From championship to heartbreak, Saturday’s Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Special Reserve season finale at Miller Motorsports Park was a true representation of the season as a whole - including one team’s championship hopes literally going up in smoke.
The Sunchaser 1000 was a race for the ages, not in the least because of Riley-Matthews Motorsports first career Rolex Series win. Jim Matthews, Marc Goossens and Ryan Hunter-Reay persevered in the #91 Riley-Matthews Motorsports Pontiac Riley throughout the 1000k marathon, climbing 18 spots from their starting position to the top of the podium.
“Our car was very strong toward the end of the race,” said Goossens, who ran the team’s final stint. “We kept trying and trying all afternoon long. We were running some of our fastest times toward the end of the day. The car wasn’t fantastic, but we kept going thanks to my team.”
Equally as impressive though was the battle for the
Daytona Prototype championship, which entered the day as the closest in all of motorsports.
As many expected, the championship outcome wasn’t decided until the final laps of a drama filled race. Alex Gurney and Jon Fogarty entered the season finale in the #99 GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing Pontiac Riley one point ahead of Scott Pruett in the #01 TELMEX Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Lexus Riley and three points ahead of Max Angelelli in the #10 SunTrust Racing Pontiac Riley.
The championship drama began to unfold on Lap 110 when Pruett took over for co-pilot Salvador Duran, exiting pit lane in second place – just behind Angelelli in the SunTrust machine and five seconds ahead Jon Fogarty in the GAINSCO car. Five laps later, Pruett was locked in a nose-to-tail battle with Angelelli while Fogarty had closed the gap to just three seconds behind the leaders.
![GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing duo Jon Fogarty and Alex Gurney celebrate a long-awaited Rolex Series win in Mexico City [pic credit: Grand-Am media]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/294493.jpg)
