Mark Wilkins went from third to first in the closing feet of the final lap, winning Friday's Montreal 200 to give the No. 61 AIM Autosport Ford Riley its first victory in the closest finish in the history of the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16.
AIM Autosport - the lone Canadian team in the Daytona Prototype paddock - seemed headed to victory in the most recent Rolex Series race at Barber Motorsports Park, only to have a mechanical failure in the closing laps with Brian Frisselle in the lead.
Frisselle was bumped off course in the first turn of the first lap after battling pole sitter Scott Pruett for the lead. It was a long way from 17th position back to the front of the pack, and it took Frisselle and Wilkins virtually the entire 69 laps of the two-hour race to do it.
"Brian had a real great shot at winning Barber, and it was good to see us finally get one," Wilkins said. "It was a bit of luck at the end, but we'll take it - luck hasn't gone our way this year."
Finishing second in three of the last four races, Darren Law appeared ready to give Brumos Racing its first victory in five years before the No. 58 Porsche Riley started by David Donohue ran out of fuel on the final circuit.
That opened the door for Toronto resident Wilkins to put AIM Autosport on the podium for the first time in Rolex Series competition. Antonio Garcia was running second heading to the checkered flag, but checked up when Law's Porsche sputtered.
"I had momentum, and I went to the right and kept my foot in it," Wilkins said. "Throughout my shift, I drove hard but tried to save the brakes, tires and fuel. Being smooth really paid off at the end."
"Scott got into my right rear and I spun in the first turn," Frisselle said of the start. "It's the job of the starting driver to bring the car back in good position. So I put my head down and charged, and came from seventeenth to seventh."
Garcia finished second in the No. 16 Cheever Racing Crown Royal Cask No. 16 Pontiac Coyote started by Christian Fittipaldi, .064 seconds behind the race winner. That broke the month-old closest-finish record set by Scott Pruett in the Brumos Porsche 250 at Daytona International Speedway, when he passed Alex Gurney on the final lap to win by .081 seconds.
Law passed Memo Rojas for the lead 17 minutes from the finish after pressuring the No. 01 TELMEX Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Lexus Riley for several laps. Law held on to finish third, giving the team its sixth-consecutive top-five finish. Fourth went to Brumos teammates JC France and Joao Barbosa in the No. 59 Porsche Riley, matching their best finish of the campaign.
Rojas was seeking his seventh victory of the season in a rare relief role, as co-driver Pruett started the race after winning his first pole of the season. He went on to finish fifth, extending the pair's lead to 63 points in the championship over Gurney and Jon Fogarty with four races remaining.
Another team suffering heartbreak was the No. 99 GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing Pontiac Riley started by Fogarty. For the third straight race, Gurney led the most laps, only to go off course to avoid two spinning GT cars on lap 47. That gave the lead to Rojas, with Gurney falling to seventh.
Pruett led the opening 17 laps from the pole, with his closest call coming on the first lap when Frisselle made a bid for the lead from the third starting position. Fogarty passed Pruett to take over on lap 18 to lead for two circuits before being black-flagged for contact. That gave the lead to Donohue, who led four laps until pitting under the first of two full-course cautions, both for debris.
Shane Lewis then took the lead in the No. 3 Southard Motorsports Lexus Riley. After the restart, Gurney passed both Garcia and Lewis to take the lead on lap 28.
The GT race also ended in dramatic fashion, with Robin Liddell and Andrew Davis scoring their third victory of the season in the No. 57 Stevenson Motorsports Pontiac GXP.R.
Defending champion Dirk Werner seemed headed to his first GT victory of the season in the No. 87 Farnbacher Loles Racing Porsche GT3 started by Bryce Miller, but ran out of fuel and finished fourth after dominating the race.
Sylvain Tremblay and Nick Ham finished second in the No. 70 SpeedSource Mazda RX-8, followed by Matt Connolly and Diego Alessi in the No. 21 Matt Connolly Motorsports Pontiac GTO.R.
After running second in the closing laps, Paul Edward and Kelly Collins finished seventh in the No. 07 Banner Racing Pontiac GXP.R. The late-race swing saw the Banner duo go from nearly wrapping up the championship to having their lead trimmed to only six points with two races remaining in the season for the GT competitors.
The next two races for the Rolex Series will showcase the Daytona Prototypes, running August 8 in the Crown Royal 200 at Watkins Glen International with the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, and August 23 at Infineon Raceway with the IRL IndyCar Series. The next combined event for the Daytona Prototypes and GT classes will be August 31 at New Jersey Motorsports Park.
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