Jon Fogarty, originally from Palo Alto, and Southern Californian Alex Gurney became the first repeat winners in the Grand American Rolex Sports Car Series this season with a victory Saturday in the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen.
Fogarty and Gurney started from the pole and, apart from an early-race off-track excursion, they never put a wheel wrong, leading 91 of the 167 laps on the 3.4-mile road course in Watkins Glen, N.Y. The duo captured their first career Rolex Series victory in February at Mexico City.
Memo Gidley, who lives in Novato, and co-driver Guy Cosmo persevered in the face of a lot of adversity, including running the final half-hour of the race with only 9 pounds of air pressure in the right front tire to finish 10th.
The Grand American Rolex Sports Car Series holds its penultimate round Aug. 25 at Infineon Raceway.
“We went through a lot this weekend, but the Doran team kept working and we were able to achieve a good result. We had to start at the back of the pack and work our way toward the front several times,” Gidley said.
In the closing stint of the race following a caution, Gurney restarted behind 2004 Daytona Prototype co-champion Scott Pruett, another native Northern Californian, with 25 minutes left. Just one lap after the green flag dropped, Gurney outbraked the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing machine in Turn 1 and never looked back, taking the checkered flag 7.069 seconds ahead of Pruett.
Bomarito Slips in the Rain: Jonathan Bomarito of Monterey entered last weekend’s Champ Car Atlantic Championship doubleheader at Portland (Ore.) International Raceway second in points. Then the rain came. Bomarito was a victim of contact from behind in Saturday’s opener of the twin bill, wound up 24th and dropped all the way to fifth in the standings.
The stage was actually set Friday — in dry conditions — when Bomarito and his PR1 Motorsports team could not get the Mazda-powered Swift dialed in. Bomarito qualified 10th Friday for Saturday’s race and had the same qualifying result before the rain came Saturday morning for Sunday’s second race. After starting 10th again Sunday, Bomarito earned a seventh-place finish, but remained fifth in the standings.
MEET RACING’S NEW STAR
Lewis Hamilton is the newest racing star in the Formula One scene. The first black man to race in the 61-year history of F1 is a stranger to most Americans, but that might change Sunday at the U.S. Grand Prix in Indianapolis, where he makes his U.S. debut a week after winning the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal.
THIS WEEK’S PIT STOPS
NEXTEL CUP
WHAT: Citizens Bank 400
WHERE: Brooklyn, Mich.
WHEN: Sunday, 11:30 a.m.
BUSCH
WHAT: Meijer 300
WHERE: Sparta, Ky.
WHEN: Saturday, 5 p.m.
NHRA
WHAT: SuperNationals
WHERE: English-town, N.J.
WHEN: June 24
IRL
WHAT: Iowa Corn 250
WHERE: Newton, Iowa
WHEN: June 24
CHAMP CAR
WHAT: Grand Prix of Cleveland
WHERE: Cleveland
WHEN: June 24
FORMULA ONE
WHAT: United States Grand Prix
WHERE: Indianapolis
WHEN: Sun., 10 a.m.
