Zonta and Jonsson Swim to Victory in Grand Am Verizon 250

The #76 Ford Lola of Nic Jonsson and Ricardo Zonta races in the rain at the Verizon Wireless 250 on May 3, 2009 in Millville, New Jersey. (Brian Cleary/Getty Images)

Ricardo Zonta and Nic Jonsson dominated despite appalling conditions at the Verizon 250, bringing the Krohn Racing Lola Ford home 45 seconds ahead of their nearest competitor.

The race was run in pouring rain, was filled with spins, and still offered some very exciting racing.

This was the first win with the Lola-Ford chassis/engine combination for Krohn’s racing, and Zonta’s first win in the Rolex Grand Am series.

Conditions ‘worse than horrible’

The Verizon Wireless 250 at New Jersey Motorsports Park was a rain-soaked nightmare of stop-and-restart, sliding, spinning, and crashing. Drivers complained of zero visibility and puddles on the track; on almost every lap, one car or another would slide off the track or spin coming through a corner.

The first collision came before the first corner. Mark Patterson in the #60 Michael Shank Ford Riley made an aggressive start, despite conditions. Patterson’s in-car camera showed that there was absolutely no visibility—other cars were invisible in the spray until they were close enough to touch.

Unable to see, Patterson didn’t know that the front of the pack had started braking for the first turn. He slammed into the right rear of Ricky Taylor in the #13 Beyer Pontiac/Riley, knocking both cars off the track.

On the restart Guy Cosmo in the Porsche V-8-powered Spirit of Daytona Coyote passed Scott Pruett’s Telmex Ganassi Lexus Riley into the first turn. Cosmo was able to stay in front of Pruett, who had to hang back a bit to keep clear of the spray.

After a couple of laps, Cosmo got sideways coming around slower traffic; Pruett immediately jumped into the lead.

Almost immediately came a full-course yellow as the Rob Finlay in the Gentleman Jack Childress-Howard Crawford Pontiac stopped on the track with a broken clutch.

On the restart, Nic Jonsson in the Krohn Lola Ford took the lead, followed by Brian Frisselle in the SunTrust Ford and Romain Dumas in the Verizon Riley Porsche. Despite spinning harmlessly, Jonsson kept the car out front.

“Conditions are horrible; visibility is even worse than horrible,” said Burt Frisselle, driver of the #61 AIM Riley Ford, and brother of Brian, “but we are all facing the same thing. It’s mentally fatiguing—driving into corners with zero visibility.”

Krohn’s Lola Ford drive Nic Jonsson agreed: “Conditions are absolutely treacherous.”

Water Hazards

The day was filled with crashes and cautions and cars dropping out because of rain-related issues. Guy Cosmos spun, losing a place to Scott Pruett, who spent much of the race in the pits trying to fix a broken windshield wiper. Romeo Kapudija in the #21 Mazda GT car lost the back end coming out of turn One and went hard into the tire barriers, bringing out a caution.

Michael Valiante, last week’s winner, spun but didn’t hit anything, but his car was plagued by mechanical troubles. Timo Bernhard spun and lost two places; Mark Wilkins spun and lost five places. Sylvain Tremblay went off in his GT Mazda. Pontiac GT driver Paul Edwards spun on a caution lap. Many cars had to pit to clean the inside of the windshield, and a couple of cars had electrical problems brought on by the rain.

New Jersey Motor Sports Park added large run-off areas and improved drainage over the off-season, and this really paid off. A lot of the spins would have been serious crashes otherwise. But even so, the rain was too heavy, and with one hour, thirty-nine minutes to go, the stewards called a full-course caution; there were large standing puddles on the track, and every car was slipping and spinning.

Brumos Porsche driver Darren Law said, “I couldn’t see five feet. I don’t think I ever got out of second gear.”

The Second Half

After thirty minutes, the rain eased up and the race returned to green, but conditions were still difficult. In some ways this added to the excitement: the GT cars were almost able to keep up with the prototypes, whose extra power and downforce counted for naught at the slowed pace they were running.

Negotiating traffic was also more difficult. Drivers couldn’t see behind and were mostly focused on trying to see ahead. Also when a faster car swung out to pass a slower car, the faster car would run off the racing line and into the deeper puddles.

Traffic played a role in two of the most important passes. On lap 59, Ricardo Zonta took the lead when Max Angelelli’s SunTrust Ford hesitated while passing the GT Pontiac of Robin Liddell.

While Angelelli was setting up the pass, Zonta dropped inside both cars and surged into the lead. Once clear he opened an insurmountable gap, while Angelelli opened a five-second gap over David Donohue’s Brumos Porsche in third.

The battle for third was fierce. Timo Bernhard in the Verizon Porsche hounded Donohue relentlessly, but the Brumos Porsche driver drove flawlessly. Bernhard tried at every corner, but Donohue defended.

Finally, as the pair approached Jared Beyer in the lapped Beyer Riley Pontiac, Timo saw his chance. Seeing the slower car and knowing Donahue would pull out to pass, Bernhard hit the gas first and pulled up along side the other Porsche. Because Bernhard got on the gas just a bit before Donahue, he had a bit more speed at the end of the straight.

Donahue made a brave attempt to pass on the outside of turn One, but it was impossible. Bernhard held the position and Donahue had to settle for fourth.

Porsche Owns GT

GT was an all-Porsche affair, with veteran Farnbacher Loles driver Dirk Werner leading a four-Porsche parade to the end. The battles between Werner, teammate Brian Sellers, and Spencer Pumpelly and Andy Lally of TRG Racing were a highlight of the second half of the race.

With half an hour to go, Werner was shadowing Pompelly through every turn. Finally he feinted to the outside, then dove to the inside on the next corner, squeezing by the TRG Porsche driver to take the class lead.

In the end Farnbacher Loles took first and third in class; TRG got second, fourth and tenth.

 

The next race in the Rolex Grand Am series will be the Verizon Festival of Speed at the Laguna Seca raceway in Salinas Cal., on May 17. Please visit the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca website for more information. 

 

Championship Points
Drivers				Teams
	Darren Law/David Dononhue	Brumos	88	1	#58 Brumos	88
2	Alex Gurney/Jon Fogarty	Gainsco/Stallings	84	2	#99 Gainsco/Stallings	84
3	Timo Bernhard	Penske	79	3	#10 SunTrust	78

Final Results—Verizon Wireless 250
place	#	Class	Place in class	Driver	Team/Car
1	76	DP	1	Ricardo Zonta	Krohn Racing Ford / Lola
2	10	DP	2	Max Angelelli	SunTrust Racing Ford / Dallara
3	58	DP	3	David Donohue	Brumos Racing Porsche / Riley
4	12	DP	4	Timo Bernhard	Penske Racing Porsche / Riley
5	61	DP	5	Mark Wilkins	AIM Autosport Ford / Riley
6	99	DP	6	Alex Gurney	Gainsco/Stallings Racing Pontiac / Riley
7	87	GT	1	Dirk Werner	Farnbacher Loles Racing Porsche GT3
8	66	GT	2	Spencer Pumpelly	TRG Porsche GT3
9	77	DP	7	Memo Gidley	Doran Racing Ford / Dallara
10	67	GT	3	Andy Lally	TRG Porsche GT3