Bill Lester becomes first black Grand-Am winner
DANVILLE, Va. (AP) - "We're ecstatic," Lester said. "Everything came together for us. We knew at the beginning of the season that this team had a lot of potential."...
DANVILLE, Va. (AP) — Bill Lester became the first black driver to win a Grand-Am Road Racing event, teaming with Jordan Taylor to top the Rolex Series’ GT class Saturday in the Bosch Engineering 250 at Virginia International Raceway.
“We’re ecstatic,” Lester said. “Everything came together for us. We knew at the beginning of the season that this team had a lot of potential.”
The breakthrough victory in the Autohaus Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro came in the hometown of auto racing pioneer Wendell Scott, the only black driver to win NASCAR Sprint Cup race.
“I’m sure that the Scott family would be happy about what I was able to accomplish,” Lester said. “I actually spent some time at the Scott residence in Danville and saw Wendell’s old garage and sat in one of his race cars. It was quite an honor for me.”
In the overall and Daytona Prototype class, the Action Express Racing trio of Joao Barbosa, Terry Borcheller and JC France won in a Porsche/Riley, ending the six-race winning streak of reigning series champions Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas from Chip Ganassi Racing. Action Express earned a $25,000 “bounty” available to any team stopping the Pruett-Rojas winning streak.
Pruett and Rojas finished second.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.
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