Starworks Motorsport scored a 1–2 finish in the Grand Am Rolex Rolex Continental Tire 200 on the Watkins Glen short course Saturday, the first 1–2 in the team’s history.
It was the second win in a row for Starworks; the #2 car of Sebastien Bourdais and Alex Popow won the previous race, the Brickyard Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, earning the team the North American Endurance Championship.
Ryan Dalzeil and co-driver Lucas Luhr in the in the #8 Riley-Ford led for 30 laps of the 91-lap race, holding off teammate Sebastien Bourdais in a four-lap sprint after a late yellow.
“It was an unbelievable job,” Dalziel told Grand-am.com. “We definitely felt in Indy that we could have had a 1–2 and after a couple of seasons of knocking on the door of a double podium, this is excellent. I don’t think it was just a podium for both cars. I think it was a pretty dominating performance.”
The win moved Dalziel to within six points of series leaders Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas, whose No. 01 Telmex-Ganassi Riley-BMW finished third.
In GT, Turner Motorsports earned its second win of the season, as Bill Auberlen and Paul Dala Lana in the # 94 BMW beat Boris said and Eeric Curran in the #31 Whelen Corvette.
Leh Keen and Andrew Davis finished third in the #59 Brumos Porsche.
GT points leaders Emil Assentato and Jeff Segal in the #69 AIM-FXDD Ferrari finished seventh in class after colliding with the #57 Stevenson Camaro in the first turn of the race. Segal and Assentato still lead Dalla Lana 300–284.
With three races left in the season, both the Daytona Prototype and GT championships are up for grabs.
In DP
The battle is basically between Ryan Dalziel and the Telmex-Ganassi drivers, but with Alex Popow and Action Express driver Darren Law just 20 points back and both capable of winning, the contest could be close.
Telmex-Ganassi is always quick and reliable, but bad luck (or bad rivers) can strike at any time. Starworks has been hot lately and is certainly eager to dethrone the long-reigning pair of Pruett and Rojas.
In GT, Stevenson Motorsports, after a run of bad luck (and bad decisions by other drivers) is out of the running but can still serve as a spoiler by taking away points, and the Whelen Corvette is due a win. If FXDD has another race like this last one (or worse,) Dalla Lana could take the title.
The Grand Am Roolex Sports Car Series heads north of the border next for the Montreal 200 at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, Quebec, Canada on August 18, in a race weekend featuring both NASCAR and the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge along with the Rolex race.
Tickets are available through the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve website.
