Grand-Am, Lime Rock Park - Report
A Memorable Memorial Day For SunTrust & Stevenson

Qualifying

Returning to the scene of his lone Rolex Series victory, Ricky Taylor ran a lap of 49.583 seconds to earn his first Daytona Prototype pole position of the season in the #10 SunTrust Chevrolet/Dallara in Monday's qualifying session at Lime Rock Park; held in sunny and steamy conditions, after opening practice was held in the rain.

Paul Edwards was second fastest with a lap of 49.646 seconds, ending a streak of two consecutive pole positions for the #90 Spirit of Daytona Chevrolet/Coyote. Memo Rojas finished third quickest with a lap of 50.155 in the #01 TELMEX BMW/Riley.

"It was tough," said Taylor, who earned his third career pole position. "With this limited dry running, we didn't know exactly where the car was going to be, but the car was awesome. I even afforded to make a little mistake in Turn 3 and then the chicane. The car is just so good. I'm looking forward to the race.
 
"There's no doubt we have the speed," Taylor added. "We have the fastest car, it's just a matter of putting the race together. Getting through traffic, I think, is going to be the main thing. We can't be rubbing doors with those GT cars. We've just got to control the race from the front."

In GT qualifying, Robin Liddell earned his second career pole with a lap of 55.351 seconds . It was the third pole position of the season for the #57 Stevenson Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro, with Jan Magnussen leading qualifying at Homestead-Miami Speedway and Virginia International Raceway.

"It was quite tricky because of the fact that we've had very little running time this morning," said Liddell, whose lone prior pole was at Infineon Raceway in 2006. "We just had to go out and basically run with what we had and, in the end, that was good enough. We've just got to not shoot ourselves in the foot like we seem to have been doing for the first four races. We've got a good car. We've just got to stay focused."

Boris Said was second in GT with a lap of 55.402 in the #31 Whelen Engineering Corvette, followed by Bill Auberlen, 55.556 in the #94 Turner Motorsport BMW M-3.

Race

Dusting off the script from a year ago, Max Angelelli and Ricky Taylor won the Memorial Day Classic at Lime Rock Park while Daytona Prototype championship leaders Memo Rojas and Scott Pruett struggled after an incident early in the race.

Starting from pole, Taylor led the opening 46 laps before the driver change. Angelelli didn't miss a beat, leading twice for 107 laps - including the final 57, as the team led all but 30 of the 183 circuits.

"It's a lot easier to race without the 01 around," said Angelelli. "They are on another planet. We can enjoy ourselves and you can see different winners."

"It's Lime Rock - of course I had plenty of close calls," said Taylor. "It's just part of the great short track racing here."

Ozz Negri finished second, 26.026 seconds behind, joining John Pew in the best finish of the season for Michael Shank Racing's #60 Crown Royal XR Ford/Riley. Ryan Dalziel and Mike Forest took their second podium finish of the year, taking third in the #8 Starworks Motorsport Ford/Riley.

For the second straight year, Rojas had an off-course excursion that damaged the #01 TELMEX BMW/Riley. While the damage was not as severe as 2010's first-lap incident, the team lost eight laps replacing the splitter and fell to ninth position. This prompted a mea culpa from the Mexican; "It was an attempt to pass on a tough track to pass. Probably too risky of a move. I apologized to my team. I should not have risked that much that early on." Pruett managed to make up a lap and regain two positions - turning the fastest lap of the race in the process. They now have a 21-point lead in the DP standings over sixth-place finishers JC France, Terry Borcheller and Joao Barbosa (161-140), with Taylor and Angelelli one point back in third.

Spirit of Daytona Racing ran in the top three for the bulk of the two-hour, 45-minute event, with both Paul Edwards and Antonio Garcia leading a combined 26 laps in the #90 Chevrolet/Coyote. 

However, the team retired in the final half hour with broken shift linkage.

The GT race also went to the pole-winning car, with Robin Liddell and Jan Magnussen claiming the first victory of the season for the #57 Stevenson Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro. The pair combined to lead 107 laps, with Magnussen pacing the final 79 circuits.

Among its winnings, the team claimed a $25,000 Horsepower Award bonus posted by Continental Tire.

“Everything just went our way today,” said an emotional Liddell. “I want to say thanks to the guys for persevering as hard as they have, and to Stevenson Motorsports and Chevrolet for all of their support. This is a very emotional day for me because my Dad passed away three weeks ago, so more than anything, I just want to dedicate this to him.”

“This weekend just came together for us from the beginning,” added Magnussen. “We had a good car in the wet and the dry. In the race, we made no mistakes. We just kept pushing. It just doesn’t make sense sometimes why we win races and why we lose them. We’ve been in this position many times, this time we just put it together. I am so happy for Robin and so happy for the team.”

Coming off their first GT victory in the most recent race at Virginia International Raceway, Jordan Taylor and Bill Lester finished second in the #88 Autohaus Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro. 

Leh Keen and Andrew Davis finished third in the #59 Brumos Porsche 911 GT3 Cup.

Bill Auberlen and Paul Dalla Lana retained the GT point after finishing sixth in the #94 Turner Motorsport BMW M3 - also driven by Joey Hand. Lester and Taylor moved up to second, eight points behind (141-133), with fourth-place finishers Dane Cameron and James Gue in the #41 Dempsey Racing Mazda RX-8 another five points back Boris Said and Eric Curran had their best outing of the season in the #31 Whelen Engineering Corvette. Said led for 62 laps in the early going for Marsh Racing, the lone Connecticut-based team in the Rolex Series.

There was just one caution period in the race, lasting for five laps.

The next race takes place this weekend at Watkins Glen.