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DoubleJ's Blog: Behind the Wall
Created by:
DoubleJ
Type:
Staff Blog
Blog Title:
Behind the Wall
Congratulations, Eric van de Poele!
Eric van de Poele took the weekend off from racing in the Rolex Series to attend to some business back home on Belgium.
It was a successful trip. Van de Poele joined Vitaphone Racing in winning the 24 Hours of Spa for the fifth time overall at Spa Francorchamps.
Van de Poele was paired with Michael Bartels, Andrea Bertolini and Stephane Sarrazin in the No. 1 Maserati MC12, winning by two laps over the team’s sister car in the FIA GT event.
Their toughest rival was a Corvette C6R with a driver lineup including Fanrizio Gollin, but that car was knocked out of contention in a sixth-hour accident.
Oliver Gavin filled in for van de Poele in the Montreal 200 at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, where the pair scored a top-10 finish in the No. 75 Krohn Racing Pontiac Lola. Van de Poele will be back with Krohn at The Glen for Friday’s Crown Royal 200 – looking to better their season-best finish of seventh, scored at the Rolex 24 At Daytona.
Created by:
DoubleJ
Type:
Staff Blog
Blog Title:
Behind the Wall
One of my vivid memories of Thursday's Brumos Porsche 250 was seeing Scott Pruett and Alex Gurney battling side-by-side for the lead with 20 laps remaining in the race.
"Why couldn't this be the last lap?" I wondered.
From that point, the biggest question was what team would join that pair on the podium. Ruby Tuesday, AIM Autosport, Michael Shank Racing, Krohn Racing, SAMAX and Brumos all ran in the top three down the stretch, challenged by Doran Racing, Rum Bum Racing, Southard Motorsports and Cheever Racing.
With the laps winding town, and Ryan Dalziel running third, Peter Baron said in a PA interview that they were hoping to give co-driver Henri Zogaib a bottle of champagne in Gatorade Victory Lane for a birthday present. Then, Ricardo Zonta took third for Krohn, challenged by Brumos' Darren Law. On the final restart, I wonder what Zonta thought when he saw Law and Brumos teammate Joao Barbosa running side-by-side, battling for fourth.
But all of that was overshadowed by the finish.
On what proved to be the penultimate restart, Gurney was able to hold off Pruett to take the lead. The last lap restart proved to be different. Pruett made a "Hail Mary" move in the chicane and ran side-by-side with Gurney in the sprint to the checkered flag.
Sometimes you get what you wish for.
It also left me wondering, "Why can't we have that kind of finish for the Rolex 24?"
Created by:
DoubleJ
Type:
Staff Blog
Blog Title:
Behind the Wall
Daytona in the summertime means the daily opportunity for a brief thundershower.
Will we have one tomorrow evening? That's one of the main topics in the garage as teams unload their cars and equipment for tomorrow's busy day. Jordan Taylor was seen walking around the Beyer hauler. He has one race at Daytona -- running in GT in this year's Rolex 24 -- but has yet to take a lap here in a Daytona Prototype.
In addition to the blog we will be posting regular updates on the Grand-Am news page.