In the inaugural trip south of the border for the Grand American Rolex Sports Car Series, a large and enthusiastic crowd saw Michael McDowell and Memo Gidley co-drive the No. 19 Finlay Motorsports BMW Riley to victory in La Gran Final de la Serie Rolex Sports Car at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City. The first-time Rolex Series winners crossed the finish line ahead of Max Angelelli, who joined teammate Wayne Taylor in clinching the 2005 Daytona Prototype team and driver championships in the No. 10 SunTrust Pontiac Riley.

Fans were treated to close competition and great racing at Mexico City's famed 2.786-mile, 17-turn circuit, and with five lead changes and no caution periods, it took a late-race pit stop for fuel by hometown favorite Luis Diaz in the No. 01 Telmex CompUSA Lexus Riley to determine the outcome of the 90-lap sprint. Gidley, driving the No. 19 BMW that McDowell qualified on the pole, took advantage of the No. 01 machine's stop to take the lead and later held off Angelelli to score the maiden-win for the first-year Finlay Motorsports team and the first Daytona Prototype win for BMW. The winners averaged 92.859 mph and crossed the finish line 1.484 seconds ahead of the No. 10 Pontiac. Diaz and co-driver Scott Pruett, who both led the race, finished third.

"It's awesome to be in Mexico, I just love the people down here," Gidley said. "I lived in La Paz, Mexico for 13 years, my sisters went to school down here, and I consider all the Mexican people my second family. It's great to get our first win down here. The Finlay team has done a great job all year. We really earned this one, we were fast in qualifying, we were fast in the warm up, and we won it in the race. It's a tribute to Finlay Motorsports."

McDowell--also competing in tomorrow's Champ Car World Series finale while in Mexico City--logged his first career Rolex Series pole just one day before, and led seven laps during his opening stint.

"The start was really busy, (Jorg) Bergmeister went under both Scott and I before the start finish line, and made it very difficult down there, but it was great all weekend," McDowell said. "Finlay Motorsports did a great job, and we really want to attribute this win to the whole crew. They did an unbelievable job all season, and this is a brand new team that started from scratch in December. To get a win in our first season is unbelievable, I just can't thank the whole team enough."

Coming into the race with a 32-point lead in both the team and driver championship chases, Angelelli and Taylor were virtual locks with SunTrust to clinch both titles in Grand American's first ever trip to Mexico. Taylor, who started the race, clinched his share of the driver championship--along with the No. 10 SunTrust team--the moment the green flag dropped.

"Coming into this race obviously Max and I just needed to do a single lap to clinch the championship but that's not the way we go racing, so we decided to come here with the same strategy that we've had all year," Taylor said. "There was a certain amount of caution in the beginning to make sure Max got in the car, but we wanted to make it a real race. It's great to win this championship."

Angelelli and Taylor only needed to drive under green flag conditions to share the title, so when the Italian jumped in the cockpit on Lap 46, he and Taylor were co-champions.

"It's just great to win the championship here in Mexico," Angelelli said. "I feel really at home, and the language is pretty close to Italian. I can't wait to come back next year, and I want to thank everyone for coming over to look at our race. This year couldn't have been any better, we achieved everything that we wanted and it will be very hard next year to repeat it. It's been a really tough year, even if it looked easy from the outside."

The SunTrust duo combined to win a series-leading five races in 2005 and won the title by 34 points (439-405) over the Diaz and Pruett duo. They were victorious in the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona, Round 2 at Homestead-Miami, Barber Motorsports Park in July, and at both the CompUSA 200 and Crown Royal 250 at Watkins Glen International. Last season, SunTrust and Taylor finished second in the Daytona Prototype team and driver category to Pruett and then teammate Max Papis.

"It was just a great year, and a great team effort," Bill Riley, SunTrust Team Director and Owner of Riley Technologies said. "I can't say enough for how Max and Wayne drove this year. We completed every lap available in competition which just means the drivers did their jobs by keeping it on the track, and the crew did their job by prepping a great car. It was really pretty much the perfect year."

The second place for the SunTrust tandem gave them their 10th podium finish of the season, and by staying on the lead lap, were the only team to complete all 2050 race laps run in 2005.

While the SunTrust team steadily moved to the front after starting sixth, the No. 19 and No. 01 race cars battled for the lead for most of the race. After both McDowell and Pruett led during their opening stints, Gidley took the lead from Diaz on Lap 55, passing the Mexican at the entrance into the "stadium" portion of the course. Diaz returned the favor four laps later, pulling an inside move in Turn 4, but without enough fuel to finish the race, was forced to pit with just 16 laps to go.

"We gave everything and we had a good battle with Memo," Diaz said. "The team did a great job, but unfortunately our engine consumed more gasoline than we wanted to and we did that stop that I feel cost us the race. We could have won. Scott did a great job, although he was hurt. I am happy because we did all we could, unfortunately we didn't win."

Pruett--racing with a broken toe he suffered in IROC Series action last weekend--brought the crowd to its feet when he led the first lap and stayed up front for a race-high 39 laps before handing the No. 01 machine over to Diaz.

"Fortunately or unfortunately we had the 'Little Engine That Could,'" Pruett said. "We have a 4.3 liter engine and we have to run it pretty hard. The penalty for that is that we just don't get as good of fuel mileage. Even though we wished we could have done it on one stop, we couldn't so we just had to run hard the whole time. Luis did a great job and it's great to come down here. I really feel a part of Mexico because of my good friend here. Second in the championship, we wished we could have done better, but next year we have another chance at the championship, and we can go out and get a hold of it. It's been a great race, a great time, and thanks so much to all the fans."

McDowell took the overall lead after the No. 01 machine switched drivers, and led the next seven laps. On Lap 46, when the lead group pitted for fuel and switched pilots, Diaz found himself in clean air at the front of the pack. Diaz led a total of 23 laps and was the undisputed hero of the day in front of his countrymen.

"I want to thank Chip Ganassi, Scott Pruett, Telmex, all of the media, my family and the people on the grandstands," Diaz said. "They were fantastic, and I would like to have been in the top of the podium. We will be here again in March next year, fighting."

Cort Wagner and Stefan Johansson powered the No. 02 Telmex New Century Mortgage Lexus Riley to a fourth-place finish, putting both Chip Ganassi Racing Daytona Prototypes in the top four. It was the fifth top-five finish of the season for the duo. Elliott Forbes-Robinson and Butch Leitzinger brought home the No. 4 Howard-Boss Motorsports fifth, cementing a successful 2005 campaign that saw two wins, eight top-five finishes, and third place in the Daytona Prototype team and driver standings.