Grand-Am | Speed Scene

The Rolex 24 at Daytona kicks off the 2013 sports car racing season tomorrow at 12:30 PM Pacific Time. Begun in 1962 as the 3 hour Daytona Continental and expanded in 1966 to its current 24 hour format, the Rolex 24 has been a premier international sports car race since its very beginning.

Rolex 24 Class Structure

The Rolex 24 is part of the Grand-Am series and runs to its class structure. Historically, Grand-Am has had two classes: DP (Daytona Prototype), a prototype class and GT (Grand Touring), a production sports car based class. This year, beginning with the Rolex 24, Grand-Am has added the GX class to accommodate cars and manufacturers that do not fit neatly into either DP or GT. For the Rolex 24, the GX class has entries that include the Porsche Cayman and the diesel-powered Mazda6.

SoCal Racers At Rolex 24

At this year’s Rolex 24, Southern California is represented by following racers:

Driver	Class	#	Car	Team
Charlie Kimbal	DP	01	BMW/Riley	Chip Ganassi/Felix Sabates
Alex Gurney	DP	99	Corvette DP	GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing
Boris Said	GT	31	Corvette	Marsh Racing
Boris Said	GT	94	BMW M3	Turner Motorsport
Alex Figge	GT	51	Audi R8	APR Motorsport LTD UK
Jim Michaelian	GT	68	Porsche GT3	TRG
Patrick Long	GT	73	Porsche GT3	Park Place Motorsports
Kelly Collins	GT	80	Porsche GT3	TruSpeed Motorsports
Bill Auberlen	GT	93	BMW M3	Turner Motorsport
Joel Miller	GX	00	Mazda6 GX	Visit Florida Racing/Speedsource/Yellow Dragon Motorsports

Rolex 24 – Race Day

Weather should be fantastic for the race weekend – sunny and low to mid 70s at Green Flag with no chance of precipitation thru Sunday. More info, including spotters guide and live timing, can be found here.

POST RACE UPDATE

2013 Rolex 24 DP Results

What a race! Both DP and GT races weren’t decided until the final minutes of the contest. The #01 BMW Riley of Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, driven by Scott Pruett, Memo Rojas, Juan Pablo Montoya, Charlie Kimball, & Scott Dixon took the checkered flag of the 2013 Rolex 24 after an extremely strong – well frankly, dominating – performance over 709 laps. The Ganassi/Sabates BMW Rileys had been untouchable in open racing; the multiple cautions throughout the race kept it close. I’m sure there will be lots of discussion about balance of performance and the BMWs in the following days and weeks.

2013 Rolex 24 GT Results

A Ganassi DP winning the Rolex 24 is nothing new or unexpected. The performance of the Audi R8s in the GT race was both. If not for the Rum Bum Racing Audi running out of gas on the final lap, Audi would have swept the GT podium at Daytona. As it was, the #24 Audi R8 of Alex Job Racing, driven by Filipe Albuquerque, Oliver Jarvis, Edoardo Montara, & Dion von Moltke took the top spot on the podium with 678 laps on the books. At one point in the final few laps, any of the top three Audi R8s looked like they could have won the race – it was truly a nip and tuck finish.

2013 Rolex 24 GX Results

The new GX class was a tale of two cars: the Porsche Cayman and the Mazda 6. All three Mazdas dropped out early in the race due to problems with their new Skyactiv diesel engines; the last Mazda running, the #70 Speedsource car, dropped out after 51 laps leaving the GX race as a contest between the three Caymans. The #16 Napleton Racing Cayman driven by David Donohue, Shane Lewis, Nelson Canache, & Jim Norman took the checkered flag after 635 laps looking nearly as pristine as when in started the race 24 hours prior.

Final Thoughts

The Rolex 24 at Daytona was an exciting start to the 2013 sports car racing season, especially in the GT class where Audi, Porsche, and Ferrari all looked strong. In the DP class, the domination of the BMW Rileys could portend some balance of performance issues that need to be addressed. In the GX class, hopefully Mazda will sort out the engine issues and be joined by more makes to give the Porsche Caymans a challenge.

The Speed broadcast we not one of their best. Network coverage broke away during the night to show race reruns, reality shows, and infomercials. They also interrupted close racing in the last hour for commercial after commercial. I really was not interested in buying a pancake maker with 30 minutes to go in a close Rolex 24 race! On the positive side, the crew at Radio Le Mans did a fantastic job with a streaming audio broadcast throughout the race – notably a great call throughout the night with Rooftopray providing the video.

Of the SoCal racers, Charlie Kimball takes a watch home as part of the winning Ganassi/Sabates team. Better luck for the rest of the year for our hometown guys.

Roots of ALMS & Grand-Am

Trouble had been brewing in sports car racing in the US since the late 1980s when original IMSA founder, John Bishop, sold the series and sanctioning body. Infighting, politics, and a series of ownership changes led to the demise of the original IMSA, which by then was named PSCR (Professional Sports Car Racing). In 1998, the USRRC (United States Road Racing Championship) was created with support from the SCCA (Sports Car Club of America) as an alternative to the weakened IMSA. Interestingly, SCCA has strongly protested the original formation of IMSA back in 1969 – I guess bad blood runs long and deep! The USRRC failed, but was revived at the end of 1999 with the support of NASCAR and the France family as the Grand American Road Racing Association – what’s now known as Grand-Am. Meanwhile in 1998, Dan Panoz, dissatisfied with the USRRC, formed a partnership with the ACO (Automobile Club de L’Ouest), the sanctioning body of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, to run a race called Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta under PSCR sanctioning. In 1999, Panoz renamed his series ALMS, and in 2001 he purchased the remaining assets of PSCR and renamed the sanctioning body IMSA.

ALMS & Grand-Am Since 1999

Over the last 13 years, ALMS and Grand-AM have evolved in separate ways. ALMS has run to ACO rules with many teams participating in both the ALMS and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The series has been known for technical innovation and environmental awareness. In partnership with Michelin, they have created the Green X Challenge, which measures factors such as emissions, speed, and fuel economy. Their efforts have been recognized but the EPA. ALMS also has attracted European teams to their major endurance races at Sebring and Petit Le Mans. This year, Sebring was run in conjunction with the FIA sanctioned World Endurance Challenge.

Grand-Am has focused on less costly formulae such as the Daytona Prototype class, named for its classic endurance race, the Rolex 24 at Daytona. The GT class in Grand-Am has also incorporated more American and Japanese manufacturers such as Chevrolet, Pontiac, and Mazda, and less advanced versions of European manufacturers such as Porsche and BMW.

ALMS & Grand-Am: The Merger

So what now? What now is that over the next year and a little bit, the two series have to sort out the class and rule structure, sanctioning, management structure, venues, schedule, and TV contracts. Generally, the response to the announcement has been positive as can been seen on Autoweek, SpeedTV, & Bleacher Report. An interesting angle on a class structure and schedule was proposed by Brad Brownell at 9 Magazine. The ALMS & Grand-Am merger is also covered in detail in a lively discussion in Episode 33 of the Radiolemans.com Midweek Motorsport podcast.

I have to believe that our beloved Long Beach event will be retained with the merged entity. If the ALMS & Grand-Am merger is handled well, it could be the best thing to happen to sports car racing in the US in over a decade. As an example, it’s no doubt that the current IndyCar is better than the old IRL and Champ car series at the time of their merger. Handled poorly… Well, let’s just hope that doesn’t happen!

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Rolex 24 At Daytona