GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing took advantage of what little dry-track time there was at Road America on Thursday to post the fastest practice lap of the day with Alex Gurney at the wheel of the No. 99 GAINSCO Auto Insurance Riley-Chevrolet.
This weekend's Rolex Sports Car Series 250 driven by VISITFLORIDA.com at Road America is a timed two-hour sprint that kicks off the second half of the 2011 season. The race can be seen live on SPEED this Saturday, June 25, at noon ET.
While it rained for the majority of the day Thursday, the track dried just long enough in the late afternoon for Gurney to post a lap of 2:03.132 (118.351mph) to top all competitors in the first official day of practice for the debut race of the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series Daytona Prototype division on the legendary four-mile track.
“We didn't get a lot of running but the car felt really good,” Gurney said. “We rolled off the truck pretty quick yesterday in the test and made a couple of changes in the right direction, too. We are pretty happy so far, we are not sure where the pace of the 01 car is, so we are waiting to see on that one, but I think it is the most competitive we have been so far this year. We are optimistic at least.”
Fogarty didn't have a chance to drive Thursday but he did get some laps in the GAINSCO “Red Dragon” in Wednesday's unofficial test session.
“The car was good at the end of the day yesterday, last I got out, and really we just kind of tightened things up on it for today,” Fogarty said. “It's quick in these mixed conditions as well, so that's promising, that means we only need to do some fine tuning, get some running in tomorrow and go qualify.”
As he usually does in Rolex Series sprint races, Fogarty will qualify the No. 99 GAINSCO Auto Insurance Chevy in tomorrow's afternoon session. He credits the team's recent test at The Glen just after the Sahlen's Six Hours as one of the reasons for the fast start at Road America.
“The test was good, finally good weather,” Fogarty said. “We got more done in that day than just about all the testing from last November to now combined.”