Grand-Am, Miller Motorsports Park – Preview
Still Much To Play For The 2008 Rolex Sportscar Series concludes this Saturday, with the SunRichGourmet.com 1000 at Miller Motorsports Park in Utah. As the name suggests, this is a 1,000 kilometres, or seven-hour, race and there are still several titles still up for grabs. The one title that has definitely been settled is the Daytona Prototype team championship, with the #01 Chip Ganassi/TELMEX Lexus Riley having clinched that one at New Jersey at the end of August. There is still, however, the technicality of Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas having to complete 30 minutes of racing each before they can both be crowned as the drivers champions - you probably wouldn’t want to be the one going second, though. In reality, the only championship fight in DP is for third place; and there are still several teams that can achieve this. However, despite the absence of championship drama, the presence of several well-qualified ringers in various cars indicates that the DP field is taking the finale very seriously indeed. Ryan Hunter-Reay joins Jim Matthews and Marc Goossens in the # 91 Pontiac Riley, to recreate the line-up that won this race in 2007; AIM Autosport, winners of two of the last three races, adds 2002 Champ Car champ Cristiano da Matta to the Mark Wilkins and Brian Frisselle line-up of the # 61 Ford Riley; Brumos adds 2004 Indianapolis 500 winner Buddy Rice to the # 58 and five-time Rolex 24 winner Hurley Haywood to the #59; Michael Shank Racing’s John Pew and Ian James will be joined by recently crowned IRL Firestone Indy Lights champion Raphael Matos in the #6, while Ryan Dalziel co-drives the # 60 Ford Riley alongside Oswaldo Negri and mark Patterson; Jimmy Vasser rejoins the No. 99 GAINSCO/Bob Stalling Racing entry of Jon Fogarty and Alex Gurney; and Alex Lloyd, the 2007 IRL Firestone Indy Lights champ, will co-drive the #01 TELMEX Lexus Riley. This is also the last opportunity for several teams to grab that so-elusive first win of the year. The real title action takes place in the GT category, with three cars still in with a chance of the title. The momentum after New Jersey appears to lie with the #57 Stevenson Motorsports Pontiac GXP.R of Andrew Davis and Robin Liddell, but they still trail long-time leaders Kelly Collins and Paul Edwards (#07 Banner Racing Pontiac GXP.R) by six points going into the last race. Nick Ham and Sylvain Tremblay, meanwhile, dropped to third, 13 points behind the leaders, after a disastrous last outing. All three are multiple race-winners in 2008, but each will also face a fierce challenge from cars outside of this trio. Both TRG and Farnbacher Loles Racing bring three Porsche GT3s to the field of combat, and both teams have drafted in extra-muscle to beef up their challenge; Bryan Sellers and Pat Long for TRG; Dirk Werner and Wolf Henzler for Farnbacher Loles. One intriguing entry is the LevelFive Motorsports Ferrari 430 Challenge, driven by Scott Tucker, Ed Zabinski and………Christophe Bouchut; the Frenchman unlikely to take any prisoners in the Utah heat. Qualifying takes place on Friday afternoon, with the race scheduled to begin at 11.08am local time on Saturday. | 
