RacingNation.com
Home / Sportscar / IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship / Gurney-Fogarty Score Thrilling Victory At VIR

Gurney-Fogarty Score Thrilling Victory At VIR

Alton, VA – Alex Gurney and Jon Fogarty literally drove the wheels off their GAINSCO Auto Insurance Pontiac Riley to score a thrilling victory at in the Bosch Engineering 250, the second race of the Rolex Sports Car Series season. The event took place Saturday afternoon at Virginia International Raceway in rural Virginia.

Maneuvering into the lead on the 66th lap, Gurney led the final 17 stanzas around the hilly 3.27-mile road course to score his team’s first victory of the 2009 season. For Gurney and teammate Jon Fogarty, they won for the ninth time in their accomplished careers, and they did it in their 40th time together. Their paring started at VIR in 2006.

With the temperature in the mid-90s throughout the 2 hour and 45 minute contest, the race was witnessed by the largest crowd ever at the picturesque track.

“It is tough to race in traffic and not make mistakes,” Gurney said in victory lane. “My guys were yelling at me to save fuel, and we were happy to see the yellow flag at the end. We rolled out a new car after Daytona, and some big improvements have been made.”

Added Fogarty, who started the race, “I had a good start and got settled in, but I helped us lose precious positions when my water bottle wouldn’t unhook during the driver change. But it was a positive day for the GAINSCO team.”

Trailing the TELMEX Lexus Riley of Scott Pruett and fast qualifier Memo Rojas along with the Michael Shank Racing Ford Riley of Valiante and John Pew for much of the race, Gurney caught Valiante in traffic on the 65th lap and bolted into the command position.

Valiante didn’t give up easily and made several attempts to overhaul the leader, including a strong effort on the last circuit.

Scott Pruett was immediately behind the front-running duo in third place, but he lost the potential podium finish on a restart with four laps to go. Seven cars were jammed together and Donohue hit Pruett from behind, who, in turn, rammed Max Angelelli, spinning the latter around.

Former series champion Pruett limped home in 12th position.

Said the disappointed Pruett, “I don’t really know if I had something for the leaders, but I would have liked to find out. Then we just got blatantly punted going into one on that re-start. I expected more out of (David) Donohue and more out of Grand-Am.”

Canadian Valiante and Floridian Pew ended up in second place .7 seconds behind the victors and Donohue and Darren Law pushed their Brumos Porsche Riley to third place.

Said Valiante of the late-racing action, “I thought we had the car to beat but at the end, the GAINSCO car had a little more power than I did and I couldn’t catch him.” Pew spun the car on the opening lap but he recovered to continue in the race.

Donohue and Pruett reportedly exchanged words after the race’s conclusion, and the second-generation driver defended his late race mix-up. “I got into Scottie (Pruett) on the restart as I couldn’t stop and I couldn’t change lanes,” Donohue said. “I hate for things like that to happen.”

Scott Tucker and Christophe Bouchut drove under the radar to finish fourth in a BMW Riley with Memo Gidley and Brad Jaeger steering the Doran Ford to fifth place.

Sixth through tent were the second Shank Ford of Mark Patterson and Oswaldo Negri Jr., the Penske Porsche of Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhard, the Brumos Porsche of J. C. France and Joao Barbosa, the Orbit Racing BMW of Darren Manning and Bill Lester and the Orbit Porsche of Guy Cosmo and Scott Russell.

In a hard-fought GT race, the Stevenson Motorsports Pontiac of Robin Liddell and Andrew Davis bested the Banner Pontiac of Paul Edwards and Kelly Collins. Sylvain Trembley and fast-qualifier Nick Ham took third in a Mazda RX-8.

The Rolex Sports Car Series races again at the New Jersey Motorsports Park next weekend.

Share Button