Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas pulled the #01 Telemex Ganassi Riley BMW into Victory Lane for the first time all season at the Grand Am Rolex Rolex 250 Driven by Visitflorida.Com at the wooded, hilly Road America course at Elkhart, Wisconsin.
The team had gone eight racers without a win—a record for Telmex-Ganassi—and the multiple champions were more than ready to Not set a new record for losing.
The team won with clever strategy, gambling on an early pit stop under yellow, giving up the lead to get off-strategy from the other front-runners. This paid off when a late yellow let the Telmex car finish without stopping again.
It wasn’t just strategy but also excellent driving by Scott Pruett in the final several laps, being chased by Ryan Dalziel on brand new tires. Despite the disadvantage Pruett kept his gap and won the team’s first race of the season.
Pruett and Rojas also benefited from the mishaps and bad fortune of the competition. The #99 Gainsco Riley Corvette suffered a broken front suspension and retired; Antonio Garcia in the #90 Spirit of Daytona Coyote-Corvette collided with a GT car while leading, bending the rear suspension which necessitated a lengthy pit stop.
Ricky Taylor in the race-leading #10 SunTrust Dallara Corvette lost control while cleaning his tires under yellow with eight minutes left in the race, sidelining this likely race winner. This was the third DNF for the SunTrust car, the second caused by a Ricky Taylor error under yellow. Finally, Lucas Luhr in the #8 Starworks car suffered a transmission failure and got stuck in the pits.
Pruett and Rojas didn’t make any mistakes. Their pit stops were perfect, the car ran flawlessly, and the team finally returned to Winner’s Circle.
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