DENVER - Scott Pruett proved his lack of experience at Denver didn't matter, as the he simply dominated Sunday's MotoRock Mile 100, part of the Centrix Financial Grand Prix of Denver, and recorded his seventh victory in nine MotoRock Trans-Am Tour for the BFGoodrich Tires Cup starts this season. Pruett, driver of the No. 7 MotoRock Jaguar XKR, led from the pole at Denver's 1.647-mile temporary street course, and then held off defending champion and last year's Denver race winner Boris Said for the victory.
Said (No. 33 ACS/GE Access/Sun Microsystems Ford Mustang), Johnny Miller (No. 64 Eaton Cutler-Hammer Jaguar XKR), finished second and third, while Stu Hayner (No. 2 GMAC Commercial Finance/Trenton Forging Chevrolet Corvette) rebounded from early contact with Tomy Drissi (No. 5 Stuck on You, The Movie Jaguar XKR) to finish fourth. Justin Bell (No. 59 Ultama Swimwear Chevrolet Corvette), filling in for Simon Gregg, who is recovering from minor elective surgery, finished fifth.
'This season has been just terrific,' said Pruett, who leaves Denver, unofficially, with a 49-point lead in the championship. 'We ran hard here, but left a little on the table. You can't challenge this track 100%; one little bobble and you can lose a half a second or more. You've got to be heads up enough not to get in too deep and pay a big price. We were really laying it down. At the beginning, my car had an ugly understeer, but by the end, it was sweet. The car really came in well.
'Both Boris (Said) and I race in Winston Cup, so we're used to leaning on each other a bit,' added Pruett, who with his 21st career victory tied Bob Tullius for fourth on the all-time Trans-Am win list. 'It makes it more of a challenge. If you're in the position to do it, you let the guy in front know he needs to speed up or move out of the way.' With his victory, Pruett earned the BFGoodrich Tires Take Control Award for leading the most laps, after being presented the Jaguar Pole Award, when he was placed on the pole after qualifying was rained out, and the grid was set by combined practice times. In fact, the only award Pruett didn't win was the Flowmaster American Thunder Challenge Award, which will roll over to the next Trans-Am Series race in Miami. Since the award wasn't claimed at Road America, it will be worth $6,000 in the MotoRock Miami 100.
Said admitted he tried to challenge Pruett, and in fact ran nose to tail with the two-time Series champion early in the event. However, in the end, Said didn't have enough car to make the pass.
'I used my car up pretty well all race,' said Said, who earned his fourth podium finish this year in four starts. 'We are a little disappointed. This is my last Trans-Am race this season, and I really wanted to go out with a win. We also wanted to put on a good show for (sponsor) GE Access. They're local and we wanted to give them a win here. I tried to get up close to Pruett to a put a fender on him, but we just came up a little bit short.'
Miller said if qualifying hadn't been rained out, Sunday's results might have been much different. Miller started fourth.
'I think not having the chance to qualify played a role in our race today,' said Miller. 'We've had a good car all weekend and would have likely had a solid qualifying effort. We basically finished where we started; it's so tough to pass on this track. You get one foot off line here and the car just sails.'
The race ran in one hour and 15.342 minutes at an average speed of 77.342 miles per hour. Pruett set the track race lap record of 1:12.121 minutes at an average 82.212 miles per hour. The race was slowed by the caution flag from laps 44 through 47. Miller and Said each earned one bonus point for being within five seconds of leader Pruett on the Fast Five Lap, lap 12 here.
Today's MotoRock Mile High 100 will air on tape-delayed basis tomorrow (Monday, Sept. 1) at 1:30 EDT on SPEED Channel. The next race for the Trans-Am Series, the MotoRock Miami 100, Round 10 of the 2003 MotoRock Trans-Am Tour championship is scheduled for the weekend of Sept. 26-28, as part of the Grand Prix of Americas in downtown Miami.
