Grand-Am, Road America - Race Report
Pruett & Rojas Back On Top

We’ve been a bit remiss with our Grand-Am race coverage of late, so to make amends we’re bringing you right up to date ahead of this weekend’s race at Watkins Glen.

Qualifying

Ricky Taylor captured his third consecutive Daytona Prototype pole position on Grand-Am's return to Road America, as he and Max Angelelli attempted to land their third consecutive victory in the #10 SunTrust Racing Chevrolet/Dallara.

"Of our three poles this season, this is the most satisfying," said Taylor, who ran a lap of 2:01.050 on the 4.048-mile circuit. "We lost an engine in Wednesday's testing so we started the weekend a day behind. Then we missed most of Thursday's practice when it rained most of the day. So today we took a swing at it, and our car felt really good again. When I saw the lap time on my dash, I was really shocked."

Jon Fogarty, who shares the #99 GAINSCO Auto Insurance Chevrolet/Riley with Alex Gurney, took second with a lap of 2:01.204.

"This is the best our car has felt in 2011, and Road America is one of my favorite tracks," said Fogarty. "I'm very pleased. We just missed the pole by a little bit, but Ricky did a great job. I'm pleased that we have two Chevrolet teams occupying the front row."

In GT qualifying, Wayne Nonnamaker gave Team Sahlen its first Rolex Series pole, with a lap of 2:14.678 in the #42 TheRaceSite.com Mazda RX-8 he shared with new co-driver John Edwards.

It was his second career pole in the series, as Nonnamaker took the SGS pole at the Brumos Porsche 250 at Daytona International Speedway in 2004.

"I knew we had a good car before qualifying, but I'm really surprised where we ended up," said the 33-year-old driver from North Canton, Ohio. "This is such a fun track and a beautiful facility. It's been 10 years since we last raced here, and it took awhile to get re-accustomed to the track. I'm very happy that Grand-Am was able to come back here."

Jan Magnussen would start second in the #57 Stevenson Auto Group Chevrolet Camaro co-driven by Robin Liddell, running a lap of 2:15.273 in a bid to win his third pole of the season.

"This is a real driver's circuit," said Magnussen, an eight-time winner in Rolex Series competition, who first competed at the circuit in 1996. "You get a good feeling here of going fast, and you know that if you mess up, it's a big penalty. That, to me, makes a good race track."

Race

Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas ended a three-race losing streak by winning the Rolex Sports Car Series 250. It was the fourth victory of the season for the drivers of the #01 TELMEX BMW/Riley fielded by Chip Ganassi Racing.

Pruett took the checkered flag 11.738 seconds ahead of Alex Gurney, who shared the #99 GAINSCO Chevrolet/Riley with Jon Fogarty. Pruett led the final 20 of 46 circuits on the 4.048-mile circuit for his 36th career Rolex Series victory.

"We were really able to take advantage of our knowhow and experience," said Pruett. "The car was junk when I went out in warm-up and it was miserable to drive. We talked about our options, and we came up with the right changes."

"Today was a strange race for everybody, with the long yellow flag," added Rojas. "We weren't really happy with the car before the race and thought we lost our way, but we found a few issues and made some radical decisions. We didn't know what to expect for the race, but the car was really good. We did our long stop early on, and that helped us later in the race."

Pruett and Rojas' partnership has now yielded 22 victories.

Max Angelelli survived a last-lap battle with Ryan Dalziel to finish third - ending a two-race winning streak for the #10 SunTrust Chevrolet/Riley started on the pole by Ricky Taylor.

Dalziel and Mike Forest held on for fourth in the #8 Grout Shield Ford/Riley, followed by John Pew and Ozz Negri in the #60 Crown Royal XR Ford/Riley.

The GT battle saw three different leaders on the final lap, Eric Curran prevailing to give Marsh Racing its first Rolex Series GT victory in the #31 Whelen Engineering Corvette started by John Heinricy. The margin of victory was just 0.559s.

"When I took the checkered flag, I didn't even realize that we won," admitted Curran. "I wasn't sure if they were saying we finished fourth or first. We've had poles and we've led laps, but we've never ended up winning before.

"The Whelen Engineering guys needed a great result. It's interesting to win without my main co-driver (Boris Said) here."

Jordan Taylor took the white flag in the GT lead, but ran out of fuel in the #88 Autohaus Motorsport Chevrolet Camaro started by Bill Lester. That gave the GT lead to Spencer Pumpelly - who shared the #67 TRG Porsche with Steven Bertheau - but he also ran low on fuel. Curran - who had been pressuring Pumpelly - took over the lead, and managed to hold off John Edwards in the #42 Team Sahlen's Mazda RX-8 started from the pole by Wayne Nonnamaker.

Pumpelly managed to hold on for third, followed by the #44 Magnus Racing Porsche GT3 of Craig Stanton and John Potter, while Taylor still managed to take fifth in the #88 Autohaus Motorsport Chevrolet Camaro. Taylor and co-driver Bill Lester extended their lead in the standings to four points over sixth-place finishers Leh Keen and Andrew Davis, drivers of the #59 Brumos Porsche GT3.

The race featured a 51-minute caution resulting from an accident five laps into the race involving Gunter Schaldach and Joe Foster. Schaldach lost the brakes in the #07 The Cool TV/Mobil 1 Chevrolet Camaro, ran into the back of Joe Foster's #40 Mazda RX-8, went through the gravel trap in Turn 1 and catapulted the catch fence. He walked away uninjured.

"I lost my brakes going into one. I hit the brake pedal twice and nothing happened. Then I hit Joe Foster," recalled Schaldach. "The hood flipped up, so I couldn't see anything. I was hoping the sand would slow me down - but it didn't feel like it was slowing me down. I could see the black tires coming, and when I hit, it didn't feel so bad. But I kept moving. I must have gone over the wall, and it flipped a few times in the air. I just didn't want to land upside down, and I landed flat. It looked a lot worse than it was. I immediately told the team I was OK."

Foster also spun through the gravel and tagged the tire barrier. He was awake and alert, and later transported to Froedtert Memorial Lutheran Hospital in Milwaukee, Wis., where he was released after evaluation.