After several seasons of being fast but fragile, Antonio Garcia and Richard Westbrook brought the #90 Spirit of Daytona to the checkered flag ahead of the rest of the field by a margin of 2.362 seconds, the team’s first Grand Am Rolex Daytona Prototype class and the first in the series in ten years.
The finishing margin belies the total dominance the Spirit of Daytona car demonstrated. The SoD Corvette-Coyote looked like the Telmex-Ganassi Riley-BMW of the past two seasons, driving away from the rest of the field.
The team had opened a gap of 23 seconds with eight minutes left in the race when debris in Turn 12 brought out a full-course caution, bringing all the cars together. This gave a final chance to Alex Gurney in the #99 Gainsco/Stallings Corvette-Riley and Scott Pruett in the #01 Telmex-Ganassi Riley-BMW, which pitted for fresh tires. Despite his best efforts, Gurney couldn’t catch Antonio Garcia in the #90. Pruett pushed his way from fifth on the restart to third in only two laps, but couldn’t close the gap to Gurney.
In GT Jonathan Bomarito and Sylvain Tremblay took the win in their #70 SpeedSource Mazda RX-8. This pair took the lead through pitwork and then opened a 13.5-second gap over the competition by the final caution. Bomarito managed to hold off former teammate Jeff Segal in the #69 AIM-FXDD Ferrari 458 to win the class by .852 seconds.
The 2.3-mile, 17-turn course at Barber Motorsports Park is a gorgeous facility, beautifully maintained, but it is a narrow track; passing is hard, and cautions can be frequent as impatient drivers try to muscle past their competitors. It only took four laps for the first yellow in the Porsche 250.
On laps two and three some contact broke some bodywork. First Alex Popow in the #2 Starworks car had some contact with Ricky Taylor in the #10 SunTrust Corvette Dallara. On the next lap Enzo Potolicchio in the #8 Starworks Riley-Ford tried to cut inside his teammate Alex Popow in the #2 Starworks car, hitting the #2 in the left rear fender, spinning both cars. Debris on the track brought out a full-course caution on lap four.
Richard Westbrook in the #90 SoD Corvette-Coyote ad opened a four-second gap by the lap four yellow. After the restart he wasted no time opening that gap again. The race ran cleanly until lap 24 when Emilio de Guida in the #68 TRG Porsche lost control in Turn Five, bouncing off Joe Sahlen in the #49 Sahlen Mazda and his teammate Steve Bertheau in the #67 TRG Porsche, damaging both Porsches but not bringing out a caution.
The GT race was typically intense. Emil Assentato pushed his Ferrari hard chasing Paul Edwards’ Camaro, while Eric Foss in the brand-new #73 Horton Porsche took third from Ronnie Bremer’s Stevenson Camaro; then the Porsche’s throttle stuck and Foss went the course. Charles Esplenaub’s Dempsey Racing Mazda was the next to target Bremer, passing him for third on lap on lap 20.
Boris Said in the Marsh Racing Corvette then passed Ronnie Bremer’s Stevenson Camaro and pushed equally hard to get by Charles Esplenaub’s Dempsey Racing Mazda.
On lap 25, Memo Rojas in the #01 Telmex-Gansassi Riley-BMW, who had flat-spotted his tires overcooking it in the hairpin and had to pit, losing two places.
On lap 28 Assentato passed Paul Edwards who was struggling with worn tires. Assentato pitted two laps later; he probably wished he could have held out for another lap, because lap 31 saw another full-course caution. Joe Nonnemaker in the #43 Sahlen Mazda spun in Turn Nine; when he tried to rejoin, his car slid across the grass and shot back across the track right on the path of John Pew in the #60 Shank Racing Riley-Ford. Pew buried the nose of his car in the soft sod, doing no damage but getting totally trapped.
This yellow brought every one into the pits—except for David Donahue in the #5 Action Express Corvette-Coyote. Donahue had been just about to enter the pits when the pits closed due the the yellow; Donahue tried to change course at the last second but ended up in the gravel.
Next: Green Again
The race went green on lap 36, but only for a lap as Max Angelelli in the #10 SunTrust car sideswiped Darren Law, who had taken over the #5 Action Express car. Angelelli bumped the Action Express car entering Turn Five, then pushed Law right off the road exiting Turn Six. Angelelli was assessed a stop-plus-15-seconds penalty.
