Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas pulled the #01 Telemex Ganassi Riley BMW into Victory Lane for the first time all season at the Grand Am Rolex Rolex 250 Driven by Visitflorida.Com at the wooded, hilly Road America course at Elkhart, Wisconsin.
The team had gone eight racers without a win—a record for Telmex-Ganassi—and the multiple champions were more than ready to Not set a new record for losing.
The team won with clever strategy, gambling on an early pit stop under yellow, giving up the lead to get off-strategy from the other front-runners. This paid off when a late yellow let the Telmex car finish without stopping again.
It wasn’t just strategy but also excellent driving by Scott Pruett in the final several laps, being chased by Ryan Dalziel on brand new tires. Despite the disadvantage Pruett kept his gap and won the team’s first race of the season.
Pruett and Rojas also benefited from the mishaps and bad fortune of the competition. The #99 Gainsco Riley Corvette suffered a broken front suspension and retired; Antonio Garcia in the #90 Spirit of Daytona Coyote-Corvette collided with a GT car while leading, bending the rear suspension which necessitated a lengthy pit stop.
Ricky Taylor in the race-leading #10 SunTrust Dallara Corvette lost control while cleaning his tires under yellow with eight minutes left in the race, sidelining this likely race winner. This was the third DNF for the SunTrust car, the second caused by a Ricky Taylor error under yellow. Finally, Lucas Luhr in the #8 Starworks car suffered a transmission failure and got stuck in the pits.
Pruett and Rojas didn’t make any mistakes. Their pit stops were perfect, the car ran flawlessly, and the team finally returned to Winner’s Circle.
Next: Gambling on Fuel Strategy
Gambling on Fuel Mileage
Despite not having won all season, the two drivers led the points with their consistent podium finishes. The championship lead meant the Telmex Riley BMW would start from the pole; qualifying was rained out, so the grid was ordered according to points.
Road America is a high-speed track, and since the new Corvette-bodied, Chevrolet-powered cars had been dominant since the season’s second race, Grand Am gave the Ford- and BMW-powered cars a few extra rpm, which upped the top speed a bit. Since the Road America race was a short (two-hour) race where fuel economy could play a key role, the extra fuel burned at higher rpm made it a double-edged sword.
Knowing all this, Telmex-Ganassi gambled on strategy, pitting from the lead after four laps when the #67 TRG Porsche got bumped and broken by the #51 APR Audi. Now memo Rojas had to keep the car clean and near the front while stretching fuel until the final 45 minutes, so the car could finish on one more stop.
Rojas wasn’t playing it safe; on the restart he pushed past Darren Law as the driver of the #9 Action Express Coyote-Corvette tangled with Alex Popow in the #8 Starworks Riley-Ford. Law got past several laps later on the straightaway, but it was a near thing—obviously the series’ engineers got the equivalency calculations correct.
The Telmex-Ganassi car moved into first place as the other leaders pitted one after another. He brought the car in with just over 48 minutes left in the race, making the last stint a little long for co-driver Scott Pruett. Pruett needed to stretch his fuel, and also get past three fast drivers: Ryan Dalziel in the #2 Starworks Riley-Ford, Ricky Taylor in the #10 SunTrust Dallara-Corvette and Lucas Luhr in the #8 Starworks car.
With 26 minutes left in the race, with Pruett behind Ricky Taylor and Ryan Dalziel on fresh tires closing quickly from behind, Andy Lally in the #44 Magnus racing Porsche blew up his motor, bringing out a full-course caution. This was what Telmex-Ganassi had gambled on—a chance for Pruett to save a little more fuel, and run hard to fight for the win in the closing laps.
Fate favored Telmex-Ganassi: Ricky Taylor bobbled while weaving back and forth and goosing the throttle to scrub pick-up off his tires to prepare for the restart. The SunTrust Dallara-Corvette slammed the wall, ending its day and handing the lead to Scott Pruett.
The race restarted with eight minutes left. Scott Pruett had a very hungry Ryan Dalziel on his wing, old tires compared to Dalziel’s fresher rubber, and maybe not enough gas to make it all the way to the finish.
Pruett didn’t play for second—he risked running out of gas and pushed hard to stretch his 1.6 second gap over the Starworks driver out to 3.7 seconds.
The win increased Pruett and Rojas’s points lead over Starworks drivers Dalziel and Enzo Potolicchio. It was only the second trip back to the podium for Shank Racing’s Ozz Negri and John Pew since winning the season-opening Rolex 24.
Next: AIM/FXDD Stretch GT Lead
