THE LINE - January 30, 2013

(John Thawley ~ Motorsports Photography ~ 248.227.0110)Scott Pruett, Memo Rojas, Juan Pablo Montoya and Charlie Kimball (No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates TELMEX/Target BMW/Riley) won the 51st running of the Rolex 24 At Daytona International Speedway last weekend after being favored from the start. It was the team's fifth victory in 10 events at the Grand-Am Rolex 24. The Daytona Prototype lead changed hands six times over the final 90 minutes between Montoya, Max Angelelli (No. 10 Velocity Worldwide Corvette DP) and AJ Allmendinger (No. 60 Michael Shank Racing) whose team came back from a seven-lap deficit early in the race. The dramatic final hour saw both Montoya and Angelelli try to stretch their fuel loads to the finish, while Allmendinger was effectively removed from contention for the victory with an unscheduled pit stop after contact with Joao Barbosa in the No. 9 Action Express Racing Corvette DP. Check out all of John Thawley's incredible images from the Rolex 24 here.

Editor-in-Chief's Note: Grand-Am Road Racing has issued monetary and point penalties to the No. 60 Ford/Riley Daytona Prototype as a result of a rule infraction discovered following the Daytona 24-hour season-opening event at Daytona International Speedway. The No. 60 was found in violation of Section 4-1.1 (“Grand-Am will specify components and performance levels in the Specific Car Regulations that must be adhered to”) of the Grand-Am Rule Book. The engine in the No. 60 car was found with mechanical adjustments resulting in performance levels outside the documented maximums. As a result Michael Shank Racing will forfeit third-place prize money of $35,000 and has been penalized with the loss of 30 team championship points. Drivers Ozz Negri, John Pew, Justin Wilson, Marcos Ambrose and AJ Allmendinger have each been penalized 30 driver championship points. Ford has been penalized 30 manufacturer championship points. The team has been penalized one point in the North American Endurance Championship standings and the team has been fined $15,000, payable to Camp Boggy Creek, the official charity of Grand-Am. - PMD

(John Thawley  ~  Motorsports Photography @ www.johnthawley.com  ~ 248.227.0110)
Scott Pruett (above) has now joined Hurley Haywood – who served as the event’s grand marshal – as the only drivers to claim five overall wins in the event. “It's just an incredible day all the way around, winning with these guys, winning with Chip, with TELMEX and with BMW,” Pruett said. “Then at the end of it, having gotten to know Hurley real well over the years by racing with him and just as a friend – and to have him there at the end – was pretty special. It was a very special thing.”


(John Thawley  ~  Motorsports Photography @ www.johnthawley.com  ~ 248.227.0110)
Juan Pablo Montoya delivered for the Ganassi team after surrendering the lead to Max Angelelli when he pitted for a splash of fuel with seven minutes to go. Angelelli then came into the pits on the next lap and moved Montoya back to the front in a race-record 77th lead change. The Colombian crossed the stripe 21.922 seconds ahead of Angelelli, who teamed with Jordan Taylor and Ryan Hunter-Reay in the No. 10 machine. Allmendinger and co-drivers Ozz Negri, John Pew, Justin Wilson and Marcos Ambrose placed third. Allmendinger, Negri, Pew and Wilson were the race’s defending champions.


(John Thawley  ~  Motorsports Photography @ www.johnthawley.com  ~ 248.227.0110)
Filipe Albuquerque (No. 24 Alex Job Racing WeatherTech Audi R8) pushed into the GT class lead for the final time with a little more than 40 minutes remaining. He went on to win by 1.476 seconds ahead of Rene Rast (co-drivers Frank Stippler, Marc Basseng and Ian Baas) in the No. 52 Audi Sport Customer Racing/APR Motorsport Audi R8, giving Audi a 1-2 finish. Albuquerque and co-drivers Oliver Jarvis, Edoardo Mortara and Dion von Moltke gave Audi its first victory in Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series competition. “It is the first one for Audi at Daytona and I am a part of, hopefully, a long run here,” said team owner Alex Job. “The win was a real team victory. My team, combined with the Audi Sport Customer Racing technical support staff – and of course a group of great drivers – made it all work. The Audi clearly had the speed and it was positioned to win.” Emil Assentato, Nick Longhi, Anthony Lazzaro and Mark Wilkins (No. 69 AIM Autosport Team FXDD Ferrari 458) finished third in GT.


(John Thawley  ~  Motorsports Photography @ www.johnthawley.com  ~ 248.227.0110)
Shane Lewis started from the class pole position and combined with co-drivers Jim Norman, David Donohue and Nelson Canache to lead the debut race for the new Rolex Series GX class in their No. 16 Napleton Racing Porsche Cayman. Darryl O’Young, Daniel Rogers, James Clay, Seth Thomas and Karl Thomson (No. 22 Bullet Racing Porsche Cayman GX.R) finished second and the No. 38 BGB Motorsports Porsche Cayman GX.R team of Lee Davis, Ryan Eversley, Jeff Mosing, Eric Foss and John Teece took third.

