MONTEREY, Calif. — Ryan Dalziel took the lead from Scott Pruett on a three-wide pass on lap 76 of the 98-lap RumBum.com 250 on Saturday at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and held off Marc Goossens by 1.504 seconds to give himself, co-driver Henri Zogaib and Samax their first Grand Am Rolex Sports Car Series victory.
While Dalziel led the final 23 laps, he had one close call late in the race. Following a restart with 15 minutes remaining, Goossens managed to pull alongside the Scotsman as the pair approached the famed Corkscrew turn.
Both cars, as did the car driven by point co-leader and third-place runner Scott Pruett, went through the gravel before reentering the track — all three managing to maintain control — with Dalziel holding the lead at the exit of the fast downhill corner.
Dalziel gave the No. 2 Samax BMW Riley its first Rolex Series Daytona Prototype victory after three runner-up finishes. Zogaib started the car 17th before turning it over to Dalziel 14 laps into the race, and once in front, Dalziel never fell from the top position. Goossens and Jim Matthews were seeking their second victory of the season in the No. 91 Bob Stallings Racing/Riley-Matthews Motorsports Pontiac Riley, as the pair won the Mexico City 250.
Pruett, seeking his fourth victory of the season in the No. 01 Telemex Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Lexus Riley started by Memo Rojas, had taken the lead from Cristiano da Matta on a restart following a caution for a fire that damaged Matt Plumb’s No. 7 Rum Bum Racing BMW Riley. Moments later, Goossens made his move on Pruett. Dalziel, seeing his opportunity, went by to take the lead.
Pruett and Rojas finished third and left the race with a 19-point advantage (167-148) over Goossens and Matthews. Following in fourth was the No. 99 GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing Pontiac Riley of Jon Fogarty and Alex Gurney, and fifth was the No. 58 Brumos Porsche Riley of       pole-sitter David Donohue and Darren Law.
In GT, Paul Edwards took advantage of a miscue by Sylvain Tremblay on the next-to-last lap and gave himself, co-driver Kelly Collins and the No. 07 Banner Racing Banner Engineering Pontiac GXP.R their second Rolex Series GT triumph of the 2008 season.
Tremblay took the lead into lap 96 before getting off the track in the Corkscrew. He returned to the track, but couldn’t hold off a charging Edwards, who completed the pass in turn nine and held onto a                    1.131-second advantage over Spencer Pumpelly.