SAMAX Motorsport's stand-in crew of Ryan Dalziel and Jean-François Dumoulin might have powered their way to a fourth-place finish in Sunday's fourth Grand-Am Rolex Series round at Virginia International Raceway, but were left to rue 'the one that got away'.
The two drivers were filling in for Milka Duno, who is now running in the Indy Racing League, and Patrick Carpentier, who missed the 400km race due to a family medical emergency, but showed few signs of rustiness as they qualified ninth fastest in the
Daytona Prototype-only field and ran in and around the top ten against more experienced rivals throughout DP debutant Dumoulin's opening stint.
Readying Champ Car convert Dalziel on lap 40, the SAMAX team pitted Dumoulin earlier than the rest of the field for its final stop, but the decision worked perfectly as a full course caution on lap 47 helped propel the Scot from eleventh as the other teams came in after him.
The move, however, was to have consequences and, while lying third overall on the penultimate lap, Dalziel felt the car cough as a dry fuel tank cut the engine power as he was about to receive the chequered flag. The problem allowed David Donohue, who was right on Dalziel's tail, to steal the podium finish, while the SAMAX car managed to cruise across the line two seconds back.
"I don't want to talk about the finish," Dalziel grimaced, "All weekend long, we had radio communication problems and this created the situation we faced at the end of the race. It was a great strategy to come in early, as we moved from 16th when I rejoined the field all the way to third when the yellow came out on lap 47. The outcome is disappointing but, overall, we had a very positive race. From a team standpoint, fourth place is great, but a podium finish would have been better."
![Carpentier/Duno/Manning/Dalziel - SAMAX Racing Riley-Pontiac [pic credit: Grand-Am.com]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/286124.jpg)
