Patrick Barrett Sets Sights on Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series Finale in Utah

Patrick Barrett looks to carry the momentum from his excellent GT class performance three weeks ago in New Jersey to the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16 season finale this coming weekend, September 18-20 at Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, Utah.

The SunRichGourmet.com 1000 will be contested on the long 4.486-mile, 24-turn Miller Motorsport Park circuit located south of Salt Lake City. The race will run for a distance of 1000 kilometers or a maximum of seven hours. You can see the race live on SPEED Channel from 10 AM to 5 PM Pacific, 1-8 PM Eastern on Saturday September 20th.

In only his second Grand-Am race opportunity Barrett led the 25 car GT field for 16 laps plus ran another 34 laps in the top three during the opening 90 minutes of the race last month at the recently completed New Jersey Motorsports Park. This, after setting the fourth fastest time and placing the car on the second row of the GT starting grid during the previous day’s qualifying session, which also happened to be his 19th birthday. This was a season high qualifying position and the most laps led by the rookie PR1 team.

When asked how his strong performance at New Jersey could translate into success at Miller Barrett replied, "I don’t expect to perform any differently going into Miller in terms of driving the car. It’s going to be a long race so I know I need be a little more patient with traffic and not take too many risks, but at the same time I can’t afford to hold back because that might mean the difference between a good result or going a lap down."

Barrett and PR1 Motorsports co-driver Canadian Mike Forest will share the #32 Miracle Sealants/Konica Minolta/Kolliner-Long Gallery Pontiac GXP.R in their longest event of the season. They expect to do approximately 900K or 560 miles while the faster Daytona Prototype class will do 1000K or 620 miles.

In considering what goals he has set for himself and the team for the Miller weekend Barrett stated, "PR1 is a very competitive team and we want to do well, regardless of our somewhat limited experience in Grand-Am. I myself want to succeed and perform my best in the season finale, so we will be pushing hard to walk away with a victory, or a podium for that matter. We’ve shown how fast we are and that we can lead, so now I think we’re ready to finish well."

Barrett is not a newcomer to Miller. He won a Pacific F2000 event last July on the shorter 3 mile course, on the way to winning the 2007 season championship for PR1 Motorsports. Later that year he raced in England as a member of the Team USA Scholarship program.

- PB - also photos