(August 27, 2006) -- The #12 Lowe's Fernandez Racing Pontiac Riley duo of Adrian Fernandez and Mario Haberfeld waged a furious battle for victory today in the Grand American Rolex Series Sonoma 250 at Infineon Raceway and came home with a third-place finish for the team's second podium of the season and fourth top-five run in the last seven outings.
Haberfeld started sixth and held this position before turning the Lowe's racing machine over to Fernandez on the day's first fuel-and-tire stop under yellow on Lap 23 around the scenic 2.2-mile hillside road circuit. Excellent pit work gained two positions and Fernandez resumed in fourth place when the race went back to green on Lap 27. Fernandez was in the top three by Lap 38 and stayed there until pitting under green for the day's final fuel-and-tire stop on Lap 73 with 26 laps to go. Fernandez resumed in fifth, made a stellar pass of defending series champion Max Angelleli on Lap 79, and inherited one more position before race's end to complete the podium run in third place, chasing the top two finishers all the way to the checkered flag.
The season concludes with next Saturday's nine-hour endurance marathon on the brand new, 4.5-mile Miller Motorsports Park complex outside Salt Lake City.
Adrian Fernandez: "I have to say hat's off to everybody on the Lowe's Fernandez team because we definitely had a car that could have won today. It was just so difficult to pass out there that we didn't have quite enough in those few places where we could pass to put us in front. If we could have gotten into the lead, no one was going to catch us today. But that's the way it goes. We have to be happy with our second podium finish. If we would have had a little better luck at some of the other races this season where didn't finish, we could have had many more podiums. Now it's on to Utah where we'll finish our Grand Am season hopefully on a high note."
Mario Haberfeld: "The whole team deserved this result today. We deserved this kind of a result many more times this season because we've been strong everywhere we've raced since Laguna Seca (in April). But today, we were able to make it to the end without any major incidents. We were very conservative at the start because we knew it could be an eventful day out there. We had a great pit stop after my stint that put us fourth, which was a great job by the crew. I hope we can carry this momentum to Utah next week and possibly get our second win of the season."
