What a difference a flag makes.
An elective yellow to clean up debris on lap 628 completely changed the character of the 50th Anniversary Grand Am Rolex 24, letting Oz Negri in the #60 Shank Riley-Ford and Ryan Dalziel in the #8 Starworks car close up on Scott Pruett in the #01 Telmex- Ganassi—the Starworks car was allowed to take back its lost lap, and restart right on the tails of the leaders.
With the Riley-Fords having a few mph in hand over the Telmex BMW, Pruett couldn’t hold onto the lead; two laps after the restart, the Telmex was third.
Twenty laps later the #19 Muehlner Porsche went into the tires, bringing out the 12th full-course yellow, again tightening up the field. Graham Rahal in the #01 Telmex restarted in second but couldn’t hold the spot; the Ford-powered Rileys had the speed on the banking and could hold off the more nimble Telmex Riley BMW through the infield.
A race which looked to be another Telmex-Ganassi win suddenly was up for grabs—for any team with a Ford motor.
McNish and Negri spent the next half-hour lapping in unison, with McNish trying his best to get by, but the Starworks car had some aero issues stemming from Lucas Luhr ripping off all the lower rear bodywork. McNish stayed glued to the Shank Racing Riley’s rear wing but didn’t have a way to get by. Oz Negri is a seasoned driver, as is Allan McNish; both can handle and both can handle traffic. If Allan McNish doesn’t make a banzai maneuver, he probably won’t be able to get by but won’t lose any places either.
The GT race underwent a similar transformation, as the #63 Risi Ferrari got back on the lead lap, creating a four-way battle between the Porsches of Magnus, TRG, and Brumos and the Risi.
René Rast in the Magnus car had about 20 seconds on Jeroen Bleekemolen in the TRG 911, with Andrew Davis in the Brumos Porsche another 12 seconds back and the Ferrari of ASndrea Betolini 23 seconds further back.
Watch the rest of the race live on Speed TV.
