MIAMI - Scott Pruett put an exclamation point on his dream season, by winning Sunday's Motorock Miami 100 and, in the process, clinched his third Motorock Trans-Am Tour for the BFGoodrich Tires Cup Drivers' Championship. Pruett, driver of the No. 7 Motorock/Jaguar R Performance XKR, led every lap en route to his eighth victory in 10 races this season, and now holds an insurmountable 55-point lead going into the final race of the season at Puerto Rico.
Johnny Miller, driving the No. 64 Motorock Jaguar XKR, finished second, and clinched second in the 2003 points chase. Rookie Bobby Sak (No. 10 Chevrolet Corvette) finished third, and narrowed Jorge Diaz, Jr.'s lead in the Rookie of the Year battle to 27 points. John Baucom (No. 86 MAP Quality Engineering Jaguar XKR) finished fourth, his first top-five effort, ahead of Michael Lewis (No. 12 Westward Tools Car Available at Grainger Jaguar XKR).
Pruett's Miami weekend mirrored his dominant run this season, which has also included a third-place finish at Long Beach. Starting from the Jaguar Pole, Pruett led every lap, and set the race's fastest race lap, earning the BFGoodrich Tires Take Control Award. He also earned the Flowmaster American Thunder Challenge Award, worth $6,000, for winning the pole, leading the most laps, setting the fastest race lap and winning the race.
'Johnny ran strong, but he has run strong all year long,' said Pruett, who joins the likes of Paul Gentilozzi and the late Mark Donohue with the honor of winning three Trans-Am championships. 'This mirrored our race at Trois-Rivières (where Pruett and Miller also finished first and second). My car was better in some places, while his was better in others. I had a great car today. It stayed underneath me strong. We were able to take off quickly on the restarts, and that has been our strong point all season long. 'This is a perfect place for me to be and it turned out to be even better than I expected,' added Pruett, who won his previous titles in 1987 and 1994. 'We had the surprise win in St. Pete and we really started to jell as a team at Infineon Raceway. The only problems we had this year were driver problems. I messed up at Lime Rock and parked it in the mud and overdrove it at Long Beach. But we came back, I learned a lot, and we overcame it.
'This is really a team effort. The driver is the focal point, but it takes their hard work and dedication,' concluded Pruett. 'We've had zero mechanical problems this year.'
Miller, who started fourth, challenged Pruett on several occasions, and had a great run going on lap 19.
'It took awhile for my car to come in,' said Miller. 'I was struggling with a little bit of a loose condition off the turns. I have to thank Motorock for coming on board and Rocketsports for allowing me to be here this weekend. We didn't get the championship here, but it was nice to at least get a chance to take swing.'
Sak, meanwhile, quietly moved through the field after starting fifth to secure the podium finish.
'The car was really good,' said Sak. 'We still have a shot at the rookie title; we're only 27 points back. We still need some help at Puerto Rico, but it's nice to still have a shot. The car was great today. It came in after five laps, so I knew after that last restart (on lap 60), I had to go fast. I looked up and Johnny (Miller) was gone. But we're happy with a third.'
Drivers collecting one bonus point on the Fast Five Lap, lap 10 here, where Tomy Drissi (No. 5 Stuck on You, The Movie Jaguar XKR), Michael Lewis (No. 12 Westward Tools Car Available at Grainger Jaguar XKR), Sak, Miller and Baucom
The race ran in 74 minutes, 16.312 seconds, at an average speed of 61.288 miles per hour. It was slowed by the caution flag four times for 20 laps.
The season finale for the Motorock Trans-Am Tour for the BFGoodrich Tires Cup is scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 26 at the Puerto Rico Grand Prix. That race will air LIVE on the SPEED Channel at 1 p.m.
