What: Visual Studio Ultimate Grand Prix of Atlanta
Where: Road Atlanta, Braselton, GA
When: Saturday, April 20 4:30pm EDT
Who: The Grand Am Rolex Series makes its first visit to Road Atlanta. Max “The Axe” Angelelli and Jordan Taylor took home First Place at Barber for the Velocity Worldwide team and look to continue their success on Grand Am’s southern swing this weekend. Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas in the #01 Telmex Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Riley-Dinan/BMW are contenders in every Grand-Am event alongside Jon Fogarty and Alex Gurney in the #99 GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing Red Dragon. On the GT side, Robin Liddell and John Edwards were able to hold off Balzan and Westphal in the Scuderia Corsa Ferrari to claim the victory. Boris Said and Eric Curran finished strong in the Marsh racing Corvette for Third Place.
The Stories
Angelelli and Taylor were pretty much able to play “Run away and hide” at Barber, but now they face a level playing field at Road Atlanta. Even though the Corvettes have been incredibly strong this season, how will they react to the rougher surface at Road Atlanta? The circuit tends to play to Angelelli’s strengths, so it should be interesting to see how he’s able to manage the tires here.
Action Express Racing has decided to make some changes in its driver lineup for the Road Atlanta round. Joao Barbosa moves from the #9 to the #5, joining Christian Fittipaldi as co-driver. Brian Frisselle moves into the #9 as co-driver with his brother, Burt Frisselle. Action Express made a similar driver swap last season before the Detroit race, which resulted in a 1-2 finish for Action Express. Perhaps they might be able to recapture a bit of that magic.
Billy Johnson slides into the seat of the #94 Turner Motorsports BMW for the weekend since regular driver Bill Auberlin is at Long Beach for the ALMS event. his co-driver for the weekend is decorated Grand Am series regular, Paul Dalla Lana.
Continental Tire Series regular Andrew Carbonell moves up to the Rolex Series this week, sharing the #00 Visit Florida/Speedsource Mazda6 with Joel Miller. The pair most recently teamed up in the Rolex 24, where they finished Fifth in GX Class.
Speaking of GX Class, David Donohue returns to the class this weekend in the #38 BGB Motorsports Porsche Cayman with Dr. Jim Norman. Norman has won every GX Class event this season, taking home First at the Rolex 24, Circuit of the Americas and Barber. Donohue was formerly a Prototype regular, having driven for Brumos and Action Express. He was on the 2009 Rolex 24 winning team.
