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The next race for the GRAND-AM Rolex Series will be the April 10 Porsche 250 at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Ala.

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PRUETT HOLDS OFF DONOHUE IN SPRINT TO CHEQUERED FLAG TO SCORE SECOND VICTORY IN GRAND PRIX OF MIAMI
Segal, Assentato Take GT Victory in SpeedSource Mazda RX-8

Homestead Miami 6 March 2010 

Scott Pruett held off a late charge by David Donohue to win Saturday's Grand Prix of Miami, Round 2 of the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16.

Pruett and Memo Rojas scored their second victory in three years at Homestead-Miami Speedway in the No. 01 TELMEX Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates BMW Riley, holding off the No. 59 Brumos Porsche Riley of Donohue and pole winner Darren Law by .255 seconds.

In GT, Jeff Segal passed SpeedSource teammate Sylvain Tremblay on the race's lone restart with 13 minutes remaining and went on to win in the No. 69 FXDD Mazda RX-8. It was the third triumph in the last six races for Segal and Emil Assentato.

"I sure didn't want to see that last caution, but I was happy for the fans," Pruett said after scoring his 23rd Rolex Series overall victory. "This is tough competition. You never know what's going to happen until the checkered flag falls. It was pretty exciting in my seat, that's for sure."

Donohue was able to pull up to the back of Pruett several times in the closing laps, but was unable to get by. Pruett managed to weave through GT traffic in the infield on the final lap, and maintained the lead through the superspeedway banking.

Alex Gurney finished third in the No. 99 GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing Chevrolet Riley started by Jon Fogarty. Burt Frisselle finished fourth in AIM Autosport's No. 61 Pacific Mobile Ford Riley, followed by Ryan Dalziel in the debut of the No. 8 Starworks BMW Riley started by Mike Forest, the leading Daytona Prototype Pro-Am driver in the event.

A turning point came on Lap 81 of the two-hour, 45-minute race. The cockpit of the No. 30 Racers Edge Motorsports Mazda RX-8 exploded into flames, and Jordan Taylor came to a stop in the middle of pit road. The blaze was quickly extinguished and the race remained under green, but Taylor's car was stopped at the center of the pit lane when Law pitted in the race-leading No. 59 Brumos Racing Porsche Riley.

"There was a car on fire, there were people on pit lane, and I almost came to a stop," Law explained. "I didn't want to hit anybody. It's unfortunate, because I lost all of the gap I had gained. Up until then, I was feeling really, really good."

Taylor was uninjured in the incident, but the Mazda started by Todd Lamb was eliminated after having a strong run.

"It wasn't as big a fire as it looked," Taylor said. "It ended up being some of the insulation in the exhaust catching fire."

Donohue replaced Law on the ensuing pit stop. Pruett took the lead in the exchange and led the rest of the way.

Pruett and Rojas averaged 107.196 mph, completing 129 laps on the 2.3-mile circuit, and took the points lead by six (67-61) over Ryan Dalziel. The race remained caution-free until Lap 115, for debris in Turns 4 and 8. Law led a race-high 71 laps, followed by Pruett with 48. Other race leaders included Fogarty, who led the opening six laps, and Ryan Hunter-Reay, who led two laps in the No. 95 Level 5 Motorsports BMW Riley.

Rolex 24 At Daytona winners Terry Borcheller and Dalziel each led one lap in different cars. Borcheller was running in contention in the Daytona-winning No. 9 Action Express Racing Porsche Riley. Joao Barbosa, the 2009 Homestead winner seeking his third consecutive Rolex Series victory, went behind the wall early in his shift to replace the heat exchanger.

Tremblay and new regular SpeedSource co-driver Jonathan Bomarito led a GT class leading 44 laps in the Rolex 24 winning No. 70 Castrol Syntec Mazda RX-8.

Tremblay, who led 27 laps, fell back to fourth in the closing laps, but he and Bomarito maintained the points lead by three (63-60) over Robin Liddell and Andrew Davis, who finished second in the No. 57 Stevenson Automotive Group/Vin Solutions Camaro. Finishing third were Leh Keen and James Gue in the No. 41 Dempsey Racing Mazda RX-8.

Bill Auberlen and Joey Hand finished a solid fifth in the No. 94 Turner Motorsport BMW M6. The car ran only three laps in practice prior to the race and did not qualify due to problems with the power steering. Team owner Will Turner installed a power steering unit from a Daytona Prototype prior to the race, and Auberlen and Hand ran in contention throughout the event, with Hand leading four laps.

Paul Edwards started from the GT pole in the Banner Racing No. 07 Mobil 1 Corvette and led the opening 31 laps before turning the car over to motorcycle legend Scott Russell. Edwards returned to the car for the closing shift, finishing sixth - one position ahead of Patrick Dempsey and Joe Foster in the No. 40 Dempsey Racing Mazda RX-8.

Ted Ballou and Andy Lally had the highest-finishing Porsche, placing eighth in the No. 66 AXA Porsche GT3.

Barbosa, Action Express Pull Off Rolex 24 Shocker

David took on the Goliaths and won Sunday's 48th running of the Rolex 24 At Daytona. In a race marked by unusual weather, heavy attrition and a record number of lead changes, Joao Barbosa held off Scott Pruett by 52.303 seconds to win the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16 race in the No. 9 Action Express Racing Porsche Riley (complete race results).

