BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - GRAND-AM Road Racing rolls into Birmingham, Ala., for the Porsche 250 at Barber Motorsports Park on April 10 (SPEED/MRN, live, 1:30 p.m. ET). Throughout the weekend, you can find the latest event updates here. Stay tuned.
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Quotes from Rolex Series Qualifying (Updated Friday at 12:45 p.m.)
Ricky Taylor, No. 10 SunTrust Racing Ford Dallara: "We've improved the car a lot from yesterday to today. I knew what we could do in qualifying, but I wasn't sure what everybody else would do. We've got a really good car now. This is the best team in the paddock, and I know they give me the equipment to do it every weekend. Hopefully this is a sign of more to come. I'm really happy. I think of all the tracks, this is the most important one to start on the pole. I've never started on the pole in GRAND-AM, so that will be a bit of a learning thing, but I have done it before in other series. After morning practice, Max (Angelelli) told me what I needed to do. We've been looking at data all weekend, and we knew what I had to do in order to go quicker. I just applied the lessons he taught me."
Antonio Garcia, No. 90 Spirit of Daytona Porsche Coyote: "It was pretty good. The car is running really good, so I'm pretty confident. The team did a great job approaching this race, and now we are showing it. Second is OK. Anything can happen, it's a two hour, 45-minute race, so anything can happen. We showed what the car can do, so that's OK."
Memo Rojas, No. 01 TELMEX Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates BMW Riley: "It was a clean session for us. It's funny, because we got into a lot of traffic. I was hoping to get in a cleaner run, but it went well. P-3 is OK. I'd rather start third than second here, because I'll be on the inside for the first turn tomorrow."
Jon Fogarty, No. 99 GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing Chevrolet Riley: "It's really close, but it could have been better. It was all I could do. We'll make our best guess at what's going to be best for the race tomorrow, and take it from there. We're relatively better than what we were when we unloaded, but this is a track position type of track, and we need to be running up front."
Jonathan Bomarito, No. 70 SpeedSource Castrol Syntec Mazda RX-8: "I knew what time I needed for the pole when I started my final lap, so I knew I just had to stay clean in the final two corners. I'm really excited about winning my first pole. I love qualifying. Now, we've got to adjust our mind set to get ready for the race."
Jordan Taylor, No. 30 Racers Edge Motorsports Mazda RX-8: "We got completely messed up with that five-minute session. I only got in one good lap, and then got caught in traffic on my second one. I'm sure we would have been on the pole easily, but I know what really counts will be what happens tomorrow."
Andrew Davis, No. 57 Stevenson Motorsports Camaro: "The short session might have worked to our advantage. I was happy with our pace. We were faster than we were earlier in the day, and faster than last year as well. It will be a tough race for us, so we're happy to be in the front two row,"
Scott Russell, No. 07 Banner Racing Corvette: "I was all over the place trying to get heat in the tires. I had a couple of close calls. I thought I had something pretty good, but I got caught behind a few guys and that slowed me down."
Wayne Taylor, father of Ricky and Jordan Taylor and owner of the No. 10 SunTrust Racing Ford Dallara: "I've been telling people about these two guys since they were young. We thought Ricky had a good shot at qualifying today. I told him he had to dig really deep, and he did that today. I'm sure Jordan was disappointed to go to P-2, but he had only one clean lap in qualifying and then got caught in traffic, so he was fantastic."
Dion von Moltke, Scott Russell Lead Pro-Am Session (Updated Friday at 10:20 a.m.)
Scott Russell: "We had some issues during the first session when Paul (Edwards) was in it, so we kept throwing stuff at it and making changes. It started working near the end, we got the balance back and recovered what we lost overnight. I like this track. I'm feeling pretty comfortable out there and I'm happy about that. The Pro-Am session means everything. That 30 minutes is invaluable for a guy like me. It allows Paul to set the car up, and then turn it over to me so I can go out and run. It's very good. I'm not really sure what I like in the car, so I try to be a chameleon and do what Paul does."
Dion von Moltke: "It's going really well. Kevin Doran's given us a good car that always runs well here, and hopefully we can keep the P-1 for qualifying and bring it home in that position and win the race. We're happy to have PR1 Newswire aboard, along with McDonald's and South African Airways, and we're hoping to represent them well."
New Autohaus Motorsports Camaro Out with Engine Problem (Updated Friday at 8 a.m.)
