Nextel 250 At Homestead
Nextel 250 At Homestead
Feb. 28 - Mar. 2, 2002
Mauro Baldi and Didier Theys teamed up in the #27 Doran Lista Racing Judd-engined Dallara to earn their second straight win in the Rolex Sports Car Series at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Starting from the pole in the Nextel 250, the pair equaled their finish at last month's Rolex 24 At Daytona, leading most of the way through the 104-lap, 250-mile race.
"The car was perfect. Once again it is the great preparation that Kevin Doran and the entire Doran Lista team does that gives us results like this," Theys said. "The car was very reliable for me and I had no problems. I was actually hoping for more competition, but I think the #16 had a suspension problem or something like that. My job was to just be as smooth as possible and bring the car home in one piece."
Great Britain's James Weaver, the defending Rolex Series driver champion, took the lead briefly in the Dyson Racing Team #16 Thetford/Norcold/Goodyear/Bosch Judd-powered Crawford, but was sidelined when a brush with a GT-class Porsche caused suspension damage that eventually sent him careening through a trackside gravel trap. He was able to get the car back to pit road for repairs, but it retired a short time after his co-driver Chris Dyson was able to record a few laps.
The biggest surprise of the race was the GT class winning team of Frenchman Thierry Perrier and Joao Barbosa, Portugal. The pair piloted their Perspective Racing #24 ParisHotel.com Mosler MT900 R to victory, giving the American boutique manufacturer its first win in professional competition after a 2001 season plagued with gearbox woes.
"I don't think we have to worry about gearbox problems anymore. I think now the other teams have to worry about the Mosler being on the podium. And maybe who knows... trying to win the championship," Barbosa remarked. "I have been waiting a long time to finally be on top of the podium. We proved the car is really great and really fast. Unfortunately we weren't reliable, but now we have proved that the car is reliable and very quick."
After taking ninth place earlier in the day in the Indy Racing League's Grand Prix of Miami, Anthony Lazzaro, of Hickory, N.C., and his co-driver Terry Borcheller, of Phoenix, captured their third-straight victory together in the #8 Rand Racing/Risi Competizione Nissan Lola. The duo won the SportsRacing Prototype II class, in addition to finishing on the overall podium in third place for the second-straight race.
"The two teams did a great job with both cars. The ninth place in the IRL was pretty good, but not as good as I would have hoped. I think we could have had a better day there. But it was a different deal over here with Grand-Am and Bill Rand Racing," commented Lazzaro. "They did an awesome job to repair the car from the damage it had in practice the other day. To come back and run the whole race and win the whole race is quite an accomplishment."
After earning his first Rolex Series victory at last year's Nextel 250, 2001 GTS driver champion Chris Bingham, of Bellevue, Wash., returned to Victory Lane in his Park Place Racing #5 Magnandrive/Transgroup/Gatorz Saleen S7R. Bingham and co-driver Lewis Bakes, of New Canaan, Conn., were in a fierce battle for the GTS lead against the #31 Konrad Motorsports Saleen S7R early in the race, but the Konrad Saleen got loose as it tried to make a move for the class lead and ended up in the wall.
"It was a great day. It was too bad for Konrad. We were running up on him pretty good, and something happened to him in the oval and he lost it. It’s real unfortunate, but it’s racing," said Bingham, the only driver to defend his 2001 Nextel 250 victory.
A pair of Corvettes entered by Flis Motorsports out of Daytona Beach, Fla., earned first and second in the American GT class. Defending class champions Doug Goad, Farmington Hills, Mich., and Craig Conway, Daytona Beach, finished second in the #09 Indicom Auto Group/Microflexinc.com Corvette to the team's sister car - the #90 Maxon Auto Group Corvette - driven by Michael Ciasulli, Union, N.J., and David Haskell, Plantation, Fla.
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