Miller Motorsports Park Grand Am - Race Report

Ganassi Wins Again - Liddell Leads Home a Stevenson Camaro 1-2 Sweep In GT

The 2010 Grand Am season ended under perfect weather conditions at Miller Motorsports Park. The way the season has gone, it should be no surprise that Ganassi Racing won again, making this their record breaking 9th win in the course of the 12 race season. Memo Rojas started and Scott Pruett finished it off, as the team swept all of the possible championships in the DP category.

At the start, Rojas led, but on the second lap, Ricky Taylor pushed the Suntrust Ford Dallara into the lead and simply pulled away. At their first stop, 41 minutes into the 2 hour, 45 minute race, the team put Max Angelelli into the car to close out the win. He built the lead to around 20 seconds, but about 90 minutes into the race a yellow wiped away the lead.

On the race out of the pits, the Suntrust car came out 3rd best, as a clutch issue caused a momentary bobble on leaving the pit stall. This opened the door for Ganassi and Gainsco to jump ahead, and that was effectively the race. Despite two late yellows that bunched the field, there were no changes at the front, and Pruett simply motored away to an almost 2 second win over Jon Fogarty and Alex Gurney in the Gainsco Riley.

"It's been unbelievable," said Pruett. “It's been a great season for us. Even when we haven't had the fastest car we've been able to come up with a great result. It's just been one of those dream seasons."

It was Pruett's 3rd DP title; he also won in 2004 with Max Papis and 2008 with Rojas, and the 4th for Ganassi, who also took the 2006 team crown. In the season long points chases, it was Suntrust in the runner up spot, followed by Gainsco.

In the GT Category, it was a Stevenson 1-2, as Andrew Davis and Robin Liddell led home a Stevenson Camaro 1-2. For Robin, this partially pays him back for what happened last year at this track when he was taken out of the lead very late in the race by the then second place running Farnbacher-Loles Porsche. “It was tough out there, but we made it. The car was good early in the stint, but the tires went away later on. Thankfully Jan (Magnussen) was back behind me, being a god team mate. It’s been a difficult season for us, and it’s great to get Stevenson Motorsports back on the top step of the podium.”

Early on, it was the Marsh Racing Corvette leading class, but it retired with suspension issues a bit past the half way mark.

In the season championship, it was Emil Assentato and Jeff Segal winning the drivers championship for SpeedSource, over team owner Sylvain Tremblay.

In the late race, the 2 and a half hour Continental Challenge race was won by Matt Plumb and Nick Longhi in the GS class Rum Bum Racing BMW. They narrowly held of a hard charging Billy Johnson in the Roush Racing Ford Mustang. The last part of the race featured a 3 lap shoot out, in which Johnson closed tight on the tail of the BMW at times, but was just not able to make a pass.

Winning ST was Ian Bass and Aaron Povoledo in an APR Motorsport Volkswagen GTI, just holding off the RSR Motorsports Mini Cooper.

The season long GS Class championship went to Charles Espenlaub and Charlie Putman in their Fall-Line Motorsports BMW M3. Lawson aschenbach and David Thilenius claimed the ST Championship in their Honda Civic Si for Compass360 Racing.

The Miller round of the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge featured a 54 car grid. The GS grid included the following types of cars: Camaro, BMW M3, Mustang (GT and Boss 302), Dodge Challenger, Subaru WRX-STI, Porsche (Cayman, 997 and Carrera). ST included Honda Civic, BMW (330i and 328), Mazda (MX-5 and Speed #3), Kia, Mini, Volkswagen and Porsche (Boxster).