Grand-Am, Watkins Glen - Report
A Perfect Weekend For SunTrust Qualifying Ricky Taylor captured his sixth consecutive pole position on the Watkins Glen Short Course, after out-qualifying championship leader Memo Rojas by two-tenths on Friday afternoon. After the SunTrust Racing team struggled with handling issues throughout Friday morning’s practice, Taylor found the handling of the #10 Chevrolet/Dallara to his liking in qualifying, running a lap of 1:05.962 to extend a pole streak that began on Memorial Day at Lime Rock Park. “Last year was my first year with the SunTrust team, so, obviously, I can kind of get after it a bit quicker on the weekends, and we’re not wasting time trying to get me up to speed like we were last year,” said Taylor of his streak. “But I think the major thing is that our engineer, Brian Pillar, has done a really good job getting a good handle on the car early in the weekend, and then we have a little bit of time to make one or two small tweaks to the car that will help us in qualifying, and we don’t have to focus on just making the car manageable for the race, we can take a little time and make a change for qualifying.” Rojas was second fastest with a lap of 1:06.182 in the #01 TELMEX BMW/Riley, as he and Scott Pruett chased their sixth victory of the year. Jon Fogarty was third fastest in the #99 GAINSCO Chevrolet/Riley co-driven by Alex Gurney with a 1:06.307. Fogarty holds the Rolex Series record with a seven-race pole position streak, set in 2007. While the 15-minute DP session went smoothly, a pair of black flags for separate incidents limited GT competitors to only two or three laps. J.P. Mauro, running in his first Rolex Series race in the #30 Racers Edge Motorsports Mazda RX-8, crashed near the entrance to the Inner Loop to bring out the first black flag. When the green flag waved with five minutes remaining, Joey Logano went to the top with a lap of 1:14.112 in the #31 Whelen Engineering Corvette co-driven by Boris Said. But when Logano crashed in Turn 5 on the following lap – bringing out a session-ending black flag – his fastest lap was disallowed, as per Grand-Am rules. Logano also ran a lap of 1:14.541, which was second-fastest in the session, but that was negated when the team elected to withdraw the primary car and go to a backup Corvette following the incident. Robin Liddell posted his best speed early in the session with a lap of 1:14.179 in the #57 Stevenson Auto Group Chevrolet Camaro co-driven by Jan Magnussen, and it stood up for the pole. “We had a good pace this morning,” Liddell said. “We were quickest this morning, so I was fairly confident we could get the pole. My first lap was a wee bit conservative, but it was good enough for the pole at the time. I thought I would go faster after the black flag, but I got held up by another car. I took the pole by default, but we’ll take it. “We’re not worried about points, we’re just going for race wins, and, it looks like we’ve got a strong car.” GT points leader Andrew Davis would also start on the front row after running a lap fo1:14.653 in the #59 Brumos Racing Porsche GT3, co-driven by Leh Keen. Race Ricky Taylor led the opening 33 laps in the #10 SunTrust Chevrolet/Dallara before turning the car over to Angelelli, who went on to lead 44 of the final 45 laps on the Watkins Glen 2.45-mile short course. It was their third victory of the season and second at Watkins Glen, coming off June’s Sahlen’s Six Hours on the 3.4-mile course. The race was also the fastest in Grand-Am Rolex history.  |
The race was slowed by one caution flag (for four laps), coming early in the race when Jon Fogarty clipped a lapped car in Turn 11 only nine laps into the race and were forced into retirement. As a result, Fogarty and Alex Gurney fell from third to sixth in the DP standings. “We had just passed those two guys in front of me and put it in second place, and I was just trying to work my way quickly through traffic,” said Fogarty. “I came around the outside of a Mazda going into the final turn and as I came down into the apex, suddenly I was turned around. He hit me in the back end and spun me around, and there is a wall there instead of a run-off. That was that. It seemed like a simple move at the time.” Angelelli took the checkered flag 2.517 seconds ahead of Pruett, cutting the lead in the Daytona Prototype points to 26 points (327-301) over #01 TELMEX BMW/Riley drivers Pruett and Memo Rojas with only two races remaining. “Today was really just perfect,” said Ricky Taylor. “In qualifying the car was great, and then for the race, it’s much easier when you can just kind of control the race from the front and kind of manage the gap and everything.” “I had close calls a couple of times. Traffic was very unpredictable, and I had to adjust going through it. Scott’s a master in traffic,” said Angelelli. “We were knocking on the back door several times, but we just didn’t have enough to get around,” said Pruett; while Rojas added, "We’re happy with second at this point in the championship. We did our best today. It was a tough race for me. There was a lot happening at the beginning of the race, and I was having a problem with the brake bias. I nearly lost it quite a few times during the first couple of laps.” Ryan Dalziel and Alex Popow finished third in the No. 8 Starworks Motorsport