With three different winners in thefirst three races and a fourth team leading the championship standings atthe one-quarter distance in the 2004 Grand American Rolex Sports Car Serieschase, the close title battle moves into Canada this weekend for the 6Heures du Circuit Mont-Tremblant (SPEED Channel, 11 a.m. ET).
While the Kodak Bell Motorsports No. 54 Pontiac Doran driven by ForestBarber, Terry Borcheller, Andy Pilgrim and Christian Fittipaldi; the CITGOHoward-Boss Motorsports No. 2 Pontiac Crawford driven by Andy Wallace andMilka Duno, and the SunTrust Racing No. 10 Pontiac Riley piloted by WayneTaylor and Max Angelelli have all visited victory circle through the firstthree races of the '04 season, all of these teams find themselves looking upto the Rx.com/G&W Motorsports No. 81 BMW Doran and the pairing of CortWagner and Kelly Collins heading into Mont-Tremblant. The points leaderswill be joined this weekend by G&W Motorsports regular, Brent Martini.
Wagner and Collins found their way to the head of the points table on thestrength of a second place performance in the Grand Prix of Miami onFebruary 28 and a third place showing at the Food City 250 in Phoenix lastmonth, and share the championship lead with 90 points apiece. However, theG&W duo cannot rest on their laurels in this weekend's six-hour marathon, asthe top 10 drivers are within a mere 14 points of their lead after three of12 races.
Angelelli and Taylor lurk just three points out of the championship lead,with Wallace sitting fifth in points, six points in arrears of the leaders.Scott Pruett and Max Papis, who share driving duties in the CompUSA ChipGanassi Racing No. 01 Lexus Riley, are sixth in the championship, just threebehind Wallace and nine out of the lead, and Barber and Borcheller - thedefending Rolex Series Daytona Prototype champ - are just one point back ofthe Ganassi duo. Duno holds down the 10th spot in the title chase with 76points, 14 behind the leaders.
While the overall championship chase has been up for grabs, the same can besaid for all three of the previous races thus far in '04. The Rolex 24 AtDaytona - which opened the season - came down to the final minutes before avictor was decided.
With NASCAR Nextel Cup star Tony Stewart desperately trying to nurse thedamaged No. 2 CITGO Crawford to the finish, the No. 54 Pontiac Doran was inhot pursuit. When the rear suspension on Stewart's machine finally gave upwithin 20 minutes of the checkered flag, the No. 54 took the prestigiousvictory.
In Homestead, Max Papis in the No. 01 and Jan Magnussen in the Doran-ListaRacing No. 27 Lexus Doran literally battled door-to-door for the lead. Whenboth drivers slid off-course in Turn 1, the door was opened for Wallace andDuno, who pounced on the opportunity, and brought their CITGO machine hometo victory just 1.9 seconds ahead of the No. 81 of Wagner and Collins.
In the most recent Rolex Series race at Phoenix International Raceway,Taylor and Angelelli played their pit strategy to perfection to take thelead from Papis and Pruett, and the No. 10 Pontiac Riley held off thevaunted No. 01 Lexus Riley by a scant 2.757 seconds for the win. It was thefirst Grand American victory for Taylor, Angelelli and the Riley chassis.
Through the first three races, nobody has been able to match the qualifyingpace of the No. 01, as Pruett and Papis have started every race thus far in'04 from the pole position. However, the team heads to the picturesque2.65-mile Quebec road circuit this weekend still looking for its first win.
Any of the aforementioned race cars rate among the favorites this weekend byvirtue of their performances to date. However, a stout field of 17 DaytonaPrototypes will take the green flag on Sunday and with six hours ofhigh-speed running ahead, any of them could emerge victorious.
Last year, the Red Bull Brumos Racing No. 58 Porsche Fabcar in the hands ofMike Borkowski, Sascha Maassen and David Donohue claimed the Canadian win.This year, Donohue will be sharing the No. 58 with Maassen and Darren Law,while Borkowski will co-drive the Cegwa Sport No. 3 Lexus Fabcar with DariusGrala and John Lloyd.
Based on last year's performances by Donohue, Maassen and Borkowski atMont-Tremblant, both the No. 58 and No. 3 machine bear watching thisweekend, as well as the Brumos Racing No. 59 Porsche Fabcar of HurleyHaywood, JC France and Lucas Luhr.
Further bolstering the Daytona Prototype field will be the Howard-BossMotorsports No. 4 Pontiac Crawford in the hands of Butch Leitzinger, ElliottForbes-Robinson and Paul Edwards; the Essex Racing No. 5 Ford Multimatic ofJoe and Justin Pruskowski and Canadian Ross Bentley; the Michael ShankRacing No. 6 Lexus Doran of Oswaldo Negri and Burt Frisselle; the SouthardMotorsports No. 7 BMW Fabcar with Shane Lewis, Vic Rice and Steve Southardsharing the cockpit; the Sprit of Daytona Racing No. 09 Pontiac Crawford ofStephan Gregoire and Doug Goad; the Silverstone Racing Services No. 39Pontiac Crawford driven by Chris Hall, Larry Huang, and Andrew Davis; andthe G&W Motorsports No. 80 BMW Picchio with a trio of Quebecois drivers inHugo Guenette, Jacques Guenette Jr. and Philippe Letourneau.
Not to be outdone by their Daytona Prototype brethren, the chase for the GTtitle is just as tight. Rolex 24 winner Mike Fitzgerald in the Orbit RacingNo. 44 Porsche GT3 RS leads the standings with 87 markers, just threepoints ahead of Kevin Buckler in The Racer's Group No. 66 Porsche GT3 RS andBoris Said in the Prototype Technology Group No. 21 BMW M3. Said and hisdriving partner, Bill Auberlen have finished first in the GT class in eachof the past two events. Auberlen currently stands fourth in the GTchampionship, three points behind Said and Buckler, and six out of the lead,while the The Racer's Group No. 67 trio of Chris Gleason, Ian James and RJValentine occupy fifth on the points table, 10 points in arrears ofFitzgerald.
In Super Grand Sport (SGS), TPC Racing No. 36 Porsche GT3 Cup co-driversMichael Levitas and Randy Pobst - who won Round 3 in Phoenix - lead thechampionship standings with 99 points and a field of 12 SGS cars intoMont-Tremblant. This weekend's SGS field also features local favorites andRolex 24 SGS winners Jean-Francois Dumoulin of Trois-Rivieres, Quebec andToronto's Robert Julien in the Doncaster Racing No. 91 Porsche GT3 Cup, andthe Powell Motorsport No. 07 Corvette of Montreal natives Bertrand Godin,Normand Guindon and Marc-Antoine Camirand. Last year, Dumoulin took theoverall Grand-Am Cup win at Mont-Tremblant, and is looking to win his thirdchampionship in as many years after taking the Grand-Am Cup ST I title in2002 and the '03 Grand-Am Cup GS 1 crown.
Grand-Am Cup will headline Saturday's activities at the track with a250-mile race beginning at 2 p.m. ET. TheRaceSite.com Racing No. 44 Porsche996 driver Craig Stanton and Powell Motorsports No. 11 Cadillac CTS-V pilotBorcheller share the Grand Sport (GS) championship lead with 105 points; andTurner Motorsport No. 95 BMW 330i drivers Don Salama and Will Turner headingup the Sport Touring (ST) division with 92 points.
The weekend schedule at Mont-Tremblant gets underway for the Rolex SportsCar Series on Friday with the GT and SGS classes on-course for their firstpractice session beginning at 9:35 a.m. ET, followed by an all-class sessionfrom 10-11 a.m. and a 30-minute Daytona Prototype practice session beginningat 11 a.m. The Grand-Am Cup machines see their first track activitybeginning at 1:30 p.m. for a 60-minute practice session, followed by another40-minute Rolex Series all skate at 2:40 p.m. and Friday's action draws to aclose with another Grand-Am Cup practice from 3:30 - 4:25 p.m.
Saturday's activity calls for a 45-minute Grand-Am Cup practice sessionbeginning at 9 a.m., with Rolex Series practice from 9:55 - 10:50 a.m. Thefocus then shits to qualifying, with the Grand-Am Cup ST cars on-track from11 - 11:15 am., followed by the Grand-Am Cup GS cars from 11:20 - 11:35 a.m.At 1:05 p.m., the Rolex Series GT and SGS cars have their 15-minutequalifying session, with Daytona Prototype qualifying from 1:30 - 1:45 p.m.Saturday's activity draws to a close with the Grand-Am Cup Mont-Tremblant250 beginning at 2 p.m. The Mont-Tremblant 250 is subject to a three-hourtime limit.
Round 4 of the 12-race 2004 Grand American Rolex Sports Car Series, the 6Heures du Circuit Mont-Tremblant takes the green flag at 11 a.m. ET and thefirst two hours of the race will be televised live on SPEED Channel. After aone-hour break, the network resumes coverage from Mont-Tremblant again at 2p.m. ET through the race's conclusion. More news and information, includingZippo Live Timing & Scoring for every session, is available via the officialweb site of Grand American, grandamerican.com.
