Rolex 24 coverage
 

Is Speed Channel under 'team orders' to cover nothing but the Daytona Prototypes? Unless there is a crash, they haven't shown anything but...

After the fire and a technical penalty, The Racers Group starts in last place. We hear that they're already sixth in class only after Keven nearly stuffs it with a flat...

POS Dunlops in GT... Their marketing people must be pulling their hair out:rolleyes:

Nice to see Hurley Haywood in first. Is that the same Brumos/Fabcar car from last year?

Ditto on those Dunlops.

Here comes the rain.

The #33 Maserati is beautiful.

Tony Callas from Callas Rennsport is on the crew of the #00 SGS Cup car. Yeah boys, that's my wrench!

If I have to watch another Cadillac commercial. :mad:

Can someone explain to me the Porsche Fabcar relationship? I thought Porsche didn't participate in racing anymore, so where does the motor come from for these cars?

Jack,

According to the the guys on Speed Channel, that is the car from last year.

Yes Jack, Haywood's car is the same chassis. Donohue's chassis is new, completed I think in October.

Go Hurley !!!

I just love the commentators comments about racing early in the event. Most of which were concerned about why the guys were pressing so hard at the first portion of the race.

My guess is they don't understand track position when the rain is only an hour or two away!

Now that the rain is here, look for things to start to get interesting.

David Duffield

CDiercks- Fabcar built 2 or 3 IMSA Camel Lights cars powered by Porsche engines in the 80's, then they did the tub repair for Holbert and PMNA for the 962s'. After that, they built the last 12 or so 962 tubs for the factory after they ( the factory ) dropped their Group C support, I think that was about '88 or '89, when they were still in Atlanta. Dave Klym has always supported Independant Porsche teams.

As for Grand Am, this effort is not supported by the factory. Brumos purchases the GT3rs engines from PMNA and does the rebuilds, but it is not a factory support program. PMNA has latly held the stance that the onlt factory support would be in the GT series and not a prototype series, hopefully for the time being.

On a side note, when Snodgrass and the Brumos team introduced the car last year, it had 996 headlights and tail lights, as the DP rulebook states. Springer and the factory were very upset and did not want the idea that the factory was in support of this new prototype series. So Brumos purchased those headlight covers you sometimes see in Twe*ks and P*rformance Products and bonded them to the bodywork. By doing that, they stay within the rules by having the street car headlights and makes PNMA happy by making them harder to identify!

Go Paul Newman! 79 years young

Never seen so many 3-wheeled race cars!

Thanks for explaining that. I guess I should have known that since Fabcar is only a couple of miles from my house!

Oh yea! Me too. I didn't even see where you are from.

CDiericks- check for a PM

Took two nephews (age 8 and 10) out there this afternoon. More Porsches running that I expected (I'm here in Daytona Beach this race weekend almost by accident but am fitting the race in with my other business). We had a great time; two little wide eyed blonde boys (their ears stuffed with foam plugs) in tow is as good as having a VIP pass. They were very excited to be down on track level in the stands. In the garage area they were really impressed with the mechanics working on the front of a Porsche chassis with hammers, prybars and hydraulic pullers and pushers trying to fix collision damage. We left around 5pm when the rain began to really slow things down. I'll head back over later around midnight to see some night racing - a new experience for me. Cheers, Jim :D

Hey guys

Gosh...it has been so long since I have posted..... been here reading though!
I agree....Dunlap sales reps must be besides themselves, with the number of right rears that have failed. Less later in the race though....perhaps because of lower temps 'cause of rain?

I just want to take a moment and give props to Paul Newman.
Seventy Nine (79) years old!!!! Holy Crap! He is amazing! .....OK so he lost 5 places in 2 laps of racing and spun out once......but hey, I can't race as well at 40yrs old! LOL

I am raising a St. Paulie Girl to Paul as we speak!

Regards to all!

I wanna hit some bars with Boris Said. His interviews are a riot... seems like he's living the good life.

It's hard to believe they're still racing...

Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhardt, jr in 1st place over all in a Chevy, could be my worst nightmare......the begining of the NASCAR take over of sports cars....

