THE LINE

January 23, 2013

(BMW)
Scott Pruett (No. 01 TELMEX/Target BMW Riley) led an all-Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates charge to the front of the grid for the Rolex 24 at Daytona. Pruett, the defending GRAND-AM driver’s co-champion, turned a lap of 1:40.553 around the 3.56-mile Daytona International Speedway road course. Pruett will share the No. 01 machine this weekend with his season-long co-driver Memo Rojas, Juan Pablo Montoya and Charlie Kimball. Only .093 seconds behind Pruett, Scott Dixon followed with a 1:40.646-minute lap to place the No. 02 Target/TELMEX BMW Riley on the outside of the front row. Dixon will co-drive with Dario Franchitti, Jamie McMurray and Joey Hand. Dane Cameron, driving the No. 42 Team Sahlen BMW Riley, qualified third with a 1:41.213-minute lap in the team’s debut Daytona Prototype weekend. Cameron will co-drive with Simon Pagenaud, Wayne Nonnamaker and Bruno Junqueira.

(MAZDA Motorsports)
One of the competitor's in this weekend's Daytona 24 Hour race (Rolex 24) will be the No. 70 SpeedSource Mazda6 powered by a production-based racing version of Mazda's 2.2-liter SKYACTIV-D Clean Diesel engine. The 400HP, turbocharged, direct-injected engine will be the first-ever diesel powerplant to compete in GRAND-AM racing.  The new engine has more than 60-percent stock components, including the engine block and head. Drivers for the No. 70 car are Jonathan Bomarito, Marino Franchitti, James Hinchcliffe, Tom Long and Sylvain Tremblay. Mazda will have another factory-supported entry from SpeedSource in the race, the No. 00 VISIT FLORIDA Racing/SpeedSource/Yellow Dragon Mazda6 driven by Joel Miller, Tristan Nunez, Spencer Pigot, Yojiro Terada, and Tristan Vautier.

(Audi Motorsport)
The 12 Hours of Sebring on March 16, 2013, will mark the end of an era, as Audi's LMP1 sports cars are running in America's oldest and most prestigious endurance race for the last time. In addition to a 2012-generation Audi R18 e-tron quattro, an updated version of the prototype will be on the grid in Florida. Marcel Fässler/Oliver Jarvis/Benoît Tréluyer (CH/GB/F) and Lucas di Grassi/Tom Kristensen/Allan McNish (BR/DK/GB) will be driving the two hybrid race cars in the race. With six victories at Sebring, Kristensen holds the record for the event. Audi has recorded ten overall victories and 22 podium positions in thirteen races at Sebring. "We’re in for a very emotional race weekend on which we’ll be taking the fans along on a journey into our past," says Head of Audi Motorsport Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich. "Sebring is where Audi’s sports car era that has been so successful began. We expect that with two current hybrid models we’ll be battling for overall victory at the 12-hour race for the last time this year. At the same time, on the fringes of the race, the fans can look forward to seeing four other race cars and several race drivers who made history at Sebring with Audi." Audi will treat the fans to an exhibition of  machines reflecting the brand’s entire sports car era at Sebring. An Audi R8 will represent the successful period from 2000 to 2005, the R10 TDI, which paved the way for diesel power from 2006 to 2008, the R15 TDI, which won at Sebring in 2009, and the winning car from last year - the R18 TDI - will be on display. Former Audi factory drivers who were successful at Sebring will also be on hand to sign autographs for fans as well as for pictures and interviews.

(Images courtesy of McLaren Automotive)

When a 27-year-old Bruce McLaren penned the words "Life is measured in achievement, not in years alone" in 1964, his new company, Bruce McLaren Motor Racing Ltd, was less than a year old. In those days, Bruce’s vision was shared by fewer than half a dozen loyal souls, who slogged across the world to race his self-made cars. Today, the McLaren Group employs more than 2000 people, all of whom "still share Bruce’s ideals of combining sportsmanship with solid engineering practice and cutting-edge technical expertise," according to the company. McLaren won its first Formula 1 race - the 1968 Belgian Grand Prix - and since then the organization has won 182 races, more than any other constructor. McLaren entries have started from pole position 155 times and scored 151 fastest laps. Some of the great drivers who drove for McLaren in F1 include Emerson Fittipaldi, James Hunt, Niki Lauda, Alain Prost, Mika Hakkinen, Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton and, of course, Ayrton Senna. In the heyday of the legendary Can-Am series, McLaren crushed the opposition, winning five consecutive championships (1967-1971) and an incredible 43 races in their iconic, "McLaren Orange" Chevrolet-powered sportscars. McLaren factory entries also won the Indianapolis 500 in 1974 and 1976 with Johnny Rutherford driving. In 1993 McLaren created the famed McLaren F1 road car, still considered by many to be the automotive world’s definitive supercar. The company developed the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren, but it was only a warm-up for the new 12C and 12C Spider, its new lightweight high-performance sports cars. This year, McLaren Automotive stands poised to open its 50th global dealership ahead of the worldwide launch of the P1™ – which the company describes as the new definition of the modern supercar. On September 2, 2013, the McLaren Group will celebrate its 50th anniversary. Ron Dennis CBE, executive chairman, McLaren Group and McLaren Automotive, said: “McLaren’s history is long and storied, but McLaren’s legacy is harder to define – and that’s because it’s still being vividly written every day by the dedicated men and women who work at the McLaren Technology Centre. Bruce McLaren wrote the beginning of the story, and the legend is going to continue for many years to come. I’m only a chapter, not the book, and I want other people to come in and write their own chapters as time goes by. This is a book that’s still being written, and that, perhaps, is the greatest legacy of McLaren.” 

