WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — Never say never, particularly if it involves a long-distance Grand American Rolex Sports Car Series event such as Saturday’s Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen.
About the only real and continuing certainty was the dominating performance of Alex Gurney and Jon Fogarty in their Gainsco Pontiac Riley Daytona Prototype, which saw the pair garner their second victory of the year after starting on the pole.
Such is the equality of the competition in the DP division on the Rolex tour that Gurney and Fogarty, whose first triumph came this past winter at Mexico City (the second round of the championship chase), were the first repeat winners in 2007. Still, perhaps the most notable effort of the day was that of Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas in Chip Ganassi’s Lexus Pontiac.
After being pushed off the track on the opening lap and going one tour down, Pruett and Rojas fought their way back to challenge the Gainsco duo for the victory during the closing stages, eventually crossing the finish line second and keeping Pruett on top of the point chase.
Equally impressive was the third place earned by the SunTrust trio of Max Angelelli, Wayne Taylor and Jonathan Cochet, whose Pontiac Riley fell afoul of race officials and found itself visiting the pits for stop-and-go penalties.
Similarly, no one could count out the Michael Shank Racing Lexus Riley of John Pew and Ian James, which was in the thick of the contest throughout and took the checkered flag in fourth ahead of the Pontiac Riley of Nic Jonsson and Tracy Krohn, with teenager Colin Braun also listed as part of the driving team.
In all, no less than 14 cars were on the lead lap after six hours of competition, with Pruett and Rojas just a little more than seven seconds in arrears. Even so, it was clearly a Gainsco day, with Gurney and Fogarty leading 91 of the 167 laps completed.
While the two have been fast throughout the 2007 campaign, success since Mexico City had eluded them because of small problems and continuing mistakes. In a pre-race television interview, Fogarty acknowledged that team owner Bob Stallings had sat the entire crew down for what Fogarty described as “a talk” about correcting the flaws. Whatever was said, it was obviously taken to heart, as the unmarked, nearly pristine Riley rolled into victory lane.
As Gurney put it, “It was a team effort. We all did an amazing job all weekend. The team’s effort allowed Jon and myself to capitalize on the really good car our crew gave us. I’m really happy for everyone.”
If there was action up front among the DP set, the warfare in the GT class was just as fierce, as the Pontiacs, which had triumphed at Connecticut’s Lime Rock Park on Memorial Day in a solo feature, came to The Glen to continue their momentum. That, however, was not to be, as Andy Lally and R.J. Valentine, with the help of Spencer Pumpelly, pushed their TRG Porsche 911 GT3 to the fore during the closing stages and stayed there, if just barely over the similar Farnbacher Loles entry of a charging Dirk Werner, co-driving with Bryce Miller and Craig Stanton.
Paul Edwards, Kelly Collins and Andy Pilgrim, despite some difficulties along the way, pushed their Banner Racing Pontiac GXP-R past the Synergy Racing Porsche of Steve Johnson and Richard Westbrook in the last 30 minutes of the race.
For the point-leading SpeedSource Mazda RX8 duo of Nick Ham and Sylvain Tremblay, it was a bad day. They failed to go the distance. Even so, they held their increasingly narrow title advantage in a season where no one will be sure of the outcome until it is all over.