ALMS

It was announced that the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series and the American Le Mans Series will merge into one series in 2014.

This is a great move by both series.  

Both organizations have great racing that is only going to get better with the merger.  Grand-Am has the Rolex 24 at Daytona while ALMS has 12 Hours of Sebring.  

What is going to benefit ALMS are the resources that Grand-Am has from being a part of NASCAR.  The Rolex 24 at Daytona is growing in popularity and one reason is how NASCAR drivers come to race for the Grand-Am teams.  

Details about the name of the series, rules, or even schedule are still being worked on, but the fact that the process is moving forward is huge for American sports car racing.  There at least doesn't seem to be any bitterness or fighting like when IRL and ChampCar merged.  

While major questions come up about sponsors and affiliations with different organizations, both series are doing the right thing by waiting until 2014 to merge so that decisions won't be rushed.  

It will be interesting to see how both organizations work to deal with sponsors and commitments.  It will be a real test over the next year for Grand-Am and ALMS to make tough decisions.  As long as the new board of directors, which is compiled of executives from Grand-Am and ALMS, work well together, there should be minimal issues by the time 2014 rolls around.

I'm slowly becoming a fan of both series because of the great racing that has so much drama due to the time elements.  It is amazing to watch how these teams work and the strategies that they to implement in order to survive these races.

The ALMS began in 1999, while Grand-Am began back in 2000.  2014 looks to bring great things for fans of American sports car racing.

Just as long as everyone is willing to play nice when these major decisions are made. 

About this time last year (well, a little later, really), I posted an entry analyzing the Sebring entry list and why it worried me about the full ALMS season. There appeared to be a very low number of entries that we were reliably able to expect to run a full season, and we knew certain several desired entries would not be.

My fears had been justified, as the season went on with only just barely enough LMPs in each class to produce reasonable quality action. The best thing about the season was the fact that the Acura domination was by two teams battling for the championship rather than Audi's two-car effort on the same team that robbed us of action once one team got a good championship lead.

The Acuras occasionally had to deal with a small headache in the form of Intersport Racing—the defining privateer team of the ALMS managed to give us some brilliant, but sadly brief, excitement at Road America and Mosport, both of which were ended by splitter problems.

In the past they've given even Audi some headaches, and if they can manage this with their old open-top Lola, I'd love to see what they could do if they grabbed themselves one of the new, far superior Lola coupes.

Overall, though, the only class that gave us consistent excitement was GT2, and that was a big hit for the series. It showed, too: Several ALMS events fell behind Grand-Am in TV ratings. In ALMS, the prototypes are half the appeal, and if they have a lackluster season, the series has a lackluster season. The same could be said of the GTs, but we have little to worry about from them.

The ALMS knew they had a problem, hence the revamped class structure for the bulk of the 2010 season. Is it going to work? Let's take a look at the Sebring Winter Test entry list to find out.

The majority of the teams on the Winter Test entry list can be reliably expected to be contesting the full season. So, how are things looking?

Well, keeping the classes split at Sebring is going to be an issue. Looks like each LMP class will just barely have enough entries for reasonably good class battles.

But what about when the classes are merged for the subsequent seven races?

Well, let's not forget about Autocon, who have apparently decided to skip the winter test. Once they're factored in, we'll have five full-time LMP teams for certain. So the question is, how man LMPs do we need for achieve near-optimum class battle quality?

My belief has always been five. Add in the Aston Martin as a sixth entry at Long Beach and, according to recent rumors, Utah and Laguna Seca, and we get some good stuff.

We know Intersport can give some big boys headaches, we know the Porsche RS Spyder and Acura ARX-01 were capable of winning overall, and we know the Dyson Lola-Mazdas is capable of LMP2 class wins. Not only do we have the bare minimum of awesome battles, but they're all excellent teams. The LMP season will be far better than last year.

What about the new LMP Challenge class? We haven't heard much from it entry-wise in the offseason. But the entry list addresses that as well, with a cool five entries on the list, and a sixth expected at Sebring. According to IMSA, a total of seven LMPC chassis have been ordered, but one will sadly not be delivered by Sebring.

The Challenge classes are something I find rather intriguing. Le Mans style racing prides itself on not being spec, but that's alienated fans in the past. Some folks like spec racing for the close, anybody-can-win battles it often produces. The Challenge classes give us that spec racing to please the spec fans, while letting us have the non-spec series the rest of us love.

