Grand-Am, Homestead - Race Report
A Hard-Fought Win For Pruett & Rojas

Memo Rojas and Scott Pruett followed up their victory at the Rolex 24 with another win – their fifth in a row – in the #01 Chip Ganassi/TELMEX BMW/Riley. They had to fight for it, though, with the victory not being secured until the final few laps of a race that was all about grip.

A stiff breeze and temperatures in the low 80s greeted the split grid as the DP and GT fields made their way round the pace lap. As the pace car peeled off, however, the two pole-setters - Jon Fogarty in DP and Jan Magnussen in GT - held on to their leads in assertive fashion on the dive down onto the infield portion of the circuit.

Memo Rojas was on the tail of the Red Dragon in the #01 Chip Ganassi Riley, but the advantage Fogarty had given himself at the start meant that it would be several laps before the blue and white car was really pressuring the #99.

By this time, Brian Frisselle in the #77 Doran Racing Dallara had deposed both Ricky Taylor and Paul Edwards to put his car into third place.

Mark Blundell made a great start in the #23 United Autosports/MSR Riley, taking two places on the opening lap, and then taking two more after a dozen laps. However, his progress was overshadowed by the action at the front of the field, which saw Rojas reel in Fogarty and then pass on the banking on lap 13 after an intense duel around the infield.

It was clear at this point that whatever grip the red car had had at the start was already long gone, and now Frisselle fancied his chances. Indeed, the Dallara took second on lap 17.

Things were less dramatic in GT, with the Dane holding his lead quite comfortably in the #57 Stevenson Camaro from the #31 Corvette of Boris Said. The main progress in the class appeared to be being made by Andrew Davis, who was up to seventh from 12th after 18 laps in the #59 Brumos Porsche. 

The first round of scheduled stops was by now underway, with several of the lower-placed DPs having already stopped. 
On lap 22, however, two yellow flags were being held above the start/finish line and we had our first full course yellow of the race. Blundell had just moved up to third at the expense of Fogarty, with the #99 looking almost undriveable at this point on what remained of the car's Continental rubber.

The caution period was caused either by the #'67 TRG Porsche, which had just seen a tyre explode, or by oil dropped from a very smokey Mazda – an errant oil-line being the culprit - while in the care of Patrick Dempsey.

As the remaining cars made their stops under caution, Kevin Doran swapped his drivers, which meant that Henri Richard resumed in 12th while Blundell was now second.

On the restart, however, it was Ricky Taylor leading in the #10 SunTrust Dallara, while Rojas was only fifth. Alex Gurney was now in the #99 and sixth.

The first lap was a real melee with several position changes, but a coming together with Richard's DP and the #41 Dempsey Mazda ended with the #77 hitting the concrete on the banking and incurring significant right-hand damage. 

Inevitably, a caution was thrown instantly, but Brian Frisselle's earlier hard work had come to naught; "It’s really disappointing for the Office Depot guys--we were really fast today and I think we had exactly the right strategy for today,” said Frisselle. “I was taking it as easy as I could on the tires, and we were just walking from the rest of the field. It's just unfortunate to have such a strong car and not have the chance to bring the result home that we were capable of today."

The second restart saw Blundell heading a train of cars as he defended from Rojas. One lap later, Rojas pushed Blundell wide in the infield and the #23 dropped several places. Gurney, meanwhile, was keen to retake the lead from his great rival. On the pitwall, a furious Michael Shank instructed Michael Valiante to "go get them" when he took over from Blundell.

The Stevenson Camaro had lost the lead during the driver change at the first caution, but Robin Liddell had fought back to second soon after the second restart. Ahead of him was his friend and rival Bill Auberlen in the #94 Turner BMW and a great fight was in prospect.

Rojas' aggression was swiftly punished, however, as the #01 was forced to serve a drive-through and dropped to tenth.

While Rojas recovered from this set-back and made progress, Blundell looked to be in trouble - had the #23 suffered damage in the incident? Apparently not - the car's sudden tumble down the timing screens indicating nothing more than a driver change.

“I was very conscious of looking after the tires at the beginning of the race,” said the British driver. “The team did a great job on my first pit-stop to get me back out in second place. After the second caution, I didn’t have as much grip as I’d have liked due to the tire’s heat cycle and so was under pressure from the #01 car when the race went green. But I believe I defended fairly and he [Rojas] didn’t need to knock me off the track – the incident was totally unnecessary. It cost us time and it cost us a lot of track position.”

After 45 laps, Taylor held a two-second lead over Gurney and Ryan Dalziel in the #8 Starworks Riley. Oz Negri was fourth in the #60 MSR Riley, while Alex Popow was going well in fifth in the #5 Starworks car. Auberlen still led Liddell in GT, with Memo Gidley third in the #42 Team Sahlen Mazda.

