For Immediate Release

Contact Laz Denes 

True Speed Communication

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Date: March 5, 2010

Event: Grand Prix of Miami (Round 2 of 12) 

Series: Daytona Prototype division of the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series

Location: Homestead-Miami Speedway (2.3-mile, 11-turn road course)

Pole Winner: Darren Law of Brumos Porsche (1:11.806 at 115.311 mph)

SunTrust Racing: Fifth with Ricky Taylor (1:12.282 at 114.551 mph)

The No. 10 SunTrust Ford Dallara of Wayne Taylor Racing will start Saturday’s GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series Grand Prix of Miami from the inside of the third row after qualifying Friday at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Ricky Taylor, the 20-year-old son of three-time sports car racing champion and team owner Wayne Taylor, made the most of his first qualifying effort for the SunTrust team, lapping the 3.56-mile, 11-turn speedway road circuit in 1 minute, 12.282 seconds (114.551 mph) during the 15-minute session to place fifth among 34 car-and-driver combinations that will take part in Saturday’s 2-hour, 45-minute race. The younger Taylor became fulltime co-driver to Italian driving ace Max Angelelli this season, his third in the Rolex Series after debuting with the SunTrust team at the 2008 Rolex 24 At Daytona.

“The car hasn’t been great in practice, so far, but you can usually count on being able to at least pull out a good qualifying lap,” said Taylor, who will start Saturday’s race – the 22nd Rolex Series event of his young career – and then hand the SunTrust car over to Angelelli for the sprint to the finish. “With the engineering resources we have here between our own and the people from Dallara, I think the car was pretty strong for qualifying, as usual. We have some work to do before the race, but I think Travis (Jacobson, technical director) and the Dallara guys are going to work out a good plan. I trust them to figure it out. I’ll have to say the butterflies were working before the session for me. It was just a little bit of nerves just because I wanted to do a good job for SunTrust and for the team, to make sure I could qualify the car where it is capable of qualifying. I’m looking forward to the start of the race tomorrow.”

Darren Law, in the No. 59 Brumos Porsche Riley, blazed to a fast lap of 1:11.806 (115.311 mph) to earn the pole position for Saturday’s race. That ended a personal five-race pole qualifying streak by Jon Fogarty in the No. 99 Gainsco/Bob Stallings Racing Chevrolet Riley. Fogarty, who qualified second today, put the No. 99 car on the pole at the final five events last season. The car did not run either of the two qualifying sessions for this year’s season-opening Rolex 24 after it crashed heavily in practice.

“Let’s just say I’m relieved,” said Wayne Taylor, who won the 2005 Grand Prix of Miami co-driving with Angelelli en route to that season’s Rolex Series championship. “For whatever reason, we seem to have a problem with tires at this track, as you saw with us in the race here last October. We have a similar situation here this weekend. Considering the lack of time Ricky’s had in this car with this team – basically the 24-hour race and one test – and the fact we seemed to be struggling in the practice session just prior to qualifying, I think the SunTrust team responded magnificently, as usual, with all the changes we needed to make to enable Ricky to put in a solid qualifying lap. The car’s not quite where we want it to be for the race, but we have time in final practice Saturday (35 minutes) to get it all sorted out.”

The top-five in qualifying were the following teams:

1. Brumos Porsche (No. 59 Porsche Riley) with Darren Law and David Donohue (1:11.806 at 115.311 mph)

2. Gainsco/Bob Stallings Racing (No. 9 Chevrolet Riley) with Jon Fogarty and Alex Gurney (1:11.839 at 115.258 mph)

3. Michael Shank Racing (No. 6 Ford Riley) with Brian Frisselle and Michael Valiante (1:12.079 at 114.874 mph)

4. Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates (No. 01 BMW Riley) with Memo Rojas and Scott Pruett (1:12.166 at 114.735 mph)

5. SunTrust Racing (No. 10 Ford Dallara) with Ricky Taylor and Max Angelelli (1:12.282 at 114.551 mph)

Race time Saturday is 5 p.m. EST with live television and radio coverage on SPEED and the Motor Racing Network, respectively. A delayed broadcast on Sirius NASCAR Radio Channel 128 is also set to begin at 6:45 p.m. Complete results from all on-track sessions, as well as live timing and scoring during the race, can be found at www.grand-am.com.

– SunTrust: The Official Bank of Motorsports –

SunTrust Banks, Inc., headquartered in Atlanta, is one of the nation's largest banking organizations, serving a broad range of consumer, commercial, corporate and institutional clients.  As of September 30, 2009, SunTrust had total assets of $172.7 billion and total deposits of $119.3 billion.  The Company operates an extensive branch and ATM network throughout the high-growth Southeast and Mid-Atlantic states and a full array of technology-based, 24-hour delivery channels.  The Company also serves clients in selected markets nationally.  Its primary businesses include deposit, credit, trust and investment services.  Through various subsidiaries the Company provides mortgage banking, insurance, brokerage, investment management, equipment leasing and capital markets services.  SunTrust’s Internet address is suntrust.com.