GRAND AM NEWS: GURNEY QUICKEST IN DAYTONA PROTOTYPE PRACTICE

Photo by John Thawley Alex Gurney logged a best lap at 1:20.844 (99.659 mph) in the No. 99 GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing Pontiac Riley to lead the first day of practice for Daytona Prototypes in preparation for Sunday’s Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Special Reserve U.S. Sports Car Invitational delivered by Luggage Express at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca (SPEED, Live, 4:00 p.m. ET).

Gurney and co-driver Jon Fogarty have combined to put the No. 99 machine on the front row for every Rolex Series event thus far in 2007 and the duo appears in good position to keep that streak alive if practice results are any indication. Gurney and Fogarty—who are both native Californians—picked up their first career Rolex Series victory in the Mexico City 400k earlier this year.

"This is a great way to start off the weekend,” Gurney said. “The GAINSCO Pontiac is really hooked up all around the track. We've even surprised ourselves a little bit but we'll take it for sure. The new track surface is all-around grippier, and thanks to Kyle Brannan, our engineer, I think we've got a setup that takes advantage of that grip better than anyone else. We don't seem to have a weak spot anywhere so we'll just try to keep this going into tomorrow and give Jon a shot at the pole in qualifying."

Colin Braun—who has started from the pole position in two of the first four races of the season—was second-quickest in Friday’s practice with a lap at 1:21.393 (98.986 mph) in the No. 75 Krohn Racing Pontiac Riley. Braun and co-driver Max Papis have finished second in two of the four events, but head into the U.S. Sports Car Invitational delivered by Luggage Express still looking for their first victory of the season.

“I’m not so sure that practice and qualifying really makes much difference when it comes to the race time,” Braun said. “I wish we could figure out a way to start winning races. It doesn’t pay us to be that quick here in practice and not in the race. We’re working on trying to find a car that’s really consistent in the race. With this being a Daytona Prototype only weekend, we’re focusing on trying to make a car that’s good on long runs and will be there at the end.”

Scott Pruett was third-quickest in the No. 01 TELMEX Chip Ganassi Racing Lexus Riley with a lap at 1:21.499 (98.858 mph), which came in the second session of the day. Pruett and co-driver Memo Rojas are still looking for their first Rolex Series victory together, although Pruett did win the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona with co-drivers Juan Pablo Montoya and Salvador Duran and held the Daytona Prototype points lead until the VIR 400 last month when he and Rojas finished eighth.

“The TELMEX car seems real good,” Pruett said. “We ran just old tires, like we always do. We ran our quickest lap on our last lap, so we’re cautiously optimistic. When we put new tires on, it’s always typically worth a half second or more. We’re pretty pleased. We’d like to certainly have a good run here this weekend. It’d be good for my teammate, Memo, to kind of really get some momentum going for him, and good for the team. Overall, it’s pretty good.”

Patrick Long was fourth-quickest in the No. 23 Ruby Tuesday Championship Racing Team Porsche Crawford with a lap at 1:21.587 (98.751 mph). Long and co-driver Jörg Bergmeister—the defending Daytona Prototype champion—are still looking for their first win of the season as well. Christian Fittipaldi completed the top five with a lap at 1:21.614 (98.718 mph) in the No. 39 Crown Royal Special Reserve/Cheever Racing Porsche Fabcar. Fittipaldi is sharing the ride with Harrison Brix.