Last year at the Sunchaser 1000, Memo Rojas’s race car was struck by another car during the 7-hour race which resulted in a prolonged pit stop. Rojas and driving teammate Scott Pruitt ended up finishing second in the main event.

This year the pair arrive at Miller Motorsports Park on a hot streak and have already mathematically clinched the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series Championship.

“Although we’ve clinched we still would like to finish on a high note. We definitely want to win this Saturday. There is no reason we need to back off,” Rojas said on Monday.

Five different racing series will be competing on the 4.5-mile full course at MMP this weekend.

Rojas and Pruitt will be the favorites in the main race featuring the 200-mph Daytona Prototypes and the production-based GT classes racing together for 1000 kilometers. The season-ending race, which will take nearly seven hours and is the series’ second-longest race of the year after the Rolex 24 at Daytona, will get under way at 11 a.m. on Saturday.

For Pruett, it will be his eighth major road-racing championship; Rojas is poised to be the first Mexican driver to win a major international road racing crown.

“I started racing karts when I was 16 in Mexico City and later starting racing in the United States,” he said. Rojas has been racing steady now for 15 years and resides sometimes in Mexico City and sometimes in Indianapolis.

In the GT class, there is a three-way battle for the championship. Only six points separate point leaders Kelly Collins and Paul Edwards (No. 07 Banner Racing Pontiac GXP.R) from Robin Liddell and Andrew Davis (No. 57 Stevenson Motorsports Pontiac GXP.R), with Nick Ham and Sylvain Tremblay (No. 70 SpeedSource Mazda RX-8) only seven points further back.

Also expected to race in the GT class is well-known TV and move actor Patrick Dempsey making his second MMP appearance in the No. 40 HyperSport Mazda RX-8.

 The KONI Challenge Series, the “little brother” to the Rolex Series, will be making its third appearance at MMP this weekend, with the Grand Sports (GS) and Street Tuner (ST) classes racing together in a field of 70 modified production cars.

The Cooper Tires Presents the Atlantic Championship Powered by Mazda, also known as Formula Atlantic, will be making its first appearance at MMP this weekend. Formula Atlantic is a very historic series, celebrating its 35th anniversary this year. Since 1974, the Atlantic Championship has helped train superstars in various forms of motorsport all over the world.

Another series making its first appearance at MMP is the new Ford Racing Mustang Challenge for the Miller Cup. This is the spec Mustang series developed by Miller Motorsports Park in conjunction with Ford Racing and utilizing the new, specially-built Ford Mustang FR500S, developed from the original Mustang Challenge cars created for MMP’s Ford Racing High Performance Driving School.

It is unprecedented for a racetrack to launch a professional racing series and, after visits to Road Atlanta, Canada’s Mosport International Raceway, Alabama’s Barber Motorsports Park, Connecticut’s Lime Rock Park and New Jersey Motorsports Park, the series is returning home for an inaugural double-header season finale.

The SCCA Pro Racing Playboy Mazda MX-5 Cup will round out the program with a strong field of nimble MX-5 Miata roadsters. The Mazda Miata is the world’s most popular sports car, and this series and its predecessor for the previous-version Miatas have launched countless drivers into the higher ranks of professional racing. Expect big packs of cars racing door-handle-to-door-handle from the green to the checkered flags. The MX-5 Cup will have a 45-minute race starting at 9:55 am on Saturday.

 Off the track, there will be a dizzying variety of activities for fans to enjoy. The Miller Kart Track will be open for concession rentals, and there will be helicopter rides available from Park City Helitours, Skid Car rides from MMP’s Miller Performance Training Center and rock-crawler rides from Ben Hanks Racing on MMP’s new offroad course. In addition, there will be freestyle motocross and stunt bike exhibitions, plus live music, throughout the weekend.

For fans who want to meet the drivers, the Rolex Series drivers will have an autograph session at 12:15 p.m. on Friday and the KONI Challenge Series drivers will have an autograph session at 9:15 a.m. on Sunday.

Admission on Friday is free for everyone. On Saturday, grandstand tickets (good for any grandstand) are priced at $50 with general admission priced at $35. On Sunday, grandstand tickets are priced at $40 with general admission priced at $25. Kids 12 and under are free in general admission areas all weekend.

Mark Watson: mwatson@tooeletranscript.com

Editor’s note: MMP media manager John Gardner contributed to this article.