TRG is third in class.


only consolation is that there was a three hour red flag due to rain, so it was not a "real" 24 hr race


Jim

PS: I actually think this could be good for the sport, if Dale and company start racing sports cars, maybe some of the NASCAR $$$ will follow and improve the coverage and quality.

TRG has dropped from the race with a trani problem, not sure if it is terminal or not....

Jim

lead prototype car is in the pits with a right rear suspension problem, has only a two lap lead, 40 min left in the race, body work coming off

broken rear suspension, trying to wedge a 2x4 of wood into the suspension, gave up on that sending the car out...still broken


Jim

third place Prototype car has dropped, broken CV joint.....started raining again...

LEad Prototype car is being driven by Tony Stewart, front driver side tire is off the ground most of the time, becasue of the broken rear.

third place prototype car is out, broken drive shaft



Jim

Wow, this is getting interesting. The crawford car is broken, and the rain is comming!!!

flying lizard 996 GT car, same team that raced in the Thunderhill 25 hour is now third overall...

Looked like one of my repairs.......Hmmmm.....2x4 + mallett....Race getting interesting now, predicting 2nd place can catch them with 30 minutes left.....

lead prototype car is gone, rear suspension broke completely!!!!

Jim

this should put a GT car in 2nd

Back to the first post - gee, now they're covering the GT class!!!

run Forest run......

12 seconds between 2nd and 3rd....two 996s battle at the end, 3 minutes left in the race

Jim

interval down to 10 seconds, one car on slicks, one on rains....

So pontiac Protoytpe in 1st, 996's 2nd, and 3rd, 6.9 sec apart

WOW, Awesome race...This really says something about the GT3-RS. To have two on the podium is amazing. This must really bum out the DP class organizers. Fantastic job for all involved!!!

Cheers, James

Yeah..but a Pontiac prototype is ahead of both .. and won ... :(

--Wil Ferch

OK, somebody help me here, I guess I don't know the difference between the Carrera Cup cars and the GT3RSR. The announcers said the rear wheel sizes are the same but that since the race rubber on the GT3 car is taller, it needs the wider fender flares.
Not wider wheels and tires, taller. What are the wheel sizes the two cars run? 18 X 11 rears? They said that straight line speed for the Cup cars is actually a little better due to the lack of wider fender flares. Interesting....

I got the impression from the TV commentators early on in the race that the newer prototypes (i.e. Pontiac and Lexus) were faster than the older prototypes (i.e. Porsche) because they had an extra year of aerodynamics development in them. Is this true or were the TV guys just blowing smoke?

Otherwise, I agree with the general consensus that it was an amazing finish.

There are many differences between the Cup cars and an RS to the tune of 100K. The motors are higher strung, I believe they run 19" wheels and the brakes are bigger/better, just off the top of my head.

Cheers, James

Cup cars have a bigger fuel tank.

JanusCole- No, they are not blowing smoke. I don't know the lap times off the top of my head but, the DPs this season are going to be faster than last years cars for all of the normal reasons. Engine suppliers ( Yates, Katech, Comptech, PNMA, ect.) have had a year to sort out engine mapping, airbox design, stuff like that. The chassis manufactures have worked on aero issues, and teams have now two off seasons and one race season of testing and racing under their belts, this could mean that shock valving is closer to what they need, set-ups are closer to the potential of the tyres, just basic understanding of a new car.

I'm not saying these cars are going to be an insane amout faster at the sprint races compared to last season and they will not be as fast as their FIA/ACO counterparts, but if they are not alittle faster, than the teams have not been doing their jobs.

Granted all.....I'm making a different point...

Picture this....

It's Monday in the office. Guys there know you're a motorhead, but they're not. Question put to you, "Hey Wil, how'd your favorite Porsches do this year?" Answer: " Really well...2nd and 3rd". Of course their curiosity is peaked, and follow up with, " Yeah fine but who WON? A Ferrari? A Lamborghini? A Jaguar? ( they have no clue how modern sports car races work)

" Ahhh... nope ... a Pontiac ".

Catch my drift?

---Wil Ferch