Rolex 24 at Daytona

[FormerFF]

Two weeks until the 24 hour race at Daytona, the racing season is upon us. I will have to say that the entry list is disappointing, both in number of cars entered and in star power. There are only two big name NASCAR drivers in JP Montoya and Jimmie Johnson, only 14 DPs entered, and only 42 total cars, both down from last year and down nearly a third from 2008. I'll still be watching when I can, it's still a special race to me, although I don't follow the rest of the
Grand Am season.

[anthonyvop]

Two weeks until the 24 hour race at Daytona, the racing season is upon us. I will have to say that the entry list is disappointing, both in number of cars entered and in star power. There are only two big name NASCAR drivers in JP Montoya and Jimmie Johnson, only 14 DPs entered, and only 42 total cars, both down from last year and down nearly a third from 2008. I'll still be watching when I can, it's still a special race to me, although I don't follow the rest of the
Grand Am season.

This will be a transitional year for both Grand-Am and ALMS with low car counts.
I believe in 2010 we will see Grand-Am moving to a more GT based series and the ALMS growing in the privateer prototype ranks especially with the new Formula LM class.

[BobbyC]

Here are some drivers on the book. Only notable drivers are listed.

01 - Justin Wilson
02 - Scott Dixon, Dario Franchitti, Jamie McMurray, Juan Pablo Montoya (the "Chip Ganassi All-Star Racing Team")
6 - AJ Allmendinger
75 - Colin Braun
90 - Paul Menard, Buddy Rice
99 - Jimmie Johnson, Jimmy Vasser

GT
07 - Scott Russell
71 - Bobby Labonte
94 - Boris Said

There aren't enough fingers for the championship rings of those drivers combined.

[FormerFF]

There's definitely some talent in the field, it's just that it's a bit of a letdown from the lineups from a few years ago. I'm very impressed with some of the drivers in the GT field:

Timo Bernhard
Romain Dumas
Jorg Bergmeister
Patrick Long
Johannes van Overbeek
Wolf Henzler
Kelly Collins

Plus there are the usual Grand Am frontrunners. Unfortunately, the casual racing fan won't know any of these, and I suppose that's the reason that Fox won't be showing the first hour this year.

[Danske]

Still no love for Davy Jones?

[FormerFF]

Still no love for Davy Jones?

When was the last time he was in a car?

[Danske]

When was the last time he was in a car?
He was racing some in a Subaru in Koni Challenge in the past couple of years. Last year he was briefly attached to the Beyer DP as a driver/coach, but didn't race in it.

[Mark in Oshawa]

A lot of DP teams have discovered the economy sucks. I know AIM probably isn't back, and they won a race or two along the way.

Get used to it people...we have to suffer for a few more years before things start growing. The first few years of the DP's were small 10 or 11 car fields....so we are back to that again. 24 hour races are expensive to run....

[Danske]

AIM did issue a press release earlier this month (for what press releases are worth) that they are planning to run the series starting with Homestead.

[F1boat]

Wheldon is not in the race? Pity.

[FormerFF]

Still no love for Davy Jones?

He's listed as a driver on the 07 Corvette.

[Mark in Oshawa]

AIM did issue a press release earlier this month (for what press releases are worth) that they are planning to run the series starting with Homestead.

That was welcome news, because at one point I heard AIM was out of the series. That said, the local media isn't really up to date to what is going on in their backyard, and AIM to their lack of PR, hasn't really kept the local media aware of the team in this marketplace.

AIM started building their own F1600 chassis in Canada and all the sudden bam, they were in the Rolex a few years back. A great story that has never been really told by the local media...

[FormerFF]

There are some very capable drivers that are expected for Level 5 Motorsports and Orbit Racing, who are not on the entry list. For Orbit, Johnny Mowlem is expected to join their regular lineup, and for Level 5, Sebastien Bourdais, Emmanuel Collard, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Sascha Maassen, and Lucas Luhr are all expected and were listed as team drivers at the January test. It's very odd that they aren't on the official entry list.

[Danske]

It's very odd that they aren't on the official entry list.
Given the human processing of paperwork and web sites I wouldn't say it's that odd. Now if we want to be terribly optimistic, their Ferrari DP engine just appeared on the approved list, so maybe they've embargoed their entry details for a big announcement. ;)

[FormerFF]

Given the human processing of paperwork and web sites I wouldn't say it's that odd. Now if we want to be terribly optimistic, their Ferrari DP engine just appeared on the approved list, so maybe they've embargoed their entry details for a big announcement. ;)

Grand Am has been diligent in posting updates. I see that Orbit's driver squad has been listed, and it included Johnny Mowlem. It's odd that Level 5 has not put in their driver lineup, especially since they've listed it in this press release:
http://www.supercarliferacing.com/news/index.cfm/2010/1/15/LEVEL-5-MOTORSPORTS-BRINGS-TOP-DRIVERS-SPONSORS-TO-THE-ROLEX-24-AT-DAYTONA

[DanicaFan]

I just read that Jimmie Johnson crashed during Thursday's practice and suffered some bruising. He crashed on one of the turns on the road course portion. He was trying to avoid a GT class car and he lifted while on the brakes causing his car to back into the wall hard. He was traveling an estimated 185 mph when first trying to avoid the GT car.

