Pruett/Diaz Give Lexus Second Straight Rolex Series Win

MONTEREY, Calif., May 2, 2005 -- Scott Pruett took the lead with 50 minutes to go and never relinquished the top spot as he and co-driver Luis Diaz won the Road & Track 250 at Laguna Seca Raceway to give Lexus its second consecutive Rolex Sports Car Series victory Sunday.

"It was just an awesome day for the CompUSA team and Lexus," said Pruett. "To get two straight wins in this series is an accomplishment in itself."

After qualifying third, Diaz ran solidly in the top five before turning the car over to Pruett on Lap 26. After falling back to eighth during the pit stop, the reigning series champion then maneuvered through the field before finally passing Butch Leitzinger for the lead on Lap 69 of the 97-lap race on the way to the victory.

The win was the second of the season and the sixth in 17 Rolex Series races for the #01 CompUSA Ganassi Racing Lexus-Riley. In addition, it was Lexus' seventh win in a season-and-a-half of Grand American competition.

The #60 MatlinPatterson Asset Management Lexus-Riley of Oswaldo Negri and Mark Patterson started from the pole position and held the lead for the first five laps before getting caught up in slower traffic, which shuffled the Michael Shank Racing entry back to sixth. An inopportune yellow flag dropped the car a lap down, but Patterson and Negri fought their way back on to the lead lap on the way to a ninth-place finish.

"The Michael Shank Racing guys did another outstanding job and it was great to be working with the Lexus guys again, so I am pretty pleased," said Negri. "Our hope this weekend was to finish the race in the top 10, and to have got the pole yesterday was very special, so overall it was a good weekend for all of us."

It was a roller-coaster day for Doran Racing's Matteo Bobbi and Fabrizio Gollin in the #77 Crown Royal Special Reserve Lexus-Doran. After a solid eighth-place showing in qualifying, Bobbi moved the car into the top five. The outlook for the day turned sour on Lap 46, though, when contact was made with the #10 car driven by Max Angelelli. Race officials ruled that the contact between the two cars was avoidable by both drivers and each was given a drive-through penalty, effectively taking the #77 out of contention on the way to an 11th-place finish.

Things didn't go as well for the remaining two Lexus-powered entries. Stefan Johansson qualified the New Century Mortgage Lexus-Riley fourth and moved up to second on Lap 6, but a punctured tire resulted in an un-scheduled pit stop on Lap 17 and dropped the Johansson/Cort Wagner mount a lap down. They would eventually place 17th. The DLGL Lexus-Riley entry of Chris Bingham and Hugo Guenette rounded out the Lexus contingent with a 20th-place finish.

After four consecutive sprint races, the Rolex Sports Car Series and the Lexus Daytona Prototype program will return to action May 21 for the 6 Hours of Mont Tremblant in Quebec, Canada. Live SPEED Channel coverage will begin at 11 a.m. EDT.

   Drivers             Car                                 Start/Finish
   Pruett/Diaz         CompUSA Lexus Riley                 3/1
   Negri/Patterson     MatlinPatterson Lexus Riley         1/9
   Bobbi/Gollin        Crown Royal Special Doran Riley     8/11
   Johansson/Wagner    New Century Mortgage Lexus Riley    4/17
   Bingham/Guenette    DLGL Lexus Riley                    17/20