ALTON, Va. — It’s hard to keep good men down, especially if they’re Chip Ganassi drivers Memo Rojas and Scott Pruett. For the pair who started off the 2008 Grand American Rolex Sports Car Series season by winning the Daytona 24-Hour classic, in the Telmex Lexus Riley Daytona Prototype, the two-and-three-quarter hour, Bosch Engineering 250 round of the championship was no cakewalk.
Yet, when this past Sunday’s proceedings were over here at the historic Virginia Int’l Raceway, the pair found themselves on the top step of the podium after scoring a thrilling half-second victory over the Samax BMW Riley of Ryan Dalziel and Henri Zogaib. Indeed, at the start of the final tour, Pruett found himself ahead of Dalziel, another former Daytona 24 winner, by a margin measured in feet, and not many of them either. Throughout, Dalziel pushed his rival, but the veteran Pruett, whose skills, like fine wine, seemed to have aged well, held the Samax entry at bay in one of the closest finishes ever at VIR. Sunday’s performance by the Telmex pair boosted their lead in the points battle for the Rolex title that they so narrowly lost to the Gainsco Riley pairing of Alex Gurney and Jon Fogarty, whose so far dismal season continued here when they spent time in the pits repairing damage after a bumping incident that left them 14th at the final flag.
For Gainsco’s Bob Stallings, there was some good news as the Pontiac Riley of Marc Goossens and Jim Mathews, of which he is part owner with Mathews, took third after a strong stint out front during the earlier going. The previous week in Mexico City, Goossens and Mathews had surprised the Rolex Community by claiming their second-ever Daytona Prototype crown, ironically over Pruett and Rojas, who suffered from losing before a hometown crowd.
After Saturday’s qualifying session, it seemed as if ill fortune’s dark cloud had followed Rojas and Pruett north to Virginia when Rolex officials disallowed the pole-winning qualifying time and placed them at the rear of the DP field for a rules infraction involving their rear wing. Despite that setback, the Ganassi drivers moved through the field to take home the prize that had so frustratingly eluded them six days before in Mexico City.
Meanwhile, fourth went to the Michael Shank Racing Ford Riley of John Pew and Ian James, they being following to the checkered flag by the Rum Bum Racing BMW Riley of Matt Plumb and Gene Sigal.
As for the Rolex’s assembly-line set (GT), the look was family as the Stevenson duo of Robin Liddell and Andrew Davis took their Pontiac GXP R to its second-consecutive triumph, beating Tim George, Jr. and Spencer Pompelly in their Racers Group Porsche 911 GT3 coupe as the GM brand continues to roll over its foreign opposition toward another production division crown. Coming home third in GT Sunday was the Farnbacher-Loles GT3 Porsche of Eric Lux and Leh Keene.