Richard Westbrook and Antonio Garcia drove their No. 90 Corvette DP to a dominant victory in Saturday’s Porsche 250 at Barber Motorsports Park, not only marking a long-awaited first win for the Troy Flis-led squad but also the first for the new-generation Corvette bodywork.

The bow-ties, in fact, had the nine-car DP field covered, with Chevrolet taking a 1-2 sweep, despite two of its cars running into trouble early in the two-hour and 45-minute contest.

Garcia, who took over the lead at the one-hour and 15-minute mark, drove a flawless final double stint, crossing the line 2.326 seconds ahead of the No. 99 GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing Corvette of Alex Gurney in second. The Spaniard enjoyed a 30-plus second lead prior to a late-race caution for debris with less than 10 minutes remaining.

It set up a three-minute dash to the finish, but the top two positions remained unchanged.

"When I saw that the race was green all the way through, I thought to just stay [in position and] and not take so many risks because I thought that a yellow may come. For sure, it did," Garcia said. "With two laps to go, I had a little bit of panic.

"But it really paid off because as soon as I pushed, [the pace] was there."

The duo combined to lead all but 19 of the 103 laps, showing the dominant form of the Coyote-chassied machine, which led the most laps here last year before a late-race electrical issues.

"You talk about a weekend for firsts," said Westbrook, who also scored his first career GRAND-AM victory. "The first win for our team and the first win for the Corvette DP, which is incredible if you think how new the car is. We've come a long way since Daytona. We've worked hard since then... I'm just so proud to score the first victory for Spirit of Daytona."

Runner up Gurney added: "We knew from last year that the 90 [car] had something magical for around here and we wondered if it was going to transfer over to the Corvette and it seemed like it did. We feel like we gained on them compared to last year but they still obviously had the pace."

The No. 10 SunTrust Racing Corvette of Max Angelelli, which started from the rear of the field following Ricky Taylor’s spin in qualifying, lost third to defending series champion Scott Pruett during the final restart, relegating he and Taylor to a fifth place finish.

Pruett capitalized on fresh Continental rubber for the three-minute dash to the checkered, moving from fifth to third in the final lap aboard the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Riley-BMW. It came after a costly early race pit stop and penalty for co-driver Memo Rojas, who was deemed to have made avoidable contact with the Oryx Racing Audi midway through the race.

"With that yellow that came out in the end, we just had nothing to lose," Pruett said of their late stop for tires. "We were already at the back of the pack and thought to come in and take a set of tires. We didn't know how it was going to play out. It played out good to bring us up to third."

Ryan Dalziel and Enzo Potolicchio, runner-ups in season-opening twice-around-the-clock classic, took their No. 8 Riley-Ford to a fourth place finish. As a result, the Peter Baron-led team takes over the DP championship lead.

A number of contenders hit trouble early. The Rolex 24-winning No. 60 Michael Shank Racing Riley-Ford of John Pew lost three laps in the first hour when Pew dug his new-gen DP into the wet grass while avoiding a slow Team Sahlen’s Mazda.

The No. 5 Action Express Racing Corvette DP of Darren Law suffered similar fate, but his off-course excursion, initiated by an aggressive move by Angelelli, resulted in a lengthy delay, while the rapid Italian was handed a stop and hold penalty for avoidable contact. Law returned to action but finished 23 laps down.

Source: Speedtv.com

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