A McLaren M7C, one of the company's papaya orange-liveried Grand Prix cars from 1969, sits alongside the present-day 12C Spider, the company's distinctive high-performance sports car.

INDYCAR and its television partners have announced the 2013 IZOD IndyCar schedule. NBC Sports Network will televise the first four races of the season, starting with the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg at Noon (ET) on Sunday, March 24. ABC begins its stretch of broadcasting six of the next seven races with the Indianapolis 500 at 11 a.m. (ET) Sunday, May 26. This marks the 49th consecutive year that ABC will televise the famed 500 Mile Race. Qualifications shows for 12 events, including Pole Day and Bump Day for the 97th Indianapolis 500, plus Carb Day activities and race re-airs enhance coverage of the series on NBC Sports Network. The cable partner will continue to air the popular "INDYCAR 36," which follows a driver behind the scenes during an IZOD IndyCar Series race weekend. The full schedule for ancillary programming will be announced at a later date. All 12 Firestone Indy Lights races will be broadcast on NBC Sports Network, including live coverage of the Firestone Freedom 100 at noon (ET) Friday, May 24 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Eight races will lead into the cable partner's IZOD IndyCar Series broadcast, including the season opener at 11 a.m. (ET) Sunday, March 24 on the streets of St. Petersburg. Four events - St. Petersburg, Long Beach, Milwaukee and Mid-Ohio - will feature new race distances this season to discourage fuel-mileage racing. Three of the four events get increased race distances (St. Petersburg (+10 laps), Milwaukee (+25 laps), Mid-Ohio (+5 laps). Long Beach gets a decrease of five laps.

2013 IZOD INDYCAR SERIES RACE TELEVISION SCHEDULE

Date	Venue	Circuit	Distance	Broadcast Time*	Network
March 24	Streets of St. Petersburg	1.8-mile street	110 laps	Noon	NBCSN
April 7	Barber Motorsports Park	2.38-mile road	90 laps	1:30 p.m.	NBCSN
April 21	Streets of Long Beach	1.96-mile street	80 laps	4 p.m.	NBCSN
May 5	Streets of Sao Paulo	2.53-mile street	75 laps	11 a.m.	NBCSN
May 26	Indianapolis Motor Speedway	2.5-mile oval	200 laps	11 a.m.	ABC
June 1	Streets of Belle Isle (Race 1)	2.34-mile street	70 laps	3:30 p.m.	ABC
June 2	Streets of Belle Isle (Race 2)	2.34-mile street	70 laps	3:30 p.m.	ABC
June 8	Texas Motor Speedway	1.5-mile oval	228 laps	8:30 p.m.	ABC
June 15	Milwaukee Mile	1-mile oval	250 laps	4 p.m.	NBCSN
June 23	Iowa Speedway	.875-mile oval	250 laps	2:30 p.m.	ABC
July 7	Pocono Raceway	2.5-mile oval	160 laps	Noon	ABC
July 13	Streets of Toronto (Race 1)	1.75-mile street	85 laps	3 p.m.	NBCSN
July 14	Streets of Toronto (Race 2)	1.75-mile street	85 laps	3 p.m.	NBCSN
Aug. 4	Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course	2.25-mile road	90 laps	3 p.m.	NBCSN
Aug. 25	Raceway at Sonoma	2.38-mile road	85 laps	4 p.m.	NBCSN
Sept. 1	Streets of Baltimore	2.04-mile street	75 laps	2 p.m.	NBCSN
Oct. 5	Reliant Park (Race 1)	1.7-mile street	90 laps	3 p.m.	NBCSN
Oct. 6	Reliant Park (Race 2)	1.7-mile street	90 laps	1 p.m.	NBCSN
Oct. 19	Auto Club Speedway	2-mile oval	250 laps	8 p.m.	NBCSN

*All Times Eastern Subject to Change

Editor-in-Chief's Note: Check out this video about the Daytona 24 Hour presented by Continental Tire here. The historical footage is worthwhile. - PMD

Editor-in-Chief's Note: Check out Michelin's racing website - "Michelin Alley" - and get in on all of the behind-the-scenes buzz. Go here. - PMD 

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