Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Just the thought of that track is something magical for me -- and a victory in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series race there on July 26 would have been even sweeter.
Unfortunately I'll have to wait yet another year to try and get that win; my Telmex Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Memo Rojas and I finished second for the second year in a row. The good news is, we won the North American Endurance Championship, which gave us a bad-ass trophy and $100,000! It's always good to win another championship, and the Indy race also marked the first outing for the new M3-based BMW engine.
BMW and Steve Dinan have been working hard to get the new engine on track for the past year. Hours and hours of durability testing and development. You can see BMW is committed to excellence and won't bring anything to the track without it being fully tested and prepared. The new engine ran exceptionally well. Finally we feel we're competitive with the other engine manufacturers.
At Indy, we also ran a second car with this year's Indy 500 winner, Tony Kanaan, and Joey Hand at the wheel. Talk about a strong lineup and two good guys.
The weather this year was perfect: cool and nice with just a few light sprinkles during the race. The heavy rain passed to the north and south of us, making race conditions dry and nice. That was great for the fans and the drivers.
Memo did a fantastic job qualifying the Telcel-sponsored Riley-BMW second on the grid, and the start of the race was good. His first stop was a splash and go, fuel only when the first yellow flew. About 20 minutes later another yellow came out, so we decided to do a full stop with a driver change. I got in and off I went. All was going well and we were fighting hard up front in the lead. Shortly thereafter another yellow came out -- decisions, decisions … what to do? At the last minute we made the call and we came in for another fuel-only stop.
Back out of the pits, we rejoined mid-pack. The green came out, and we were back to racing hard, fighting it out. I came around turn six nose to tail, wheel to wheel, went back to the throttle and … the rear snapped right out from underneath me, sending me into a quick spin. Ugh. I got going again but fell back to 14th place, 40 seconds behind.
With the Grand-Am endurance championship on the line, it was time to really go to work. Slowly but surely I made my way back to the front, this time getting a full run with no yellows. I took four tires and a full load of fuel during another stop, then chased down the field. Fifth to fourth, now I set my sights on third but time was running out. Then the third-place car had to pit for fuel, so we were third -- four seconds behind second -- with 10 minutes to go.
With four laps to go I caught the No. 99 running in second and passed him. Now, my sights were on first. The white flag flew as we were three seconds behind and had the endurance championship in our grasp. As we came for the checkers we were only one second back -- and second in this race again. All I needed was two more laps, but it wasn't meant to be.
I want to send a big congrats to the whole Telcel Ganassi team. Winning the Rolex Series endurance title is a first for us and something very special. Also a big congrats to BMW and Dinan for a terrific job with the new M3 engine.
As I said, there is no place like Indianapolis! With victory so close, slipping thru my fingers once again, I can't believe it -- but we'll be back next year for another shot at it.
Our next stop is Aug. 10 at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisc. Remember, this is going to be the first-ever doubleheader weekend with the American Le Mans Series, which is sure to make for a great and interesting event. Stay tuned -- and come on out to see us race!
Editor's note: Autoweek Editor at Speed Scott Pruett, 52, is one of North America's most successful race-car drivers, with multiple wins and championships in karting, Trans-Am and Grand-Am racing, as well as victories in IMSA and CART, plus starts in NASCAR. He drives the No. 01 Telmex Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Riley-BMW in Grand-Am's Rolex Sports Car Series, where he is the defending Daytona Prototype champion. Their win at the 2013 Grand-Am season-opening Rolex 24 at Daytona, along with co-drivers Memo Rojas, Juan Pablo Montoya and Charlie Kimball, means Pruett now has five Rolex 24 wins, tying him with Hurley Haywood for the all-time record
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