Saturday March 3, 2007. - Round 2 of
the 2007 14-race Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series schedule
in Mexico City was kinder to SAMAX Motorsport as the team
picked up its best-ever result at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez
with an 11th-place finish, only 0.158-second from 10th
place at the conclusion of the 100-lap event. Saturday's
race result places Las Vegas' Patrick Carpentier and Miami
resident Milka Duno, who both finished second a month ago
at the Rolex 24 at Daytona, in third place with 52 points
each and within striking distance of first place in the
driver's standing.
Starting 13th overall, the #11 CITGO/SAMAX Pontiac Riley
lost some ground in the first half in the caution-free
400-kilometer race when Milka Duno in her 46 lap with her
tires almost gone, was still able to advance to as high
as 10th. Milka avoided major damage to her Daytona Prototype
after going off course in corner 4 - making a last second
hard braking maneuver to save the car from hitting the
tire wall.
Carpentier took over following Milka's pit stop and brought
the car back from 16th to 10th place by lap 90, but was
not able to hang on and finished the race in 11th.
"It was a difficult weekend," commented Carpentier. "We
did not have enough time to really set up the car properly.
Our engineers did their best but we never got closer
in test sessions than 1.5 seconds from the quickest car. Unfortunately,
there was a miscommunication between the crew and myself
at the end of the race, and I let a car by (#6 driven
by Ian James) that I should have been able to keep at bay
to get a Top-10 finish. We will do better at the next
race at Homestead-Miami as we tested there late last year."
"We are improving with each visit to Mexico - which makes
me very happy," said Duno. "But I want so very much to
do better for the fans here because they are so supportive
- it makes you want to do the best that you can. I was
anxious for the race to start because we had been improving
throughout the weekend and I was feeling really good
for the start. But, right at the start two prototypes
got together with one of them spinning right in front
of me - slowing me down and placing me as far back as
15th - but I was able to recover to my original starting
position and even advance to 10th - which unfortunately
went away right at the end of my stint when my tires
were almost all the way gone causing me to spin right
before I was pitting. Patrick was excellent in his stint
and if not for a radio problem we would have had a top-ten.
The team was great, the fans were great, we were almost
great - and I look forward to a better finish for the
fans next year.
With a fourth-place finish, Scott Pruett still leads the
standing with 63 points, followed by Max Angelelli and
Jan Magnussen with 60 points each. Carpentier and Duno
are tied for third place with 52 points each.
Round three of the 2007 14-race Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car
Series schedule will be held in Florida at the 2.3-mile
(3.7 Km) Homestead-Miami Speedway road course from Thursday,
March 22 to Saturday March 24, 2007