Grand-Am
Sears Point: Blackhawk Racing Thursday report
Third quick on GAINSCO team's first day at tricky, twisting Sears Point Sonoma 250 SONOMA, Calif. -- Alex Gurney and Jon Fogarty kicked off the Grand American Rolex Sports Car Series Sonoma 250 weekend today with a set of blistering laps of the ...
Edited: Dec 11, 2006, 4:12 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Third quick on GAINSCO team's first day at tricky, twisting Sears Point Sonoma 250
SONOMA, Calif. -- Alex Gurney and Jon Fogarty kicked off the Grand American Rolex Sports Car Series Sonoma 250 weekend today with a set of blistering laps of the 2.52-mile Infineon Raceway, and Gurney put the No. 99 GAINSCO Auto Insurance Pontiac Riley right at the top of the leaderboard once again. In the day's 90-minute practice session for Daytona Prototypes, Gurney recorded the third-fastest time, a lap of 1 minute, 30.206 seconds, turned at an average speed of 100.570 mph. That lap was set midway through the session and stood unchallenged until the 99 was knocked off the top spot in the final moments of practice by teams that chose to install fresher sets of Hoosier rubber. Fogarty also set several quick times earlier in the day, and both drivers are very encouraged about the team's progress and prospects for even further improvement on Friday. Tomorrow, the GAINSCO Boys will have a pair of 45-minute practice sessions to tweak the GAINSCO Pontiac to perfection before a fast-paced 15-minute qualifying session gets the green flag at 5:15 p.m.
Driver Quotes:
Alex Gurney: "We are pretty encouraged. The track felt a bit different than it did in testing, but that really seems to be the norm these days. I think we've found a good balance on the GAINSCO car; certainly something we can work with even more in tomorrow's practice sessions. We wanted to go out on fresh Hoosiers at the end of the session, which would have given us even that much more speed, but we ran out of time. The promising thing is, I believe there's quite a bit left in the tank of the 99 to uncork in qualifying. I think we'll give our competitors a hard time this weekend."
Jon Fogarty: "The 99 car is awesome here -- we rolled it out of the truck, did a little tire-scrubbing and then I went immediately to the front of the pack. We've got a good balance and the Pontiac powerplant is running strong. Like Alex said, I think we can tweak the GAINSCO car even a little more on Friday and get a bit faster. It's great to be back racing at Sears Point because I consider it to be my home track. I drove my first race here and won my first Formula Vee race here. I really enjoy driving this course and I think my experience here is a big factor in helping us be quick. It looks like we're in a good position again this weekend -- we just need to execute everything to perfection."
-credit: gainscoracing.com
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Sears Point: Thursday practice report
Next article Sears Point: Practice 2 times
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Jon Fogarty
GAINSCO/Stallings switches from McLaren to Porsche for 2017
SRO America
SRO America
GAINSCO/Stallings switches from McLaren to Porsche for 2017
O’Connell, Heckert take GT, GTS poles at Laguna Seca
SRO America
SRO America
Laguna Seca
O’Connell, Heckert take GT, GTS poles at Laguna Seca
O’Connell beats Cindric after last-lap pass
SRO America
SRO America
Sonoma
O’Connell beats Cindric after last-lap pass
Latest news
Charles Leclerc penalised for Liam Lawson clash; Kimi Antonelli and Oliver Bearman also punished after F1 Brazilian GP
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
6 min
Charles Leclerc penalised for Liam Lawson clash; Kimi Antonelli and Oliver Bearman also punished after F1 Brazilian GP
Max Verstappen "needs to understand what happened" after "night and day" F1 comeback in Brazilian GP
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
7 min
Max Verstappen "needs to understand what happened" after "night and day" F1 comeback in Brazilian GP
LIVE: NASCAR Cup season finale at Homestead lap-by-lap updates
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Homestead-Miami
33 min
LIVE: NASCAR Cup season finale at Homestead lap-by-lap updates
Kyle Larson wins 2026 NASCAR Cup championship with Stage 1 clinch at Homestead
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Homestead-Miami
38 min
Kyle Larson wins 2026 NASCAR Cup championship with Stage 1 clinch at Homestead
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe