Grand-Am: Alex Gurney and Jon Fogarty take championship lead with one race to go

From Grand-Am Communication

Alex Gurney and Jon Fogarty took a solid victory over their rivals in the battle for the 2009 Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series championship Saturday, winning the Utah 250 at Miller Motorsports Park.

Gurney took the lead on the 30th of 56 laps and paced the final 27 circuits, taking the checkered flag 1.264 seconds ahead of Max Angelelli. Scott Pruett finish third, 1.529 seconds behind the winner, with the top three teams in the championship sweeping the podium.

The victory moves Gurney and Fogarty to an eight-point lead (309-301) in the Daytona Prototype point standings entering the season-ending Grand Prix of Miami on Oct. 10 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Angelelli and Brian Frisselle took sole possession of second place, while Pruett and Memo Rojas are 10 points behind the leaders.

The Acxiom GT race came down to the wire. Robin Liddell and Dirk Werner getting together coming to the white flag to give the victory to Jeff Segal and Emil Assentato, who came from last on the 13-car GT grid to first to win their second race of the season.

Lally finished second in the No. 66 Porsche GT3 started by Scott Schroeder. Rounding out the podium were two-time defending race co-winners Kelly Collins and Paul Edwards.

The late incident robbed Werner and Leh Keen the chance to eliminate their lone rival for the GT championship. The drivers of the No. 87 Porsche GT3 finished sixth, and now lead Collins by 30 points (329-299).

Practice for the Grand Prix of Miami begins on Thursday, Oct. 8, will qualifying on Friday and the race taking the green flag at 1 p.m. Saturday.

KONI CHALLENGE:
In a seesaw battle with the defending race winning driver and team Friday at Miller Motorsports Park, Billy Johnson passed Bill Auberlen for the final time in Turn 1 of Lap 46 - the final lap of the two-and-a-half hour Salt Lake City 200 and held off the 2008 winner by 1.095 seconds to earn his second Grand Sport (GS) victory of 2009 and the first ever for co-driver Jack Roush Jr.

Gaining six positions in the final laps was third-place finisher Joey Hand, the co-winner the 2007 GS race, in the No. 97 BMW M3 he shared with Chris Gleason, despite a second pit stop. The pair came from 17th.

Bell moved past Martin into third in the GS standings by one point, while point leader and fifth-place co-finisher Ken Wilden (292 points) lost two points over James Gue and Bret Seafuse (274 points), who earned fourth.

A 14th-place finish in the Bosch Engineering Octoberfest Oct. 4 at Virginia International Raceway, regardless of what Gue and Seafuse do, will sew up Wilden's first Grand-Am championship. Bell also has a mathematical shot at the title, but he is still 29 points behind Wilden.

Dion von Moltke passed teammate Josh Hurley with two laps remaining in the Street Tuner (ST) portion of the race to earn his and co-driver Mike Sweeney's third victory of the 2009 season.

The second-place run for Baas and Hurley - who is on the verge of winning Rookie of the Year honors in KONI Challenge competition - vaulted the duo into second in the championship standings, now 27 points (286-259) behind leader Christian Miller, who co-drove with Pobst.

Subaru Road Racing Team co-drivers Kristian Skavnes and Andrew Aquilante dropped to third in points with a seventh-place finish. The two are 31 points behind Miller after entering the race 25 points behind.

The final race of the 2009 season of the Grand-Am KONI Challenge is the Bosch Engineering Octoberfest, a four-hour combined race Sunday, Oct. 4, at the 3.27-mile Virginia International Raceway.