Memo Rojas in the #01 Telmex car took the Daytona Prototype lead when the race went green on lap 44 as the other leaders needed tires and made driver changes. Antonio Garcia, who had taken over from Richard Westbrook in the #90 SoD car, used Jeff Segal’s #69 Ferrari as a pick in Turn 16 and squeezed past Rojas on lap 51. Garcia took the lead with a beautiful maneuver: seeing the Audi GT ahead entering Turn 16, Garcia timed his move, diving to the inside, forcing Rojas to take the long way around. Once in the lead, Garcia wasted no time reopening a healthy gap..
On the next lap Rojas was given a stop-plus-ten-seconds for nudging Steven Kane’s #74 Audi R8 off the course, dropping the #01 to fifth.
In GT Jeff Segal in the AIM Ferrari, fought his way past Leh Keen’s #59 Brumos Porsche, taking second in class behind Jonathan Bomarito’s SpeedSource Mazda.
On lap 65, memo Rojas finally pitted after one hour-fifty-minute stint, turning the car over to Scott Pruett. The Telmex-Ganassi crew had stretched their fuel until they could finish the race without a third stop, hoping to make up track position when the competition came in for a final load of fuel. Pruett rejoined in fifth.
Antonio Garcia, who had taken over from Richard Westbrook in the #90 SoD car
On lap 68, Eric Curran, running third in GT in the #31 marsh Corvette, ran over an air hose leaving the pits, earning a stop-plus-30 penalty, taking the car out of contention.
On laps 70 and 71, Garcia and Gurney pitted for tires and fu; Ryan Dalziel came in two laps later, giving the lead back to Garcia in the #90.
After thirty uninterrupted green-flag laps with 41 minutes to go, Antonio Garcia had an 11.34-second lead on Alex Gurney, with max Angelelli 36 seconds back; Scott Pruett was in fifth, 49 seconds down. In GT, Bomarito led Keen by 8.619 seconds, followed by Robin Liddell in the Stevenson Camaro and Bill Auberlen in the #94 Turner BMW.
Jeff Segal, running fifth, turned up the speed and got onto the tail of Bill Auberlen, pressuring the BMW driver into a rare error. Auberlen dropped two wheels off the track, letting the Ferrari storm through into third in class.
Pruett and Gurney both ran some extremely quick laps trying to cut into Garcia’s lead, but the Spirit of Daytona driver answered them with even quicker laps. Eventually everyone slowed a tick to save their tires.
It looked as though the race would end this way, with the leaders in both classes protecting sizeable leads, when the caution, with eight minutes to go, changed everything.
No one dared pit with only two green-flag laps left, with the exception of the Telmex-Ganassi Riley-BMW. Since he was in fifth place, Scott Pruett had no real chance at an overall win; his team opted to race for points, and in a daring but brilliant move, Pruett brought the car in for four fresh tires.
This gave the Telmex driver a huge edge on the restart. He didn’t have the outright speed to charge all the way to the front, but he was able to pass Max Angelelli and Ryan Dalziel in the final two laps to finish on the podium.
The Grand Am Rolex series races again on April 29 at Miami-Homestead Speedway. Tickets for the Grand Prix of Miami are available through the Miami-Homestead Speedway website.
| Grand Am Rolex Porsche 250 | ||||||||
|
| # |
| In class | Driver | laps | Behind leader | Behind prior | Team/Car |
| 1 | 90 | DP | 1 | Antonio Garcia | 103 |
|
| Spirit of Daytona Corvette DP |
| 2 | 99 | DP | 2 | Alex Gurney | 103 | 2.326 | 2.326 | GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing Corvette DP |
| 3 | 01 | DP | 3 | Scott Pruett | 103 | 2.838 | 0.512 | Chip Ganassi Racing Riley-BMW |
| 4 | 8 | DP | 4 | Ryan Dalziel | 103 | 9.334 | 6.496 | Starworks Motorsport Riley Ford |
