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Samax Motorsports Pontiac Riley Retires Before Mid-Point At Watkins Glen |
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Monday, 13 August 2007 |
August 10, 2007 - Kris Szekeres qualified the #11 SAMAX Motorsports Pontiac Riley in eighth place for Friday's Round 12 of the 2007 Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series at Watkins Glen International in Western New York, and he was up to fifth place on lap 2 when he came into the pits for a driver change during the first full course yellow of the race. Unlike last week in Montreal where he drove for over two hours, this was a short stint for the Hartland, Michigan driver handed over the Eldorado Casino Resort - Reno - Shreveport /A.J. Outdoors Power Equipment sponsored car to Tomas Enge who slowly, but surely moved up the field from 20th to seventh place.
When the yellow flags were waved the second time around on lap 34, Enge
pitted with the rest of the field and came out in fifth place.
Unfortunately, on lap 49, the Czech driver returned to the pits and the
SAMAX crew retired the car shortly after checking it out. The team was
scored in 20th place.
"We were doing so good, but it seems that bad luck is just following me
around at Watkins Glen," said Enge after the race. "The car was
fantastic during the race, and we could have placed fifth or better.
Then, the failure happened. The crew was excellent during the pit
stops. I just can't believe that we missed such a great opportunity."
Szekeres also felt the disagreeable taste of not finishing a race with a car that had performed so well up to its retirement.
"It is so disappointing," said Szekeres. "We were up to fifth place. I
handed a good car to Tomas (Enge) and he was doing so well, but we had
a problem. At this point, we don't know if it is electrical or
mechanical. We had one of the fastest cars on track today and it is a
shame because we had a sure top five result and possibly a shot at the
podium."
It was win number six on the year for the Pontiac Riley of the
polesitting team of Jon Fogarty and Alex Gurney who crossed the finish
line just a little under two seconds ahead of another Pontiac Riley
driven by Memo Gidley and Max Angelelli. The winning team led 81 of the
82-lap race. Third place went to the Lexus Riley of Memo Rojas and
Scott Pruett. Twelve of the 21 starters finished on the lead lap. In
the drivers point standings, Angelelli's second place finish was good
enough to tie Scott Pruett in first place with 354 points each with two
rounds to go. Fogarty and Gurney closed within four points of the
leading duo with 350 markers.
Round 13 of the 2007, 14-race, Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series
schedule will be held Saturday August 25th at Infineon Raceway, located
across from the Golden Gate Bridge that links San Francisco and
Sausalito, California.
SAMAX Motorsport, based in Pompano Beach, Florida, is in its third year
of competition in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series. More
information on SAMAX Motorsport is available at
www.samaxmotorsport.com. Learn more about Grand-Am at www.grand-am.com
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