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Fogarty And Gurney Gunning For Third Win At Mid-Ohio


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LEXINGTON, June 18, 2010: Reigning GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series Champions Alex Gurney, Jon Fogarty and GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing will start on the second row for tomorrow’s EMCO Gears Classic after Fogarty qualified fourth Friday at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course with a lap time of 1:17.994 (104.223 mph) . Live coverage of the 2 ¾ hour timed EMCO Gears Classic starts at 5 p.m. ET/2 p.m. PT on SPEED, Saturday, June 19, for the twilight race that begins during the day and ends as the sun is setting.

The No. 99 GAINSCO “Red Dragon” was fastest in practice with a lap time of 1:17.772 (104.521 mph) earlier on Friday, but the team may have missed the setup on a much hotter track later in the afternoon in qualifying.

“I think we went backwards a little bit from the earlier sessions, unfortunately,” said Fogarty, who is a two-time Mid-Ohio Daytona Prototype pole winner in 2007 and ‘09. “It was just the wrong direction, but it is still a big gap to the top two. I don’t think we dialed ourselves out of the window that far. It was not pretty trying to get those times, but I think we had a more balanced package earlier today.”

The No. 01 TELMEX/Chip Ganassi Racing BMW Riley of Memo Rojas won the pole with a lap time of 1:17.523 (104.857 mph) and will be joined on the front row by Ricky Taylor who clocked in at 1:17.530 (104.847 mph) in the No. 10 SunTrust/Wayne Taylor Racing Ford Dallara.

“There are some changes we can make, the car’s been good but I think maybe we just went the wrong way on the setup for qualifying,” said Gurney, who won the pole at Mid-Ohio in GAINSCO’s debut at the track in 2005. “We will just go back to where we were and I think we will be fine.”

Mid-Ohio has been GAINSCO’s best track over the last five years, with back-to-back victories in 2007 and ‘08 and third-place showings last year and in 2006. Gurney and Fogarty have also combined to lead a series-high 192 career laps led at Mid-Ohio and they fully expect battle for the win again in tomorrow’s EMCO Gears Classic.