Racing News

     

    Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas took the Ganassi Racing Riley-BMW Daytona Prototype to fourth overall and fourth in class in the two-hour Grand-Am Rolex Series race at Barber Motorsports Park in April. Max Angelelli and Jordan Taylor won the race in the Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette DP. 
     
    Bill Auberlen and Paul Dalla Lana, coming off a class win at Circuit of the Americas in Texas, finished fifth in GT in the #94 Turner Motorsport M3. Auberlen set the fastest GT lap, but Robin Liddell and John Edwards won the class in a Camaro. Liddell held off Ferrari racer Alessandro Balzan in a close late-race battle.

    Rojas ran as high as third on his stint. He was tagged by GX class Porsche racer Jim Norman just before the one-hour mark. Rojas was sixth when he handed off to Pruett with about fifty minutes left in the race. While Pruett climbed to fourth, he could not catch the leading trio of Corvette DPs that included race winner Angelelli, second place runner Alex Gurney in the Gainsco Racing car he shared with Jon Fogarty, and third place finisher Ricky Taylor in the Spirit of Daytona prototype that he shared with Richard Westbrook. Wayne Nonnamaker and Dane Cameron finished eighth in DP in their Team Sahlen Riley-BMW, while their teammates Will and Joe Nonnamaker finished thirteenth.

    The only yellow flag period in the race came out on lap 12 when Michael Marsal went off course in his #93 Turner Motorsport M3; the car was retired from the race.

    After the Barber race Pruett and Rojas remained first in DP drivers’ standings, just two points ahead of Gurney and Fogarty. Auberlen and Dalla Lana were fifth in GT drivers’ points. Porsche racers Andy Lally and John Potter, who finished sixth at Barber, led the standings.

    The series runs next at Road Atlanta on April 20.—Brian S. Morgan