Roger Edmondson, President of Grand American Road Racing Association, has returned traditional timed qualifying procedures to the remainder of the 2006 Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Reserve.
"We introduced qualifying races in an effort to improve the entertainment qualities of our events and to provide all teams, including those who may not qualify for the main event, some head-to-head competition and points. I announced last year that select 2006 race weekends would include qualifying races. After seeing these races at three events, I have concluded that the critics of this plan were right and I was wrong. What sounded positive in theory did not meet expectations in reality."
Last night Oswaldo Negri/No.60 Flight Options/Nett App Lexus Riley was penalised one-minute for his "unavoidable contact" with Christian Fittipaldi/No.39 Crown Royal Special Reserve Porsche Crawford. That contact triggered a five-car pile up, which Shank escaped. He finished tenth but his penalty put him back to seventeenth, the last car on the lead lap. The Five cars all were towed off course for their crews to frantically begin repairs.
Saturday Grand-Am announced a further penalty for Negri - he has been suspended from Saturday night's GAINSCO Grand Prix. The team is replacing Negri with Rod MacLeod of Scotland, who has been living and racing in Mexico for the past eight years, racing Mustangs and Corona Cup Series. He also is a Driver Coach, this weekend with the Brian Tuttle's team. MacLeod and Negri used to be Driver Coaches for a
BMW Series.
The Alex Job Racing team for No.23 Ruby Tuesday Championship Racing Porsche Crawford has been repaired. Damage was to the front, left side and rear of the car. The crew thrashed until 2:30am Saturday morning and now it's good to go. The AJR American Le Mans team with Mike Rockenfeller and Klaus Graff finished first in GT2 class, seventh overall in No. 23 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR.
![The Grand-Am field heads into turn one at Long Beach [pic credit: Grand-Am media]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/209044.jpg)
