"Four Way Tie for Grand-Am Rolex Series Daytona Prototype Lead"

On top the racewinners of the Sahlen's Six Hours of the Glen: Left, Scott Pruett (who notched his 20th career Daytona Prototype (DP) victory) and Memo Rojas. Below, Brian Frisselle and Max Angelelli, who finished second.

The Chip Ganassi Racing team of Pruett and Rojas led the most laps on the way to breaking a nine race losing streak. Pruett was being caught by Angelelli at the end; with "Max the Axe" beginning to chop into a sizeable lead for the defending DP champions. A yellow with less than two minutes to go raised an issue with Pruett's fuel. Pruett set the fastest lap time ten laps from the end and was on the gas till the yellow flew--he had to be, or else Angelelli would have caught him.

Roger Penske's drivers--Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhard--led some early laps...but fell back and finished third in their final tuneup before they go to LeMans to drive for the Audi team next weekend.

Next action for the Daytona Prototype cars is at the Mid Ohio Sports Car Course in two weeks. Pruett, Rojas, Frisselle and Angelelli are in a four way flatfooted tie with 140 points. Alex Gurney and Jon Fogarty--leaders when the day started, fell back to third in points--just six behind.

We get a short night and will catch up to you from the tricky trioval--Pocono Raceway--on Sunday.

Greetings from a "Green Racetrack"

The first of our four race in a five and 1/2 week eastern/western swing is at Homestead-Miami Speedway...where the Grand-Am/Rolex/Crown Royal sportscars share the weekend with the Indy Racing League sanctioned IndyCar series. After two Grand-Am events...Ganassi Racing's Scott Pruett has a 3 point lead over Max "The Ax" Angelelli with an average of a 2.5 finish.

The greening of Homestead has nothing to do with irrigation (despite a lack of rain) and everything to do with renewable fuels. Each of the 20 IndyCars will be powered by ethanol (which is the chemical term for what Junior Johnson called 'corn squeezins'). The ethanol used by the series is treated with 2% gasoline so it can co-exist with the yards of plumbing in a race car fuel system. Teams and tracks alike have to adjust--fuelers and firemen have been finding out what the fuel will do in crashes and when the cars are cruising at 200+ miles an hour.

Another lady joins the IRL...Endurance driver Milka Duno will race in at least 10 races for the SAMAX team, backed by Venezuelan owned energy company CITGO. Ms. Duno is a Venezuelan. When she won her first of three Grand-Am races in February, 2004 here, she dedicated the win to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

The Saturday ticket at Homestead is a bargain for those who enjoy a smorgasbord of racing...a true day-night double header. We'll let you know who won the poles for both the Grand-Am and IRL events...and maybe post a hi-res photo or two.

Paul Kaminski

3/23/2007