It was the second consecutive runner-up finish in the race for Pruett, a three-time Rolex 24 winner who teamed with Memo Rojas, Max Papis and Justin Wilson in Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates' No. 01 TELMEX/Target BMW Riley, a team that won three of the last five Rolex 24 races.

Scott Tucker, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Richard Westbrook and Lucas Luhr finished third, four laps behind in the No. 95 Crown Royal/NPN BMW Riley. A jammed seat belt early Sunday morning - resulting from a piece of tape - cost the team two laps, taking them out of the fight.

Ricardo Zonta, Tracy Krohn, Nic Jonsson and Colin Braun finished fourth in the No. 75 Krohn Racing Ford Proto-Auto Lola, followed by Ozz Negri, John Pew, Burt Frisselle and Mark Wilkins in the No. 60 Crown Royal XR Ford Riley.

Sylvain Tremblay, Jonathan Bomarito, Nick Ham and David Haskell won the GT race by four laps in SpeedSource's No. 70 Castrol Syntec Mazda RX-8.

The race started under caution Saturday due to a deluge that soaked the track during the two hours prior to the start. While the rain quickly let up, conditions remained treacherous for several hours due to damp conditions, particularly off the racing line. Sunday's portion was run under dry but very chilly and windy conditions.

It was Barbosa's second consecutive victory in Rolex Series Daytona Prototype competition; he and Hurley Haywood won the 2009 season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway for Brumos Porsche. Barbosa led a race-high 129 laps; the four Action Express Racing drivers combined to lead 316 of the 755 laps.

"It's just unbelievable," Barbosa said. "For the team to perform under really difficult circumstances like 24 hours, they did an amazing job."

For Borcheller, it was his third class victory in the Rolex 24 and second overall.

"It's really special," Borcheller said. "'04 was amazing, just because the way the race ended up in the last 15 minutes with us winning when Tony Stewart driving the Crawford broke. But that was also the first year I believe that a Daytona Prototype won overall. So the competition was - it's always there, but it was nothing like it is now."

It also marked the second consecutive and 22nd overall victory for Porsche in the event. David Donohue, Darren Law, Buddy Rice and Antonio Garcia won in 2009 in a Brumos Porsche Riley, using a flat-six Porsche engine. A Cayenne-based V-8 engine - built in Germany but highly modified in America by Lozano Brothers - powered Sunday's winning entry.

It was an emotional day for the defending race winners. Moments after five-time Rolex 24 winner Haywood turned a sizzling time of 1:42.2 in his final lap in professional competition, Raphael Matos went to the garage and retired the car they shared with Donohue, Law and three-time Rolex 24 winner Butch Leitzinger with two-and-a-half hours remaining.

Ironically, a false alarm gave the Action Express team some breathing room when Justin Wilson, driving the No. 01 BMW Riley, drove to the paddock as a precaution.

"We just had one hiccup," Wilson said. "I came out of the bus stop and heard a large clunk. I thought I'd blown a tire and I dove into the pits, but they told me it was all okay. Maybe it was just some debris on the track."

The race featured a record 53 lead changes among 29 drivers. All but two of the Daytona Prototypes led in the event, and all but two of them experienced heart-breaking problems that dropped them out of contention.

Scott Dixon, Dario Franchitti, Juan Pablo Montoya and Jamie McMurray combined to lead 139 laps in Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates' No. 02 TELMEX/Target BMW Riley. Montoya was leading the race at midnight when his car began smoking. Moments later, he went to the garage and the car was retired with engine failure.

The defending Daytona Prototype champion No. 99 GAINSCO Chevrolet Riley was retired while running fifth. An oil pump failure led to a variety of complications that eventually forced four-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson to take the car he shared with Jon Fogarty, Alex Gurney and Jimmy Vasser to the garage.

Michael Shank Racing had both of its cars running at or near the front for most of the race before both broke in the closing hours. Burt Frisselle went out in the team's No. 60 Crown Royal XR Ford Riley co-driven by Ozz Negri, John Pew and Mark Wilkins, while NASCAR regular A.J. Allmendinger's day in the No. 6 Ford Riley co-driven by Michael Valiante, John Pew and Mark Patterson went up in smoke with 75 minutes remaining.

The No. 10 SunTrust Ford Dallara started from the pole by Max Angelelli, but had to recover from an incident early in the race to finish sixth. The car was also driven by team owner Wayne Taylor, his 20-year-old son Ricky Taylor and Pedro Lamy.

A team that experienced problems with cold tires at the pit exit was the new No. 7 Starworks BMW Riley driven by Ian James, Mike Forest, Bill Lester and Dion von Moltke.

Derek Johnston, the 2008-2009 British Radical UK Cup champion, drove in the event after winning the inaugural Sunoco Rolex 24 At Daytona Challenge, and finished 10th in class, sharing the No. 77 McDonald's Ford Dallara with Memo Gidley, Brad Jaeger and Fabrizio Gollin.

Defending race winners Rice and Garcia, sharing the No. 90 Menards Porsche Coyote with Paul Menard and Darren Manning, finished 13th in Daytona Prototypes.

Action Express Racing was formed during the offseason when Brumos cut back to a one-car team. Longtime team associate Bob Johnson leased a Riley chassis and mated it with a Porsche Cayenne-based V-8 engine.

The dawn hours saw terrific racing between Barbosa and Papis, who battled nose to tail for several laps.

"That's why Chip hired me," Papis said. "He hired me to run fast and take chances. I leave my friends at home."

The winners' average speed was 111.930 mph. The race was slowed 16 times by caution for 74 laps.  

Results