Ford/Riley. The Venezuelan started the race and worked his way up to third place, then overtook Rojas on the re-start. He dropped back to fourth just before Dalziel took over on Lap 33. The Scot soon had the Riley up to third and briefly led the race during the final fuel pitstops, before bringing it home with badly blistered tires. “Unfortunately, many teams were struggling with front tires blistering," he said. "I had pushed really hard on my second stint – narrowing the gap to under nine seconds - but I over-cooked the front tires, causing blisters. It meant I had to ease back and settle for third. But there were plenty of positives. We had the third fastest lap and a great result for the team after a couple of tough race weekends where, although we finished in the top four, we never had a fast race car. “This weekend if we had been able to get a yellow we could have raced for the win. There was only one yellow at 11 minutes, so we never got a chance to close the gap to the top two cars.” “Splitting Enzo (Potoliccio) and I up really helps," said Popow. "Now we can drive the car. Up until now, we didn’t have the experience to set up the car. Now, running with Ryan, I still get seat time but I know the car will have a good setup. I can go out and drive it. Tonight the car is awesome and I was just out there going at it.” Spencer Pumpelly and Steven Bertheau managed to coax just enough fuel out of TRG’s #67 Sargent & Lundy Porsche 911 GT3 to take the GT victory in a thrilling finish. Pumpelly led the final six circuits as the lead changed hands five times in the final hour, taking the checkered flag 2.12 seconds ahead of Jordan Taylor in the in the #88 Autohaus Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro. Craig Stanton and John Potter took third in the #44 Magnus Racing Porsche GT3. "We knew we had some work to do on this one," said TRG team owner/CEO Kevin Buckler. "We didn’t qualify as well as we had wanted, and definitely had our hands full with an ill-handling 66. Duncan Ende is a pro and played the cards out the best he could. We managed the strategy to death and knew we had a real shot early on with 67. If there’s a group of guys who can overcome adversity and get the job done at the end of the day, it’s our guys, and I am really proud of them today." "Strategy, a great crew and a fantastic co-driver, that’s what makes you win," said Bertheau. "Kevin and Greg [Jones] were managing our time and fuel strategy from the drop of the green." “It was definitely a good day for the points,” said Jordan Taylor. “We came in one point back, and we knew it was going to be tough. We knew we had our work cut out for us. I think Bill passed eight cars in the first lap, so we really couldn’t ask for much more.” “We definitely did not roil off when the green flag fell, like we should’ve,” said Lester. “I had some misfortune yesterday in qualifying. I felt terrible about it and was going to do my absolute best to kind of make up as much as I could. We did pretty well in that first stint, and made up a few positions, from what I’m told. “[Jordan] did just a masterful job of coming up all the way through the pack. He’s a little bit disappointed about not getting the win, but we’re looking at big-picture racing, and we’re pretty ecstatic right now with leading the points.” Lester and Taylor regained the lead in the production-based GT championship standings. Andrew Davis and Leh Keen entered the race with a one-point lead, but finished seventh in the #59 Brumos Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup after a late fuel stop and are now seven points behind (272-265). Robin Liddell & Jan Magnussen led for 50 laps in the #57 Stevenson Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro GT-R, but a driveline failure just 20 minutes from home ended their great run. “This was probably one of the best weekends we have had as a team all year or even the last few years in terms of preparation, speed, pit stops, everything until the last 20 minutes when it was all taken away from us," said Team Manager Mike Johnson. "We really out performed the competition in all aspects of the race and had two amazing pit stops which gave us a comfortable lead. Robin and Jan were perfect behind the wheel. “We were just maintaining the gap to Spencer Pumpelly and Jordan Taylor since we knew everyone else had to pit. We were counting down the laps left in the race when something failed in the driveline. It's just another devastating blow to an already horrible year and when it all starts coming together, we find ourselves with another DNF.” “Mike summed the weekend up well; it really was our weekend and what looked like a formality with 20 minutes to go turned into another DNF," said a deflated Robin Liddell. "In racing, you can never think about a result when it is only in sight but I really didn't expect to have a mechanical failure. It is very disappointing to say the least.” The points position now looks like this: DP: Scott Pruett/Memo Rojas 327; Max Angelelli/Ricky Taylor 301, David Donohue/Darren Law 262.
GT: Jordan Taylor/Bill Lester 272, Leh Keen/Andrew Davis 265, Jonathan Bomarito/Sylvain Tremblay 257. The penultimate round of the 2011 season takes place on the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal this coming weekend, August 20th. | 
