Pontiac Puts a Wrap on Successful Grand-Am Rolex Season

Pontiac has wrapped up the 2008 Grand-Am Rolex Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16 by garnering four championships and a lot of steam as the team’s head toward the 2009 Rolex 24 at Daytona in just 112 days.

Pontiac won its first ever GT road racing championship on the strength of seven race wins by the Pontiac GXP.R. In 2007 it was the Daytona Prototypes (DP) cars that had Pontiac winning the championship in every category for the Rolex Series top class. In 2008 the Pontiac GT teams led the way with Banner Racing taking home the team championship, drivers Paul Edwards and Kelly Collins winning the drivers title and Pontiac taking the manufacturer trophy.

Leighton Reese’s Banner Engineering Racing team with Collins and Edwards posted wins at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Laguna Seca, Lime Rock Park and the finale at Miller Motorsports Park. They also graced the podium at Mexico City and Watkins Glen. The worst finish for the team was 11th at Mid-Ohio.

"We led the points with the 07 from Mexico City," Reese said. "We were sitting pretty sassy since Lime Rock. After the weight adjustment we just kind of lost our way. It wasn’t because of the weight, because our lap times were still competitive. We had trouble putting a complete race together. One thing or another would conspire to put us down. Whenever our rivals would have a good finish we would get an eighth or 11th.

Then at Barber we just had a bad race. The guys had a bunch of issues that made it a tough weekend. The engineers over came the weight admirably. The other teams got stronger and caught us off guard a little. We had big expectations at Montreal. It was no one’s fault we came up a half cup of gas short going for a win and not just a finish. The team showed its true potential at Miller. Paul did an awesome job behind wheel, a career drive. We ended up lapping the field. It put a huge exclamation point on the season for us."

"After Lime Rock we got the weight and balance penalty," Edwards said. "The Mid-Ohio race kind of started our skid with the transponder failure causing us to lose two laps. Watkins Glen we had a fourth which wasn’t too bad. At Barber we had a front row qualifying effort that sent us to the back for a ride height violation. It was tough to make up the ground. We were leading the championship and couldn’t afford to take huge risks.

We were in a little rut where we couldn’t sacrifice the car, kind of in drive-safe mode. At the beginning of the year we were more aggressive and sticking our nose in there and going for it. We had our competitors making aggressive calls in the pits, which was paying off for them through the mid-part of the season.

Even at the start of the season the 57 guys made a pit call which won them the race at Mexico City. They also had some strong mid-season performances that brought them back into the championship. At New Jersey I went off on the second lap of my stint and then we just had to go into safe mode.

Everyone around us was running out of their minds. At Miller the car was running good and the track was good for the car. We were able to pull a gap and took a risk with the slicks after the rain, that really paid off. We were more aggressive and we knew we had to be on the podium to win. Everyone had that taste in their mouth going into the race, we were back in early-season mode. No tire issues, no back of the pack and we had a clean fast weekend that won us the championship. The ability of the team came to the front. We never lacked pace, just sometimes some luck."

"We had a good points lead after the Lime Rock Weekend," Collins said. "A couple things hurt us after that. We started being a little complacent and little too defensive as opposed to offensive. The weight and balance penalty hurt us as well. We started dead last in Alabama and just couldn’t make up the deficit. We messed up at Montreal, but we were being aggressive going for the win.

We ran a little scared at New Jersey. At Mid-Ohio we had the transponder go out because of the rain and to avoid being disqualified we had to pit and change it, that cost us a lap. Put all of that together and that is how what was a 46 point lead to the 57 car after Lime Rock becomes a six point lead going into Miller. At Miller we were supposed to have a third driver but Lawson (Aschenbach) got sick. Paul and I were determined to finish what we started and we came in with a winning plan and attitude, it worked out."

"We had incredible performances in both DP and GT this year," Steve Wesololski, GM road racing manager said. "The race at Lime Rock was a Pontiac performance infomercial with the cars leading nearly every lap in a GT only event. The season ending race with Paul and Kelly running a fault free race to win the championship in style with an overall GT victory was an impressive way to end the year.

The Stevenson Motorsports team had a great year running their GXP.R for the first time. In DP at Mid-Ohio in changing conditions Alex Gurney and Jon Fogarty had a great race to take the checker. The Riley-Matthews guys had a good start to the season with a win at Mexico City. Pontiac had its best year yet in the series winning the GT team, drivers and manufacturer championship as well as the DP manufacturer title."