| 5 | 10 | DP | 5 | Max Angelelli | 103 | 10.825 | 1.491 | SunTrust Racing Corvette DP |
| 6 | 2 | DP | 6 | Lucas Luhr | 102 | 1 lap | 1 lap | Starworks Motorsport Riley Ford |
| 7 | 9 | DP | 7 | JC France | 101 | 2 laps | 1 lap | Action Express Racing Corvette DP |
| 8 | 60 | DP | 8 | Oswaldo Negri Jr | 100 | 3 laps | 1 lap | Michael Shank Racing Riley Ford |
| 9 | 70 | GT | 1 | Jonathan Bomarito | 98 | 5 laps | 2 laps | SpeedSource Mazda RX-8 |
| 10 | 69 | GT | 2 | Jeff Segal | 97 | 6 laps | 1 lap | AIM Autosport Team FXDD Ferrari 458 |
| 11 | 59 | GT | 3 | Leh Keen | 97 | 6 laps | 0.852 | Brumos Racing Porsche GT3 |
| 12 | 44 | GT | 4 | Andy Lally | 97 | 6 laps | 0.302 | Magnus Racing Porsche GT3 |
| 13 | 94 | GT | 5 | Bill Auberlen | 97 | 6 laps | 1.361 | Turner Motorsport BMW M3 |
| 14 | 88 | GT | 6 | Jordan Taylor | 97 | 6 laps | 1.445 | Autohaus Motorsports Camaro GT.R |
| 15 | 57 | GT | 7 | Robin Liddell | 97 | 6 laps | 0.264 | Stevenson Motorsports Camaro GT.R |
| 16 | 41 | GT | 8 | Charles Espenlaub | 97 | 6 laps | 1.964 | Dempsey Racing Mazda RX-8 |
| 17 | 42 | GT | 9 | Dane Cameron | 97 | 6 laps | 1.214 | Team Sahlen Mazda RX-8
|
| 18 | 67 | GT | 10 | Spencer Pumpelly | 97 | 6 laps | 0.333 | TRG Porsche GT3
|
| 19 | 51 | GT | 11 | Dion von Moltke | 97 | 6 laps | 5.147 | APR Motorsport Audi R8 Grand-Am |
| 20 | 31 | GT | 12 | Eric Curran | 97 | 6 laps | 4.505 | Marsh Racing Corvette
|
| 21 | 40 | GT | 13 | Joe Foster | 96 | 7 laps | 1 lap | Dempsey Racing Mazda RX-8 |
| 22 | 73 | GT | 14 | Patrick Lindsey | 95 | 8 laps | 1 lap | Horton Autosport Porsche GT3 |
| 23 | 74 | GT | 15 | Steven Kane | 95 | 8 laps | 3.183 | Oryx Racing Audi R8 Grand-Am |
| 24 | 43 | GT | 16 | Wayne Nonnamaker | 95 | 8 laps | 10.480 | Team Sahlen Mazda RX-8
|
| 25 | 49 | GT | 17 | Will Nonnamaker | 95 | 8 laps | 34.174 | Team Sahlen Mazda RX-8
|
| 26 | 15 | GT | 18 | Chris Cook | 94 | 9 laps | 1 lap | Rick Ware Racing Ford Mustang |
| 27 | 5 | DP | 9 | Darren Law | 80 | 23 laps | 14 laps | Action Express Racing Corvette DP |
| 28 | 68 | GT | 19 | Emilio DiGuida | 11 | 92 laps | 69 laps | TRG Porsche GT3 |
The 2.3-mile, 17-turn course at Barber Motorsports Park is a gorgeous facility, beautifully maintained, but it is a narrow track; passing is hard, and cautions can be frequent as impatient drivers try to muscle past their competitors. It only took four laps for the first yellow in the Porsche 250.
On laps two and three some contact broke some bodywork. First Alex Popow in the #2 Starworks car had some contact with Ricky Taylor in the #10 SunTrust Corvette Dallara. On the next lap Enzo Potolicchio in the #8 Starworks Riley-Ford tried to cut inside his teammate Alex Popow in the #2 Starworks car, hitting the #2 in the left rear fender, spinning both cars. Debris on the track brought out a full-course caution on lap four.
Richard Westbrook in the #90 SoD Corvette-Coyote ad opened a four-second gap by the lap four yellow. After the restart he wasted no time opening that gap again. The race ran cleanly until lap 24 when Emilio de Guida in the #68 TRG Porsche lost control in Turn Five, bouncing off Joe Sahlen in the #49 Sahlen Mazda and his teammate Steve Bertheau in the #67 TRG Porsche, damaging both Porsches but not bringing out a caution.
The GT race was typically intense. Emil Assentato pushed his Ferrari hard chasing Paul Edwards’ Camaro, while Eric Foss in the brand-new #73 Horton Porsche took third from Ronnie Bremer’s Stevenson Camaro; then the Porsche’s throttle stuck and Foss went the course. Charles Esplenaub’s Dempsey Racing Mazda was the next to target Bremer, passing him for third on lap on lap 20.
Boris Said in the Marsh Racing Corvette then passed Ronnie Bremer’s Stevenson Camaro and pushed equally hard to get by Charles Esplenaub’s Dempsey Racing Mazda.