With 27 cars on the entry list for the Winter Test, and an expected full-season entry skipping it, I think the season's looking rather positive. A real step up from 2009, we can expect a grand total of 12 full-time prototypes, and up to 17 GT cars.

2009 looked dim, but 2010 is looking bright. It may not be like in the best days of the series, but I'll take it.

The organisers of the Le Mans 24 Hours, the Auto Club de l’Ouest (ACO), have announced the 55 car provisional entry list for the 78th running of the endurance race on June 12/13.

These 55 teams are a mix of teams invited for their performances in the various sportscar series around the world, and entrants picked from a list of applicants that has run to 80 cars in recent years.

That means there a mix of the famous names in endurance racing, and some names you might not expect. He we go through the entry list, picking up on talking points of those included and, occasionally, those not.

The premier class, LMP1, starts predictably enough. There are four diesel powered Peugeot 908s, the car that won the race last year.

Three of these are works entered examples. Don’t let the slight differences between “Peugeot Sport Total” and “Team Peugeot Total” fool you, such changes only exist to get round an ACO rule that a single team can only enter two cars.

The fourth, like last year, has been handed over to a French privateer team. Last year it was Henri Pescarolo’s eponymous squad, but with the Le Man legend’s team understood to be struggling financially Peugeot have gone to Hughes de Chaunac’s ORECA team, who have entered the car in the full European Le Mans Series season as well as being granted a place at Le Mans.

Again, predictably enough the main challenge to Peugeot’s title will come from Audi. Like last year there will be three R15 prototypes entered, with Tom Kristensen and Andre Lotterer (presumably leading the trio of he, Marcel Fassler and Benoit Treluyer revealed last week) the nominated drivers for the cars officially entered by the German Joest outfit and Mike Rockenfeller leading the “North America” car.

The R15s will again be joined by a pair of the older R10 cars entered by Colin Kolles. But that is where much of the similarity ends in the prototype classes.

There are two works Lola-Aston Martin coupes entered, and a third entered by the French Signature Plus team. Curiously, despite the change of ownership the car keeps its 008 Aston Martin race number, suggesting there may still be some works interest in the entry.

Rebellion Racing, who were entered as Speedy Sebah last year, bring two cars to the top class after splitting their effort between P1 and P2 last year.

Then there are the interesting single car entries. Drayson Racing return to Le Mans with their Lola-Judd coupe in the hands of Paul Drayson and Jonny Cocker (all teams will have three drivers, but at this early stage many have only officially nominated one or two). The Mansell family, 1992 F1 champion Nigel and sons Greg and Leo, will enter a Ginetta-Zytek while Japanese manufacturer Dome will return to La Sarthe with an S102 coupe. American fans will also recognise ALMS stalwarts Autocon.

LMP2 sees more American interest. The Porsche RS Spyders that have won the class on the previous two occasions are gone and in have come a pair for HPD (nee Acura) ARX-01c chassis. The first is entered by British team Strakka Racing, who drop down from LMP1, where they raced a Ginetta last season.

The second is interesting, and must be an early favourite for the class, as it sees Highcroft Racing come to Europe for the first time. The Conneticut based team, who also drop down to P2 for 2010 after winning the ALMS title with the Acura ARX-02. Already confirmed in the cockpit will be 2009 overall Le Mans winner David Brabham and Marino Franchitti.

Simon Pagenaud, already confirmed for the team’s ALMS campaign is, however, left off the entry list. Is this simply a product of the fact it’s still four months until the race or a sign that Pagenaud may have a works drive for Peugeot, having been one of the drivers of the Pescarolo run diesel last year.

Their main rivals could come from many places. A pair of Pescarolo-Judds entered by Oak Racing, a team that have appeared on the class podium the last two years, a Lola coupe entered by the experienced RML team, now paired with an HPD engine after a fraught relationship with the Mazda powerplant.

Or the pair of Zyteks. The first entered P2 regulars Quifel-ASM and the second under the familiar name of Team Bruichladdich, the Scottish Whisky backed team having abandoned the venerable Radical.

The first of the GT classes, logically enough GT1, is still in a sorry state. Despite many of the 2009 GT1 cars being grandfathered in to the new regulations for the FIA GT World Championship the class at Le Mans, which uses the same rules has not benefitted greatly.

