Grand-Am
Watkins Glen: Series round five preview
SAHLEN'S SIX HOURS OF THE GLEN GOOD DAYTONA PROTOTYPE CHAMPIONSHIP INDICATOR DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (June 2, 2009) - The road to the Daytona Prototype championships goes through Watkins Glen International, host of Saturday's Sahlen's Six Hours of ...
Published: Oct 2, 2009, 4:50 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
SAHLEN'S SIX HOURS OF THE GLEN GOOD DAYTONA PROTOTYPE CHAMPIONSHIP INDICATOR
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (June 2, 2009) - The road to the Daytona Prototype championships goes through Watkins Glen International, host of Saturday's Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen, Round 5 of the 2009 Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16.
The past three winners of the Sahlen's Six Hours - and four of the last five -- have gone on to capture the Daytona Prototype title. The race takes the green flag at 2:15 p.m. Saturday, and will be televised live on SPEED from 2-4 p.m. ET, and from 6-8:30 p.m.
That statistic favors Alex Gurney and Jon Fogarty, who currently lead the standings by eight points (119-111) over David Donohue and Darren Law. The drivers of Bob Stallings' No. 99 GAINSCO Pontiac Riley won seven races - including both races at The Glen - en route to the 2007 Daytona Prototype crown. They are also the only multiple winners this season, coming on top at Virginia International Raceway and Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.
"We're starting to think about the championship," Gurney admitted following his victory at Mazda Raceway. "We're coming to a lot of tracks that we've had success at. We've had a lot of success at Watkins Glen, and we've always had a good car there, so we're looking forward to it. Over the years, we've learned how hard it is to get two points on somebody, so eight points is pretty good."
Winless in 2009, Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas co-drove to victory at the Sahlen's Six Hours and five other races en route to winning the 2008 championship in the No. 01 TELMEX Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Lexus Riley. Pruett also shared the 2004 Daytona Prototype title - the same year he won the Sahlen's Six Hours with Max Papis. They currently are ranked fourth in the standings, 14 behind Gurney and Fogarty.
Krohn Racing's Jorg Bermeister also won the Sahlen's Six Hours and the Daytona Prototype crown. He joined Boris Said in winning the endurance classic in 2006, one year after Tracy Krohn and Nic Jonsson gave the team its first victory in a wet 2005 event. Jonsson and Ricardo Zonta will be looking to give Krohn Racing its third triumph in the classic, sharing the No. 76 Ford Lola. The pair won earlier this season at New Jersey Motorsports Park.
Another former winner of the Sahlen's Six Hours is Brumos Racing, returning a two-car lineup. Donohue - winner of the 2003 Sahlen's Six Hour - joins 2009 Rolex 24 At Daytona co-winner Law in the No. 58 Porsche Riley. Hurley Haywood, a six-time class winner in the Six Hours of The Glen, joins Brumos regulars Joao Barbosa and JC France in the No. 59.
The most recent Rolex Series winners at The Glen were Mark Wilkins and Brian Frisselle, who led all but three laps in dominating the Crown Royal 200 on The Glen's short course last August. Wilkins returns to the No. 61 AIM Autosport Ford Riley, and will co-drive this weekend with Burt Frisselle and 2002 Indianapolis 500 polesitter Bruno Junqueira, who will be making his Rolex Series debut. Brian Frisselle now co-drives the No. 10 SunTrust Racing Ford Dallara with Max Angelelli. They are third in the standings on the strength of three top-four finishes.
Pumpelly Holds One-Point Lead in GT
Spencer Pumpelly enters the Sahlen's Six Hours with a one-point lead (117-116) in the hotly-contested Acxiom GT championship chase. Pumpelly and Ted Ballou have a pair of second-place finishes this season, in the Rolex 24 and at New Jersey, in TRG's No. 66 AXA/Mitchell Rubber Porsche GT3. This weekend, Pumpelly will drive with Craig Stanton and John Potter.
Pumpelly leads Leh Keen and Dirk Werner, co-drivers of the No. No. 87 Farnbacher Loles Racing Porsche GT3, by one point (117-116). Keen and Werner won at New Jersey Motorsports Park and finished third in the most recent race at Mazda Raceway.
Emil Assentato, Jeff Segal and Nick Longhi are the defending GT winners of the event, returning in SpeedSource's No. 69 FXDD Mazda RX-8. Their teammates, Sylvain Tremblay and Nick Ham, won at Mazda Raceway, and will be joined at The Glen by David Haskell in SpeedSource's No. 70 Mazda/Castrol Syntec Mazda RX-8.
In addition to Pumpelly, who won the 2007 Sahlen's Six Hours, fellow race co-winner Andy Lally will drive TRG's No. 67 Construct Corp./No Fear Energy Drinks Porsche GT3 with Justin Marks. Lally and Marks were part of a five-driver Rolex 24 winning team in January.
Practice for the Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen begins Thursday afternoon, with qualifying Friday at 1:15 p.m. The race takes the green flag at 2:15 p.m. Saturday. The weekend also includes the two-and-a-half hour KONI Sports Car Challenge race, TheGlen.com 200, at 4 p.m. Friday. For additional information, visit www.grand-am.com, or go to www.twitter.com/RolexSeries for weekend updates.
-credit: grand-am
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 Watkins Glen Int'l news 2009-06-02
Next article Series Watkins Glen spotlight - Hurley Haywood
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Nic Jönsson
Daytona 24 Hours: Hr13 – Cadillac penalized, rain causes caution
IMSA
IMSA
Daytona 24
Daytona 24 Hours: Hr13 – Cadillac penalized, rain causes caution
Estoril ELMS: G-Drive takes title with win in dramatic finale
European Le Mans
European Le Mans
Estoril
Estoril ELMS: G-Drive takes title with win in dramatic finale
Estoril ELMS: Lapierre snatches late pole for Dragonspeed
European Le Mans
European Le Mans
Estoril
Estoril ELMS: Lapierre snatches late pole for Dragonspeed
More from
Chip Ganassi Racing
Herta endorses IndyCar’s international return with Barcelona while marveling at Palou’s dominance
IndyCar
IndyCar
Herta endorses IndyCar’s international return with Barcelona while marveling at Palou’s dominance
Five-time IndyCar champion, first-time Indy NXT driver: Alex Palou tops IMS road course test
Indy NXT
Indy NXT
Five-time IndyCar champion, first-time Indy NXT driver: Alex Palou tops IMS road course test
Barnes: Why IndyCar’s updated licensing system fails its own integrity test
IndyCar
IndyCar
Barnes: Why IndyCar’s updated licensing system fails its own integrity test
Latest news
WEC drivers question lack of full-course yellow after heavy Monza crash
WEC
WEC WEC
Monza
1 h
WEC drivers question lack of full-course yellow after heavy Monza crash
Kyle Larson, Cliff Daniels and the Hendrick 5 are who we say they are
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Homestead-Miami
3 h
Kyle Larson, Cliff Daniels and the Hendrick 5 are who we say they are
Final NASCAR Cup points standings after 2026 Homestead finale
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Homestead-Miami
7 h
Final NASCAR Cup points standings after 2026 Homestead finale
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