On lap 25, Memo Rojas in the #01 Telmex-Gansassi Riley-BMW, who had flat-spotted his tires overcooking it in the hairpin and had to pit, losing two places.
On lap 28 Assentato passed Paul Edwards who was struggling with worn tires. Assentato pitted two laps later; he probably wished he could have held out for another lap, because lap 31 saw another full-course caution. Joe Nonnemaker in the #43 Sahlen Mazda spun in Turn Nine; when he tried to rejoin, his car slid across the grass and shot back across the track right on the path of John Pew in the #60 Shank Racing Riley-Ford. Pew buried the nose of his car in the soft sod, doing no damage but getting totally trapped.
This yellow brought every one into the pits—except for David Donahue in the #5 Action Express Corvette-Coyote. Donahue had been just about to enter the pits when the pits closed due the the yellow; Donahue tried to change course at the last second but ended up in the gravel.
The race went green on lap 36, but only for a lap as Max Angelelli in the #10 SunTrust car sideswiped Darren Law, who had taken over the #5 Action Express car. Angelelli bumped the Action Express car entering Turn Five, then pushed Law right off the road exiting Turn Six. Angelelli was assessed a stop-plus-15-seconds penalty.
Memo Rojas in the #01 Telmex car took the Daytona Prototype lead when the race went green on lap 44 as the other leaders needed tires and made driver changes. Antonio Garcia, who had taken over from Richard Westbrook in the #90 SoD car, used Jeff Segal’s #69 Ferrari as a pick in Turn 16 and squeezed past Rojas on lap 51. Garcia took the lead with a beautiful maneuver: seeing the Audi GT ahead entering Turn 16, Garcia timed his move, diving to the inside, forcing Rojas to take the long way around. Once in the lead, Garcia wasted no time reopening a healthy gap..
On the next lap Rojas was given a stop-plus-ten-seconds for nudging Steven Kane’s #74 Audi R8 off the course, dropping the #01 to fifth.
In GT Jeff Segal in the AIM Ferrari, fought his way past Leh Keen’s #59 Brumos Porsche, taking second in class behind Jonathan Bomarito’s SpeedSource Mazda.
On lap 65, memo Rojas finally pitted after one hour-fifty-minute stint, turning the car over to Scott Pruett. The Telmex-Ganassi crew had stretched their fuel until they could finish the race without a third stop, hoping to make up track position when the competition came in for a final load of fuel. Pruett rejoined in fifth.
Antonio Garcia, who had taken over from Richard Westbrook in the #90 SoD car
On lap 68, Eric Curran, running third in GT in the #31 marsh Corvette, ran over an air hose leaving th epiots, earning a stop-plus-30 penalty, taking the car out of contention.
On laps 70 and 71, Garcia and Gurney pitted for tires and fu; Ryan Dalziel came in two laps later, giving the lead back to Garcia in the #90.
After thirty uninterrupted green-flag laps with 41 minutes to go, Antonio Garcia had an 11.34-second lead og Alex Gurney, with max Angelelli 36 seconds back; Scott Pruett was in fifth, 49 seconds down. In GT, Bomarito led Keen by 8.619 seconds, followed by Robin Liddell in the Stevenson Camaro and Bill Auberlen in the #94 Turner BMW.
Jeff Segal, running fifth, turned up the speed and got onto the tail of Bill Auberlen, pressuring the BMW driver into a rare error. Auberlen dropped two wheels off the track, letting the Ferrari storm through into third in class.
Pruett and Gurney both ran some extremely quick laps trying to cut into Garcia’s lead, but the Spirit of Daytona driver answered them with even quicker laps. Eventually everyone slowed a tick to save their tires.
It looked as though the race would end this way, with the leaders in both classes protecting sizeable leads, when the caution, with eight minutes to go, changed everything.
No one dared pit with only two green-flag laps left, with the exception of the Telmex-Ganassi Riley-BMW. Since he was in fifth place, Scott Pruett had no real chance at an overall win; his team opted to race for points, and in a daring but brilliant move, Pruett brought the car in for four fresh tires.
This gave the Telmex driver a huge edge on the restart. He didn’t have the outright speed to charge all the way to the front, but he was able to pass Max Angelelli and Ryan Dalziel in the final two laps to finish on the podium.
The Grand Am Rolex series races again on April 29 at Miami-Homestead Speedway. Tickets for the Grand Prix of Miami are available through the Miami-Homestead Speedway website.
http://www.homesteadmiamispeedway.com/Tickets-Events/Events/2012/GRAND-AM-Series/Grand-Prix-of-Miami.aspx
