Official 2013 24 Hours of Daytona Thread

[Smus]

The racing season starts in less than a day!

[TuxTshirt]

I am so freakin' pumped! RACING!!!!!!!!!!!! Yeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!

[Simcik]

Broadcasts? Times/channels, etc?

[Avanti 63r1025]

Speed Channel is going to cover the first 7.5 hours, break for other programming then rejoin for the last 6.5 hours. [Bleh! Typical Speed Channel. GIVE US BACK SPEEDVISION, and at the very minimum 18 hours of every 24 hour race, if not all 24!]

Usually sites like http://dailysportscar.com and http://radiolemans.com cover endurance races though something fell through in talks. Don't you worry, for http://hityourmarks.com/rolex-24-hours-at-daytona-coverage/1079/ has all our needs covered.

As noted on Hit Your Marks' site, #ROLEX24 will be the active Twitter hashtag.

[TuxTshirt]

Thanks for the info Avanti.

[Smus]

Race starting now!!

Feel free to post what you see/your opinions in here...maybe mods can change the thread title to "Official 24 Hours of Daytona thread"?

[Simcik]

Done.

[Ex US Squid]

Undone

[Smus]

Great racing so far, sucks to see the GX Diesel Mazda's have been having issues. Go Max Angell and here's to Ferrari winning the GT class!

[Simcik]

Only 1 Viper racing??? Interesting. Guess they're waiting for Sebring. I know they're puttin' a lot of testing into that race.

Anyway - what I watched so far looked a little boring, 'cause it was a caution. Boo cautions. I'll pick it back up later, but Savannah can only stand so much racing at one time.

[Smus]

Yeah, its a 24 hour race, so there is plenty to watch...live streaming on speed, timing and scoring on grandam.com and the links avanti posted are solid too

[Avanti 63r1025]

… sucks to see the GX Diesel Mazda's have been having issues …

Definitely. I would've loved to see them perform better. What I've heard so far is they've lost cylinders and have had turbocharger problems. Hopefully they iron out the wrinkles before next event.

[HarlenAss]

How many NASCAR drivers are their? By my count, 5 regulars and then Boris Said.

[Ex US Squid]

Yea Harlen and Jamie Mac on fresh tires just blew the doors off Rojas to take over the lead. Rojas was double stinting tires but still awesome to see. Seems the 911s backwards engine mounting is making breaking rather jenky into the bus stop. As far as GX well the Mazdas have been struggling but they didnt really get anytime to test the engine in the car since it went through so many chassis revisions. They looked good but every new team goes through growing pains. Oh and Sim SRT never mentioned interest in Rolex series. They committed to ALMS. The Rolex Viper is a Gen 2 Competition Coupe that is a privateer entry by Racers Edge Motorsports.

[Avanti 63r1025]

Jordan Taylor tipped off viewers to this video, in a pit interview.

[Simcik]

Yea Harlen and Jamie Mac on fresh tires just blew the doors off Rojas to take over the lead. Rojas was double stinting tires but still awesome to see. Seems the 911s backwards engine mounting is making breaking rather jenky into the bus stop. As far as GX well the Mazdas have been struggling but they didnt really get anytime to test the engine in the car since it went through so many chassis revisions. They looked good but every new team goes through growing pains. Oh and Sim SRT never mentioned interest in Rolex series. They committed to ALMS. The Rolex Viper is a Gen 2 Competition Coupe that is a privateer entry by Racers Edge Motorsports.

Oops, totally messed that up. Kinda glad to see the two leagues merging - that way I won't mess up GT classes again.

[Smus]

God I can't wait to see the P1 cars at Daytona...

Its awesome seeing JPM in a DP car...I know the pay is nothing but I'd love to see some of the NASCAR guys and IRL guys racing GrandAm

[Smus]

Oh, and I love the #44 Magnus Porsche with the "light bars" on it...reminds me of the Tron cars...would be cool to see some of the other cars with those on.

[Josh on ze bass]

Winning post: I was there.

[Smus]

Pics man!!


In other news...looks like the Michael Shank Racing #60 Ford Riley was running some illicit parts. They were stripped of their 3rd place finish, lost their $30k purse for 3rd, were fined $15k, and the team, their drivers, and Ford for Daytona Prototypes all lost 30 points.


Surprisingly enough, the same sort of infraction was placed on Ganassi Racing in 2010 where the engines lead to 2 race wins at MidOhio and IIRC Lime Rock. That netted a fine of 15k and a loss of 25 points...methinks there is favoritism...oh and let's not forget the Stop n Go + 3 min for failure to heed GA officials that was placed in MSR after the GA official forgot to inform them of their penalty.

[TuxTshirt]

Smus, did you hear there were illegal parts? I heard an interview today with Michael Shank and the infraction was not in the construction of the engine, but apparently they manipulated the tuning to show less power on the dyno. This is what he said in his interview on NASCAR radio. I haven't fact-checked yet, but am interested if you have any source on it.

[Smus]

I had just heard initial reports that it was just illegal in some way, I thought I had seen it was an illegal part.


If it was tuning, then the penalty is even worse based on the penalties given to Ganassi in 2010.

[Smus]

http://www.motorsport.com/grandam/news/michael-shank-racing-loses-rolex-24h-points-and-pays-fines/

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 was found with mechanical adjustments resulting in performance levels outside the documented maximums.

[TuxTshirt]

Thanks for the info.

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