Kris Szekeres qualified the #11 SAMAX Motorsports Pontiac Riley in 8th place in Thursday’s qualifying session held at Watkins Glen, New York. Round 12 of 14 of the 2007 Grand-Am Rolex Series is scheduled to start Friday August 10 at 6:30 p. m.
Szekeres is reunited this weekend with Tomas Enge. The two shared the second SAMAX entry at the Rolex 24 at Daytona season opener where they finished sixth overall. Enge is back at the Glen with SAMAX for the second time this year as he takes over Patrick Carpentier’s ride for this race. This will be the Czech driver’s third time in 2007 that will be piloting for SAMAX. It will be Szekeres’ seventh consecutive start with the South Florida-based team. Enge, a seasoned veteran of open-wheel racing who lives in Pompano Beach, FL, is also a regular competitor in the 24 Hours of Le Mans since 2002. In 2005, he competed against Carpentier in the Indy Racing League.
“I happy with the car and with our eighth place on the grid, ” Szekeres said. “The car is neutral and where it is supposed to be. I wished we would have had more track time today, but the team came up with a good set up, so I think we should have a good race on Friday. I will start the car as I qualified it and let’s hope that there is no full course yellow on the first lap. “
Szekeres led the SAMAX Pontiac Riley to a 10th-place finish last week in Montreal where he drove over two hours in the team’s first Top-10 finish since round five at Laguna Seca last May. While running fifth, he was punted off the course by Scott Pruett’s Lexus Riley during a race restart and dropped to 16th overall. He rebounded to finish 10th.
Jon Fogarty won his sixth straight pole and seventh overall in 2007. Along with Alex Gurney, their Pontiac Riley will share the front row with Nick Jonsson and Colin Braun, also driving a Pontiac Riley. The second row will filled with the Pontiac Riley of Memo Gidley and Max Angelelli and the Lexus Riley of Mark Wilkins and Brian Frisselle.
With four top five finishes, including a runner-up podium result at the Rolex 24 at Daytona, South Florida-based SAMAX Motorsport is currently ninth overall in the Team Standings with 226 points after eleven races.
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