TiVo Alert: Grand-Am Rolex Series rolls into Barber Motorsports Park
click above image to view more high-res pics of last weekend's racing action
While Autoblog doesn't cover every motorsport event, or most for that matter, it doesn't mean we're not fans. So when racing comes to town, we try to check it out. Barber Motorsports in Birmingham, Ala. was busy last weekend and, except for the heat, was blessed with an almost perfect three days of racing weather. Blue skies and a continuing, statewide drought brought out thousands of fans. The Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series doesn't get the publicity of NASCAR, but the racing is heated and the competition fierce, two facts that were evident while watching the Porsche 250.
Driving the red No. 99 Pontiac, Alex Gurney and Jon Fogarty took the checkered flag in Sunday's Porsche 250 Grand-Am race at Barber Motorsports. An 11th-lap tie-up forced the field to take a mandated pit stop, and was one of only two full-track cautions in the race. The win put the team within one win of the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series single-season record for victories.
If the name Gurney sounds familiar, it should. Alex is the youngest son of Formula 1 driver, Dan Gurney.
Second place went to the Krohn Racing Pontiac driven by 18-year-old Colin Braun. In third was Max Angelelli and Memo Gidley, a full 40 seconds behind the leaders. At race's end, Angelelli was loaded into an ambulance, possibly suffering from the heat and dehydration. Reports say he recovered well.
More, larger photos in the gallery. Follow the jump for more racing coverage of the KONI Challenge Series race that also took place at Barber Motorsports this past weekend.
[Sources: Grand-Am.com]
Gallery: Porsche 250 at Barber Motorsports
All Photos ©2007 Chris Tutor / Weblogs, Inc.
KONI Challenge Series GS at Barber Motorsports:
Andy Lally and Ted Ballou took the checkered flag this past Sunday morning in the KONI Challenge Series at Barber Motorsports in Birmingham, Ala. In their TRG Porsche 997, the pair came in just ahead of Turner Motorsports' BMW M3 driven by Don Salama and Will Turner.On a roll over the weekend, Lally also took second place in Saturday's Rolex 250 GT at Barber with the help of co-driver R.J. Valentine, and, we hear, went on Saturday night to do pretty well in a drivers vs. media poker tournament.
"Grey's Anatomy" star, Patrick Dempsey, returned to the Barber track for the second year in a row, driving the Hyper-Motorsport Mustang GT. But after an early trip through the gravel pit with a Turner Motorsports' BMW, the actor's team didn't do so well. He and co-driver Rick Skelton finished 33 out of 38 positions.High-res photos from track side are in the galleries.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Allan 3:19PM (7/24/2007)
Between this and the F1 race, it was a good weekend for racing. I'll watch any of these races (along with ALMS) way before I'll watch anything NASCAR related.
But that 18 yr old can definitely drive. The last few minutes of that race were really good. He was all over Gurney most of the time.
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Brad 9:50PM (7/24/2007)
I definitely agree with you. It was a full race weekend. Watched the touring cars at Barber on Saturday, flipping back and forth from the ALMS race at Mid-Ohio, the F1 race Sunday morning, then switching between the IRL, Champ Car, and the DP's at Barber. Even watched a little of the MotoGP at Laguna Seca.
ermax18 8:49AM (7/25/2007)
I like how you put "TiVo Alert" on the tittle. Autoblog spoiled the The Euro GP for me. Please continue to put warnings on race related posts.
Thanks!
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