Scott Pruett Dominates in Miami; Clinches Third Drivers' Championship



MIAMI ‹ Scott Pruett put an exclamation point on his dream season, by
winning Sunday¹s Motorock Miami 100 and, in the process, clinched his third
Motorock Trans-Am Tour for the BFGoodrich Tires Cup Drivers¹ Championship.
Pruett, driver of the No. 7 Motorock/Jaguar R Performance XKR, led every lap
en route to his eighth victory in 10 races this season, and now holds an
insurmountable 55-point lead going into the final race of the season at
Puerto Rico.

Johnny Miller, driving the No. 64 Motorock Jaguar XKR, finished second, and
clinched second in the 2003 points chase. Rookie Bobby Sak (No. 10 Chevrolet
Corvette) finished third, and narrowed Jorge Diaz, Jr.¹s lead in the Rookie
of the Year battle to 27 points. John Baucom (No. 86 MAP Quality Engineering
Jaguar XKR) finished fourth, his first top-five effort, ahead of Michael
Lewis (No. 12 Westward Tools Car Available at Grainger Jaguar XKR).

Pruett¹s Miami weekend mirrored his dominant run this season, which has also
included a third-place finish at Long Beach. Starting from the Jaguar Pole,
Pruett led every lap, and set the race¹s fastest race lap, earning the
BFGoodrich Tires Take Control Award. He also earned the Flowmaster American
Thunder Challenge Award, worth $6,000, for winning the pole, leading the
most laps, setting the fastest race lap and winning the race.

³Johnny ran strong, but he has run strong all year long,² said Pruett, who
joins the likes of Paul Gentilozzi and the late Mark Donohue with the honor
of winning three Trans-Am championships. ³This mirrored our race at
Trois-Rivières (where Pruett and Miller also finished first and second). My
car was better in some places, while his was better in others. I had a great
car today. It stayed underneath me strong. We were able to take off quickly
on the restarts, and that has been our strong point all season long.
³This is a perfect place for me to be and it turned out to be even better
than I expected,² added Pruett, who won his previous titles in 1987 and
1994. ³We had the surprise win in St. Pete and we really started to jell as
a team at Infineon Raceway.  The only problems we had this year were driver
problems.  I messed up at Lime Rock and parked it in the mud and overdrove
it at Long Beach.  But we came back, I learned a lot, and we overcame it.

³This is really a team effort.  The driver is the focal point, but it takes
their hard work and dedication,² concluded Pruett. ³We¹ve had zero
mechanical problems this year.²

Miller, who started fourth, challenged Pruett on several occasions, and had
a great run going on lap 19.

³It took awhile for my car to come in,² said Miller. ³I was struggling with
a little bit of a loose condition off the turns. I have to thank Motorock
for coming on board and Rocketsports for allowing me to be here this
weekend. We didn¹t get the championship here, but it was nice to at least
get a chance to take swing.²

Sak, meanwhile, quietly moved through the field after starting fifth to
secure the podium finish.

The car was really good,² said Sak. ³We still have a shot at the rookie
title; we¹re only 27 points back. We still need some help at Puerto Rico,
but it¹s nice to still have a shot. The car was great today. It came in
after five laps, so I knew after that last restart (on lap 60), I had to go
fast. I looked up and Johnny (Miller) was gone. But we¹re happy with a
third.²

Drivers collecting one bonus point on the Fast Five Lap, lap 10 here, where
Tomy Drissi (No. 5 Stuck on You, The Movie Jaguar XKR), Michael Lewis (No.
12 Westward Tools Car Available at Grainger Jaguar XKR), Sak, Miller and
Baucom

The race ran in 74 minutes, 16.312 seconds, at an average speed of 61.288
miles per hour. It was slowed by the caution flag four times for 20 laps.

The season finale for the Motorock Trans-Am Tour for the BFGoodrich Tires
Cup is scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 26 at the Puerto Rico Grand Prix. That
race will air LIVE on the SPEED Channel at 1 p.m.

Notebook:
 Paul Gentilozzi shook down Jaguar¹s new overhead-cam, 32-valve, fuel
injected AJ-V8 in the No. 3 Motorock Jaguar XKR during Sunday¹s morning
warm-up session for this afternoon¹s Motorock Miami 100, Round 10 of the
Motorock Trans-Am Tour for the BFGoodrich Tires Cup at the Grand Prix
Americas Circuit in downtown Miami. Gentilozzi was ninth quickest during the
session, turning a 55.166-second lap around the 1.15-mile track on his
eighth and final lap.
It was exciting. The engine was phenomenal, but the car hasn¹t been run in
a couple of years; it¹s been a show car,² said Gentilozzi. ³I didn¹t want to
get over exuberant in traffic, so I never really got a clean lap. Entering
the corner, it¹s more nimble and it¹s better under braking. It¹s great off
the corner, too. The acceleration is so smooth and the throttle response is
incredible.

Miami was probably the place where we would expect it to perform the least
because it¹s such a tight circuit,² added Gentilozzi. ³Our mission was to
use this session as a test in a true street course environment. It met and
exceeded our initial expectations.²

Today¹s test came on the heels of the engine¹s official unveiling Friday at
Putnam Park Road Course in Brownsburg, Ind. The car took several laps around
the permanent circuit there as part of an event held by Jaguar in
conjunction with the U.S. Grand Prix Formula One race at Indianapolis Motor
Speedway.