“I spin around with shrieking tires,
To run the deadly race,
Go screaming through the valley
As another joins the chase.”  -- Rush, “Red Barchetta”

The Way Things Were.

By. A.J. Morning

Daytona Beach. For those of us who live, eat, and breathe sports car racing (or for those who just follow it on a casual basis), 2013 is the last year of The Way Things Were. Over the past 14 years, the split between the Grand Am Rolex Series and American Le Mans Series has forced divisions between teams, manufacturers, sponsors, circuits, media, and fans. Every one of those variables means millions of dollars.

This went on much the same way that the Indy Racing League and Champ Car steadfastly remained in their own walled gardens, until. Until it was too late. Until nobody else cared anymore. Until the rest of the racing world – and even the IRL’s media darling, Danica Patrick – had moved on.

So, while the two sets of racing series spent years with each pretending the other didn’t exist, NASCAR kept cashing all the checks. More than five years later, the unified IndyCar series is still struggling to rebuild.

The split in sports car racing has followed a similar trajectory – a cold war of sanctioning bodies, each hoping the other would eventually either run out of money, or just give up. Last year, the two sides reached a détente of sorts: NASCAR (which owns Grand Am) agreed to buy out the American Le Mans Series and pretty much everything that came with it. The rest of the deal will some day be history – except that history is being written on tarmac right now.

Last weekend was the final running of the 24 Hours of Daytona under the Grand Am Rolex banner, as 2014 will see the first full season of the two series running as a combined unit, so it was a great time to sneak a peek at what might be around the corner for fans of sports car racing in North America.

If the facilities are any indication, some good things could be on the horizon. The War of Upgrades between ISC (which owns nearly half of NASCAR’s circuits) and SMI (which owns most of the other half) has yielded more than just additional grandstands. The infield “FanZone,” with a “FanDeck” elevated above the garages for fans to get a better view, is brilliant. Is it gimmicky? Maybe yes, maybe no – but who cares, it’s a terrific layout. Daytona’s proximity to Orlando may have a little to do with the feel of how the speedway has evolved over the last few decades – the infield, garage area, and FanZone all have a bit of a Disney entertainment feel in the air.

What does this mean for the fans? It’s clean. It’s nicely designed and easy to get around. And, in a radical departure from most sports car venues, has the air of being shiny and new. Been to an ALMS race in the last few years? Then you can name a few tracks in need of some fan-friendly rehab.

The beginnings of the unification of the two series are already underway. We saw the ALMS hauler in the infield, and all manner of personnel who had traveled from Braselton to survey the action and get a feel from the ground level. Expect to see the same presence from Grand Am higher-ups at Sebring in March, and throughout the season.

OK, but what about the racing? That’s where we get to the devil-in-the-details of it. It’s still Grand Am for now, which means those ugly DP cars, a class of GT cars that can’t yet touch ALMS’ finest (although the Audi team served notice with its R8 GT teams that they’re for real), and a new GX class doesn’t yet thrill but shows some promise.

The dreaded “Balance of Performance” already means that in DP, Fords and Chevys are given or giving up a couple hundred RPM, while the Chip Ganassi BMWs run away with the win. When the ALMS P2 class joins the DPs next year, expect “#BoP” to be one of the most commonly used hash tags as drivers tweet their frustrations. Come to think of it, expect that for GT drivers as well.

That’s it for now – I’ll see you at Sebring.

Editor-in-Chief's Note: Watch Porsche's video highlights from the Daytona 24 Hour this weekend here. Hint: They didn't win GT. Audi did. - PMD

(Photo credit: Brian Cleary)
Dorsey Schroeder, David Donohue, Cliff White and Bobby Rahal at the Road Racing Drivers Club's annual dinner held prior to the Rolex 24 in Daytona Beach. White was presented with the 42nd annual RRDC Mark Donohue Award for his Spec Racer Ford class victory at the 2012 SCCA National Championship Runoffs at Road America in September. RRDC members David Donohue, Dorsey Schroeder and Don Knowles made the presentation. "This award for 42 years has gone to the driver at the SCCA National Championship Runoffs who the RRDC members feel exhibited the most outstanding performance of the weekend in terms of personal spirit and performance behind the wheel, " said David Donohue, Mark's son. "There are two important aspects to being eligible for this award: one, you don't have to actually win the race or be the champion, and the other is the winner is chosen by RRDC members, who view each race and can identify each driver's talent and effort." Every year, the RRDC Mark Donohue Award trophy is an engraved glass top mounted on a special, racing-experienced wheel, provided through the efforts of an RRDC member. This year's wheel was donated by RRDC President Bobby Rahal on behalf of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. It was mounted on the BMW Team RLL M3 GT during the American Le Mans Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park, Conn., this past July. White is a CPA and MBA who runs the family business operating assisted-living communities. He is a veteran of the Spec Racer Ford (SRF) class with 11 years in the seat – he started at age 16. This was his first SCCA National Championship.