There are none of the Maserati MC12s, allowed under ACO rules for the first time. There are none of the Nissan GTR, one of the cars built to the new specification. There is a Lamborghini, but in the hands of the largely inept JLOC team I doubt that’s a new car.

The only new cars in the field are a pair of Ford GTs. The example entered by Matech Competition, the team largely responsible for bringing the GT to European racing, is bound to garner some attention, thanks to the two drivers names at this stage.

They are both female, with Swiss single-seater refugee joining Formula 2 driver, and Sebastien Buemi’s cousin, Natacha Hachnang. While in an era of Danica-mania female drivers are no longer quite the exotic rarities they once were the possibility of an all female line-up for Le Mans is PR and publicity dream.

The old style cars are led by the Luc Alpand Corvettes, who finished second behind the surviving works car last year, though the Young Driver Aston Martin car is possibly an early favourite.

Once more GT2 looks the most competitive class featuring a far more varied field that has been seen in past years.  

There are the expected names in the Porsche and Ferrari ranks. Flying Lizard, IMSA performance, Felbermayr-Proton in Porsches. Hancook-Farnbacher, AF Corse and defending champions Risi Competitzione in Ferraris, the latter with two car, Tracy Krohn already installed in one – you can almost smell the green and blue livery.

But they are joined by the duo of works Corvettes, a pair of German entered BMW M3s, with Jorg Muller and Andy Priaulx as team leaders. Both manufacturers could feature in the race for the lead.

There are lone examples of the Spyker C8 and Aston Martin Vantage, the latter run by JMW Motorsport after they moved from Ferrari and with Rob Bell as the first driver, a driver who, if matched in talent by drivers two and three, could be battling for the class lead.

The final car is another curious entry – the Rocketsports Jaguar. A car that manage to contest a single ALMS race last yeat (Laguna Seca) and didn’t even finish that, a car that has had questions raised about its legality in GT2 outside of the ALMS (where rules are often bent to increase car counts).

It could easily be argued that the main reason for its inclusion is a hope to entice a works Jaguar effort back to Le Mans, but the car must become an early favourite.

For withdrawal.

Should that happen the car to benefit would be the second Felbermayr-Proton Porsche of Mark Lieb in a new arrangement that sees the prototype and GT classes have separate reserve lists of five cars each.

The fact that the Porsche, and Lieb – one of the most experienced and successful Porsche drivers – are on the reserve list is something of a surprise, as if the AF Corse entry of Giancarlo Fisichella being mired at third GT reserve, regardless of the fact the Italian is entered for the full Le Mans Series, and his presence would doubtless bring more attention to the class.

On a similar tangent it should be noted that there is no return for actor Patrick Dempsey and his team, having completed the race last year racing for charity.

You can see the full provisional entry list here .

Audi Sport made the first move today as they look to reclaim the Le Mans 24 Hours title from Peugeot this June.

As well as having an extra year of development on their diesel engined R15 they have today named an experienced trio of drivers to pilot one of the three entries the Ingolstadt based marque intends for the twice-around-the-clock classic.

The new trio of Marcel Fassler, Andre Lotterer and Benoit Treluyer bring a total of ten previous Le Mans starts, and while at the wheel of an Audi must be considered as having chance to take overall victory in this year’s race, which runs from the 12th to the 13th June.

"In view of our strong competitors, we want to – and have to – be perfectly positioned in terms of drivers too," explained Audi Motorsport head Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich. "Therefore, we decided to extend our driver line-up. Marcel, André, and Benoît attracted our attention during the past two years in a particularly positive way. They are used to handling fast prototypes and know each other extremely well.”

"For me, Audi is the most successful brand at Le Mans,” says Fassler who contested two ALMS races for the manufacturer in 2008 before being signed by Corvette Racing as a third driver last year. “Having the chance to be part of the Audi team this year is incredible for me and a great opportunity I want to take advantage of at all cost.”

Frenchman Treluyer, who has five Le Mans starts, four with Audi’s P1 rivals Pescarolo Sport says; "for me, a dream is coming true. I’d never have expected to immediately get a slot with a ‘factory’ team for Le Mans after my return from Japan – and, what’s more, together with my best friend Andre Lotterer, and with Marcel Fässler with whom I started my career in Formula Campus.”

“That really can’t be topped!”