Another highlight of the year was the new to the Pontiac fold Stevenson Motorsports and their red-white-and-blue GXP.R. Drivers Robin Liddell and Andrew Davis took to the car and the competition with vigor. The team won races at Mexico City, Virginia International Raceway (VIR) and Montreal. They also stood on the podium at Lime Rock Park, Watkins Glen, Daytona in July, New Jersey and at the Miller Motorsports Park season finale. The duo finished second in the GT drivers standings and team owner John Stevenson vowing to return for the number one GT trophy in 2009.

The GAINSCO Bob Stallings all dominating DP team from 2007 came into 2008 to defend their team and drivers titles. The team started the year with a second place finish at the Rolex 24 Hour and followed that up with a single victory at Mid-Ohio. The duo of Alex Gurney and Jon Fogarty also stood on the podium at Daytona in July, Watkins Glen, Infineon Raceway and at the finale at Miller Motorsports Park.

"The highlight of the year was definitely winning in Mid-Ohio," Gurney said. "It was our only win, that's kind of an easy pick. The race had very difficult conditions but we were able to persevere and come out on top. The low point was probably the short Daytona race where I was passed coming across the stripe to the checkered flag when it seemed we had the race in hand. That one hurt! I think only two things changed for us from '07 to '08 and that was the switch to Pirelli tires as well as the series engine rule changes that came at the end of last year.

I think Pontiac was unnecessarily punished rules-wise for doing a great job last year. We did struggle initially with the tires but we felt we got a handle on them after a few races. I actually think our team was even better in '08 than in '07 in terms of pit stops and strategy but we really had very little luck. This season could have turned out quite different. I think we could legitimately claim that we were in a likely position to win in Mexico, VIR, Barber, and Montreal but just little things caused us problems."

"Our high point was the win at Mid-Ohio," Fogarty said. "We always strive to win, that is our ultimate goal and on that day we met our objectives. It was a bit of a relief as we had thought we would get a win prior to that, but luck just kept the win from coming, so it was a bit like getting the monkey off our back once again. Unfortunately we had almost too many low points to count, but Barber was a tough one.

Once again we were leading after the last round of stops and things were looking good, but we all knew that it was not going to last as I had reported a clutch problem from the very first lap of the race. We knew from the start that things were not going to work-out, even though it appeared from the outside we had things under control. The just became a prolonged bummer."

"The magic that was missing (from 2007) was mostly luck. We just were on the wrong side of it all of ‘08, and when the competition is so close and the margins so small you simply can’t win a championship under those circumstances. The team performed very well all season and we made the most of our given situations, but it just was not meant to be this year. 2007 was magical for sure, and we had all the pieces in place.

Changes made to the competition rules between ‘07 and ‘08 didn't help us, it took away some of the advantage of having two pro drivers. Like I said, when the competition is so tight anything to shift the balance ever so slightly can have championship implications."

The 2005 series champion Max Angelelli and new co-driver Michael Valiante weathered a season of off track and on track misfortune to post a win at Infineon and podium finishes at Watkins Glen, New Jersey and Miller Motorsports Park.

The team was developing their all new Dallara Pontiac starting with the second round at Homestead-Miami Speedway. On the return trip from Laguna Seca the team’s transporter burned down along with the new Dallara and support equipment. The Grand-Am community surrounded team owner Wayne Taylor and they made the next race at Watkins Glen with last years Riley and proceeded to finish third. The team also drove their Dallara to pole positions at VIR, Watkins Glen and Barber Motorsports Park.

Krohn Racing also ran the season with their new Proto-Auto Lola Pontiac DP cars. The green and blue cars showed their potential with podium finishes at Mexico City and Daytona in July. Ricardo Zonta put the car he shared with Nic Jonsson on the pole in the season finale at Miller Motorsports Park.

The Riley-Matthews Motorsports team got out of the box quickly in 2008. The team of Marc Goossens and Jim Matthews posted a win at Mexico City and podium finishes at VIR and Laguna Seca. A late season fade had Matthews finishing 12th in the season ending standings and Goossens in 15th.

- Kyle Chura ,Jim Hopson - also photo