(BMW Group)
From the BMW release: The Historic Ice Trophy has been held annually in Altenmarkt, Austria since 2005. It is open to classic cars and recent classics up to and including model year 1993. The six-hour race, which was held for the second time as part of the Historic Ice Trophy event, sees a maximum of 23 vehicles/teams competing with up to four drivers per car. There’s nothing else like it in Europe in this form and it presents an exacting challenge for professionals and aspiring amateurs alike. BMW Group Classic took part with a well-known driver line-up and an illustrious BMW works rally car, earning a place on the podium by finishing 2nd in the “up to 1972” class. Johnny Cecotto Sr. – a multiple motorcycle world champion and BMW touring car champion – and his son, successful GP2 driver Johnny Cecotto Jr., pushed their 1969 works rally BMW around the ice-covered course with great élan. “It was a new and extremely exciting experience for me to drive in this ice race,” explained 23-year-old Cecotto Jr. during the podium ceremony. The third member of the driver team was Florian Moser, a history expert at BMW Group Classic. The BMW 2002 TI can look back on an eventful history. The 190 hp rally car competed most notably in the European Rally Championship in 1970 and 1971, with Finn Rauno Aaltonen and Poland’s Sobieslaw Zasada in the driver’s seat. “Sobi” piloted the BMW 2002 TI to victory in the 1971 Rally Poland and BMW also won the 1971 European Rally Championship with Zasada at the wheel.

Editor-in-Chief's Note: Gordon Kirby's lengthy interview with Scott Pruett is very interesting. Pruett's view of the racing world is heavily influenced by his repeated ingestion of the France family/NASCAR kool-aid, but he makes some realistic points nonetheless. Right now Grand-Am is the Daytona 24 Hour followed by a loose grouping of minor races. Grand-Am ops will point to Indy as The Future of the burgeoning fan interest into the Grand-Am/NASCAR "way," but it still doesn't compute. Anyone who thinks that just throwing the "switch" on the unified 2014 season (and the ALMS/Grand-Am mash-up) will bring instant results is sadly mistaken. It's going to take work, time and a heavy participatory presence by the auto manufacturers to make it all work. We'll see. - PMD

(Toyota)
Driver Andrew Comrie-Picard and co-driver Jeremy Wimpey earned Scion Racing its first win of the season and its first ever top finish at the Sno*Drift event on Jan. 26 in Atlanta, Mich. The pair crossed the finish line five minutes ahead of the competition in the two-wheel (2WD) drive class. ACP and Wimpey piloted the Scion Racing Rally xD through 20 challenging snow-covered stages, winning all but one of them in the 2WD class. The victory marks the second victory together for Comrie-Picard and the Scion Racing Rally xD team.

(McLaren Automotive)
The McLaren P made a brief appearance at the McLaren Technology Center, driven by 2009 Formula 1 World Champion Jenson Button. The reveal was part of the launch event for the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes 2013 Formula 1 car, the MP4-28. Vodafone McLaren Mercedes driver Sergio ‘Checo’ Perez arrived at the event in a 12C Spider finished in heritage McLaren Orange, while his teammate followed closely behind in a camouflaged XP prototype version of the McLaren P1. These two models joined a spectacular grid of racing cars showcasing the brand’s history, kicking off a year of 50th anniversary celebrations. Other cars present: A 1970s era M8D CanAm sportscar, Emerson Fittipaldi’s iconic 1974 M23, Ayrton Senna’s dominant 1988 MP4/4, the 1995 Le Mans-winning F1 GTR, Mika Hakkinen’s MP4-13 car from 1998, and the most recent championship winning car to wear the McLaren badge, the MP4-23 from 2008.

(McLaren Automotive)
McLaren Automotive has released more about the development of the McLaren P1. You can watch the video of the P1 undergoing testing here. You can also watch "McLaren 50 – Courage" here. It is the first of three specially commissioned short films depicting the McLaren brand in a way never seen before as part of its 50th anniversary celebrations. Instead of focusing on the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Formula 1 team or the new Automotive division, part one of the 50th anniversary trilogy sheds light on Bruce McLaren, who founded his racing team five decades ago. Directed by Marcus Söderlund, a leading music-video maker from Sweden, the short film follows the ghost of Bruce McLaren as he retraces the scene of his crash at the Goodwood circuit in 1970 – the crash that took his life at the tragically young age of 32. Shot in Söderlund’s trademark, dreamlike state, it is accompanied by a spine-tingling Bruce McLaren monologue, ending poignantly with the words: “…What might be seen as a tragic end was in fact a beginning. As I always said, to do something well is so worthwhile that to die trying to do it better cannot be foolhardy. Indeed, life is not measured in years alone but in achievement...”

(Ferrari)
Scuderia Ferrari unveiled its latest single-seater Formula One car yesterday in Ferrari’s home town of Maranello, Italy. The new car - the Ferrari F138 - will be driven by Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa during the 2013 Formula One season. Ugly as all get-out - and no different in that regard than the rest of the current class of F1 cars - the F138 is the 59th car built by Ferrari specifically to take part in the Formula One World Championship. in case you're wondering, the name comes from a combination of the current year and the number of cylinders, to mark the fact that this is the eighth and final year of competition for the V8 engine configuration.

(Ferrari)