Pruitt: What a trip to starting line.
His race car melted, his pit crew walked and Michelin refuses to sell him any tires.
By Jay Drew
The Salt Lake Tribune
TOOELE, UTAH - Today might just be a dream come true for Sandy race car owner Steve Pruitt, but the journey to this point has been quite the opposite.
"This has become an absolute, utter nightmare," said Pruitt, who had his $600,000 Ferrari 430 GT burn to the ground in its first race this year; spent $300,000 to repair it and ship it back to Utah; and had his partner ownership group abandon him, taking his crew and his resources.
Pruitt, 58, a successful commercial real estate developer who moved to Utah in 1975, has track-and-Utah-Jazz owner Larry Miller to thank when the green flag drops on today's American Le Mans Series Utah Grand Prix, arguably the most prestigious car race in state history.
Pruitt's support team and pit crew were pulled when the company that agreed to provide support, Peterson/White Lightning Racing, abandoned him after the Ferrari was nearly destroyed in March at the Twelve Hours of Sebring race in Florida.
Miller has loaned Pruitt mechanics, tire changers and other employees from his car dealerships and the Miller Performance Center at MMP. "Team Utah," as they call themselves, has one crew member - lead mechanic David Smith of Salt Lake City's Steve Harris Imports - with experience working on a Ferrari, and less experience working in the pits, where members are expected to gas up a car, change all four tires and make other minor adjustments in about 30seconds.
Pit stops in ALMS take longer than those in NASCAR races because competitors are not allowed to add fuel and change tires simultaneously, and a race car's engine must be turned off.
"It has been like pushing water uphill with a rake," Pruitt said. "But we've already built some chemistry, some aura, in the garage, knowing that we are up against it."
The American Le Mans Series GT2 class.; Most possibly the hardest field to compete in with 11 teams in the GT2 class alone. Utah's own Corsa Motorsports continues the fight in the ALMS 2007 season with there F430GT. In case you are new to the Corsa team in the ALMS, click "read more" at the bottom of this article. After the jump you'll find a great newspaper article from by Jay Drew in The Salt Lake Tribune on Corsa Motorsports and there outing at Miller Motorsports park this year. 