Lotterer, the youngest (28) and least experienced (a single La Sarthe visit, last year with a privateer Audi R10) is straight forward about what he is aiming for this year. “I’ve just got a single goal: victory!" he says.

The first race for the trio will come May 9 when they contest the 1000km Le Mans Series round at Spa-Francochamps, a race Audi themselves describe as a ‘dress rehearsal’ for Le Mans.

“For the time being, plans for Marcel, André, and Benoît are fully focused on Le Mans 2010," said Dr. Ulrich, but added they ‘may’ become part of Audi’s long term sportscar plans.   

The season is over and came to an end with the most exciting race since Sebring. Somehow appropriate to bookend a lackluster season with your two best rounds.

A farewell win for Gil de Ferran and possibly Adrian Fernandez make the race all the better, particularly with the two battling for the overall win right down to the last lap.

Jorg Bergmeister needs to be penalized somehow. Although Jan Magnussen bears some blame for starting the bumping, Jorg's retaliation was unacceptable. Some will note that Jorg moved to the right before the Corvette spun, but if you look closely you'll see the Corvette starts spinnig BEFORE Jorg moves right.

And the spin begins right after Jorg appears to jink lightly to the left again. It's quite clear to the attentive eye that Jorg is at fault for the spin, and were the season still going I'd certainly be giving him a qualifying penalty for the next race. But with the season done, I'll have to settle for a monetary fine.

Rant over. Back to positives.

If Laguna Seca is anything to go by, we can expect good things from the combined LMP class structure. Two LMP2s (counting the unclassified biobutanol-powered Dyson entry) topped the timing sheets in practice, and Adrian Fernandez had a real shot at the overall win, despite the lack of any equivalency applied to the cars yet.

With LMP2s still able to get close to LMP1 speed, we can expect quite a year when they've been equalized and put in one class.

Just don't expect Audi to be there. They'll be at Sebring and Petit surely, but I can't see them being interested in the combined class when Le Mans won't be run that way.

I suspect we'll have at least seven full-time LMPs next year, and if they're all in the same class that'd be quite a show.

LMP-C has gotten a lot of positive reaction and we should have a very reasonable field there, and we all know that GT-C has gotten a lot of interest.

The American Le Mans Series ended a lackluster season as best they could, and showing us a lot of potential for a good series in 2010. Mixing the open competition the series is known for with some close spec racing should be very, VERY unique, and almost certainly entertaining.

It was de Ferran Motorsports’ ghostly white Acura that emerged from the gathering gloom to take the win in the American Le Mans Series at Laguna Seca.

Sporting a livery harking back to the Can-Am Chaparral racers, it was Gil de Ferran in his last outing as a professional driver who took the win in the P1 class ARX-02a machine he shared with Simon Pagenaud.

However, the victory was not enough to snatch the class series title away from Acura stablemates Patron Highcroft, whose own 02a finished second in the class and third overall to take the team’s title and hand drivers Scott Sharp and David Brabham victory in their championship.

It was the end of a four-hour race around the 2.2-mile California venue that had seen more than its fair share of incident and accident, and indeed continued to after the chequered flag had fallen.

The first accident came as early as lap three, when the P1 Lola Coupe driven by Paul Drayson was pushed into the turn nine barriers by the P2 Cytosport Porsche Spyder, with Klaus Graf behind the wheel.

While the German was able to continue the impact, which the team registered at a frightening 18.5G, left the right side of the Drayson Racing coupe severely damaged, along with the undertray and suspension.

While Drayson was unharmed in the accident, it was another disappointing end to another promising weekend, though the lighter side is perhaps seen in the inclusion of a quote from Drayson’s six-year-old daughter.

"It was really, really bad. It was so bad that I was scared. It was all slippery and someone bashed him. The Drayson Racing team tried and cleared it up. THE END!"

Then shortly before the hour mark there was another flurry of caution-causing activity.

First Butch Leitzinger stopped his Mazda powered Lola coupe on the blast up the hill towards The Corkscrew, which caused the deployment of the safety car, bunching the pack back up, and when the green flag flew again the inevitable happened.

Oliver Gavin in the No. 4 Corvette fired up the inside of the Highcroft Acura, before hitting the Challenge class polesitter of Guy Cosmo and John Baker. Gavin’s Corvette was extensively damaged (and would eventually receive a penalty for starting the melee), along with the No. 05 Challenge car that had been leading their class at the time. The Acura had more minor damage, as did the Cosmo Porsche and the No. 92 BMW.

