Rolex 24 At Daytona - 2009

[FormerFF]

The top-five in qualifying today were the following teams:

1. Brumos Porsche (No. 58 Porsche Riley) with David Donohue, Darren Law, Buddy Rice and Antonio Garcia (1:40.540 at 127.472 mph)

2. Penske Racing (No. 16 Porsche Riley) with Timo Bernhard, Ryan Briscoe and Romain Dumas (1:40.541 at 127.470 mph)

3. Michael Shank Racing (No. 6 Ford Riley) with Michael Valiante, John Pew, A.J. Allmendinger and Ian James (1:40.651 at 127.331 mph)

4. Krohn Racing (No. 76 Ford Lola) with Ricardo Zonta, Nic Jonsson and Darren Turner (1:40.892 at 127.027 mph)

5. Alegra Motorsports (No. 22 BMW Riley) with Ryan Dalziel, Carlos de Quesada, Chapman Ducote, Jean-Francois Dumoulin and Tomas Enge (1:40.915 at 126.998 mph)


** Unfortunately Danica's team Childress-Howard Motorsports in the #2 Pontiac Crawford lost an engine during qualifications and will have to start 18th which is the back of the Daytona Prototype grid.

Hey, if ya gotta start at the back, nothing like having 24 hours to work your way back up, eh?

[FormerFF]

And I think that's a big problem - it's hard to find anything on Grand Am the rest of the season on television, in the news, etc. They need to hire a kick-a** PR person and really get the sport out there for people to see. I see their website has really improved - much more information - so maybe they are headed that way. The average race fan only knows about the Rolex 24 because of the way Daytona hypes it, multi-series drivers participating and the fact that it's on television. They need to chat with the folks at SPEED, ESPN or the other networks that are really making an effort to broadcast something more than just NASCAR.

I don't think that's the answer. I'm about as big of a sportscar racing fan as there is, and I can't even keep my interest level up.

I've read a number of people's posts on different series's situations, where they think more PR is the answer. I don't think that's all it will take. The sports and entertainment calendar is busy these days, and each of us has only so much time and so much money, and for the most part it is already committed to other things.

[Oli_M]

I don't think that's the answer. I'm about as big of a sportscar racing fan as there is, and I can't even keep my interest level up.

I've read a number of people's posts on different series's situations, where they think more PR is the answer. I don't think that's all it will take. The sports and entertainment calendar is busy these days, and each of us has only so much time and so much money, and for the most part it is already committed to other things.

I completely agree. As well as money, I think time is possibly a bigger factor. Personally, my first priority will be an F1 race. So (for me), any other race on that weekend won't get a look in. After that probably european Le Mans would be my next choice... then possibly Indycar/Nascar/Grand Am if I feel I want to watch more racing....

I think SpeedTV does a good job of covering most of the grand am races but it just will never be as popular inside the US as Nascar and Indycar, and outside the US as F1, MotoGP, GP2, Le Mans. Personally, I think they would do better to run the series as three big 24 hour races and maybe one or two more shorter 6 hour races, really focussing on the Endurance side. But equally, I understand that plain won't happen due to costs.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to it this weekend! Looking at practise times, think its a fight between the Ganassi, Brumos and Shank cars. 9 and a half hours to green flag!

[PuroMotor09]

Pics

http://www.revistapuromotor.com/foro...p=10409#p10409

[wbcobrar]

This is still one of the great American races . Wow lola can even make a Datona Proto. look good . Go Ford , friends, raceing is back.!!!!!!!

[Jag_Warrior]

I don't think that's the answer. I'm about as big of a sportscar racing fan as there is, and I can't even keep my interest level up.

I've read a number of people's posts on different series's situations, where they think more PR is the answer. I don't think that's all it will take. The sports and entertainment calendar is busy these days, and each of us has only so much time and so much money, and for the most part it is already committed to other things.

I'm not sure what it will take. I'm also a fan of the 24 at Daytona. In past years, I would have been watching Speed(vision) Channel and I would have remembered that this weekend was THE weekend. But I pretty much stopped watching Speed after the last race of the '08 season, because there's very little that's offered these days that interests me. Endless episodes of the Pinks franchise, and the various low budget/low quality reality shows, has made Speed one of the channels that I only check out when I know (remember) that there's a race on that I want to watch. And since there is very little cross promotion, and I've had a lot of other things on my mind lately (Is my company going to curl up & die? Would I have been better off if Bernie Madoff had been managing my 401K?)... I didn't think about this being the weekend for the Daytona 24 until last night. As far as I know, there was nothing in the way of advertising or promotion to remind me. I almost never watch the Fox network, so maybe there were ads there.

Was the start shown on Fox or just on Speed this year?

[Jag_Warrior]

Oh yeah, I have to menton that the CHM Pontiac-Crawford's Gentleman Jack livery is perhaps the sharpest on the grid this year. It's not easy to make these cars look good, but (IMO) that livery makes that car look great.

But still... go Juan Pablo!!!

[call_me_andrew]

The start was on Fox again. They did promote it pretty heavily during the Barrett-Jackson auction.

I don't think I've ever seen so many cars finish a 24 hour race on the lead lap.

[F1boat]

Fantastic race. Is this the first victory for Brumos ever? I remember that they lost in Montreal last year in an absurd way. Now they didn't - good for them

[Danske]

Brumos last won in DP back in 2003.