by David Coffin Pitstop , Monterey County Herald

The Rolex Sports Car Series consists of two classes the Daytona Prototypes and the Gran Tourismo (GT) production-based cars competing at the same time in the twice around the clock event Jan. 23-25 that serves as the season-opener for the highly competitive series.

Both groups will compete for class as well as overall honors. The fifth event of the 2009 Grand-Am series will be Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca's season-opener May 15-17. This season, the Rolex Series will be joined on Laguna Seca's world-renowned 2.238-mile, 11-turn permanent road course by the two sedan classes of the Grand-Am Koni Challenge Series.

But, back to our local guys.

Monterey native Jonathan Bomarito, who's made his mark in open-wheel racing with a Formula Ford 2000 Zetec Championship a few years ago and a runner-up finish in the 2008 Cooper Tires Presents the Atlantic Championship Series Powered by Mazda, was in Daytona working with the SpeedSource Mazda crew putting the Mazda RX-8 through its paces.

Merrill, of Salinas, who captured a Formula Continental championship a couple of seasons ago winning all but one race in the 14 contested, joined a group in a second Pontiac GXP.R for PR1 Motorsports.

"So far, it's looking pretty good," Bomarito said. "They haven't given me a final answer yet and I don't count my chickens?"

Bomarito had driven in the 24 in 2005 so he was already familiar with the track that encompasses a portion of the famed oval site of NASCAR's "Super Bowl" Daytona 500 season-opener so he spent his time "learning a new car," he said. And trying to get up to speed. Bomarito has been fast in anything he has driven.

"This is the car (the RX-8) that won the (GT) class at the 24 last year," Bomarito said. If SpeedSource brings Bomarito on board in the second-car effort, "It will just be for the 24, but I hope it develops into more," he said.

"Racing has always been a hard business but it is even harder now," Bomarito noted. "Especially the way the economy is now."

I've written about this several times before, but it is an absolute shame talented drivers such as Bomarito and Merrill must essentially buy their rides. If you can't bring money to the table, there are guys out there who can. Both Bomarito and Merrill are highly marketable young men. They have great personalities, represent their teams and themselves well in interviews and they are fast.

There will be one more test session the first week in January (Merrill thought it was Jan. 2, 3 and 4) and Bomarito plans on going whether he's landed the SpeedSource gig or not.

"If I get the ride, then I'll be at the test with them," Bomarito said. "If I don't, I probably will still go, but I am expecting to be with them."

Merrill ran three GT races last season at Homestead-Miami, Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and Watkins Glen. He's hoping to do a whole lot more than that this season. He'll be sharing the seat with Jeff Westphal, Mike Forest and Al Salvo.

Merrill and Bomarito are scheduled to be special guests on the "Dave Coffin Motorsports Show" Saturday from 11 a.m. to noon on Historic News Talk Radio KNRY 1240 AM. The show is also live on the web at www.knry.com and re-broadcasts are every Saturday night at 5 p.m.

Dave Coffin can be reached at 375-4509 or dcoffin@sbcglobal.net

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