FIRST-TIMERS; Grand-Am champions crowned in finale.(Competition )

In a breathtaking final hour of racing in Grand-Am's season-ending race at Miller Motorsports Park, Oswaldo Negri held off Michael McDowell to score the first Rolex Sports Car Series win for himself and co-driver Mark Patterson. Jorg Bergmeister wrapped up his first Daytona Prototype drivers' championship with a sixth-place finish.

Driving a Riley-Lexus, Negri claimed the lead when he beat McDowell (Crawford-Ford) off pit road following the final pit stop of the evening. Negri withstood several challenges from McDowell over the final hour to win by 2.94 seconds.

While many teams used three drivers for the nine-hour race, Michael Shank Racing ran just Negri and Patterson. The decision was an advantage on the final pit stop, where Negri stayed in the car while McDowell replaced Memo Gidley for the final run to the finish. The win also gives Lexus its first Daytona Prototype engine manufacturers' championship.

As for Bergmeister, he enter- ed the race with a 19-point advantage in the driver standings over Chip Ganassi Racing Riley-Lexus co-drivers Scott Pruett and Luis Diaz, and he only needed a solid performance to take home the title.

Though neither Bergmeister nor his co-drivers, Nic Jonsson and Colin Braun, ever challenged for the win, Bergmeister's title hopes were never in danger. The car ran comfortably inside the top-10 throughout the race. Bergmeister won the championship by 16 points, 462 to 446, over Pruett and Diaz.

In the GT class Marc Bunting teamed with Andy Lally, Spencer Pumpelly and Paul Edwards to win in the TRG Pontiac GTO.R. Bunting and Lally finish the season as class champions, with TRG winning the team championship and Pontiac taking manufacturers' honors.

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