PONTIAC GXP.R SCORES FIRST GRAND-AM WIN.(Competition)

Pontiac's GXP.R, new to Grand-Am's Grand Touring class this year, scored its first-ever win at Lime Rock Park.

Banner Racing's GXP.R, driven by Leighton Reese and Tim Lewis Jr., led the closing 46 laps of the GT-only event to claim not only the car's first series win but also the first for the team and both drivers. Victory narrowly eluded Banner Racing at the previous race at Laguna Seca, when the car of Kelly Collins and Paul Edwards lost out on fuel strategy.

Before the one-hour mark, Collins moved into the lead shortly after a series of pit stops. Teammate Reese claimed second three laps later from the Mazda RX-8 of Nick Ham and Sylvain Tremblay. The Mazda slipped back to finish 11th after a flat tire. This set up a Pontiac top three, with the Racers Edge Motorsports car driven by Drew Staveley and Mark Pavan behind both Banner Pontiacs. A win escaped Edwards and Collins again after a flat tire around the halfway mark relegated them to fourth and handed the lead to Reese and Lewis.

The real race became the one for second when Staveley and Pavan dropped to fifth after a penalty. A three-way Porsche battle between pole sitter Wolf Henzler of Tafel Racing and the two Farnbacher Loles cars became a two-car fight when Dominik Farnbacher served a stop-and-go penalty for a restart violation. Farnbacher's Dirk Werner nipped Henzler with six laps to go, claiming second and creating a three-way championship tie among himself, Ham and Tremblay.

Rallying's future

World Rally Championship cars likely will remain at the top of the sport as it moves into the next decade, according to those who attended a meeting of the Vision 2012 Working Group in Paris.

Major changes to the cars had been suggested last season, including the possibility of a switch to silhouette bodies, nonturbo engines and rear-wheel-drive only. The meeting rejected these plans, and the basic WRC platform is set to remain, with a few changes.