PROUD PRUITT EAGER FOR HOME UTAH RACE

Corsa Motorsports owner Steve Pruitt is a proud and happy man entering this week's Utah Grand Prix.

The biggest grin in the American Le Mans Series paddock this weekend may belong to Steve Pruitt, and rightfully so. Pruitt's Corsa Motorsports is the home team this weekend at the Larry H. Miller Dealerships Utah Grand Prix presented by the Grand and Little America Hotels. The Utah-based team and its Ferrari F430 GT enter Miller Motorsports Park with two consecutive fourth-place finishes in GT2, the deepest and most competitive class in the Series.

"Miller Motorsports Park certainly holds a special place in the team's history," said Pruitt. "Our team operations have been based at MMP since the facility's inception until just recently when we moved into Salt Lake City. We needed more space to conduct the business of racing at the level required of the American Le Mans Series. It was also the site of Corsa Motorsports' first complete Series race."

That was a fifth-place finish with Rui Aguas and Maurizio Mediani driving last season. This year, Gunnar Jeannette and Johnny Mowlem are entered for Corsa, which will roll out its 2008-spec F430 GT for the first time in race competition.

Gunnar Jeannette and Johnny Mowlem will drive Corsa's Ferrari F430 GT in the team's home race.

"This year we enter the event at Miller with race experience, a pair of proven drivers and a team that has had an opportunity to work together, develop chemistry and become comfortable in its skin," Pruitt said. "We know the track at Miller very well. With the familiarity our drivers have with the track and the experience we have as a team, we think we have the potential to do very well.

"To be honest, I'm just proud of the American Le Mans Series, Miller Motorsports Park and the fact that I have a team competing in such a great Series at such a wonderful facility," he added. "After the 2002 Olympic Games, Salt Lake City really established itself as an international city and MMP really does a great job of representing the city and its surrounding areas to that level. It's a fantastic establishment with a first-rate staff, and as a competitor and businessman, I want to do everything I can to help grow the event and educate the community about sports car racing."

The Larry H. Miller Dealerships Utah Grand Prix presented by The Grand and Little America Hotels is set for Sunday, May 18 from Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, Utah. The green flag is scheduled for 1 p.m. MT with live television coverage on SPEED. Live radio coverage will be available on XM Satellite Radio Channel 144 and American Le Mans Radio at americanlemans.com, which also will feature IMSA's Live Timing & Scoring