The new Autohaus Motorsports Camaro encountered engine problems in Thursday's practice session, and the team decided to withdraw the car to prepare it for the Bosch Engineering 250 on April 24 at Virginia International Raceway.
"Our first practice was actually the car's maiden voyage," said driver Shane Lewis after Thursday's practice. "Unfortunately, I think we lost the motor. No fault to the team, no fault to the drivers, we really don't know what happened. I went out and it started making ugly noises. I looks like this motor might be terminal. We're going to re-evaluate what our goals are for this weekend. The problem is it's such a brand new car, and we want to do a good job for Autohaus while not causing anybody else any problems. We don't want to go straight to the race without quality time. We want to look at it hard and make the right decision."
Daytona Prototype Practice Quotes (Updated Thursday at 5 p.m.)
SCOTT PRUETT: "We kind of expected faster times. These are cooler conditions, the track's going to have more grip, and you're going to see even more grip tomorrow. We haven't been here in the past where the conditions have been this cool continually. The cars are more efficient, so they have more downforce; the engines are more efficient, so they have more horsepower. It's the best of both worlds, so we're seeing not only the DP cars quicker, but the GT cars as well. It's good to be up near the front. More importantly, our goal is to finish on the podium in every race. There's a championship that we're going after again, and all points are needed. We have a great car here and if we can come home with a victory, it would be great. If we can't do that, we'll try to bring it home second. If we can't do that, we'll try to bring it home third."
DARREN LAW: "The carrolled off the truck fairly quick. We're trying to get better. Our biggest problem is we're fighting a lot of pick up, a lot of debris on track, more than I can recall here over the last few years."
ANTONIO GARCIA: "This car likes the normal race tracks, not the ovals. All the work we have done since Homestead and Daytona seems to be paying off, and the car is more drivable and more competitive. We are expecting to be competitive, and the car felt pretty good when I started this morning."
RYAN DALZIEL: "It's going really well today. We were disappointed leaving Homestead, we definitely should have been a podium car and it didn't go that way for us. We came in here with a fast car. We knew it was going to be fast - it was fast at Homestead, and so far things are looking pretty good here. I haven't driven a DP here since 2006, so I'm a little rusty."
MEMO GIDLEY: "Everything's looking good. It's nice to come back to a track for the third year. We've had the car to win here the last two years, we just made some mistakes, lost a few laps and couldn't get them back. We've got the package again, and Dion is running well. I think we're going to have a real good weekend for McDonald's.
JON FOGARTY: "I got out there with the DP onlys and did simulated qualifying with a sticker set towards the end of the fuel load. I think I got the most out of it. I don't think the other guys were on our schedule and did that, so it's hard to tell. We're happy that we topped the sheets. It was a huge, huge jump from where we were running on our old set of tires, and we're scratching our heads a little bit. We usually don't see that drastic of a gain. Tires seem to be worth a tremendous amount. Hopefully, that's not going to be the case for everybody else, but I think it might be. You don't want to count your chickens before they're hatched. We're moving forward. We want to start up front. It's a good place to be, track position-wise. Hopefully we can start out there, pull out the right strategy, have a good pit stop and send Alex out in the same position. That's our goal."
GT Practice Updates (Updated Thursday at 3:20 p.m.)
Jordan Taylor was quickest in the early running of Thursday's GT practice. "The Racers Edge guys have done a great job during the break between Homestead and Barber. It kind of made it easy for me right out of the box, we're quick and it's looking good for the weekend. We've made a few changes that have put us at the top of the chart right now, but I think everybody else will improve as the day goes on.
Patrick Dempsey also had a few laps in the No. 40 Dempsey Racing Mazda RX-8. "I haven't been here in a couple of years, so I've been watching a lot of in-car footage from Joe (Foster) and Charles (Espenlaub), which has helped me tremendously," Dempsey said. "Of course, it's always different when you get out in the car, but our pace was right there. I was happy with the first session. We put on new tires and I picked up a lot of time and felt better with the line. It's great to be back here. It's a wonderful track. It's great to be sharing the weekend with Indy Cars and exciting to see all their guys. Hopefully, it will be a great race for us this weekend."
Tremblay: 'Three Shots at Podium' (Updated Thursday at 1:30 p.m.)
SpeedSource is two-for-two in 2010 Rolex Series GT competition. Team owner/driver Sylvain Tremblay said he wouldn't be surprised to see the team's No. 68 Mazda Motorsports Development RX-8 join the No. 70 Castrol Syntec and No. 69 FXDD entries in victory lane.
