Ricardo Zonta Claims Miller Motorsports Pole

Ricardo Zonta saved his best for last Friday at Miller Motorsports Park, running a lap of 2:35.664 (103.747 mph) to capture the pole for Saturday's SunRichGourmet.com 1000 presented by The Grand and Little America Hotels, the final event of the 2008 Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16.

It was the first career pole for Zonta, a former Formula One regular, and also the first time the Lola chassis captured a pole in Daytona Prototype competition. Zonta will co-drive the No. 76 Krohn Racing Pontiac Lola with Nic Jonsson in search of his first career Rolex Series victory.

Taking advantage of drying conditions on the mammoth 4.486-mile, 24-turn circuit, Zonta ran his fastest lap at the end of the 15-minute session, knocking the No. 01 TELMEX Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Lexus Riley of Scott Pruett from the pole. Pruett and teammate Memo Rojas need to each run 30 minutes in the 139 lap, six-hour and 45-minute race to share the 2008 Daytona Prototype championship.

"It's a long track to do a lap without making a mistake," Zonta said. You have to be very focused here. It helps to have a very good car, and the team has improved it a lot since the race at Barber in July. Now, it's quite quick. We had a good chance to win the last race at New Jersey, but had radiator problems.

David Donohue will start third in the No. 58 Brumos Racing Porsche Riley he co-drives with Darren Law and Buddy Rice, 2:35.823 (103.641 mph), while Max Angelelli ran a lap of 2:36.001 (103.522 mph) in the No. 10 SunTrust Racing Pontiac Riley co-driven by Michael Valiante to start fourth. Donohue and Valiante end the season tied atop the 2008 leaders with three poles apiece.

Fastest in practice, Joey Hand ran a lap of 2:36.131 (103.436 mph) in the No. 23 Ruby Tuesday Porsche Riley co-driven by Bill Auberlen to start fifth.

While Daytona Prototype qualifying was run in mixed drizzle and drying conditions, steady rain fell through much of the GT qualifying session, only to let off in the closing minutes. Leh Keen took advantage of the changing conditions to capture his first GT pole in the final seconds, running a lap of 2:52.252 (93.756 mph) in the No. 86 Farnbacher Loles Racing Porsche GT3 co-driven by Eric Lux. He knocked teammate Wolf Henzler off the pole, with Henzler running a lap of 2:52.724 (93.499 mph) in the No. 87 Porsche GT3 co-driven by Bryce Miller and Dirk Werner.

Spencer Pumpelly will start third in the No. 66 TRG Porsche GT3, 2:55.203 (92.177 mph), while points leader Paul Edwards was fourth fastest in the No. 07 Banner Racing Pontiac GXP.R at 2:55.323 (92.113 mph).

Edwards and Kelly Collins enter the finale six points ahead of Andrew Davis, who qualified 10th in the No. 57 Stevenson Motorsports Pontiac GXP.R co-driven by Robin Liddell. Also in championship contention, 13 points behind, is the No. 70 SpeedSource Castrol Synetec/Mazdaspeed Mazda RX-8, qualified fifth by Sylvain Tremblay with a lap of 2:56.254 (91.627 mph). SpeedSource co-driver Nick Ham was the only driver to win multiple poles in GT competition in 2008, setting fastest time on three occasions.

The SunRichGourmet.com 1000 takes the green flag at 11:08 a.m. (MT). The race will be televised live flag to flag on SPEED, beginning at 1 p.m. ET.

- photo Grandam -