Photo by: Eric Gilbert
It’s a Chevrolet Double in Rolex Series at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve! Bowtie Brand Notches Victories in Both DP and GT Classes in Montreal
MONTREAL, Quebec, Canada (August 20, 2011) – Team Chevy had a stellar day at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve as Jon Fogarty and Alex Gurney drove the No. 99 GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing Chevrolet/Riley Daytona Prototype (DP) to their second victory of the 2011 Rolex Sports Car Series season after starting on the pole.
Gurney and Fogarty led 45 of 73 laps to win Saturday's Montreal 200 - one week after crashing out early in the early laps at Watkins Glen International. After running second for the opening 24 laps, Fogarty ran two strong laps before his pit stop. Gurney then held the lead after the exchange of pit stops, and was able to maintain the advantage throughout the remainder of the two-hour race.
Following the “Red Dragon” with Gurney behind the wheel to the checkered flag was Max Angelelli in the cockpit of the No. 10 SunTrust Racing Chevrolet Dallara. The runner-up finish pulled Angelelli and his teammate Ricky Taylor to just 20 points of the leader in both DP team and driver points with one race remaining in the season.
The win kept the No. 99 GAINSCO Chevy team solidly third in the standings heading to Mid Ohio Sports Car Course for the season finale on September 16-17, 2011
“It was the best car we have had all year” said Gurney.”I don’t know what to say. We rolled off quick. Jon did an awesome job in qualifying and I knew with that kind of a gap, we should win the race. Gosh, just really happy. We have been trying so hard to win here at Montreal for the last five years or so. We’ve led a lot of races but now we finally got it done. This is awesome. This is what we try so hard to do. Everybody was so focused this weekend and upset by not being able to capitalize last weekend. With only two races to go, we knew we had to come in here and win. Now we go to Mid Ohio.”
The No. 90 Spirit of Daytona Chevrolet Coyote was fourth in Rolex DP at the finish line, their best finish of the season.
Adding to the Chevrolet Victory Lane celebration in Montreal were Robin Liddell and Ronnie Bremer who captured the season’s second Grand Touring (GT) win for the No. 57 Stevenson Camaro GT.R team. It was Liddell at the wheel who fought off a challenge on the last lap to take the checkered flag.
“We had to work very hard for today,” said Liddell. “The car was good. Ronnie did a great first stint going to the lead on the first lap and never gave the lead up. The car was good! We had a car to win last week, but unfortunately we had some mechanical issues. This week we got the result. It seems like we should had so many more top step of the podium finishes this year. It just hasn’t worked out. It is just nice to get up there in the last couple of races and show we can do it. I felt reasonably comfortable with the rhythm I was in to keep everyone behind me. I thought we had a slightly quicker car.”
As a result of today’s performance, Chevrolet unofficially now leads the engine manufacturer standings in DP by two points. And, the Bowtie brand sits just one point out of the top spot in GT.
“It was an awesome day in Montreal,’ said Jim Lutz, Grand-Am Program Manager, GM Racing. “We had Chevys in first, second and fourth just as they qualified. In GT it is tremendous that the Stevenson GT.R Camaro team was able to score another win. They have had a tough season with a lot of things going wrong, but, they ran a flawless race and were able to battle to maintain the lead on the last lap following the restart and a hard charge from the competition.”
“So going into Mid Ohio, in DP the manufacturers’ championship will be on the line as well as in GT. Plus the GT driver’s and team championship will be determined there as well. Autohaus Motorsports and drivers Bill Lester and Jordan Taylor have a three point lead heading into the season finale. It will be an exciting final weekend for Chevrolet in Grand-Am.”
Other Chevrolet finishers in Rolex GT were: No. 07 Banner Racing Camaro GT.R eighth in class; No. 88 Autohaus Motorsports Camaro GT.R ninth in class and No. 31 Marsh Racing Corvette was 14th in class at the checkered.
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