MONTREAL — Quite often it’s not what you do in the beginning that counts, but what you do at the end. Here Friday evening on the Isle Norte Dame in the middle of the St. Lawrence Seaway in the two-and-a-half-hour Montreal round of the Grand American Rolex Sports Car Series race, it was most definitely the final few minutes which were critical to who went home with a smile, and who stood around with a frown wondering how to make things better.
Out front for just the second time this season was Max Angelelli, partnered by his regular co-driver Jan Magnussen in Wayne Taylor’s SunTrust Pontiac Riley. For Taylor and company, the switch from being part of Bill Riley’s official factory squad to full independent status has taken some adjustment, particularly since Magnussen’s other commitments have kept him out of the car on more than one occasion, forcing Angelelli to himself to adjust to new temporary partners.
In spite of everything, Angelelli has found himself in a position to chase down current points leader Scott Pruett in Chip Ganassi’s Telmex-backed Lexus-Riley, a chase which got considerably closer here Friday after Pruett and Memo Rojas found themselves stuck in fifth at the finish. Indeed, with just three rounds left, Pruett’s margin over Angelelli is just two points, while Alex Gurney is nine back after he and Jon Fogarty took third at Montreal with their Gainsco Pontiac Riley after an air gun failed during a pit stop and dropped Gurney out of the top five in the latter stages of the affair.
Despite that miscue, Gurney took the pole-sitting car back up the field to cross the line less than two seconds behind Angelelli, in what was a thrilling comeback to keep his hopes alive. Ironically, squeezed in between the SunTrust and Gainsco entries was the factory Pontiac Riley of Marc Goossens and Jim Mathews, Goossens driving a brilliant race after Mathews handed the car over in a good position for him to take it to the winners circle. Unfortunately, as Goossens noted later, while his car was good, it didn’t have that small extra edge that would have moved it up to the top spot in those hard-fought closing laps. Nevertheless, as was the case with Gurney, at the checkered flag, the distance between Angelelli and Goossens was measured in inches, not feet.
Rounding out the leading five in fourth place after an excellent performance was the rejuvenated Cheever Racing Pontiac Fabcar of Christian Fittipaldi and Antonio Garcia, which had, at one point, actually moved up into the lead over its charging rivals, who were intent on marking the mark in the war for the championship.
The GT contest settled in the final yards after an errant car punted leader Dirk Werner in the Farnbacher Loles Porsche 911 GT3 coupe he was sharing with Bryce Miller. Although Werner managed to keep control of his car, he lost first to the similar TRG Porsche of R.J. Valentine and Andy Lally, as Lally pushed himself and his partner into victory lane for the fifth time this year.
Third after the melee that saw the Pontiac GXP-R of Kelly Collins and Paul Edwards spun out in sight of the finish, was the Black Forrest Racing Ford Mustang of Tom Nastasi and Terry Borcheller.