.png)
Alex Tagliani will be sharing seat-time in both the #2 and the #8 Starworks Riley-Fords at Montreal. (Grand-am.com)
Canadian racers Alex Tagliani and Paul Tracy, both best known for piloting IndyCars, will be behind the wheels of Daytona Prototypes for the Grand Am Rolex Montreal 200 this Saturday.
Tagliani is listed as co-driver with Alex Popow and Ryan Dalziel in both the #2 and #8 Starworks cars; the trio will be hopping from seat to seat without much time to rest. Tagliani has zero seat time in a Daytona Prototype; he plans to keep the car on the course, not to set records.
“For the DP, it’s a question of being a very good teammate to Ryan for chance in the championship,” Tagliani told racer.com “It’s tough to dilute your focus and program over a weekend with two different categories. But these chances to try don’t happen often, especially with IndyCar. My job is to complement the team, not reinvent the wheel.”
Tagliani will also be driving in the NASCAR nationwide event, the NAPA Auto Parts 200, also on Saturday.
Tracy, who has run a few races in the #77 Doran car (a Gen2 Riley chassis) but is without a full-time-ride in any series, will share the #5 Action Express Coyote-Corvette with Terry Borcheller and David Donohue.
The 43-year-old CART champion decided not to accepts offers to drive in the Nationwide race.
“I’d talked to a couple teams when this came up a couple weeks ago, but I want to focus exclusively on Action Express,” he told racer.com. “The key is that hopefully it opens the door for next year.”
Paul Tracy will be behind of the #5 Action Express Coyote-Corvette; he hopes to parlay this drive into a 2013 commitment. (Grand-am.com).
“I’ve always dabbled in Grand-Am. They’re not the most high tech cars, like an ALMS car or something like that. But what I like about them, the field is almost equal, the gap is usually within one second first to last, and the racing is really good. It’s good, hard racing for two to three hours. This is what I would like to do next year, full-time.”
The Rolex Montreal 200 starts Saturday, August 18, at 11:15 a.m. EDT. Tickets are available through the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve website.The race will be televised (tape-delayed) on Speed TV starting at 7:15 p.m. EDT.