That caused the safety car to return to the track as it took nearly 10 minutes to clear the debris, but once under green again it was only a short time before the next event altered the destination of the GT2 title.

The No. 33 Rocketsports Jaguar, making its much delayed and problem ridden debut, made contact with the Risi Ferrari of Pierre Kaffer, damaging the front engine Ferrari’s radiators into retirement.

With the retirement posted long before the car had completed 70 percent of the race distance, it assured the Flying Lizard the team's title and their driving duo of Jorg Bergmeister and Patrick Long the class drivers' crown.

Back up front, with Patron Highcroft’s woes, it was left to the fastest of the P2 cars to hold de Ferran and Pagenaud to account.

First it was the No. 15 P2 Acura of Fernandez Racing then the No. 16 Dyson Lola, again ineligible for points due to its experimental butanol fuel, shared between Guy Smith, Chris Dyson, and Ben Devlin in another excitingly positive outing after the team stormed away from their P2 equivalents at Petit Le Mans.

However, when the Lola had to pit to repair suspension damage after an incident with the No. 4 Corvette, now with Olivier Beretta driving, the baton was handed back to Fernandez and Luis Diaz.

Despite the P2 car briefly taking the lead, that’s how it remained.

“If we had a yellow I might have been able to get ahead of Gil, maybe get one or two corners ahead of him,” said Fernandez. “We both drove hard and clean and it just never happened.”

The No. 15 Lowe’s backed car eventually followed de Ferran across the line, only 0.66 seconds behind, cementing their own clutch of class titles.

But even as the leading cars began their cooling down lap, the race had one more (on track) incident to give. As the GT2 fight entered the final few corners Jan Magnussen and the No. 3 Corvette dived into the final corner, nearly clipping Bergmeister's car.

As the pair of cars dragged, both banged door-to-door, towards the line the pair first drifted left towards the pit wall, before the Dane’s car speared hard into the right hand wall, managing still to be classified second, officially just over a second behind the Porsche, with the Farnbacher-Loles Porsche completing the GT2 podium.

In the all Porsche GT3 Challenge class, Cosmo and Baker, recovering from their problems in the Gavin accident, were handed the victory after the on track winners Mitchell Pagerey and Shane Lewis were disqualified after the race. Despite retiring early, the husband and wife team of Melanie and Martin Snow took the class title.

The Checkered Flag extends its congratulations to all the ALMS class champions, and its only 159 days until the 2010 12 Hours of Sebring.

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Dyson Racing notched their first victory in the American LeMans series since 2005, as Butch Leitzinger and Marino Franchitti won at their home track, Lime Rock Connecticut.

Their victory ended a four-race winning streak for Lowe’s Fernandez Racing and Acura in the LMP-2 class.

Franchitti moved ahead of Luis Diaz five minutes into the race, and the Lola-Mazda coupe lapped the Lowe’s Fernandez racing car when the Acura pitted to replace its rear shock and also experienced downshift problems.

By the time Adrian Fernandez rejoined the race, Franchitti was ahead by six laps.
“I don’t think we could have picked a better place (for the first win in the Lola-Mazda),” said Franchitti, who won for the first time in the Series.

“It was a combination of a lot of hard work for both cars I have been so close, either overall or in class, it is really a sweet victory. I’m getting a sore face from grinning.”

Leitzinger gave the team a scare with about five minutes to go, which stopped the grinning where he stalled as he avoided a spinning GT2 car. The Lola-Mazda’s clutch had failed early in the race, and Leitzinger had to restart the car on battery power.

“What a fantastic starter motor,” quipped Leitzinger, who was part of the team’s victory at Mosport four years ago, also in a Lola chassis.

“It felt a little destined to win today. When the car spun out in front of me and then we didn’t have a clutch, trying to go uphill, I thought it was over. But this is how it was going to go and it really was a great day. Marino did a stellar job. It is the first of many for him. I am very proud to drive with him. We are happy to be a part of his first win.”

The Dyson victory was also Mazda’s first in the Series since Mid-Ohio in 2005. 

Fernandez and Diaz placed second in class Saturday. Gunnar van der Steur and Adam Pecorari placed third in van der Steur Racing’s Radical SR9-AER, the first race for the team since St. Petersburg last year.