Although the engine tested successfully, it didn¹t race in the Motorock
Miami 100. However, the engine is scheduled to compete in the season finale,
Oct. 26 at the Puerto Rico Grand Prix, under the hood of Scott Pruett¹s No.
7 Jaguar XKR.

The Jaguar AJ-V8 engine uses the stock aluminum block and alloy heads from
the Jaguar XKR road car. In fact, other than the connecting rods,
crankshaft, pistons, injector hat, and ignition system, the engine is
completely stock. The engine¹s stroke has been shortened, and its bore was
widened, raising the stock displacement from 4.2 liters to 4.5 liters for
the race engine. The engine weighs approximately 100 pounds less than the
current corporate pushrod V8 used in the Jaguar XKR and uses an all-new
ignition system developed by Rocketsports and Bosch. It will rev to 9,000
rpms, up from 8,200 in the current engine. It also uses a dry-sump oil
system.

This is the future of the Trans-Am Tour,² said Gentilozzi, a three-time
Drivers¹ Champion himself. ³To be able to make this engine viable, it has to
competitive. This is not an exercise in engineering. We know that the
current 311-cubic-inch spec will not work in the future. We¹re the only
racing series that uses it, and it really isn¹t what the car companies are
developing. No production car is made with a carburetor any more. This
engine uses a stock block and heads, and parts are readily available. Plus,
Jaguar has a huge history that gets lost a little bit with the current
corporate pushrod V8.

Other manufacturers are interested in this program and that¹s really what
we¹re doing here, looking for manufacturer support,² added Gentilozzi. ³This
is being done to get more manufacturer involvement. That¹s what we¹re trying
to do here. If you can get two or more competing marques, then you have
something.²

 Pruett (No. 7 Motorock/Jaguar R Performance XKR) unleashed new livery this
weekend in Miami. His Jaguar sported a green rear quarter, fading into a
silver striped front end, with two giant ³leapers² on its flanks. The new
paint job is part of Jaguar¹s unveiling of its new engine.

 Johnny Miller (No. 64 Motorock Jaguar XKR) made his 100th Trans-Am start
Sunday.

 Bobby Sak, driver of the No. 10 Revolution Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette,
celebrated his 25th birthday Sunday with a third-place finish in the
Motorock Miami 100.

 Motorock started its inaugural race off with a bang, as it hosted a
well-attended after party at Club Motorock, following the Kid Rock and The
Roots concert at American Airlines Arena. The packed house rocked the
circuit late into the night. ³Rocket Man² Sir Elton John performed Saturday
night to a sell-out crowd, followed by an after party at the Opium Club in
the trendy South Beach section of Miami.

 Michael Lewis sported a revised sponsorship package this weekend at Miami,
as his team finalized negotiations with Grainger, primary supplier of
sponsor Westward Tools line of professional-grade tools.

 Garrett Kletjian with the No. 20 UNICCO Corvette and the Hardshell
Motorsports team entertained 100 students at Turner Technical School on
Wednesday. In addition, 15 complimentary passes to the Motorock Miami 100
were distributed by the school administration to students participating in
the "Do The Right Thing" program.

 This is the first time the Trans-Am Tour has raced on Miami¹s 1.15-mile
circuit and therefore Pruett¹s 52.808-second lap at 78.397 miles per hour is
the inaugural qualifying record. The Tour competed here last year on a
1.4-mile circuit, and in 1994 on a completely different circuit, set up
north of Bayside Park near the current site of American Airlines Arena.

 Rookie Joey Scarallo (No. 06 ROH Wheels Chevrolet Corvette) had a long and
sleepless weekend in Miami, as he and his crew had to effect major repairs
after a late shunt in second-round practice Friday. Scarallo¹s team shipped
the chassis to a former employee of Huffaker Racing, who lives 90 miles from
Miami, while the team worked through the night to fix body damage.
Revolution Motorsports came to the rescue and supplied new body work to the
rookie ROH squad. Scarallo was unable to qualify Saturday and started last
in Sunday¹s race.

 Bobby Houghton, crew chief on Johnny Miller¹s No. 64 Motorock Jaguar XKR,
slipped and fell off the tailgate of one of the Rocketsports Racing
transporters. Houghton spent several hours in the hospital Saturday, where
it was found he had pulled ligaments in his left knee. Houghton called the
shots from the pits Saturday and Sunday and is expected to make a full
recovery.

 Sometime Trans-Am Tour competitor Paul Menard won the ARCA RE/MAX race at
Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama yesterday. The 23-year-old son of
Indy-car owner John Menard held the lead for the final 52 laps after
starting 38th. Menard has made two Trans-Am Tour starts this season, at St.
Petersburg, and most recently at Road America. Tony Ave, who competed in his
first full season of Trans-Am racing last year, finished third at Talladega,
while 2001 Trans-Am titlist Boris Said finished 24th in his first
superspeedway start, after being involved in a seven-car crash.

 Jorge Diaz, Jr. just took delivery of a new race car prior to this weekend
at Miami. The rookie points leader and driver of the No. 8 Don Q Rum Jaguar
XKR competed in the Motorock Miami 100 in the Rocketsports Racing chassis
that Scott Pruett drove to seven victories in the first nine races this
year. Pruett is driving what was the No. 3 Jaguar XKR, previously driven by
three-time titleholder Paul Gentilozzi. Diaz drove a Huffaker chassis
previously this year.