CHIP GANASSI RACING'S PRUETT, ROJAS ARE OVERALL WINNERS IN TUDOR UNITED SPORTSCAR CHAMPIONSHIP RACE
AUSTIN, Texas – Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas co-drove to victory in today’s Tudor United SportsCar Championship Prototype race at Circuit of the Americas. Driving the No. 01 Ford Ecoboost for Chip Ganassi Racing, the veteran duo finished with a completed the 2-hour, 45-minute race just 2.336 seconds ahead of race pole-sitter Alex Brundle in Oak Racing’s No. 42 Ligier JS2 Honda. Finishing third was the No. 5 Action Express car driven by Joao Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi.
Ganassi racing coming out on top for the third time this year, due in large part to the fact they were able to complete the race with just two pits stops, whereas most of the other cars in the P class made three stops on the afternoon.
“We knew it was going to be tight,” Pruett said. “We didn’t really have the quickest pace, but thought we had a fighting chance for a victory if we limited our car to just two stops.”
Pruett, who notched the 59th win of his illustrious racing career, ran out of gas wseconds after taking the checkered flag. His car hit empty after at the top of T1, which required him to hitchhike back to the garage, and have his car towed to the pits for the final inspection.
Winners in IMSA’s PC class were Sean Rayhall and Luiz Diaz, driving the No. 25 Corvette for 8 Star Motorsports. Second place went to the No. 54 ORECA driven by Texan Colin Braun and Jon Bennett for CORE Autosport. Third was grabbed by the No. 8 car driven by Mirco Schultis and Renger van der Zande.
The IMSA GTLM class went to the No. 93 SRT Motorsports Dodge Viper driven by Jonathan Bomarito and Kuno Wittmer. They finished the event in 2:47:39.964. Taking second was another SRT Motorsports Dodge Viper, the No. 91 car driven by Marc Gossens and Dominik Fahmbacher. Finishing third in the GTLM class were former three-time ALMS GT driver’s champion Patrick Long and Michel Christensen, driving the No. 912 Porsche P11 RSR for the Porsche Racing team.
Winning the GTC glass were Jeroen Bleekemolen and native Texas Ben Keating, driving the No. 33 Riley Motorsports Dodge Viper SRT. The two posted a winning time of 2:48:08.066. They were followed by Dempsey Racing’s No. 44 Porsche 911 RSR, driven by Andy Lally and John Potter. Coming in third was the No. 300 BMW Z4 driven by Dane Cameron and Markus Palttala.
Keating, who owns several Ford and Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep dealerships across Texas, won back-to-back Viper Cup championships in 2011 and 2012 and finished eighth in points in 2013 in the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) GTC class.
