optimistic for another strong showing on the 2.238-mile Monterey road course.

#99 GAINSCO/ Bob Stallings Racing Corvette DP: Jon Fogarty, Alex Gurney
#99 GAINSCO/ Bob Stallings Racing Corvette DP: Jon Fogarty, Alex Gurney

Photo by: Jeff Davidson

“Earlier in the day, we had the quickest car on the track, especially with tires with any wear on them,” said Team Owner Bob Stallings. “We were very, very fast. We made a couple of changes to fix one issue and we created another issue for ourselves but, honestly, we have a lot of experience at this track and my guess is that we will look at the track data and figure out where we need to improve. We are only a half a second off, it’s not like it is a second, so we can fix this.”

Fogarty turned his fastest time of 1:22.098 (98.136 mph) on his seventh of 10 laps in the 15 minute qualifying session. The lap trails the similar pole-winning Corvette Daytona Prototype of Richard Westbrook by just .541 of a second.

“It’s a narrow window here and we were relatively better earlier on in the day,” Fogarty said. “I think we may find some things in the qualifying data, simple things that will point us in the right direction come race time, and it is a long race. We will be better.”

The 2009 Laguna victory was one of four that season that helped GAINSCO win its second championship. The first Daytona Prototype title was earned in 2007, and Fogarty and Gurney are in contention for a third championship this season in the BobStallingsCars.com No. 99 GAINSCO “Red Dragon.”

Heading into tomorrow’s race, Gurney and Fogarty rank fourth in the Daytona Prototype championship standings with 265 points, just four markers behind leaders Jordan Taylor and Max Angelelli who have 269 points.

“We were pretty good this morning, but as the track got faster maybe we went a little bit the wrong way,” Gurney said. “We will figure it out overnight and I think we will be strong in the race.”

Race-day Sunday’s only GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series action is the featured Continental Tire Sports Car Festival timed 2-3/4-hour race that begins at 2 p.m. PDT.

Bob Stallings Racing

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