Fittipaldi Is Fastest at Fontana

Christian Fittipaldi won the CART Champ Car season finale on the two-mile oval at California Speedway in 2000. Sunday, he figures to be in position to win a Grand American Rolex series sports car race on the track’s 2.8-mile road course.

The versatile Brazilian, who also has driven NASCAR stock cars, had Friday’s fastest practice lap of 107.715 mph on the 21-turn circuit as Daytona prototype and GT cars and drivers worked to prepare for Sunday’s Ferrari-Maserati 400-kilometer race. Qualifying is today at 1:45 p.m.

Fittipaldi is driving one of Krohn Racing’s Pontiac-powered Riley cars with German Jorg Bergmeister. In last month’s Daytona prototype race at Homestead-Miami, Bergmeister and Max Papis finished third.

“The car ran good,” said Fittipaldi, who switched from the Bell Motorsports Pontiac-Doran to Krohn Racing this week. “We were trying some different stuff this afternoon, but we were very pleased. I think it is less difficult to drive than any car I have driven in the past.”

Second fastest was Scott Pruett, who won here last year with Papis. He clocked a lap at 107.340 in his Chip Ganassi Racing Lexus-Riley. Luis Diaz of Mexico City has replaced Papis as Pruett’s teammate.

The team to beat Sunday, however, is expected to be Wayne Taylor and Max Angelelli in the No. 10 SunTrust Racing’s Pontiac-Riley. They have won both Grand American races this year, the Daytona 24 Hours and the Homestead-Miami.

If Taylor and Angelelli win, they will join Didier Theys as the only drivers to win the first three races of a Grand American Rolex series season.

Even with two victories, the Taylor-Angelelli team holds only a six-point edge over Butch Leitzinger and Elliott Forbes-Robinson in the Boss Snowplow Pontiac-Crawford.

That latter duo has finished second in its last three races, two this year and the final race last year at California Speedway.

In the GT class, which runs with the Daytona prototypes, Pat Flanagan of Newport Beach and Patrick Long of Calabasas had the fastest speed of 99.25 mph in their Porsche GT3.

Four races are scheduled today, along with Rolex series qualifying. A 200-mile Grand-Am Cup for stock sports cars will start at 2:45 p.m. One of the largest entries in recent years, 48 cars in the grand sport class and 21 in sport touring, will vie for starting positions in qualifying at 10:30 a.m.

There will also be two 20-minute Ferrari historics races and a 30-minute Ferrari challenge today.