Ho-hum; Another Year, Another Title - While It’s a Champ Car Double...

Stevenson Camaro (Source: speed.com)

Still awaiting the start of the riveting Motegi Street-fest; Hya! I decided to watch the final round of this year’s Grand Am season - having stumbled upon the race’s final 42-minutes... When ex-Champ Car World Series (CCWS) driver Ryan ‘Dazzle Dalziel literally drove the wheels off of his Starworks Riley-Ford DP Prototype to the chequered flag ahead of perennial Grand Am Champion Scott “Scooter” Pruett. As Pruett and Co-driver Memo Rojas won their third-consecutive DP title, a series first, along with ‘Cheep’s record fifth Daytona Prototype Crown!

As going to commercial break, SPEED highlighted a younger Scott Donald Pruett winning his first Rolex 24 timepiece ‘Way-back-in 1988 - some 23yrs ago aboard an Eleectromotive Nissan 300ZXT... With TV Booth Boyz Dorsey Schroeder musing I was there - were you Calvin? To which Calvin Fish coyly replied I was just a kid... Yeah, you were there too Dorsey noted...

But the win was special for Dalziel, who clouted kerves, got extremely tail happy and as Leigh Diffey noted - was driving at 11/10ths to keep the victory out of the clutches of Pruett who was hounding the Scot in P2, where the California “Kid” would finish the race; as Dalziel later claimed “He  was either gonna WIN or WRECK!” With the win being Dalziel’s first since his memorable Overall triumph in the 2010 Rolex 24 - and Starworks debutant victory...

And while the GT Crown was anything but assured - as the Speedsource Mazda RX8’s went hammer ‘N tongs - as the HomeBoy Team of Patrick Dempsey Racing’s No. 41 Mazda lost the lead with nary 15-mins remaining; a late race caution flag saw a two lap shootout where the famous Brumos No. 59 hung onto fourth place to win the title over a hard pressing Jonathan Bomarito; ’Juan ‘O thee Atlantics LOST Souls; as in in The Johnnie Boy Trio, i.e.; Bomarito, John Edwards and Jonathan Summerton - like can Y’all say Edwards, Summerton and Simona de Silvestro? Who finished 1-2-3 in the 2009 title fight whilst Bomarito was Atlantics runner-up in ‘08...

Yet then another name from the past came to light during the winner’s interviews; Hmm? Hey! I knows ‘Dat name... As the winner of the GT Class featured Robin Liddell and Ronnie Bremmer... Wasn’t Bremmer an ex-Champ Car competitor? Yeah, thought so - as I recalled seeing the Dane trundle ‘round Portland in the Dale Coyne Sonny’s Bar-Bee-Que car - ‘Circa ’05 after he’d been let go by the first incarnation of HVM who replaced Ronnie with some Cat I nicknamed Dan “SpeedyDry” Clarke.

As Bremmer also scored his Debutant Grand Am Pole position in the Stevenson Motorsports Camaro, with Chevie’s sweeping the first three grid spots - while the back-to-back victories by Stevenson helped GM claim the Manufacturer’s Crown in the GT Class. As next up is the 50^th running of the Rolex 24 at Daytona next January...