Grand Am – Grand Prix of Miami – Race Report
Porsche Blows Them Away – In DP At Least

Alex Job’s determination to win overall was going to be rewarded quickly – not at the Rolex 24, not quite, but it all came right in the second race for the #23 Crawford Porsche, as Mike Rockenfeller and Patrick Long blew away their DP rivals.

With the Fabcar Porsches still struggling, at least compared to the Crawfords with the same engine, this was the first flat-six DP win, overall, since those heady days when the Fabcars had little opposition (September 2003).

But it wasn’t a case of rushing away at the front from the start – more a case of catching up, and taking the win, with impressive pace when needed. Christian Fittipaldi even led the #23 early on, also with Porsche power in the Cheever Crawford, until Rockenfeller breezed by on lap 16.

Pat Long had to do some passing to take the lead again in the middle stint, which set up Rockenfeller for the run to the flag. He resumed in tenth place, but blasted past those initially ahead of him, taking the lead (from Scott Pruett, who was unhappy about Porsche power in Mexico – the #8 Doran) on lap 89, and winning by four seconds.

"At the beginning I thought that the 39 car had jumped the start, but the series officials did not see it that way," said Mike Rockenfeller. "I was able to catch him and pass a few laps later and we really never looked back. The strategy calls were great today. The pit stops were timed just right and we had the fresh car when we needed it, especially at the end. The team worked hard in the pre-season to get the car to Daytona where we had a good run but could not finish it, today we did finish."

"We had a great car, surrounded by a great team, with great strategy on top," added Pat Long.

The Pruett / Diaz Riley Lexus, so fast at Mexico, doesn’t seem to be losing a lot to the Porsche-powered DPs. Lucas Luhr, in the #23 at Daytona, raced the Cheever car here, and he drove the bulk of the race, after Fittipaldi’s flying start.

"At one point in the race I had a really good run at the #23 car," said Luhr. "But lapped traffic held me up a bit, allowing the (Pruett / Ganassi) #01 car by. When I saw the white flag come out, I knew that I didn't have a choice. I had to go for it. The whole weekend was great for me.”

"I definitely got a little bit of help there toward the end," Pruett said. "It was good hard racing and I was doing all I could do to hang the CompUSA car out of the edge. Overall, I thought it was a competitive race and a good show. We managed to get another top five and that's what we need to do to keep moving up in the point standings. That's all that counts. I can say that the Ganassi team used all of its resources to get that result tonight, the guys really worked hard on fuel mileage and getting us to the end."

Top five – that seems to be the target.. consistency, plain and simple.

Fourth was the McDowell / Gidley Playboy / Uniden Racing Crawford, with Ford power, and fifth were team-mates Michael Valiante and Rob Finlay in the #5 Crawford Ford. Porsche, Porsche, Lexus, Ford, Ford and … the best Pontiac-engined cars were sixth and seventh, the Stallings / Gurney Gainsco car sixth, followed by Dyson Racing pair Chris Dyson and Guy Smith, in #16 Crawford.

Championship leader Jorg Bergmeister was eighth, with stand-in partner Max Papis, while tenth and eleventh were the #58 Red Bull Fabcar Porsche and the 2005 champions Wayne Taylor and Max Angelelli. Oh how the balance of performance has changed, all of a sudden.

The Job / Emory car’s best lap was a 1:14.153, the #39 Cheever Crawford Porsche’s was a 1:14.710, the Pruett car’s a 1:14.641…. and the only other car in the 14s, just, was the #58 Red Bull Fabcar Porsche. (1:14.978). The Fabcar is competitive at last, but the Crawford with the same engine is super-competitive. How to handicap one and not the other?

The Picchio is even less competitive than before, based on the car’s Homestead performance. Its best lap was a 1:20.6. It was the third retirement in the race.

Max Angelelli’s best lap (Max has typically been the pace-setter on times ever since the arrival of the Riley) was over a second slower than Mike Rockenfeller’s.

Top DP Points are as follows
Jorg Bergmeister 81
Christian Fittipaldi 77
Michael McDowell / Luis Diaz / Scott Pruett / Memo Gidley 76
Darren Law / David Donohue, Pat Long / Mike Rockenfeller 65
Lucas Luhr / Harrison Brix / Terry Borcheller / Michael Valiante / Rob Finlay 62
Alex Gurney 61
Nic Jonsson / Tracy Krohn / Colin Braun 58
Mark Patterson / Oswaldo Negri 53
Andy Wallace / Butch Leitzinger 51

Wayne Taylor and Max Angelelli have 44.

GT was a late race thriller, Paul Edwards passing the impressive RX-8 of Sylvain Tremblay with a lap or so to go, the TRG Pontiac making it two out of two since Daytona.

“I had a great car under me tonight," said Edwards. "Kelly did a great job to make up ground from our qualifying position and the cool air really favored our race setup. The handling of the car really gave me the confidence to hunt down the #70 car at the end of the race."

Edwards and Collins lead the points on 88, four ahead of Andy Lally in the other TRG Pontiac, and he’s one ahead of Liddell and Henzler.

"I'm so proud of everyone that has worked on this car since Daytona," said SpeedSource Mazda owner Sylvain Tremblay. "It was unfortunate that we couldn't hold the lead for the win, but for the car's second race in the GT class, a runner-up finish isn't too bad. Running in the Grand-Am Cup Series here in the past gave this team a lot of information heading into this weekend, and in our home race, I'm just glad we were able to put on a good show."

For Wolf Henzler and Robin Liddell, starting from pole, it was an interesting race, to say the least – in the #72 Tafel Porsche 997. Edwards was able to pass Liddell for the lead when Lally (a lap behind) slowed early into turn one to block the Porsche, allowing Edwards to slip underneath. The gallery image of the Scot tells a story of his mood after the race.

“The problem with any caution, and of course it was compounded here because there were so many, is that if you're more than 10 cars behind the leader when you go green you get caught up in a lot of traffic with the two classes mixed up and it becomes a real battle ground," said Liddell. "In addition to trying to run my race I was constantly looking out for other cars spun out off course or debris on the track. We had to be more cautious just to stay safe. It's a huge disappointment, but I think that if we had a couple more laps we could have caught up and finished on top where we started, but there just wasn't enough time."

At least third place means lots of points, and that third in the season’s tally so far. If you can’t win, make sure you finish well up, at least.

Fourth places and beyond were filled by the #05 BMW, Fiorano Racing (Longhi and Assentato), Murry and Keen for Synergy, the #74 Tafel Porsche, the SAMAX Porsche and the other Pontiac, a lap down.

The next race is at Long Beach, the 90 minute sprint race for DPs only, on April 7-8. The Homestead meeting was overshadowed by the death of Paul Dana, in the IRL event on March 26.