GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing Fourth Fastest In Opening Practice For Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series GAINSCO Grand Prix of Miami
Alex Gurney Sets Top Time On Last Lap In No. 99 GAINSCO Auto Insurance Pontiac Riley
GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing was on pace when it counted in opening practice for Saturday's GAINSCO Grand Prix of Miami (SPEED TV 6 p.m. ET) Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series race with Alex Gurney setting the team's quickest time on the last lap of Thursday's first practice run.
Gurney lapped the 2.3-mile, 11-turn road course at 112.725 mph (1:13.453 seconds) and clocked in fourth overall on the day in the No. 99 GAINSCO Auto Insurance Pontiac Riley. The quick lap was turned on the 43rd and final practice lap of the session. Gurney drove the GAINSCO machine in the second half of the session while teammate and co-driver Jon Fogarty handled the work at the beginning of practice.
"We are obviously making progress so that is good," Gurney said. "Some of the things we learned during testing over the long break have definitely helped, but we will keep working. There were a lot of black flags during the session but we still made some progress."
Saturday's race is the kick-off event of a full day of auto racing action at Homestead-Miami Speedway that will highlight one of the biggest weekends in the history of GAINSCO Auto Insurance. In addition to its flagship sponsorship of the championship-winning No. 99 GAINSCO Auto Insurance Pontiac Riley, GAINSCO is also is the title sponsor of both races that make up Saturday's unique double-header. The GAINSCO Grand Prix of Miami is Round Two of the 2008 Rolex Series while the GAINSCO Auto Insurance Indy 300 is the first race of the recently unified sport of IndyCar Racing. The GAINSCO Grand Prix kicks off the Saturday schedule with a 3 p.m. green flag and the GAINSCO Auto Insurance Indy 300 goes off at 8 p.m.
On hand to take it all in will be the largest group of sponsor guests to attend a Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series race in history. GAINSCO's more than 600 guests – made up of agent partners, sales managers and corporate employees – is also the biggest contingent of any sponsor that is entertaining at Saturday's Rolex Sports Car/IndyCar Series double-header.
"We are definitely closer than we were at the test and we are looking forward to giving our GAINSCO guests a good result on Saturday," Gurney said. "Everybody within the company and all of the agent partners that sell GAINSCO are so supportive of this program and we want to bring it home for them."
Thursday's practice marked the team's race event debut of the new Riley Mk II bodywork, which they first ran at a Homestead-Miami Speedway Grand-Am Test last month.
Before Gurney and Fogarty took to the track for official practice Thursday, they joined several other Grand-Am drivers in giving pace car rides to a large group of GAINSCO VIPS and international media guests. The drivers used a stable of high-performance Pontiacs for the rides, including a G6 GXP and a Solstice GXP… A press conference with Bob Stallings, Cristiano da Matta and Jimmy Vasser will be held at the Homestead-Miami Speedway media center on Friday at 2 p.m. ET. Stallings and the drivers will review da Matta's recent test in the team's "No. 98" Pontiac Riley last week at the Eagles Canyon road course in the Dallas area and discuss upcoming race plans. Vasser has also been frequently called on by the GAINSCO team to co-drive and joined Gurney in finishing sixth in the 2006 Grand Prix of Miami.
