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| Pontiacs Attack At The Park |
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When does a Pontiac look like a Shark?
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© Andrew S. Hartwell
Pontiac's have taken the last four GT class wins in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series. They mean to make it five in a row as this weekend there are no less than five teams running Pontiacs in the Grand Am Rolex Series GT class. Four teams are running the GXP-R model and one, Matt Connolly Motorsports, is running the GTO-R
The Pontiac teams and drivers here this weekend are:
# 06 Banner Racing - Jan Magnussen and Ron Fellows
# 07 Banner Racing - Paul Edwards and Kelly Collins
# 21 Matt Connolly Racing - Ryan Phinny and Diego Alessi
# 57 Stevenson Motorsports - Robin Liddell and Andrew Davis
# 72 Autohaus Motorsports - Lawson Aschenbach and Tim Lewis
Pontiac currently leads the Grand-Am GT Manufacturers Championship, leading Porsche by just 6 points (164 vs. 158). And Paul Edwards and Kelly Collins lead the driver's championship over hard-charging Porsche pilots, Spencer Pumpelly and Tim George.
But the Pontiac boys are out to mow down the 'little' Porsches yet again and the qualifying results show they have their blades sharpened well enough to do the job. Pontiac's took the top four qualifying positions for the Lime Rock Classic GT 250 with the #72 Autohaus Motorsports GXP-R on the pole and the #57 Stevenson GXP-R alongside. Spots three and four are in the firm grip of the twin Banner Racing GXP-R's with #06 in third and #07 in fourth. The last Pontiac in the mix, the Matt Connolly Motorsports #21 GTO-R qualified sixth having been nicked by the slightest of hairs by the SpeedSource #70 Mazda RX-8.
The gap between the pole car and the fourth place starter was just a tad over 3/10ths of a second! The top six cars all came in with lap times under 53 seconds which equates to a speed of nearly 104 miles per hour on the 1.53 mile circuit. The fractional difference in lap times clearly shows that just one slight hesitation impacting momentum is all it takes to come so close to being fastest without actually pulling it off.
"There was traffic,but all in all it is good for Pontiac because we have four GXP-R' up there at the front of the grid," said Banner Racing's Kelly Collins. "We did the best we could with what we had but unfortunately we only got in one clear lap."
Banner Racing team owner Leighton Reese sees a great run to the front ahead for his twins. "Because we have what I believe is the best driver line up in North America with Kelly (Collins) and Paul (Edwards) and Jan (Magnussen) and Ron (Fellows) driving those two Banner Engineering Pontiac GXP-R's, I think we will be able to bubble up to the front as the race unfolds."
The series regulars just had to complete a 3,000 mile journey across country, coming from Mazda Raceway- Laguna Seca on the west coast last weekend to Lime Rock on the east for this weekend's event. At Laguna Seca, the #57 Stevenson GXP-R was nailed entering a turn by another Pontiac, not among the starters here this weekend, causing severe damage to the left rear suspension. The Stevenson crew made the trek across America and used Thursday, set up day, to make repairs. They reported the car was ready to go and Andrew Davis validated that assessment with his qualifying time.
Before the weekend Davis had this to say about running at Lime Rock. The Pontiac GXP-R will be the car to beat at Lime Rock. The circuit really plays into the strong points of the car, and I was pleased to see that we will be running on the original layout again this year. Although the event at Laguna Seca was disappointing for us, we learned quite a bit the will help us improve for this weekend's event. With the hard work ethic displayed by the crew, we are confident that we can return to our winning ways.
Paul Edwards too thinks a good run is in the cards for the #07 Banner GXP-R this weekend, despite the long haul to get here. The Banner car has been reliable. The crew has done a great job preparing the cars during the fast turn around between<
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