BMW-powered cars will have a big presence in the Rolex Grand-Am 24-Hour race at Daytona on January 29-30. In addition 21 BMWs are entered in the 2 1/2 hour Continental Tire Challenge race on Friday, the 28th. Here is a quick rundown:
Of the 17 Daytona Prototypes, 7 are Ford-powered, 4 BMW, 3 Porsche, and 3 Chevrolet. The always-favored Ganassi Racing Riley-BMWs have an all-star line up.
#01 - Scott Pruett, Memo Rojas, Joey Hand, and Graham Rahal
#02 - Indy car stars Scott Dixon, Dario Franchitti, Juan Pablo Montoya, and NASCAR's Jamie McMurray
Level 5 Motorsports has some established European sports car drivers in their two Riley BMWs, #55 and #95. Engines in these cars are the BMW S62 V8 from the E39 M5 as modifed by Dinan.
The #8 Starworks Riley has switched from BMW to Ford power. Also of interest is the Gainsco Riley Chevrolet with NASCAR Champion Jimmy Johnson added to the normal team of Jon Fogarty and Alex Gurney.
The Rolex GT class has 32 cars entered including 14 Porsche GT3s, 9 Mazda RX8s, 3 Ferrari 430s, 3 Camaro GT-Rs, 2 BMWs and 1 Mustang. Understand that these GT cars are a long way from their production counterparts. All but the Porsches and Ferraris use tube frames. The #32 blue BMW M6 is the same car raced by PRI Motorsports to an 11th place finish last year. The #94 yellow M3 entered by Turner Motorsports is the same chassis as last year's M6, just new body work. Drivers in the #94 are Bill Auberlen, Boris Said, Matt Plumb, and Paul Dalla Lana. Also of interest is the #56 Ferrari of Annapolis's Skip Bennett Racing. Three of the drivers, Mike Skeen, Michael Davidson, and Jonathan Allen have raced locally in BMW SpecE30s.
If you are interested in seeing the race in person, it is possible to leave EARLY Saturday morning for the 10 hour drive to Daytona and be back in time for work Monday morning. The race will be televised on Speed TV starting at 3pm Saturday until 10 pm and continuing at 7 am Sunday morning until the 3:30 pm finish and awards ceremony.
The Grand Sport (GS) class of the Conti race is dominated by 11 BMWs. Also there are 6 Mustangs, 4 Porsche 997s, 2 Porsche Cayman Ss, 3 Camaros, and 1 each of Audi S4, Dodge Challenger, and Subaru STi. The M3 entries includes 3 by Fall Line Motorports of Chicago (#45, 46 and 48), 2 by Turner Motorsports (#96 and 97) 2 by Bimmerworld of Radford Virginia (#78 and 79), and 1 by RRT's Insight Racing of Dulles (#19). The 2010 winner #13 of Rum Bum Racing is returning.
Forty three cars are entered in the Street Tuner (ST) class with 10 BMWs - 5 E90 328i's, 3 E46 330s, and 2 128i's. Those 128s (#4 and 14) are entered by long-time Daytona Prototype team, Doren Racing. Other makes in the ST class include Mini Cooper, VW GTi, Honda Civic Si, Kia Forte Koup, Porsche Boxster, Mazda MX5, Speed 3, and RX8.
The Continental race starts at 1:30 pm on Friday. Live timing and scoring will be on the Grand-Am website. Delayed TV coverage will be on Speed at 3 pm February 5.
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