During Friday’s qualifying for the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series season finale, the No. 95 Supercar Life Racing team put itself in a strong position Friday to challenge for a victory in Saturday’s Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series season finale Grand Prix of Miami at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
The No. 95 Supercar Life BMW-Riley Daytona Prototype, with drivers Scott Tucker, Christophe Bouchut and Ryan Hunter-Reay, qualified in the fifth position for Saturday’s race with a fast lap of 112.774 mph (1:13.421) around the 2.3-mile, 11-turn road course.
Supercar Life Racing’s other entry in the Grand Prix of Miami, the No. 55 BMW-Riley DP, qualified in the 13th position Friday with a lap of 111.31 mph (1:14.387). Tucker, Bouchut and Hunter-Reay are mounting a history-making, two-car entrant for Supercar Life Racing in the 250-mile event.
The Grand Prix of Miami is the eighth race for the Supercar Life team. In seven starts this season, Tucker and Bouchut saw their best result in the No. 55 Supercar Life Racing BMW-Riley DP at Watkins Glen International in July, when the duo drove to a third-place podium finish. The two drivers have never finished outside of the top 10 this season.
“Fifth is not a bad place to start. We can certainly “I’m proud to be part of this two-car effort this weekend. I certainly know what Christophe is capable of, and I’m really looking forward to racing with Ryan. I think we’ll be able to get up there and challenge for a victory. It would be a great way to end the season.”work our way to the front,” Tucker said.
The No. 55 Supercar Life BMW Riley team was fastest in practice sessions on both Thursday and Friday. Bouchut ran the fastest lap in Thursday’s opening practice, a lap of 113.242 mph (1:13.118). On Friday, Bouchut ran a fast practice lap of 113.136 mph (1:13.186).
Hunter-Reay is an IndyCar Series regular who will pull double duty Saturday. He will drive the No. 14 A.J. Foyt Racing entry in the IndyCar Series Firestone Indy 300, a race scheduled to begin at 4:45 p.m.
“I saw the opportunity to team up with Scott and Christophe as a very unique challenge,” Hunter-Reay said. “I was very interested in working with Bill Riley and the Supercar Life team and driving for A.J. Foyt on the same weekend. I drove with Bill in two SunTrust 24 Hour races at Daytona, and he is going to be running the second Supercar Life Racing DP car this weekend for Scott.
“The opportunity was offered to do something that nobody has done at that track — racing both the oval and the road course on the same day,” he continued. “I’m looking forward to having a lot of fun this weekend. Hopefully we can come out with two great finishes.”
The GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing team, with drivers Jon Fogarty and Alex Gurney, won the pole for Saturday’s race with a fast lap of 113.613 mph (1:12.879) in their No. 99 Pontiac Riley. Fogarty and Gurney lead the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series standings with 309 points, while the Suntrust Racing team of Brian Frisselle and Max Angelelli, who qualified second with a lap of 113.172 mph [need time], come into the season finale just eight points behind.
Rounding out the top five qualifiers are: the No. 12 Penske Racing team of Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhard in third; the No. 61 AIM Autosport team of Mark Wilkins and Burt Frisselle in fourth; followed by the No. 95 Supercar Life team.
The Supercar Life Racing team comes into the weekend’s race fresh off a thrilling championship win in the Sept. 26 Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) National Championship Runoffs at Road America, when Tucker drove the No. 55 Supercar Life F430 Challenge car to victory and a National Championship in the T1 race. The week before that, Tucker battled to reclaim the points lead in the Ferrari Challenge Series at New Jersey Motorsports Park; the team heads to Valencia, Spain, in November for the Series’ International World Finals.
Saturday’s Grand Prix of Miami will be Tucker’s first Daytona Prototype start on the Homestead course. His initial Grand-Am Rolex Series run at the south Florida course was in a GT Porsche GT3 in the 2007 Grand Prix of Miami, when he and teammate Ed Zabinski finished 11th in class. Saturday’s Grand Prix of Miami is set for a 1 p.m. ET start.
Source : Supercar Life Racing