Gurney Holds Off Pruett in Another Fantastic Finish, Barber Victory Ties
Daytona Prototype Standings
Stevenson Pontiac Takes Second GT Victory of Season
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (July 19, 2009) - Alex Gurney held off Scott Pruett
in a 20-minute sprint to win Sunday's Porsche 250 presented by Legacy
Credit Union, tying the Daytona Prototype point standings with only four
races remaining in the 2009 Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series presented
by Crown Royal Cask No. 16 season.
In Acxiom GT competition, Andrew Davis and Robin Liddell scored their
second victory of the season in the No. 57 BryanMark Financial/Stevenson
Automotive Pontiac GXP.R.
Gurney won the team's series-leading third race of the season in the
No. 99 GAINSCO Pontiac Riley, started by polesitter Jon Fogarty. Gurney
won by .759 seconds over Scott Pruett, who took over from Memo Rojas in
the No. 01 TELMEX Lexus Riley. It was the sixth time in eight races the
margin of victory was less than one second.
"We didn't want to see that last yellow," Gurney admitted. "We had a
great strategy that kept us out front and our car was good enough to
win. So it was a great day. Scott drove really clean and it looked like
he was a little quicker, so I was really happy about that. I'm really
happy for everyone at GAINSCO and that we can fight it out these last
four races."
The closing laps encompassed a three-car fight, with Michael Valiante
able to pull alongside Pruett several times in the No. 6 Michael Shank
Racing Ford Riley started by John Pew. Valiante finished third, 1.261
seconds back.
"We weren't going for the points, we were going for the win," Pruett
said, with the TELMEX and GAINSCO teams tied with 231 points apiece. "It
was another great race for Grand-Am - it was close and a great race for
the fans. The points race is tied up again, and the race is on for the
championship."
Buddy Rice and Antonio Garcia finished fourth in the No. 09 AMA Pro
Racing Porsche Coyote, with Garcia leading two laps midway through the
race. Fifth went to Ricardo Zonta and Nic Jonsson in the No. 76 Krohn
Racing Ford Riley.
Two of the four leading championship contenders entering the event
experienced problems in the opening laps. Penske Racing entered the
event fourth, 17 points back, but Romain Dumas went slightly off course
moments after the drop of the green flag, which culminated in damage to
the front end of the No. 12 Verizon Wireless Porsche Riley. The team
lost three laps making repairs, and Dumas and Timo Bernhard went on to
finish 15th. They now have 198 points, 33 behind the leaders, while
Valiante took over fourth with 215 points.
"This was a weekend to forget," said Bernhard, who mentioned the Penske
crew worked until 3 a.m. Saturday after a practice crash destroyed the
bottom of the team's race car. "The crew worked very hard to fix the
car, but we could not get a good result to repay them for their hard
work."
SunTrust Racing drivers Brian Frisselle and Max Angelelli entered the
race one point behind Pruett and Rojas. Frisselle went off course and
was stuck in a gravel trap on Lap 3, bringing out the first caution
period. He lost four laps. The team was able to make up one lap but
finished 14th, and is now 16 points out of the lead with 215 points.
Following Frisselle's incident, the race ran caution free until the No.
30 Sahlen's/3Dimensional.com Mazda RX-8 of Dane Cameron stopped at Turn
9 entering the race's final half hour.
Fogarty led 48 laps and Gurney 41 as the GAINSCO duo led the most
laps at Barber for the third consecutive year, averaging 90.629 mph.
David Donohue led 13 laps in the No. 58 Brumos Porsche Riley before
contact with a GT car resulted in a cut tire and a 10th-place finish. In
addition to Garcia, other race leaders were Rojas (three laps), Valiante
(one) and Mark Wilkins (one).
Stevenson Pontiac Dominates Acxiom GT Battle
Stevenson Motorsports stretched the opening shifts for both Andrew Davis
and Robin Liddell, who had fresher tires in the stretch run en route to
the second victory of the Acxiom GT campaign.
Liddell won over SpeedSource's No. 70 Castrol Syntec Mazda RX-8 of Nick
Ham and Sylvain Tremblay. Paul Edwards and Kelly Collins took third
in the No. 07 Drinkin' Mate Pontiac GXP.R, followed by Joe Foster and
Charles Espenlaub, giving the No. 40 Dempsey Racing its best finish in
GT competition.
"Nick kept me honest in the closing laps, because he could match our
times." Liddell said. "But honestly, I knew we had it in the bag."
Liddell led 60 laps and Davis 14, while defending race co-winners Ham
and Tremblay led 14 and four laps respectively. The only other leader
was polesitter and point co-leader Leh Keen, who led the opening 11 laps
in the No. 87 Farnbacher Loles Racing Porsche GT3.
Keen and Dirk Werner placed fifth after winning the past three GT races
and four of the last five. They maintained their points lead over
Edwards and Collins, who closed to within 25 points with four events
remaining (247-222). Tremblay and Ham moved from fifth to third in the
standings with 211 points.
While race day temperatures reached 83 degrees, the weather was a far
cry from recent years. Last year's race was held in 103-degree heat.
The next action will be the Crown Royal 200, Friday, Aug. 7 at Watkins
Glen International, when the Grand-Am Rolex Series races in conjunction
with the NASCAR Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series.
-credit: grand-am