With just over 90 minutes remaining, the lead changed for the second time as Dalziel forced his way round the outside of Taylor in the infield on lap 50. Negri had also got by Gurney and now followed the Scot through into second. Taylor was now dropping back, but Popow got too excited at the prospect of passing the Dallara and spun. When he sorted himself out, the Venezuelan found his mirrors full of Rojas's Riley; and on lap 56 the #01 passed both the Starworks car and also the #99 for the second time. Two laps later, Rojas took third from Terry Borcheller in the #60 Action Express Riley and was just five seconds from the lead.

In GT, it was clear that the #94 M3 was working its tyres better than the opposition and Auberlen had extended his class lead to 15 seconds.

The SunTrust team had a scare when Ricky Taylor brushed the wall shortly before his stint was up, but Max Angelelli soon demonstrated that the car was still in good shape by immediately lapping in the 1:15s and threatening to set a new fastest race lap. The call soon went out from the team to "slow it down" and conserve the tyres.

On lap 61, Dalziel headed for pitlane and the next car through was.....the #01; Rojas was now back in the lead.

With the race now well into its second half, Craig Stanton had hauled the #44 Magnus Racing Porsche up into third place in GT; albeit 13 seconds behind Liddell and 34 behind Auberlen. He was faring better than Leh Keen in the Brumos car, however, whose progress was slow and painful - only ninth in class after 64 laps.

On lap 70, Rojas made his second stop and Borcheller now led by ten seconds from Dalziel. This was not destined to last long as the #9's lack of grip was costing it four seconds a lap to the Starworks car. Scott Pruett was now aboard the Ganassi car and in fourth place behind Angelelli. This became third when Borcheller pitted two laps later.

Dalziel's day was about to be abruptly curtailed, alas, when a punctured radiator meant that his next pitstop would see the #8 Riley pushed away.

“Well we couldn’t have had a better strategy to get the win today but it wasn’t to be,” reflected Dalziel.  “We expected good things knowing we had plenty of tires to work with over the competition.  It’s nobody’s fault but sadly the piece of tire debris was a one in a million shot to punch the radiator where it did and end our day.  The win was definitely there for us; we’ll stay positive knowing that and move on!”

Disaster also for the #9 Action Express Riley, after they were assessed a 30-seconds stop/go for running over an air hose at the stop.

With just over three quarters of an hour remaining, a caution was called for debris and Pruett snatched the advantage back when the #01 left without taking on fuel and pipped Angelelli to the infield.

At the restart, Negri led from Valiante for an MSR 1-2. Angelelli and Pruett were side-by-side into T1 and the Italian very briefly took third, but Pruett reacted immediately and retook the place.

Next time around Negri dropped to fourth, leaving Valiante leading from Pruett; and after the earlier incident the #23 was not going to let the #01 by without a fight.

But just as Pruett seemed primed to make a move, the race went yellow again following a clash between Negri and the Spirit of Daytona Coyote of Antonio Garcia that left the Spaniard out of the race and very angry – a clear indication of where this normally calm driver felt blame lay. Negri was subsequently given a drive-through for his part in the incident.

As the Coyote was recovered, Michael Shank estimated that Valiante would have to hold out for ten laps before the grip levels on his and Pruett’s cars were equalised.

The GT class had been shaken up during the stop, with Liddell dropping to sixth. Auberlen still led, but now had the #69 SpeedSource RX-8 of Jeff Segal behind him.

The race went green with less than half an hour remaining.

Valiante slowed things down at the restart, denying Pruett a run at him in the infield. What wasn't expected, however, was Angelelli driving right by the #01 on the banking and taking second.

In GT Jan Heylen in the #30 Racers Edge Mazda almost took out Craig Stanton's Porsche while being lapped, allowing Liddell to swoop and take third in class. Liddell's race ended soon after, alas, following a right-rear hub failure. 

On lap 101 the top five cars were nose to tail and several attempts were made and rebuffed. On the exit onto the oval, however, Angelelli got the Dallara inside the lead Riley and forced him wide, taking the lead. Pruett followed him through into second. Darren Law and Burt Frisselle also deposed the #23 as its tyres faded.

It now looked to be a straight duel between Chip Ganassi and SunTrust, despite the presence of Darren Law in the #5 Action Express Riley. 13 minutes remained. Auberlen looked comfortable in GT, but Stanton still had a shot at the second place of Segal.

Valiante retook fourth from Frisselle on lap 108, but Angelelli hung on to the lead. Suddenly, however, with five or six laps remaining, the Dallara started to slide and Pruett pounced; retaking the lead and immediately pulling away. Further back, fourth and fifth places were traded once more.

