Grand-Am Rolex Series Round 12 Utah 250, Miller Morotsports Park
Mazda RX-8 Captures Series Championship
With a sixth place finish in the season ending Utah 250 at Miller Motorsports Park, Jeff Segal and Emil Assentato drove their #69 SpeedSource FXDD Mazda RX-8 to the 2010 Rolex Grand-Am GT driver's championship. This completed a perfect sweep for Mazda as the #69 crew also won the team championship. Mazda had clinched the manufacturers championship at the previous race in Montreal.
The pair didn't win the title without a little action. Assentato spun during his stint, and Segal was involved in contact with another car on the final lap.
"It's a great honor to win any championship with all the pro drivers in the series," Assentato said. "I just concentrated on going as fast as I could," Segal added. "I didn't leave anything on the table; we were going for it. I'm thrilled to clinch the championship."
John Edwards and Adam Christodoulou took third in the No. 68 MazdaSpeed Motorsports Development Mazda RX-8, followed by teammates Sylvain Tremblay and Jonathan Bomarito in the No. 70 Castrol Syntec Mazda RX-8.
Tremblay ended the campaign five points behind his teammates (343-338).
"Right now, I'm happy as the team owner, and I'm a lot more team owner than a driver," Tremblay said. "I'm the driver 12 days a year and the team owner the rest of the time. I'm happy with Emil, Jeff and the entire team. Everyone works on all the cars. This is pretty special for Mazda, their first championship since 1991."
#43 Team Sahlen Mazda RX-8 finished seventh. Two of Dempsey Racing RX-8, #40 and #41 finished ninth and tenth respectively.
20.9.2010
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