Photo and quote: ALMS

Simon Pagenaud and Gil de Ferran took their third straight American Le Mans Series win at the Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park on Saturday.  The win came with a little help in the way of a punctured tire suffered by their Acura rivals.

David Brabham appeared to be on his way to a second straight Lime Rock victory with Patrón Highcroft Racing teammate Scott Sharp, but a flat left-rear tire with 13 minutes remaining ended those hopes.  Brabham ducked quickly into the pits but could do nothing as Pagenaud crossed the finish line in his Acura ARX-02a 43.776 seconds ahead

De Ferran and Pagenaud haven’t lost since the St. Petersburg street race in early April.  It is beginning to appear that the team at de Ferran Motorsports can do no wrong.

“We started in the middle of last year; not only do we have a steep learning curve in sports cars, but we started a team from scratch,” said team owner de Ferran. “We are just over a year old, and we really used these last two months to our advantage. I am quite happy about the evolution of the team. We had a little good fortune today. But it was good. We had a good race.”

It was a fantastic battle between the two Acuras. More often than not, things were nip-and-tuck between the two around the tight and twisty track and through the traffic. Patrón Highcroft seemed to be in ideal position to repeat last year’s maiden overall victory by taking fuel and left-side tires only during its last scheduled stop. The move allowed Brabham to get out of the pits before Pagenaud, who after pitting two laps earlier, came around.

“I honestly didn’t have the pace to come back on him,” Pagenaud said. ““I am going to remember this race forever. I think my heart rate was at maximum all race because of the traffic and the ending.”

In the MICHELIN Green X Challenge, the de Ferran Acura was the winner among the prototype entries for the third consecutive race. The competition awards teams and manufacturers who have the greatest overall performance with the smallest environmental impact.



American Le Mans Northeast Grand Prix Lime Rock Park, Lakeville, Conn.
Saturday’s Combined results:
1. (1) Gil de Ferran, Brazil; Simon Pagenaud, France; Acura ARX-02a (1, P1), 184.
2. (2) Scott Sharp, Jupiter, FL; David Brabham, Australia; Acura ARX-02a (2, P1), 184.
3. (6) Johnny Mowlem, England; Stefan Johansson, Sweden; Ginetta-Zytek 09HS (3, P1), 177.
4. (4) Marino Franchitti, Scotland; Butch Leitzinger, State College, PA; Lola B09 86 Mazda (1, P2), 172.
5. (10) Patrick Long, Oak Park, CA; Jörg Bergmeister, Germany; Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (1, GT2), 167.
6. (8) Chris McMurry, Phoenix, AZ; Tony Burgess, Canada; Lola B06/10 AER (4, P1), 166.
7. (3) Luis Diaz, Mexico; Adrian Fernandez, Mexico; Acura ARX-01B (2, P2), 166.
8. (9) Pierre Kaffer, Germany; Jaime Melo, Brazil; Ferrari F430 GT (2, GT2), 166.
9. (12) Bill Auberlen, Hermosa Beach, CA; Joey Hand, Sacramento, CA; BMW E92 M3 (3, GT2), 166.
10. (11) Bryce Miller, Hoboken, NJ; Wolf Henzler, Germany; Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (4, GT2), 165.
11. (15) Johannes Stuck, Austria; Richard Westbrook, England; Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (5, GT2), 163.
12. (16) Ian James, England; Dominik Farnbacher, Germany; Tom Sutherland, Los Gatos, CA; Panoz Esperante GTLM Ford (6, GT2), 163.
13. (18) Seth Neiman, Burlingame, CA; Johannes van Overbeek, San Francisco, CA; Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (7, GT2), 159.
14. (17) Joel Feinberg, Ft. Lauderdale, FL; Chris Hall, Daytona, FL; Dodge Viper Comp Coupe (8, GT2), 158.
15. (23) Adam Pecorari, Aston, PA; Gunnar Van der Steur, Chesapeake City, MD; Radical SR9 AER (3, P2), 157.
16. (14) David Murry, Cumming, GA; David Robertson, Ray, MI; Andrea Robertson, Ray, MI; Doran Ford GT MK 7 (9, GT2), 153.
17. (19) Wesley Hoagland, Tustin, CA; Bob Faieta, Tujunga, CA; Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (1, C), 149.
18. (21) Ed Brown, Las Vegas, NV; Bill Sweedler, Westport, CT; Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (2, C), 146.
19. (22) Donald Pickering, Reno, NV; Nick Parker, Seattle, WA; Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (3, C), 144.
20. (20) Melanie Snow, Pleasant Grove, UT; Martin Snow, Pleasant Grove, UT; Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (4, C), 142.
21. (13) Tommy Milner, Leesburg, VA; Dirk Müller, Germany; BMW E92 M3 (10, GT2), 142.
22. (7) Clint Field, Dublin, OH; Chapman Ducote, Miami, FL; Jon Field, Dublin, OH; Lola B06/10 AER (5, P1), 139, Drivetrain.
23. (5) Chris Dyson, Pleasant Valley, NY; Guy Smith, England; Lola B09 86 Mazda (4, P2), 63, Electrical.
24. (24) Guy Cosmo, Long Island, NY; John Baker, New York, NY; Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (5, C), 52, Mechanical.

