Edwards Takes Rolex GT Points Lead

Jul 8, 2007 (photo by courtesy of GM Racing)
Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif. – A third successive podium finish last Thursday at Daytona International Speedway in Florida was enough to vault 1997-9 Team USA Scholarship winner Paul Edwards and regular co-driver Kelly Collins into the lead of the Grand-American Sports Car Series Rolex GT point standings after nine of 15 races.

Edwards, who won the 1998 European Formula Opel Winter Series and the following season’s Formula Palmer Audi Winter Series titles while carrying the patriotic red-white-and-blue Team USA Scholarship colors, has been a consistent front-runner in this year’s Rolex GT series at the wheel of Banner Racing’s factory-supported #07 Pontiac GXP.R.

Even though Edwards, who lives in Fort Collins, Colo., had to give up his hard-won lead to a lighter and more powerful Mazda RX-8 in the closing stages at Daytona, he was content to finish in second place – one position ahead of erstwhile points leader Dirk Werner’s Porsche.

“I felt taken advantage of when the Mazda raced by me into Turn One,” Edwards said. “We had the measure of them in the infield, but then onto the banking they just roll by us. (But) we are in the drivers points lead and have run very consistently and mechanically trouble free all year.”

Meanwhile in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 2006 Team USA Scholarship winner Dane Cameron continued his mastery of the Star Mazda Championship Presented by Goodyear as he led from flag to flag on the streets around Exhibition Place.

Cameron, from Sonoma, Calif., was fastest in every practice session, qualified on the pole and then led throughout the race in his #19 JDC Motorsports/Finlay Motorsports car. He now holds a commanding 47-point in the championship standings.

Jimmy Vasser, who won the first Team USA Scholarship in 1990, gained another podium finish as a team owner in Toronto, where his PKV Racing charge, Neel Jani, finished second in the Steelback Grand Prix of Toronto, Round 7 of the Champ Car World Series.

Just across the border at Watkins Glen International in upstate New York, 1997 Scholarship winner Buddy Rice and 1999 winner Jeff Simmons finished sixth and 10th, respectively, in the Camping World Watkins Glen Grand Prix Indy Racing League event.

2000 Team USA Scholarship winner Phil Giebler claimed a pair of fourth-place finishes in the Indy Pro Series double-header at Watkins Glen.

Photo of Edwards at Daytona courtesy of GM Racing