On lap 113 with three and a half minutes still on the clock, Law dived down the inside of Angelelli at T1 and stole second. Could he yet do anything about Pruett?

Nope - Pruett put his foot down and pulled out a half second per lap and took a fine win after 116 laps - even having the satisfaction of lapping the #99 - which had brushed the wall some laps earlier - on the final lap. Law took second for Action Express, three seconds ahead of Angelelli. Burt Frisselle hung on to fourth for AIM, but Joao Barbosa in the #9 took fifth from Valiante just before the end.

"The teams got their money's worth out of their drivers today," was Scott Pruett’s quick assessment of the race on his way to the podium.

Darren Law was a little more forthcoming; "It feels great!" he said. "It was totally, totally a tire-conservation race. It really depended on how hard you drove the car. If you pushed too hard, you would over-use the tires and lose grip. You really had to control yourself and have patience in how you drove the car. It was important to not drive it in [to the corners] too hard, as well as be careful how you applied throttle. It rewarded the patient driver who didn't let the competition go to his head.

"I was a little worried. When David fell off the pace, there really wasn’t much he could do. The tires were done and we lost a lap. But I got back in and I at least got my lap back. Then a yellow flag moved us around to the back of the field and I just worked my way through from there. I was making sure I didn't cook the tires. People were over-driving – they started to fall back and then I just picked them off.”

“I felt if we came here and we came out of here with a top-five it was a huge success,” said Burt Frisselle. “So to come out of here with a fourth place is accomplishing the goal we set out for. We now know we’re just a teeny bit off the top three guys and we’ve got to work on power down. It’s only natural the first time on our tire, so we’ll go to work and be ready to go at Barber. But for the guys to come out, execute, strategy, race, every aspect to put us in the top five in a stout field is a happy weekend. It matches what we did last year and I’m happy because I really felt that we were further behind the eight ball this year switching from Pirelli to Continental.  We’ll go to Barber and our goal now is podium or a win.”

“It was a great race,” said Michael Valiante. “We got out of sync on tires early on and we gambled. If we’d been on fresh tires at the end we’d have least got a podium – it’s frustrating. For once it would be nice to have a fairytale ending when we’ve had tough times. But we led. It wasn’t a bad weekend overall. I think it was a good showing for United Autosports and hopefully the speed that we showed and the pace that we had leads to some more races this year.”

Bill Auberlen took an outstanding GT win for Turner Motorsport, while Jeff Segal held off Craig Stanton to claim second.

"Today was a knowledge-based win for Turner Motorsports,” said a very happy Auberlen, who shared the winning car with Paul Dalla Lana. “We were quick here last year but could not make the car last. We came back set up for this unique oval, and had a compensated setup that could make the tires last for an entire stint. We didn't have the quickest car, but when everyone else fell off, we didn't - and that was the key for our success all day long."

“We were shooting for a top five, maybe a top 10, just trying to execute well and do the most with what we had,” said Segal. “The beginning of the race was a bit frustrating, just hanging behind people, but one by one they were falling off at the end.  I just drove as hard as I could for the last stint and the team kept telling me that we had a little bit of a gap back to the Porsche behind us.  We were working hard but it worked out well so I am just really happy for the team, Emil and for Mazda for really trying to get the effort back on track for the rest of the year.”

“What a great day for everyone at Magnus Racing,” said Stanton. “We’ve been assembling the pieces of a championship winning program and I think we can say that we are contenders now. The car was so fast all weekend, we just got held up a bit by a lapped Mazda and we were almost out of tires at the end and we were still able to bring it home third. This is really for the guys who have done an unbelievable job since day one.”

Olly Gavin’s hard work earlier in the race was not easy to spot amidst the dramas, but he was satisfied with his efforts en route to eighth in the #07 Banner Racing Corvette; “Tyre life was a massive issue at this race but I really looked after my tyres,” said a very hot Oliver after his 75-minute stint.  “Because of that, I was able to keep banging in the lap times and make my way further up the leader board.   I think it was just me and Bill Auberlen who were able to really benefit during that period and maintain the same sort of speed throughout, although I was getting extremely over-heated in the car.  Whether that was because of the missing hood I don’t know, but I was definitely ready to hand over to Gunther again at our second stop.

“We were right up against it on fuel,” he continued, “and unfortunately a caution period came at just the wrong time for us and our second pit stop which put us a lap down on the leaders.  Otherwise I think we should have finished in the top six.  We were unfortunate here at Homestead with contact and the pit stop timing , but I’m looking forward to future races as there’s lots of potential in the car.  Barber should be a good circuit for us.”

And so ended an enthralling encounter, which demonstrated the importance of set-up and tyre-management; but which also included some great racing. It’s clear after two races, however, that the #01 Chip Ganassi Riley BMW will once again be setting the pace in the early part of the season, at least.

MH