"We expect great things from the No. 68," Tremblay said of the car driven by Mazda ladder drivers Adam Christodoulou and John Edwards. We've got three legitimate shots at the podium."
Tremblay said a brand-new No. 68 car is in the works at the Sunrise, Fla. shop.
"We're hoping to have the new car by Lime Rock or Watkins Glen," Tremblay said. "Of course, a lot will depend on how clean we can come through the next two race weekends."
A Tale of Four Corvettes (Updated Thursday at 1 p.m.)
There are four Corvettes participating in the GT class in this weekend's Porsche 250. All four have different backgrounds.
Two of them are built according to GRAND-AM Rolex Series Prep 1 rules - street cars adapted to racing. Both the No. 31 Marsh Racing and No. 28 LG Motorsports Corvettes are in this category, built originally for the SCCA World Challenge but adapted for Rolex Series competition. Lou Gigliotti's team debuted in the most recent event at Homestead-Miami Speedway, with drivers Kelly Collins and Eric Lux. The Marsh Racing entry debuts this weekend with Sonny Whelan and Eric Curran - who won four races in this car in World Challenge competition for 2007.
Two of the Corvettes are purpose-built tube framed race cars. The Banner Racing No. 07 Corvette of Paul Edwards and Scott Russell is a Pratt & Miller-built car. This car formerly raced as a Pontiac GXP. The Matt Connolly Motorsports Corvette was built by Crawford Composites. This car was raced occasionally (as a Corvette) by Stevenson Motorsports.
There are three other General Motors products in the GT field - a trio of Camaros. All of them - the No. 57 and 97 Stevenson Motorsports and No. 46 Autohaus Motorsports entries - were built by Pratt & Miller - and all three formerly raced with Pontiac bodywork.
Racers Edge Motorsports Running Laps for Life (Updated Wednesday at 4:15 p.m.)
Jon Mirachi's No. 30 Racers Edge Motorsports Mazda RX-8 will be assisting a hometown charity in Saturday's Porsche 250. For every lap that Jordan Taylor and Todd Lamb complete, the team will make a donation to the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life.
"That charity is very active in DeLand (Fla.), so we decided to make a donation for every lap we complete in this weekend's race," Mirachi said. "That will be matched by several people in our community, and we would be thrilled if anyone in the GRAND-AM community would also join in and contribute."
The Mazda will carry the American Cancer Society decals on its doors. "It's the Relay for Life, but we're doing a special twist on that and calling it the Laps for Life," Mirachi said. "Typically, we will complete 100-110 laps racing here."
Lally Has Corvette Experience at Barber (Updated Wednesday at 4:10 p.m.)
Andy Lally has come full circle at Barber Motorsports Park.
A late entry in the No. 19 Matt Connolly Motorsports Corvette for the Porsche 250, Lally's first race here was in the 2003 Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge race, when he ran in the Grand Sport division, co-driving with Mike Weinberg in the No. 02 Powell Motorsport entry.
"That was a great race," Lally recalled. "I was leading on the white flag lap, having a great battle with Jean-Francois Dumoulin, Terry Borcheller and Darren Law. All four of us were running low on fuel. JF got me at the hairpin, then we both started running out of gas at the museum turn. We both sputtered all the way to the checkered flag and ran dry on the cool down lap."
Dumoulin, running with Bobby Julien for Doncaster Motorsports, won by .747 seconds, which remains the closest finish at Barber.
Lally's only other race in a Corvette was in his first of 10 races at Sebring, when he shared a Pratt and Miller entry with Owen Trinkler and B.J. Zacharias.
Bomarito Gets Head Start, Tests Mazda MX-5 (Updated Wednesday at 4 p.m.)
Visiting Barber Motorsports Park for the first time, Rolex 24 winner Jonathan Bomarito had the opportunity to run a few laps in a Mazda MX-5 during the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge promoter's test day.
Bomarito, who co-drives the No. 70 SpeedSource Mazda RX-8 in the Rolex Series GT class, joined Tom Long in the No. 25 Freedom Autosports entry.
"Derek Whitis was not here today, so the team was awesome enough to let me drive a few laps," Bomarito said. "Tom (Long) is working on the setup, and he was gracious enough to give me a few laps at the end of each session."
Bomarito had prepared for his first race here with extensive work on race simulators.
"I like it here," he said. "It takes some repetition to know where the road is going to go, especially with some of the entrances to the turns and the exits. I'm enjoying it so far."
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