Former F1 regular will lead the field to the green flag in season finale

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (Sept. 19, 2008) - It's been a learning season for Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16 rookie Ricardo Zonta, racing on unfamiliar circuits while his team developed a new Daytona Prototype chassis. Friday, it all came together on the final lap of qualifying, as the Brazilian Formula One veteran captured the pole for the 2008 season finale in the No. 76 Krohn Racing Pontiac Lola.

Zonta ran a Miller Motorsports Park track record lap of 2:35.664 (103.747 mph) in drying conditions on the mammoth 4.486-mile, 23-turn circuit, earning his first career pole - and the first for the Lola - in qualifying for the SunRichGourmet.com 1000 presented by The Grand and Little America Hotels. The 139-lap race with a six-hour, 45-minute time limit will be televised live, flag to flag, on SPEED (1 p.m. ET).

"My last lap was perfect - no mistakes - and the car was really good," said Zonta, who will co-drive with Nic Jonsson. "We had a perfect car for that moment.

"This is a long track to do a lap without making a mistake," added Zonta, who has a pair of third-place finishes this year. "You have to be very focused here. It helps to have a very good car, and the team has improved a lot since the race at Barber in July."

Zonta's last lap knocked Scott Pruett off the pole. Pruett and co-driver Memo Rojas need to each run 30 minutes in the No. 01 TELMEX Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Lexus Riley in the 139 to share the 2008 Daytona Prototype championship. Pruett help the top spot up until the final moments of qualifying with a lap of 2:35.819 (103.643 mph).

David Donohue will start third in the No. 58 Brumos Racing Porsche Riley he co-drives with Darren Law and Buddy Rice, 2:35.823 (103.641 mph), while Max Angelelli ran a lap of 2:36.011 (103.522 mph) in the No. 10 SunTrust Racing Pontiac Riley co-driven by Michael Valiante to start fourth. Donohue and Valiante end the season tied atop the 2008 leaders with three poles apiece.

Fastest in practice, Joey Hand ran a lap of 2:36.131 (103.436 mph) in the No. 23 Ruby Tuesday Porsche Riley co-driven by Bill Auberlen to start fifth. Rounding out the top 10 qualifiers were Antonio Garcia, Alex Gurney, Ian James, Mark Wilkins and Matt Plumb.

Keen captures first pole in GT qualifying, Edwards leads contenders

While Daytona Prototype qualifying was run in mixed drizzle and drying conditions, steady rain fell through much of the GT qualifying session, only to let off in the closing minutes. Leh Keen took advantage of the changing conditions to capture his first GT pole in the final seconds, running a lap of 2:52.252 (93.756 mph) in the No. 86 Farnbacher Loles Racing Porsche GT3 co-driven by Eric Lux. He knocked teammate Wolf Henzler off the pole, with Henzler running a lap of 2:52.724 (93.499 mph) in the No. 87 Porsche GT3 co-driven by Bryce Miller and Dirk Werner.

Spencer Pumpelly gave Porsche a sweep of the top three in qualifying with a best time of 2:55.203 (92.177 mph) in the No. 66 TRG Porsche GT3.

Two of the top five qualifiers are also in contention for the GT Championship, which is proving to be a heated three-way battle entering the season finale.

Point leader Paul Edwards qualified fourth in the No. 07 Banner Racing Banner Engineering Pontiac GXP.R in fourth position with a time of 2:55.323 (92.113 mph). Edwards and co-driver Kelly Collins lead the GT point standings with 338, six points ahead of Andrew Davis and Robin Liddell in the No. 57 Stevenson Motorsports Stevenson Automotive Pontiac GXP.R, and 13 points atop Sylvain Tremblay and Nick Ham in the No. 70 SpeedSource Mazdaspeed/Castrol Syntec Mazda RX-8.

Tremblay will start fifth with a time of 2:56.254 (91.627 mph), while Davis qualified 10th with a lap of 2:59.094 (90.174 mph). Ham was the only driver to win multiple poles in GT competition in 2008, setting fastest time on three occasions.

The SunRichGourmet.com 1000 takes the green flag at 11:08 a.m. MT. The race will be televised live flag-to-flag on SPEED, beginning at 1 p.m. ET.

- Grand American Road Racing Association