Fogarty and GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing win first Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series pole

LEXINGTON, June 19, 2009: A qualifying session that got off to a great start before the No. 99 GAINSCO Auto Insurance Pontiac Riley even turned a wheel saw Jon Fogarty give GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing its first Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series pole since 2007 Friday in qualifying for Saturday’s EMCO Gears Classic. Live coverage of the 2 ¾ hour timed sprint race begins at 5 p.m. ET tomorrow on SPEED.

Prior to the 15-minute qualifying session, the GAINSCO team pulled No. 1 in the qualifying draw for the first time. The Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series uses a group qualifying format but still has teams draw numbers to determine the first five cars to take to the track. The first team out has a clear track ahead and GAINSCO used that to its advantage Friday.

“It was a good run,” said Fogarty, who is shooting for a third-straight EMCO Gears Classic win with teammate Alex Gurney tomorrow. “We drew number one out of the bag for qualifying, which has never happened to us before. We got out there and were able to run clear and the car just got better and better during the whole run. We made some changes between practice and qualifying and definitely went in the right direction. We can still improve upon it too, so that is a good thing, but it was a great effort. Not a lot of track time this weekend but we put our heads together and came up with a package that is quick. It’s been a long time since we have been on pole.”

Fogarty was quick from the drop of the green flag and actually improved his pole-winning speed three times late in the session. He appeared to have things under control with a Lap 9 time of 1:18.203 but then improved to a 1:18.059 (104.137 mph) on his 10th and final lap of the session.

“That was a great qualifying for Jon and great for the team,” said Gurney, who won the first of GAINSCO’s three poles at Mid-Ohio in 2005. “We struggled this morning in practice and this afternoon actually and threw some pretty big things at the car, and it obviously worked. It’s nice when those sessions go that way.”