The Rolex Grand-Am series will headline the weekend on the Thunderbolt track at New Jersey Motorsports Park. At just about 2 1/2 hours from DC, this is a great opportunity to see some professional sports car races in a variety of classes. The Grand-Am race will feature Daytona Prototypes and the GT class cars. The current entry list does not show the two BMW-powered DPs that finished 4th and 9th last weekend at VIR.
The Koni Challenge series for production-based cars has 19 Grand-Sport entries including 10 M3s, 7 Mustang GTs and 2 Porsche 997s. The Street Tuner class has 26 entries including four E46 330s, two E90 328s, and one Z4. Ted Giovanis (highland, MD) /Mike Halpin will be in one of the 330s, and Barry Battle (Dulles) / Michael Dayton (Culpepper) will be piloting the new 328i built and entered by RRT.
In a rare appearance on the same card as the rival Koni Challenge will be the Speed World Challenge series with races for both the GT and Touring Car classes. Several BMWs including 3 Bimmerworld E90 325s will be in the Touring race.
The Mustang Challenge is for identical Mustang GTs.
Practice for all classes starts early Friday morning, and will continue on Saturday. The qualifying and race schedule is:
Friday
Qual - Koni ST 4:15
Qual - Koni GS 4:40
Qual - WC Touring 5:55
Qual - WC GT 6:15
Saturday
Qual - Mustang Challenge 8:00 am
Race - WC Touring 10:30
Race - WC GT 12:30
Qual - G-A Daytona Prototypes 1:45
Qual - G-A GT 2:10
Race - Koni Challenge (both classes) 3:10 (2 1/2 hr race)
Sunday
Race - Mustang Challenge 10:30 am
Race - Rolex Grand-Am 1:00 (2 3/4 hr race)
If any of you saw the Grand-Am weekend last August, you should know there have been many improvements to the spectating. More shuttle buses, grass in place of dust, and five grandstands.
And if Mother's Day, local autocrosses, or the Deutsche Marque Concours d'Elegance keep you from going, the Rolex race is televised live by Speed at 1 pm.
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Originally Posted by Biggins
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