Max Angelelli held off a last-lap charge from Alex Gurney to win the Brumos Porsche 250 at Daytona International Speedway, round seven of the 2009 Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series.  Angelelli, who also won this event in 2004, won by .270 seconds - the fifth-closest finish in the history of the series.
Together with co-driver, Brian Frisselle, in the No. 10 SunTrust Ford Dallara. Angelelli led the final 33 of the 70 laps to give his team its first victory of the year, and allowed the two drivers to close to within one point of point leaders Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas (199-198). Gurney and his Gainsco/Bob Stallings Racing co-driver, Jon Fogarty are another two points back with 196.

"It was a very fair game," Angelelli said after scoring his 13th career Daytona Prototype victory, second all-time. "It was a good, tough battle. It was really difficult today. Thanks to SunTrust Racing for the good car they gave me. I went out for my stint in the lead, which was really important."

The event, traditionally held in the evening, was moved to 2 p.m. to set up a holiday doubleheader that also included the Coke Zero 400 for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

The No. 45 Orbit Racing BMW Riley took third with Ryan Dalziel and Bill Lester, who scored his first podium finish in Rolex Series competition.
"Our car was good from the moment we unloaded it," Lester said. "We feel like we can be much more formidable, a force to be reckoned with. We're really excited about what the future holds."

Coming from 17th to finish fourth The No. 6 Michael Shank Racing Ford Riley almost missed the race after John Pew crashed late in morning practice, causing major damage to the front end of the car co-driven by Michael Valiante. The team repaired the car with moments to spare before the start...

The No. 61 AIM Autosport Ford Riley of Burt Frisselle and Mark Wilkins, which started last on the 19-car grid after a post-qualifying infraction worked it’s way up the field to round up the top five

The two cautions helped to an average speed of 114.918 mph, the third-fastest race in Rolex Series history.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers Kyle Busch and Scott Speed finished 10th in their Rolex Series debut in the No. 02 Waste Management Lexus Riley fielded by Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates.

Keen, Werner Win Third Straight, Increase GT Point Lead

The No. 87 Farnbacher Loles Racing Porsche GT3, with drivers Dirk Werner and Leh Keen, led the final 29 laps to claim its  third consecutive victory and fourth in five races, opening a 29-point lead (221-192) in the battle for the Acxiom GT championship.

"For our success, the key is that Leh Keen keeps our car in the front in the beginning of the race," said Werner, the 2007 GT champion. "In the beginning of my run, Sylvan was not putting pressure on me. He was trying to stay close. I knew he would try to attack me at the end of the race - which he did."

Sylvain Tremblay in the No. 70 Castrol Syntec Mazda RX-8 started by Nick Ham finished 1.531 seconds behind, denying the its third consecutive victory in the event.
Andy Lally and Justin Marks finished third in the No. 67 Construct Corp./No Fear Energy Drinks Porsche GT3. Emil Assentato and Jeff Segal took fourth in the No. 69 FXDD Mazda RX-8.  Eric Lux and Wolf Henzler, the winner’s teammates finished fifthe in the No. 86 Farnbacher Loles Racing Porsche GT3.

Round 8 for the Grand-Am Rolex Series will be the Porsche 250 presented by Legacy Credit Union July 19 at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Ala. The weekend will also include a pair of KONI Sports Car Challenge races.

Photos & Quotes: Grand-Am