Grand-Am, Barber Motorsports Park – Race Report
Westbrook & Garcia Invoke The Spirit Of Daytona

It was a day of firsts in the Porsche 250: the first victory for the Corvette DP, the first DP triumph for Spirit of Daytona and Richard Westbrook followed up his first pole on Friday with his first DP victory. Antonio Garcia, who gave Spirit of Daytona its first DP pole at Barber last year, got his second career Rolex Series victory. The team led 84 laps, with Garcia prevailing in a three-lap sprint to the chequered flag after a late-race caution.

Sylvain Tremblay and Jonathan Bomarito lapped the GT field in the No.70 SpeedSource Mazda RX-8, denying the #69 AIM Autosport Team FXDD drivers Emil Assentato and Jeff Segal from giving the new Ferrari 458 Italia Grand Am its first victory.

Qualifying

Richard Westbrook saved his best for last in qualifying, capturing his first career Grand-Am Rolex Series pole on his final lap on Friday morning.

Westbrook's last lap of 1:21.420 in the #90 Spirit of Daytona Racing Corvette DP supplanted Jon Fogarty and brought the new Corvette DP program its first Rolex Series pole position. In fact, Corvette DPs swept the top-three positions in qualifying.

"[The Corvette DP] is an absolute joy to drive," said Westbrook. "The aero on the car is absolutely unbelievable. It's still a very new car and it's going to get better.

"The competition here is very, very strong, there's a lot of quality. I'm new to this format and I've got a lot to learn, but it's a good place to start, that's for sure."

Fogarty was looking to add to his Rolex Series-leading 19 career poles in the #99 GAINSCO Auto Insurance Corvette DP with a lap of 1:21.494 but wound up second. David Donohue would start third in the #5 Action Express Racing Corvette DP with a best lap of 1:22.379.

Paul Edwards nearly missed GT qualifying after crashing the #88 Autohaus Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro GT.R during morning practice. However, his team was able to repair the front-end damage, allowing him to participate in qualifying - where he made it up to the team by winning his eighth career pole with a lap of 1:30.762.

Emil Assentato joined Edwards on the GT front row after a lap of 1:30.985 in the #69 FXDD Ferrari 458 Italia Grand Am. It was Assentato's first Rolex Series front-row start.

Race

After more than seven years of trying, everything came together for Spirit of Daytona in a near-perfect day at Barber Motorsports Park. Richard Westbrook and Antonio Garcia combined to lead all but 19 of the 103 laps to win the Porsche 250 in the #90 Spirit of Daytona Corvette DP - the first Daytona Prototype victory for the team and the first victory for the new car in Grand-Am Rolex Series competition.

Garcia was leading by 32 seconds when a late-race caution period set up a three-lap sprint to the finish. It was no problem for the Spanish driver, who beat Alex Gurney to the chequered flag by 2.326 seconds.

"The car felt great all weekend, particularly in race trim," said Westbrook, who followed up his first career pole with his first triumph in the series. He led the opening 33 laps.

"The most important thing was to bring home the first victory for the Corvette DP," added Garcia, who led twice for 51 of the 103 laps. His only prior Rolex Series victory was in the 2009 Rolex 24 At Daytona.

Gurney, driving the #99 GAINSCO Auto Insurance Corvette DP, held off Scott Pruett over the closing laps to take second. Pruett had gambled on pitting for tyres during the final caution period. It paid off, as he gained two positions and was closing on Gurney's car during the three-lap sprint to the flag. "Tough day, tough weekend,” was how Pruett summed it up. “We did what we could. It was exciting to see the 90 car get to Victory Lane. Now we'll try to make things better for Miami."

"Spirit of Daytona has a magic sauce here, based on what they've done here the last few years," said Gurney. "We tried real hard to find out their secret, but we're only about halfway there."

A year ago, Spirit of Daytona won its first DP pole at Barber and led a race-high 50 laps before being slowed by an electrical problem late in the event.

The Starworks Riley Ford of Ryan Dalziel and Enzo Potolicchio finished fourth, despite an embarrassing incident near the start of the race that saw the two Starworks cars collide.

“It was a weekend to think about the points,” said Dalziel. “We knew that Barber was going to be challenging for us, since Grand Am are still working through balancing the 2012 Daytona Prototype bodies, and the Riley chassis clearly has less downforce than the new Corvette bodies, so our outright pace wasn’t there.

“We went into point-scoring mode and it worked out for us. We took home a solid fourth place finish, but more importantly we took over the DP points lead heading into Starworks Motorsport home event at Miami Speedway in four weeks.

“It’s great to be leading the FIA WEC P2 points and the Grand-Am Daytona Prototype standings at the same time.

David Donohue qualified the #5 Action Express Racing Corvette DP in third and was running with the leaders throughout his shift. Shortly after Darren Law took over, contact with Max Angelelli in the #10 SunTrust Corvette DP sent the Action Express team to the garage for lengthy repairs.

Rolex 24 At Daytona winners Ozz Negri and John Pew lost several laps after Negri took to the grass to avoid a spinning GT car. The MSR Riley Ford suffered a violent deceleration as the car dug in to the wet soil, but amazingly both car and driver were able to continue. They went on to finish eighth.

SpeedSource teammate Sylvain Tremblay and Jonathan Bomarito won in GT by a full lap in the #70 Mazdaspeed Mazda RX-8, with Bomarito leading the final 70 circuits. Jeff Segal finished second in the #69 AIM Autosport Team FXDD Ferrari 458 Italia Grand Am started by Emil Assentato, followed by Leh Keen and Andrew Davis in the #59 Brumos Racing Porsche GT3.

“The guys did an amazing job today,” said a happy Bomarito. “They really had to make some good calls for us to have any chance of winning this weekend and they did! Hats off to everyone involved.”

“This win is all the crew, with great pit stops and flawless strategy; we truly beat much faster cars because of this fantastic team,” said Tremblay.

"I feel great. The car was running perfectly and it was very smooth - no surprises,” said Assentato. “It was fantastic to lead a lap - that was my first pass for the lead in GT. I would have liked to have led more but we had no fuel left and I had to come in."

Magnus Racing lost a brand-new engine in Thursday's opening practice session - and switched to the powerplant that carried the team to its first victory in January's Rolex 24 At Daytona. Andy Lally led four laps and joined John Potter in a fourth-place finish to maintain the lead in the championship.

The new #51 APR Audi R8 GRAND-AM was qualified seventh by Dion von Moltke, but was sent to the back of the grid for a ride-height violation due to a bolt being too low on the splitter. Dr. Jim Norman started the car, and went on to join von Moltke in an 11th-place finish.

The race saw four caution periods that covered 17 laps in total.

Race highlights:

Points after Barber (unofficial):

DP: Enzo Potolicchio/Ryan Dalziel, 60; Antonio Garcia/Richard Westbrook and John Pew/Ozz Negri, 58.
GT: Andy Lally/John Potter, 63; Leh Keen/Andrew Davis and Jonathan Bomarito/Sylvain Tremblay, 60.