Grand-Am, Watkins Glen – Race Report
Seven Up For Ganassi, Number One For Dempsey

Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas scored a dominating victory in Saturday's Crown Royal 200 at Watkins Glen International, tying the single-season Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series victory record with their seventh triumph of 2010.

Pruett beat Max Angelelli to the checkered flag by 2.722 seconds, averaging a Daytona Prototype record 120.679 mph in the two-hour race, which was slowed only by a pair of late-race cautions. Pruett managed to hold the lead on both restarts, leading the final 60 of the 99 circuits on the 2.45-mile Watkins Glen short course.

The victory extended Pruett and Rojas' lead to 26 points over Ryan Dalziel with only two races remaining in the Daytona Prototype championship (302-276). Dalziel finished fourth in the No. 8 Corsa Car Care BMW/Riley started by Mike Forest.

"Overall, the car was solid," said Pruett after scoring his sixth Glen victory. "We just seem to have a good setup for the Glen. The traffic was tough, and you could lose two seconds a lap, easily. We just tried to cut our way through traffic the best we could, run smart and run clean."

“It's a good result but I can't help but be disappointed with our weekend,” said Dalziel. “We struggled a little with our overall pace but as a team did a great job getting the Starworks car to the front. We will be looking forward to Montreal and getting the 75 lbs. off the Corsa Car Care machine. We know we had a great car prior to that penalty and we are not ready to give up our championship fight.  Fourth was a pretty lucky day for us but we work harder than any team in the paddock so we deserved that little bit of luck today”

Rojas led twice for nine laps after starting on the pole. Ricky Taylor took over in the No. 10 SunTrust Ford/Dallara and led 29 laps before turning the car over to Angelelli. Pruett took over the lead on an exchange of pit stops. Two GT cars split the leaders after Angelelli exited the pits, and he was unable to make up the distance.

"I think the team did just a fantastic job," said Wayne Taylor. "Ricky ran a perfect race. He started third, got the lead early on, and brought the car in in the lead. The team did a good job on the pit stops. But Max got so unlucky with traffic, it was ridiculous. Hats off to Chip Ganassi Racing, again. It was a good result with the podium. Points-wise it was a good day for us because we're fighting for second rather than the lead. Again, great race, good job by everybody. I can't wait for the next one."

Alex Gurney and Jon Fogarty finished third in the No. 99 GAINSCO Auto Insurance Chevrolet/Riley. The pair won seven races en route to capturing the 2007 DP title.

“We are pretty happy to be up here finishing third,” said Fogarty.  “We were back in fifth place for a while there when I lost a position at the start, but it’s pretty good to string a couple of podiums in a row together after the type of challenging season we have been having. 

"It was another strong performance for the GAINSCO team and we look forward to keeping it going for the rest of the year.”

The first caution came on lap 85 when Robin Liddell's No. 57 Stevenson Motorsports Camaro came to a stop after experiencing mechanical problems. On the restart, with 15 minutes remaining, Burt Frisselle's third-place No. 61 AIM Autosport Ford/Riley and the No. 59 Brumos Porsche/Riley David Donohue had contact entering Turn 1. Tracy Krohn was caught up in the incident in the No. 75 Krohn Racing Ford/Lola and came to a halt, bringing out a second caution.

“It was one of those days that we got so far behind,” said Krohn. “I said I would go ahead and finish the race. We made a little adjustment and when I got in the car, it was actually quite good. The track came to us. There was a little more rubber down on the track, a little cooler and the car got much better. My times reflected that. Then we had a yellow and I got hit from behind and that was it. Not a great day.”

Leh Keen passed Jonathan Bomarito for the GT lead following the final restart, and went on to score the first Rolex Series victory for Dempsey Racing in the No. 41 Dempsey Racing/Team Seattle Mazda RX-8 started by James Gue.

“It’s coming near to the end of the season, so we were running out of time to do it, but I just always knew we were going to get a win this season,” said Keen. “It just feels so great, and almost like we finally got the monkey off our backs, because we could have got a win before now. This was a tough race and we got the job done today and had a great car.”

Bomarito finished second in the No. 70 Castrol Syntec Mazda RX-8 started from the pole by Sylvain Tremblay, while Paul Edwards passed Jeff Segal for third in the closing laps. Edwards and starting driver Scott Russell both had to pit with tire problems on the No. 07 Banner Racing Corvette, while Segal and starting driver Emil Assentato had to come from ninth starting position in the No. 69 FXDD Mazda RX-8.

Segal and Assentato continue to lead the GT championship, although Tremblay cut the margin to four points (290-286), with Bomarito third with 267 points. Tremblay and Bomarito dominated the race, leading all but 10 of their 92 laps.

Only two races remain in the 2010 Rolex Series season: the Montreal 200 at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on Aug. 28; and the season-ending Utah 250 at Miller Motorsports Park near Salt Lake City on Sept. 11.