The #99 car entry has been withdrawn from the race due to the damage. The team said the backup car in Dallas should be there at Daytona today (Friday).

[FormerFF]

I just read that Jimmie Johnson crashed during Thursday's practice and suffered some bruising. He crashed on one of the turns on the road course portion. He was trying to avoid a GT class car and he lifted while on the brakes causing his car to back into the wall hard. He was traveling an estimated 185 mph when first trying to avoid the GT car.

The #99 car entry has been withdrawn from the race due to the damage. The team said the backup car in Dallas should be there at Daytona today (Friday).

They've decided to fix the damaged car instead: http://grand-am.com/assets/GAINSCO%20RELEASE%201_28.pdf

[Mark in Oshawa]

The 99 looked more than healthy enough in the first 4 hours....I haven't watched it since 7pm EST....

[BMW_F1]

Some really good racing going on in this race.. Montoya powering past Lucas Luhr at the reastart on cold tires.. and then Allmendinger fighting side by side with Dazliel was nice..

[FormerFF]

The 99 looked more than healthy enough in the first 4 hours....I haven't watched it since 7pm EST....

It's looking fine, but quite honestly I don't think it has the best driver lineup. Jimmie Johnson was reasonably quick, but very inconsistent, and I think that Jimmy Vasser has lost a step.

No question in my mind that JPM is the fastest guy in the field.

[BMW_F1]

No question in my mind that JPM is the fastest guy in the field.

And Dixon..
Also watch out for A. J, he just took the lead from JPM's teammate, McMurray..

[SportscarBruce]

A lot of DP teams have discovered the economy sucks. I know AIM probably isn't back, and they won a race or two along the way.

Get used to it people...we have to suffer for a few more years before things start growing. The first few years of the DP's were small 10 or 11 car fields....so we are back to that again. 24 hour races are expensive to run....

But what of all the talk about stable rules, a 10 year freeze on technological development, equalized competition, and NASCAR star driver power? My god, this has to be the lowest attended Rolex in the history of the event, not just in entries but fans too.

Personally this race is about as interesting as watching a slot car race. zzzzzzzzzzzz

How long till Sebring?

[Mark in Oshawa]

But what of all the talk about stable rules, a 10 year freeze on technological development, equalized competition, and NASCAR star driver power? My god, this has to be the lowest attended Rolex in the history of the event, not just in entries but fans too.

Personally this race is about as interesting as watching a slot car race. zzzzzzzzzzzz

How long till Sebring?

Lack of sponsors on the cars says it all Bruce.....the car that won didn't have a sponsor.

AS for interesting, while it is a 24 hour race. Rarely do you get any serious duels in those.....

[FormerFF]

I thought it was interesting today, last night's yellow fest wasn't much though.

As far as attendance goes, it's always hard to estimate Daytona becayse there are no obvious gathering spots. I've been there a number of times, and it's not the best place to watch a road race.

[Mark in Oshawa]

I thought it was interesting today, last night's yellow fest wasn't much though.

As far as attendance goes, it's always hard to estimate Daytona becayse there are no obvious gathering spots. I've been there a number of times, and it's not the best place to watch a road race.

Heck, it is not really a great road racing track but people love this race. The series never gets the attention to match this but the crowds are better at other tracks. The infield is packed, but no one bothers with the stands. I am not sure what they draw, but it must be worth it for ISC to stage the race.

[nigelred5]

I'm also wondering about some team's attitudes towards the series now that NASCAR is actively involved in it's management. Sounds like soome pretty high profile DP teams are jumping to ALMS to run GT cars. NASCAR ownership has pretty much already ruined the AMA, will do the same to Grand AM? It's 100% because I now have a GA race local to me I can attend, but I actually find the Grand Am races quite entertaining, but sI wish GA would get together with existing ALMS classes and compete together in some more endurance racing. Maybe The Glen 6 hours, a 12-24 hour at Road America and a 6 hour at Miller. They really need to run these races on the longest courses we have available. It's a shame they didn't build the linked courses at NJMSP as I believe it would have been something like 4.5 miles combined and I think a good track for endurance racing


Damn it's really hard to find much discussion on Grand Am.!!

[FormerFF]

Yeah, Grand Am doesn't seem to have all that many fans. I remember tuning into the Homestead race last year, and the place was nearly empty, despite the IRL show being later that day. I realize that the IRL crowd wasn't huge, but it dwarfed the Grand Am one.


Tune into Homestead in a couple weeks. I'd be surprises if there are a thousand fans. It also seems like Grand Am is shying away from pairing up with other series now, some of the events that were previously a doubleheader with another series are now standalone.

Most of the Grand Am races I've seen have fairly close finishes, but way too many yellows.

[Jag_Warrior]

It also seems like Grand Am is shying away from pairing up with other series now, some of the events that were previously a doubleheader with another series are now standalone.

That's strange. I wonder why?

[FormerFF]

That's strange. I wonder why?

I don't get it either. I know that the original intent of the Grand Am series was to focus on the particpant, but it almost seems like the management of the series is going out of their way to make the Grand Am schedule uninteresting to fans.