Pruett, Diaz tie record with fifth win.

Sunday, 27th August 2006

Scott Pruett and Luis Diaz kept their Grand-Am Rolex Series title hopes alive with victory in the Sonoma 250 at Infineon Raceway on Saturday, the #01 CompUSA Chip Ganassi Racing pair also tying a record for the number of victories in a single season.

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The victory tied the record set by defending Daytona Prototype champions Max Angelelli and Wayne Taylor last season, and also marked the twelfth victory of Pruett's Rolex Series career, tying him with Wallace's co-driver, Butch Leitzinger, for second-most of all-time. The victory also secured another manufacturers' title for Riley, which can no longer be caught by Crawford.

"We got put behind a little bit early on in the race," Pruett confirmed, "but we dug deep to pull a strategy that would give us the best chance to win, and the guys did a great job on the pit-stop, sending me out there in front. It feels great to get this win in front of the home crowd - there's nothing like winning on your home court. All these things together make this sweet."

Leitzinger and Wallace earned the best result of the season for the Howard-Boss Motorsports team, improving on their previous best of fourth from both Mexico City and Long Beach.

"It's about time," Leitzinger smiled, "The start of the race was great. There was a train of about six or seven cars running nose-to-tail but, on almost one lap, three of the cars had problems, which sent us closer to the front with nothing I did. The crew did a great pit-stop and put us out ahead of the #10 car. Andy just drove the wheels off of it and it was very exciting to watch."

The #12 Lowe's Fernandez Racing Riley-Pontiac of Adrian Fernandez and Mario Haberfeld finished third, their best finish since taking victory in June's EMCO Gears Classic at Mid-Ohio. Haberfeld qualified the machine sixth, but handed control to owner/driver Fernandez during the race's first caution period.

"It's just great to finish races," the Mexican said, "This shows us that, if we can finish races, we can get podiums. There was a very fast pace out there today and everybody was very strong, but I was getting stronger and stronger during my stint. The Ganassi strategy was very good, and a little bit of traffic caught us out so we weren't able to catch him."