The Rolex Grand-Am Series will kick off this weekend with their biggest event of the year - the Daytona 24-Hour Race. It starts at 3:30 pm Saturday. Current entries show 20 Daytona Prototypes and 31 GT cars. That is down from last year, probably a sign of the current economy.
The DPs appear similar, and most are Riley chassis, although there are a few Lolas, Dallars, and Crawfords in the mix. Except for the Porsches, the engines are all 5-liter V8s. There are 7 Fords, 5 Porsches, 3 BMWs, 3 Pontiacs, and 2 Lexus. Pontiac is a principal sponsor of Grand-Am, but several teams have abandoned them for Fords and BMWs. The BMWs are based on the E39 M5 units. Each car has two co-drivers in the shorter Rolex events, but most will add one to three drivers for the grueling 24-Hour.
Two BMW-powered teams in 2008 had some shining moments, but both the Rum Bum/Sigalsport and Samax teams are gone for now. The three new BMW teams and their drivers are:
#22 Alegra Motorsports with Ryan Dalziel (Scotland), Carlos de Quesada (Florida), Chapman Ducote (Florida), Jean-Francois Dumoulin (Quebec), and Tomas Enge (Czech Republic)
#45 Victory Junction/Orbit Racing with Dannen Manning (Indianapolis), Leo Hindery Jr (Kentucky), Kyle Petty (North Carolina) and Bill Lester (Atlanta)
#55 LevelFive Motorsports with Christophe Bouchut (France), Scott Tucker (Kansas), and Ed Zabinski (Atlanta)
The GT class features "production-based" cars. The with except of the Porsche GT3s, that is a big lie. These are tube-framed cars with chassis built by Riley, Crawford, Pratt & Whitney, etc. Entries include 17 Porsches, 4 Pontiacs, 4 Mazda RX8s, 2 Ferrari 430s, and 1 Mustang GT. The BMW M6 that ran a few events last year is not entered.
Their is a long break before the second event in the Rolex Grand-Am Series. It will be a 250-mile race VIR on April 25.
The television coverage of the 24-Hour is as follows:
Saturday 2pm Speed TV 2008 Season Review
Saturday 3 pm Fox Pre-race and first hour
Saturday 4:30pm to 10:00pm Speed TV Race coverage
Sunday 7:00am to 4:00pm Speed TV Race coverage
Bookmarks