Mixed weather conditions created big challenges for the Daytona Prototype race teams of the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series; and another milestone was reached by Pirelli’s P Zero racing tires during the Crown Royal 200 at Watkins Glen this past Friday. Last week’s Montreal 200 race centered on teams gambling fuel mileage. In a change of pace, Friday’s Crown Royal 200 focused on tires as teams had to decide at the start whether to mount P Zero slicks or Pirelli’s racing rain tires -- and then maximize the performance of the tires chosen for the fast sprint race on The Glen’s 2.45-mile NASCAR short course. Intermittent rain fell throughout the day on Friday and was at its heaviest just before the start and continued throughout the first half-hour of the race. Positions one through five on the starting grid showed different philosophies in tire choice. The No. 10 SunTrust Pontiac Dallara and the series-leading No. 01 TELMEX/Chip Ganassi Racing Lexus Riley began the race on P Zero rains. The No. 99 GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing Pontiac Riley and front-row starting No. 58 Brumos Porsche and pole-winning No. 61 Exchange Traded Gold/AIM Autosport Ford Riley opted for P Zero slicks. “I knew no matter what, we had to start with slicks,” says Brian Frisselle, who drove the first stint in the No. 61 and went on to win his second-straight Rolex Series race with teammate Mark Wilkins. “If you were on rains they might work for the first few laps in the wet but we thought it would dry out. It made the first few laps tough, and Michael Valiante in the SunTrust car got by me briefly on the opening lap,” he explains. “Then when the rain came back again it was then that the Pirelli rain tires were the advantage. Considering that we were driving around in the rain on slicks, you couldn’t have asked for much more from the Pirellis. The tires stayed underneath us in those conditions and gave us the grip that we needed,” Frisselle reports. While the P Zero rain tires also delivered outstanding performance during the rain-soaked beginning of the race, ultimately a drying track favored those that opted for P Zero slicks. In addition to No. 61 winners Frisselle and Wilkins, the top-three podium included teams that raced only on P Zero slicks. Jon Fogarty and Alex Gurney finished second in the No. 99 GAINSCO machine and David Donohue and Darren Law took third in the No. 58 Brumos Porsche. The real story of the Crown Royal 200 came from the two teams that rounded out the top-five finishers as they completed the entire race on just one set of Pirelli P Zero slicks. Both the No. 23 Ruby Tuesday/Alex Job Racing Porsche Riley and the No. 76 Krohn Racing Pontiac Lola opted to go the distance on just one set of tires -- another milestone first for Pirelli in its inaugural season as the Official Tire of the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series. “We ran the same set of tires the whole race,” says Ruby Tuesday driver Joey Hand, who finished fourth with teammate Bill Auberlen. “We never switched tires! Billy started on slicks, ran hard on the slicks and I got in on his slicks because it was wet enough that we didn’t want to put cold tires on. So we had Pirellis that went the whole way, two hours, and we nearly got the fastest race lap at the end on a set of tires that had a full race on them,” “We even did that in fuel-conservation mode,” Hand notes. “We are ecstatic. We hadn’t been a top-five car all weekend and in the race we became a top-five car and we had P1 speed. To get to fourth from where we were on one set of tires and still be there at the end says a lot about the Alex Job team and also about the Pirelli tire.” Next up for Pirelli and the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series is the second and final Daytona Prototype feature race of the year which will take place at Infineon Raceway in California on Saturday, Aug. 23. The race can be seen in next-day coverage on the SPEED network Sunday, Aug. 24 at Noon ET. For more information, visit www.us.pirelli.com. | 
