Round 2 of the 2009 Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car season at this past weekend’s Bosch Engineering 250 at Virginia International Raceway (VIR) was defined by long driving stints and unseasonably warm temperatures hovering near the 90-degree mark – providing a high-profile demonstration on behalf of Pirelli tire dealers that the company’s P Zero Racing Slicks were able to beat the heat and put on a competitive show for a national television audience.
As the exclusive tire supplier, all of the cars in the series use Pirelli rubber.
Driver Alex Gurney joined teammate Jon Fogarty in taking the overall win in their No. 99 GAINSCO Auto Insurance Pontiac Riley Daytona Prototype.
In the GT class, Robin Liddell and Andrew Davis applied “smart race strategy” for the second-straight year to score back-to-back wins at VIR in the No. 57 Stevenson Motorsports Pontiac GXP.R.
The real story of the race, however, was the number of competitors in both classes that stretched both fuel mileage and the tires to their competitive limits in temperatures that averaged 88 degrees in the 2 ¾-hour race, according to Rafael Navarro III, Pirelli Tire North America’s director of motorsports and media communications.
The long runs between pit stops saw many teams use one set of tires for more than the final 90 minutes of the race in addition to some opening-race power stints.
Pole-position sitter Memo Rojas led the competition three times for a race-high 27 laps in the No. 01 TELMEX/Chip Ganassi Racing Lexus Riley he shared with teammate and reigning series co-champion Scott Pruett. His shift included a double-stint in the first half of the race where he pushed his Pirellis to the limit.
“The Pirellis were good,” Rojas reports. “The tires were very consistent for us and I have no complaints with the tires. Any problems we had came when I locked up the brakes, but that was on our side. We put a new set of Pirellis on and they were very consistent, I would say.”
Rojas and Pruett were in contention for the win throughout the race, but stymied in the closing minutes due to a “contact incident” shortly after a restart with three laps to go. Pruett was running third at the time.
In the GT class, Davis also ran the opening part of the race before handing the driving over to Liddell.
“I can’t say enough about the Pirelli tire,” Davis says. “It was under us for both stints. In my stint I didn’t have to make any adjustments inside the car with the roll bars. The tires were great and the Pirelli tire is really performing at its best here at this track. With the new grooves in the corners and stuff, it seemed to respond well to that, and obviously in the run at the end with Robin, his tires were strong. He was running awesome lap times the entire time and you really have to thank the guys at Pirelli for doing their homework.”
Davis and Liddell bested the similar second-place No. 07 Banner Racing Pontiac GXP.R of reigning GT Champions Kelly Collins and Paul Edwards.
“I was thinking about my tires the whole time and they were fantastic,” says Collins. “You have got to manage them at the beginning, which sets the precedent for the way the tires will be at the end of a stint. I only did 45 minutes but they were feeling perfect. Our problems came with our handling woes when our rear sway bar broke, but the tires stayed underneath us.”
Friday’s record-setting qualifying session served notice that it was going to be a fast and competitive weekend, Navarro recounts. The top eight qualifiers in both the Daytona Prototype and GT divisions all lapped quicker than the existing track record. The top Daytona Prototype qualifiers were under the existing track record of 1:53.401 set by Saturday’s second-place finisher Michael Valiante in 2008.
Next up in the series is the May 3 Verizon Wireless 250 at New Jersey Motorsports Park. The race can be seen live on the Speed channel at 1 p.m. EDT.
This past weekend’s VIR events also marked Round 1 of the Pirelli-sponsored SCCA Pro Racing Volkswagen Jetta TDI Cup season.
While series veterans put on a strong showing, it was rookie Joey Atterbury who took the checkered flag in his No. 4 Red Bull car.
This is the second year of competition for the TDI Cup, which features young, up and coming drivers between the ages of 16 to 26 who will run in 10 events on eight road courses around North America in identical factory-prepared clean diesel Jetta TDI’s powered by Syndiesel B5 blended biodiesel fuel.
Each driver competing in the series will earn a Pro Racing license from SCCA at the conclusion of the season. In addition, the series champion will win $100,000.
The Jettas are powered by a 2-liter, 170 horsepower, four-cylinder TDI clean diesel engine mated to a six-speed, double-clutch, automatic DSG transmission. The car is only slightly modified from stock with Pirelli racing tires, race suspension and brake components, a racing safety seat, FIA roll cage and an on-board fire extinguisher system.
While en route to victory, Atterbury battled another rookie driver, AJ Nealey, for much of the race with the pair swapping the lead four times. Series veteran Timmy Megenbier rounded out the podium with his third-place finish.
Atterbury reports that it was “very challenging because of the heat that we encountered. Despite this, the Pirelli tires held up really well, and gave us some excellent grip,” going on to note how “AJ, myself and Jake Thompson had some great battles for the lead. I think that we all raced each other very cleanly, and I have to thank them for that. This was a great way to start the season.”
Thompson, also a rookie, won Round 2 of the series on Sunday in his No 19 ViON car. He took the lead on the third lap from pole-sitter Megenbier who was knocked out of the competition with a mechanical problem.
For the last half of the race, Thompson battled bumper to bumper with Mark Pombo, but never relinquished being the front runner. Pombo placed second and Taylor Broekemeier finished third.
“I’m really glad that I landed in the Jetta TDI Cup because the emphasis that the series puts on driver development will hopefully help me to continue to grow in my racing career,” says Thompson, the 2004 Canadian National Karting Champion. “I’ve competed in karting for many years, but this is my first experience in cars, so to get a win in only my second race of the season is fantastic.”
“Heading into our second season, we had great expectations for this year’s edition of the series,” says Clark Campbell, VW’s motorsports manager. “All of the drivers did an excellent job on the track…and we had very few incidents, which is a little surprising given that it was our first race,” he adds.
“The inaugural race weekend of the Jetta TDI Cup absolutely proved our concept that Volkswagen clean diesel technology, young drivers and a top-level crew produces some of the best racing available anywhere in North America,” Campbell continues. “If the talent level displayed this weekend at VIR is any indication as to how the rest of the season is going to go, it’s going to be a very exciting sophomore season.”
The next series event is May 15-17 at Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, Utah.
For more information, visit www.us.pirelli.com, www.vwmotorsportusa.com and www.sccapro.com.
