Beginning Saturday at Daytona International Speedway

The second half of the 2009 Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16 season begins Saturday at Daytona International Speedway, and competitors will be aiming to continue the trends that started in the first half.

Through six of 12 races, three different driving pairs and a quartet have won in the Daytona Prototypes, while three different driving pairs and a quintet have triumphed in the GT class. Overall, 10 Daytona Prototype drivers have visited the podium’s top step, while 11 have done so in GT.

After a slow start – at least for the Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates team – reigning series champions Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas lead the Daytona Prototype standings by 11 points (175-164) over Alex Gurney and Jon Fogarty.

Pruett and Rojas took a share of the lead with their first win of the season – the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen – in early June at Watkins Glen International, and pulled into the lead outright with a dominating win in the EMCO Gears Classic two weeks later at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

Pruett and Gurney’s classic battle to the checkered flag in last season’s Brumos Porsche 250 was the second closest finish in Rolex Series history – 0.081 seconds. This season, four of the six Daytona Prototype finishes have been under a second, including the Rolex 24, with a record four cars finishing on the lead lap.

Five races have finished under 10 seconds, with only the rain-soaked Verizon Wireless 250 at New Jersey Motorsports Park seeing a double-digit margin of victory, at least in terms of seconds.

The top two driving pairs in the Daytona Prototype point standings have each won twice this season. Pruett has also led five races – which ties him with Max Angelelli for the most this season – and a season-high 191 laps. Pruett and Rojas’ No. 01 TELMEX Lexus Riley has led a season-high 363 laps, while Angelelli and Brian Frisselle’s No. 10 SunTrust Ford Dallara has completed a season-high 1,305 laps out of 1,308, or 99.8 percent.

Pruett and Rojas also account for half of the season’s Daytona Prototype pole positions. Rojas has two, while Pruett has one. All six races have been won from the front four starting positions. And leading the most laps hasn’t hurt either. The car that has led the most laps in a particular race has gone on to win that event five times. Overall, 34 drivers in 16 cars have led at least one lap in 2009.

Other winners in Daytona Prototype competition include Rolex 24 winners David Donohue, Darren Law, Antonio Garcia and Buddy Rice with Brumos Racing, and New Jersey victors Nic Jönsson and Ricardo Zonta with Krohn Racing.

In GT, Dirk Werner and Leh Keen have been on a tear, winning three of the last four races in the No. 87 Farnbacher Loles Racing Porsche GT3 and moving into the point lead by 16 (186-170) over defending series champions Kelly Collins and Paul Edwards in the No. 07 Drinkin’ Mate Pontiac GXP.

R. Werner and Keen’s three victories are half of the six wins – the others coming from TRG’s Rolex 24 winning team of Andy Lally, Justin Marks, Jorg Bergmeister, Patrick Long and RJ Valentine; Stevenson Motorsports’ Robin Liddell and Andrew Davis; and SpeedSource’s Sylvain Tremblay and Nick Ham. Tremblay and Ham are going for their third straight Brumos Porsche 250 GT win this weekend.

Farnbacher Loles has been stellar this season. Keen has led a season-high five races, while Werner has paced the field a season-best 141 circuits. Their No. 87 is one of 10 cars that has led in 2009, and they are two of 28 drivers that have led. The team’s No. 86 Porsche GT3 has led a season-high 285 laps and completed 1,234 of 1,244 possible laps, or 99.2 percent.

Werner and Keen came from 16th to win the race at Mid-Ohio, the only time the winners have come from further than fifth this season. Twice have the winners started from the pole, and half of the winners have come from the front row. SpeedSource leads all teams with three poles this season, followed by Farnbacher Loles’ two and Banner Racing’s one. Ham is the only driver with multiple pole positions in 2009. The car leading the most laps has gone on to win three times.

On the constructor and manufacturer side, Riley has won five races to Lola’s one, and Riley has corralled all six pole positions. On the engine front, Pontiac and Lexus each have two victories, with Porsche and Ford each with one. BMW is the only engine which is still seeking a win in 2009. Lexus also has three pole positions, with Porsche taking two and Pontiac one.

In GT, Porsche GT3s have won four races this season – twice as many as they did in all of 2008 – and grabbed two poles. Winning one race each has been the Pontiac GXP.R and Mazda RX-8, which leads the pole position category with three. The Pontiac GXP.R also has one position.

The record book is altered during each race weekend, and has seen changes at the front on several statistical fronts. Pruett has pushed his overall victory total to a Rolex Series best 22 wins, and his 23 class wins are one short of Terry Borcheller’s career-best 24. Pruett also pushed his pole position mark to 12 overall poles, one short of James Weaver’s career mark of 13, and leads the Daytona Prototype category with the same total.

Rojas has moved to seventh on the overall win list and fifth all-time in Daytona Prototypes with nine victories. He is behind Gurney and Fogarty in both categories, as the 2007 series co-champions have 10 wins. The two are fifth in overall wins and third in Daytona Prototypes.

Gurney is now third in Daytona Prototype podiums with 22, and Fogarty has 21. Pruett leads that grouping with 44, and is second in class podiums with 45.

Four drivers have won their first-career Daytona Prototype races this season – Law, Garcia, Rice and Zonta. Those four bring the Daytona Prototype driver win total to 64.

Chip Ganassi Racing has also improved on several categories in which it leads. The Indianapolis-based team leads in victories (23), poles (26) and podiums (50).

Riley continues to dominate the constructor statistics. The Mooresville, N.C.-based chassis builder now owns 59 victories, 62 positions and 138 podiums. In the engines, Pontiac continues to lead Lexus in victories 33-25, pole positions 30-26 and podiums 107-60.

In GT, Lally’s Rolex 24 victory was his 16th in GT competition, moving him to within two of leader Bill Auberlen’s 18. Lally also owns 20 class wins, which puts him third all-time behind Borcheller and Pruett. Marks moved to 15th on the list with eight, one short of Liddell’s nine, which is good enough for 10th. Tremblay and Ham’s Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca win put them 16th on the list with seven.

Collins garnered sole possession of fifth on the GT pole position chart with 10, after gaining the top starting spot at New Jersey. Two pole positions have Ham tied for sixth with eight poles.

Consistency has kept Collins and Edwards afloat in the championship run. Despite not winning a race, the two have finished fourth or better five times, with four podiums to their credit.

Collins now owns 30 podium finishes, while Edwards has 29. That is second and third behind Lally’s class-leading 40. Other drivers in the top 20 that have at least one podium this season are Spencer Pumpelly (22), Liddell (21), Werner (18), Valentine (17), Tremblay (15), Marks (14) and Wolf Henzler (14).

TRG’s season-opening Rolex 24 win gave the team its 25th in the GT class. TRG also has 71 career podiums and is tied with co-leader Prototype Technology Group with 16 poles, though none have come in 2009. SpeedSource is now tied for sixth in GT wins with eight, while Farnbacher Loles has doubled its win total to six, good enough for 11th. Stevenson Motorsports is now 13th with four wins.

On the constructor side, Porsche has boosted its leading total to 60 wins, 76 poles and 248 podiums.

Drivers from all around the world have represented their countries in the Rolex Series this season, with 21 countries alone represented in the Rolex 24. Competitors from more than half of the states in the U.S. have made at least one start in 2009.

source: grand-am.com