Hardly anyone blinked an eye at pre-season predictions that Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates was the odds-on favorite to win a third consecutive GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series DP championship. Sure enough, heading into the final three races of the 2012 season, the No. 01 BMW/Riley and drivers Memo Rojas and Scott Pruett sit atop the points standings . What’s surprising is the upstart rival which threatens to derail the Ganassi train.
Few would have guessed Starworks Motorsport would be a championship contender let alone be within hailing distance of the lead in mid-August as the series heads into Saturday’s crucial race at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal.
Starworks’ pair of Ford/Riley cars has won the past two races – Sebastian Bourdais and Alex Popow at Indianapolis and Ryan Dalziel and Lucas Luhr at Watkins Glen International.
The team’s No. 8 car trails Ganassi’s No. 01 by six points with Dalziel an equal number of points behind Rojas and Pruett. Starworks’ No. 2, fourth in the standings, has a shot at a third-place finish as well.
To say team owner Peter Baron is ecstatic would be the season’s understatement.
“The team’s got confidence now. The team’s got momentum,” said Baron. “We’re excited to go racing. Our main thing is to get Ryan and the team the championship. We’ve got a lot of people rooting for us.”
Dalziel, the 30-year-old Scot who resides in Orlando, Fla., is equally excited.
“It’s been a pretty amazing story,” the 2010 Rolex 24 winner said. “It’s a huge honor to see how it’s built, week-in and week-out, being in the mix with big teams.
“Ganassi is the benchmark, no matter what series they’re in.”
Dalziel, who’ll share the No. 8 BMW/Riley with Alex Tagliani this weekend, agrees the David v. Goliath story is a good one – but only to a point.
“We’re trying to become one of the big guys. That’s what we’re there to do,” he said. “We want to start the year at the Rolex 24 as the favorite.”