Bill Auberlen and Joey Hand took third place in the #23 Alex Job Racing/Ruby Tuesday Porsche Riley, taking their second podium finish of the season and best outing since placing second, ahead of the MSR duo, at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
"The last few laps were madness - it was crazy," veteran Auberlen commented, "On restarts, we had a tough time picking up rubber, so that was really bad for us. Joey did an awesome job and, Ruby Tuesday, I can't say enough about them. The only reason we are here is because our guys gave us a fantastic car this weekend, and it's probably the best it's been all year. That's hope it's that way going to Utah."
Barbosa and JC France finished fourth for the fourth time this season in the #59 Brumos Racing Porsche Riley, but Barbosa had been running second at the final restart with two laps remaining before being bumped off course and passed by both Angelelli and Auberlen.
Reigning champion Alex Gurney finished fifth in the #99 GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing Pontiac Riley he shares with Jon Fogarty, but also went off course in the closing laps after contact with the #10 machine. The #99 was followed by Brian Frisselle in the polewinning #61 AIM Autosport Ford Riley started by Mark Wilkins, while the #6 Michael Shank Racing entry crewed by John Pew and Ian James came home seventh, ahead of the #75 Krohn Racing Pontiac Lola of Tracy Krohn and Eric van de Poele and the #01 Pruett and Rojas car.
Pruett had destroyed the team's primary TELMEX/Ganassi machine in a testing accident on Thursday, forcing the team to go back to its Indianapolis base to prepare the car that last competed in their Rolex 24 at Daytona victory. The ninth-place finish - coupled with the fifth-place finish by Gurney and Fogarty - opened a 38-point lead in the team standings with only the 20 September finale at Miller Motorsports Park, and 35 points, remaining on the schedule.
Darren Law and David Donohue rounded out the top ten in the #58 Brumos Racing Porsche Riley, having led 38 laps early in the event by passing Patterson for the lead on lap 20 and remaining out front through Donohue's pit-stop on lap 57. Law took over, but was held up in traffic and could not work his way back into position to challenge. Gurney led three laps after Donohue's stop, with Negri taking over on lap 61 and pacing the final 45 circuits.
The GT class saw rookie Tim George Jr score his first Rolex Series victory, and co-driver Andy Lally his 19th, as their TRG-run #67 Johnny Love Vodka/994 Magazine Porsche GT3 took the lead from Robin Liddell's Stevenson Motorsports Pontiac and hold on by 1.776secs at the line.
"It's a brand new track, and it was very treacherous," George reported, "I felt like I was back at Skip Barber Racing since we weren't allowed to drop tyres or you'd get called in, so it was a pretty big deal. I felt like I put a pretty good first stint in, and we were just fighting some gas issues toward the end but, other than that, we came out on top. I'm pretty happy."
"It was definitely a battle [with Liddell]," Lally added, "We've had a lot of good battles in the past and this was just another one. Just like at Barber [earlier this year], it came down [to the wire] and we got a late yellow and then went green-white-chequer. I knew it was all going to hit the fan as soon as the green flag dropped, and we just had to keep him behind us.
"I learned on the restart before that we really had to keep our tyres clean, because there was a lot of pick-up here - more than usual - and Robin made a real good move and got by, but I was able to hang on his back for a little while and get back by. I knew they were thinking championship, so I could take a little bit of a risk, but at the same time, I'm thinking championship for Tim because that was big points for the Rookie of the Year."
