Who's going? This year, the 50th Anniversay of our country's biggest sports car race, promises to be a great one. The track is an easy 11 hours from DC. No GPS needed. Go south on I-95, at exit 261 in Florida go east for 2 miles to Speedway on your right. Practice and qualifying for the Rolex Grand-Am 24-Hour race and Continental Tire Challenge race will be Thursday, more Grand-Am practice Friday and the CTC 2 1/2-hour race which starts at 1:30. Saturday includes more practice, a vintage race, and special anniversary activies before the 3:30pm race start. A four day ticket includes infield parking, garage and FanZone access, infield and any grandstand admission except those on pit road for the bargain price of $85.

The Daytona Prototype (DP) class will feature new chassis and bodies. The front of the Chevy-powered cars now look like Corvettes. The 14-car DP field will have three BMW-powered cars including the two Chip Ganassi Racing Rileys with BMW factory driver Joey hand partnering with Scott Pruett, Memo Rojas, and Graham Rahal in #01. The 02 Ganassie car will be driven by Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti of IndyCar fame, Juan Pablo Montoya and Jamie McMurray of NASCAR.

The 44-car Grand Touring (GT) class has new-to-the-series entries of 3 Ferrari 458s and 2 Audi R8 GTs. There will be the usual assortment of Porsche GT3s, Mazda RX8s, Camaros (including one driven by Tommy Milner), a Mustang, a Viper, and the two Turner Motorsports BMW M3s. Number 93 will be driven by Michael Marsal, Dirk Mueller, Jorg Mueller, and Dirk Werner. The #94 will be driven by Bill Auberlen, Paul Dalla Lana, Billy Johnson, and Boris Said.

The always exciting Conti Tire Race has 35 entries in Grand-Sport (GS) incluing nine BMW M3s of Fall Line Motorsports, Racing, Turner Motorsports, Insight Racing, Rum Bum Racing, Automatic Racing, and Brass Monkey Racing. They will be competing against a raft of Mustang Boss 302Rs, Porsche 997s, Camaros, an Aston-Martin and an Audi S4.

The Street Turner (ST) class has 39 entries including a bunch of BMW 128s and 328s. James Clay's BimmerWorld team has retired their M3s, but will have three 328is in this race. Insight Racing decided not to re-build the ex-RRT 328 and will have a 128i, with Ashburn's Ryan Ellis as one of the drivers.

Say 'hi' if you see me there.