NEWTON, Iowa — The 1.3-mile Iowa Speedway course was a daunting place made up of the track’s high-speed oval and a short, second-gear infield section that saw Grand Am competitors trying to avoid inadvertent contact with their rivals.
That scenario first played out Friday night as the Daytona Prototypes rolled out for their separate, stand-alone show, leaving the GT contingent to compete in the Iowa sunshine Saturday. After they qualified on the pole, most believed that the Gainsco duo of Jon Fogarty and Alex Gurney could be looking at a fourth-straight victory in their red-painted Pontiac Riley.
That, however, was not to be.
Obscured recently by the ongoing success of the Gainsco camp, point- leader Scott Pruett and partner Memo Rojas were less than a half-second off the pole in the Chip Ganassi Lexus Riley. More importantly, Pruett, who has seen his championship lead diminish, was determined to put an end to the slide.
Even so, it took some fancy pit work by the Ganassi crew to make that happen, as passing on the track was minimized by the thought of the consequences such maneuvers could bring. There were clashes of bodywork and spins, but for the most part, boyish enthusiasm was thankfully kept in check.
When Pruett, who took over from Rojas, emerged from the pits ahead of Gurney, who had stepped in to the car after Fogarty had started it, the point-leader was near perfect.
After two-and-a-half hours of that near perfection, Pruett rolled into victory lane for the first time since he and his partners stood on top of the podium at this past January’s Rolex 24 at Daytona. The happiness for the Ganassi camp wasn’t quite over, though. While one might have expected Gurney and Fogarty to take second, they didn’t.
That honor, instead, belonged to Rob Finlay and Michael Valiante, who were driving Ganassi’s other Lexus Riley. As strong as the Gainsco entry was in the beginning, Gurney had to give way to Valiante during the closing laps when he went high on the banking and got into the marbles as the wear on his car and his tires took its toll.
Even so, the evening wasn’t without its scary moments for Pruett, particularly at the end when the car’s fuel supply, which had been stretched to the limit, began to run dry as Valiante closed in on Pruett’s tailpipes. As Pruett put it, “Everything was good until the last lap when I began to run out of fuel. We had rules about passing, but when the car started coughing, all that changed. Luckily, it stayed running.” 
Despite their problems, Gurney and Fogarty were able to hold off the hard-charging Krohn Racing Pontiac Riley of 18-year-old Colin Braun and Max Papis. The youngster, who is headed to NASCAR’s Roush Racing, looked particularly impressive Friday night. Similarly, putting in a memorable effort were Mark Patterson and Oswaldo Negri, Jr., who were fifth in their Michael Shank Racing Lexus Riley.
In Saturday’s GT battle, Kelly Collins and Paul Edwards, who began the affair at the top of the point list, took the pole in their Banner Racing Pontiac GXP-R, and most were predicting a Pontiac victory.
But while Edwards and Collins were strong, a chunk of rubber collected on the track ripped off the belt used to run the engine cooling fans, damaging the powerplant and putting them out of the event. Not only did that cost them the race, it also cost them the point lead, which went to The Racers Group’s Andy Lally and R.J. Valentine. Lally and Valentine came from a lap down to earn their fourth triumph of 2007 in their Porsche 911 GT3.
For Lally, who had taken over early from his partner, there was little comment afterwards, as he showed the effects of heat exhaustion in what was an all-out effort to stay in front. Indeed, during the final laps, Lally found his mirrors completely full of Tim Lewis, Jr.’s Banner GXP-R that had been started by Leighton Reese. Like Lally and Valentine, the Pontiac pair had gone a lap down after Reese was spun out on the opening lap on the crowded track by an overly aggressive competitor.
Not only did the two get back up front, but during the final stages, Lewis pushed himself and his car far beyond what might have been expected, passing the Farnbacher Loles GT3 of Dirk Werner and Bryce Miller to challenge Lally, who was fading from the high cockpit temperatures he was experiencing.
As for Werner and Miller, they were able, like Lally, to hang on for third over the similar TRG 911 of Bryan Sellers and Spencer Pumpelly. The SpeedSource Mazda EX8 of Emil Assentato and Nick Longhi rounded out the top five after teammates Nick Ham and Sylvain Tremblay could do no better than 13th following lengthy repairs to their damaged front suspension.