Grand-Am - Montreal 400 – Entry And Preview
18 Of Each

It’s a Friday race this week, starting at 16.15 local time, and several features of this event make it a unique one in the 2007 Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Special Reserve.

The DPs and GTs are racing together for the first time since the start of last month (Daytona), and they’re racing on the F1 track at Montreal for the first time too – supporting the Busch race on Saturday. It’s only August 1 (today), but already this is the penultimate GT event of the 2007 season, which ends on September 15 at Miller Motorsports Park.

The DPs have three more races (stand-alone events, obviously, at Watkins Glen and Infineon Raceway – then the finale at Utah), but with this combined one between the walls in Canada, and then nine hours (sorry - the last race has a seven and a half hour limit now ) to finish off the season, finishes, in both classes, are going to be everything.

Uniquely, this season, there’s a Multimatic in the field – to comply with the rules for 2008.

DP Points
Scott Pruett 298
Max Angelelli 287
Alex Gurney / Jon Fogarty 285
Memo Rojas 273
Colin Braun 269
Max Papis 259
David Donohue / Darren Law 246
Patrick Long / Jorg Bergmeister 233
Oswaldo Negri Jr / Mark Patterson 227
Ian James 227
Nic Jonsson / Rob Finlay 205

GT Points
Dirk Werner 313
Kelly Collins / Paul Edwards 307
RJ Valentine / Andy Lally 305
Bryce Miller 301
Sylvain Tremblay 292
Nick Ham 283
Tim Lewis Jr / Leighton Reese 275
Carlos de Quesada / Jean-Francois Dumoulin 236
Emil Assentato 228
Greg Wilkins 215
Eric Lux 213
Wolf Henzler 201

In each class, the points seem to prove that you can do it either with consistency or by taking wins. Pruett, Angelelli, Werner and Collins / Edwards have done it largely on consistency (two for Pruett, just one for all the rest), while sitting in third in both tables are the multiple race winners – four for Lally / Valentine, five for Fogarty / Gurney.

Andy Lally and RJ Valentine have just an eight point margin to close up, so two wins ought to be enough to take the title – as long as Werner doesn’t finish second twice. Gurney and Fogarty are a little further adrift, but if they maintain current form, and there’s no reason to think that they won’t…..

Colin Braun is 29 points adrift, and remarkably he hasn’t won yet, but if he can start a winning streak, with Nic Jonsson, perhaps the youngster could do it after all – and correct the unfairness of 2006 too.

"This will be a pressure cooker weekend for me running in two series in two days in front of the home crowd," says Patrick Carpentier – who is obviously in the Busch race on Saturday. “The two races in two days gives me a lot of track time, but I am also here for the fun of racing. If something positive comes out of it, it will be great."

Qualifying is on Friday morning, so the pressure will really be on to firstly have nothing go wrong as raceday gets underway.

Besides Carpentier and Lally (the latter mentioned last week on dsc), Max Papis, Nic Jonsson, Scott Pruett and Michael Valiante are also involved in the Busch race.

Is Montreal going to see one of those ‘safety car races’, or will caution (or lack of cautions) be the watchword?

Entry List
01 DP TELMEX Chip Ganassi with Felix Sabates Scott Pruett / Memo Rojas Riley Lexus
3 DP Southard Motorsports Shane Lewis / Randy Ruhlman Riley Lexus
05 DP Sigalsport BMW Bill Auberlen / Matthew Alhadeff / Joey Hand Riley BMW
6 DP Michael Shank Racing John Pew / Ian James Riley Lexus
10 DP SunTrust Racing Max Angelelli / Wayne Taylor / Jan Magnussen Riley Pontiac
11 DP SAMAX Patrick Carpentier / Kris Szekeres Riley Pontiac
19 DP Chip Ganassi with Felix Sabates Rob Finlay / Michael Valiante Riley Lexus
23 DP Alex Job Racing Patrick Long / Jorg Bergmeister Crawford Porsche
39 DP Cheever Racing Christian Fittipaldi / Harrison Brix Fabcar Pontiac
55 DP Multimatic Motorsports Scott Maxwell / Gunnar Jeannette Multimatic Ford
58 DP Red Bull/ Brumos Porsche David Donohue / Darren Law Riley Porsche
59 DP Brumos Porsche/ Kendall Hurley Haywood / JC France Riley Porsche
60 DP Michael Shank Racing Mark Patterson / Oswaldo Negri Riley Lexus
61 DP AIM Autosport Mark Wilkins / Burt Frisselle / Brian Frisselle Riley Lexus
75 DP Krohn Racing Colin Braun / Nic Jonsson Riley Pontiac
76 DP Krohn Racing Tracy Krohn / Max Papis Riley Pontiac
91 DP Lowe's Riley-Matthews Motorsports Jim Matthews / Marc Goossens Riley Pontiac
99 DP Gainsco/ Bob Stallings Racing Alex Gurney / Jon Fogarty Riley Pontiac
03 GT Georgian Bay Motorsports Eric Curran / Jamie Holtom Corvette
06 GT Banner Racing Leighton Reese / Tim Lewis Jr. Pontiac GXP.R
07 GT Banner Racing Pontiac Paul Edwards / Kelly Collins GXP.R
15 GT Blackforest Motorsports Tom Nastasi / Terry Borcheller Mustang Cobra GT
17 GT Doncaster Racing Greg Wilkins / Dave Lacey Porsche GT3 Cup
21 GT Matt Connolly Motorsports Matt Connolly / Hal Prewitt / Shawn Price Pontiac GTO.R
22 GT Alegra Motorsports Carlos De Quesada / Jean-Francois Dumoulin Porsche GT3 Cup
27 GT O’Connell Racing Kevin O’Connell / Mike Speakman Porsche GT3 Cup
30 GT Racers Edge Motorsports Eric Lux / TBA Pontiac GXP.R
42 GT Team Sahlen Joe Sahlen / Will Nonnamaker Corvette
43 GT Team Sahlen Wayne Nonnamaker / Joe Nonnamaker Corvette
66 GT TRG Andy Lally / RJ Valentine Porsche GT3 Cup
67 GT TRG Scott Tucker / Ed Zabinski Porsche GT3 Cup
69 GT SpeedSource Emil Assentato / Nick Longhi Mazda RX-8
70 GT SpeedSource Sylvain Tremblay / Nick Ham Mazda RX-8
81 GT Synergy Racing Steve Johnson / Andrew Davis Porsche GT3 Cup
85 GT Farnbacher Loles Motorsports Dominik Farnbacher / Leh Keen Porsche GT3 Cup
87 GT Farnbacher Loles Motorsports Bryce Miller / Dirk Werner Porsche GT3 Cup