Lakeville, IN (July 24, 2007) - No. 07 Banner Racing/Banner Engineering Pontiac GXP.R drivers Paul Edwards and Kelly Collins dominated the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Special Reserve GT competition Saturday afternoon at Barber Motorsports Park, racing to the checkered flag 30.591 seconds ahead of the field in the two-and-a-half hour Porsche 250 presented by Bradley Arant.

 

The pair started from the pole and almost never looked back, leading 94 of the race's 95 laps. Edwards, running the team's first stint, had already stretched the lead to 4.616 seconds over the No. 85 Farnbacher Loles Motorsports Shoes For Crews/Recaro Porsche GT3 co-driver Craig Stanton by Lap 15.

 

"It seemed like an easy one, but it wasn't," Edwards said. "We had to find the right balance. We seemed to run the same times as we did in practice, I was surprised the others were a second or more off our pace. I guess our car was just working that well around here, and nothing went wrong. Not one misfire; everything went well for once. I guess the performance kind of speaks for itself."
When asked: “The track notes say the tires were going off, was this true, or it was just kind of a poker-face comment to throw your competitors off?”  Edwards responded “We added some tire pressure and the tires (Hoosier’s) were fine and held up well.”

 

The win was the first of the season for Edwards and Collins, who have utilized a number of strong finishes to stay in the championship hunt. The Banner Racing duo now trails points leader Dirk Werner by just six points with only two races remaining in the GT season. 

 

While Collins and Edwards drove away from the field, the battle for the remaining podium positions became a battle to the end. The second-place duo of No. 66 TRG CRG/Maxter/Rotax Porsche GT3 co-drivers Andy Lally and RJ Valentine continued their strong showing with their fifth top-two finish in seven races.

 

And coming in third was the No. 87 Farnbacher Loles Motorsports, Porsche GT2 Cup, driven by Bryce Miller and Dirk Werner.

 

The next Rolex Series GT race is scheduled for August 3, 2007 at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, running in conjunction with the Daytona Prototypes. The Daytona Prototypes resume action at 2 p.m. Sunday with a 109-lap, two-and-a-half hour time limit race at Barber.

 

For more information about the Grand American Road Racing Series please visit www.grand-am.com.

Hoosier Racing Tire is proud to be the sole racing tire provider for both the Rolex and Koni Challenge racing series.