GRAND-AM Cooldown Lap: Rolex 24 At Daytona
January 27, 2013 Leave a comment
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From: GRAND-AM Communications <Grand-AMCommunications>
Subject: GRAND-AM Cooldown Lap: Rolex 24 At Daytona
Date: January 27, 2013 6:53:51 PM EST
To: GRAND-AM Communications <Grand-AMCommunications>
GRAND-AM Cooldown Lap: Daytona
Rolex 24 At Daytona
Rolex Sports Car Series
Saturday-Sunday, Jan. 26-27, 2013
The Recap
Rolex 24 At Daytona Grand Marshal Hurley Haywood gave the command to start the engines on Saturday as the event’s lone five-time overall winner. Twenty-four hours later, he welcomed Scott Pruett into that elite company.
Pruett joined Memo Rojas, Juan Pablo Montoya and Charlie Kimball in the winning No. 01 TELMEX/Target BMW/Riley, giving Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates its fifth victory in the event. Montoya drove the final stint, coming back after falling to fourth following a restart with 51 minutes remaining. Montoya needed seven minutes to work his way past Max Angelelli to take the lead, and then prevailed in a battle of splash-and-gas fuel stops in the closing minutes to beat Angelelli to the checkered flag by 21.922 seconds. It was the third victory in the event for Montoya and Rojas, and first major triumph for Kimball.
Defending winner AJ Allmendinger rallied the Michael Shank Racing from a seven-lap deficit and a final hour off-course excursion to take third, joined by Marcos Ambrose, Justin Wilson, John Pew and Ozz Negri in the No. 60 Ford/Riley. Joao Barbosa served a penalty following his contact with Allmendinger and returned to place fourth, joined by Christian Fittipaldi, Burt Frisselle and Mike Rockenfeller in the No. 9 Action Express Racing Corvette DP.
The GT class featured a scrap that saw seven cars finish on the lead lap. Filipe Albuquerque nursed the No. 24 Audi Sport Customer Racing/Alex Job Racing Audi R8 to take the class victory, giving Audi its first GRAND-AM victory and first triumph in the Rolex 24.
The event marked the debut of the GX class. David Donohue, 2009 Rolex 24 winner, joined Shane Lewis, Dr. Jim Norman and Nelson Canache in the No. 16 Napleton Racing Porsche Cayman.
The performances of Ganassi Racing and Alex Job Racing gave the teams the early unofficial lead in the second annual North American Endurance Championship presented by VISITFLORIDA.com. That championship continues with the Sahlen’s Six Hours at Watkins Glen International on June 30, and concludes with the Brickyard Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 26.
The Stats
DP 1st: Memo Rojas/Scott Pruett/Juan Pablo Montoya/Charlie Kimball, No.01 TELMEX BMW/Riley
DP 2nd: Max Angelelli/Jordan Taylor/Ryan Hunter-Reay, Velocity Worldwide Corvette DP
DP 3rd: John Pew/Ozz Negri/AJ Allmendinger/Justin Wilson/Marcos Ambrose, No. 60 Michael Shank Racing Ford/RileyGT 1st: Filipe Albuquerque/Dion von Moltke/Oliver Jarvis/Edoardo Mortaro, No. 24 Alex Job Racing/Audi Customer Racing WeatherTech Audi R8
GT 2nd: Frank Stippler/Rene Rast/Marc Basseng/Ian Baas No. 52 Audi Sport Customer Racing/APR Motorsport Audi R8
GT 3rd: Emil Assentato/Nick Longhi/Anthony Lazzaro/Mark Wilkins, No. 69 AIM Autosport Team FXDD Ferrari 458 Italia
GX 1st: Shane Lewis/David Donohue/Jim Norman/Nelson Canache, No. 16 Napleton Racing/Calcium Pro/Visit Venezuela/Home Wrecking Racing Porsche Cayman
GX 2nd: Darryl O’Young/Dan Rogers/James Clay/Seth Thomas/Karl Thomson, Bullet Racing Porsche Cayman
GX 3rd: Lee Davis/Ryan Eversley/Jeff Mosing/Eric Foss/John Tecce, No. 38 BGB Motorsports/Luna-C Clothing/Mosing Motor Cars Porsche CaymanMargin of Victory: 21.922 seconds (DP); 1.476 seconds (GT); 10 laps (GX)
Average Speed: 105.122 mph (DP); 100.518 mph (GT); 94.068 mph (GX)
Cautions: 16 for 121 laps
Noteworthy
Ø In addition to his five overall victories in the Rolex 24, Pruett has 10 class triumphs in the event (Haywood has six). Pruett won for Jack Roush in 1987 and 1988, Tom Walkinshaw in 1992 and 1993, and Paul Gentilozzi in 2002. In addition to winning for Chip Ganassi in 2007, 2008, 2011 and 2012, he won overall for Clayton Cunningham in a GTS class Nissan in 1994.
Ø The defending GT-winning No. 44 Magnus Racing Flex-Box Porsche GT3 led a GT-leading 250 laps, including 125 laps by Andy Lally.
Ø Nick Tandy won the GT pole in the No. 32 Konrad Motorsports/Orbit Porsche GT3, but cut a tire in the opening 15 minutes – causing suspension problems that led to that car’s early retirement.
Ø The race ran under caution for one hour, 45 minutes, 13 seconds beginning at 6:55 a.m. due to heavy fog. Two years ago, there was a two-hour, 47-minute caution for fog.
Ø Mazda debuted the Mazda 6 powered by the production-based SKYACTIV-D Clean Diesel engines. This marked the first appearance of a diesel engine in the 51-year history of the Rolex 24. All three cars experienced problems and retired in the early hours. The No. 70 SpeedSource and No. 25 Freedom Autosport/SpeedSource cars both lost a cylinder, while the No. 00 Visit Florida Racing/SpeedSource entry had a rear main seal failure. Neither problem had been encountered in dynamometer testing.
Ø The No. 93 Turner Motorsport BMW M3 of Gunter Schaldach, Michael Marsal, Maxime Martin and Andy Priaulx failed to start when Priaulx lost the brakes and crashed during final practice. Martin was shifted to the team’s No. 94 BMW for the event. Also entered but withdrawn were spare cars for AF-Waltrip and Audi Sport Customer Racing. Sean Edwards qualified second in GT in the No. 30 MOMO/NGT Motorsport Porsche GT3, but the car failed post-qualifying inspection and was moved to the back of the grid.
The Numbers:
Ø 6 – GT cars finishing on the lead lap
Ø 77 – DP lead changes by 24 drivers in 12 cars
Ø 39 – Record Daytona Prototype victories for Scott Pruett (Memo Rojas second with 26)
Ø 121 – Laps under caution (16 caution periods)
Ø 205 – Race leading laps led by Scott Pruett
Ø 250 – GT leading laps led by the No. 44 Magnus Racing Porsche
Ø 421 – Laps led by the winning No. 01 car
Ø 2,524 – Miles completed by winning team
Ø 126.669 – Speed in mph of fastest race lap for Scott Dixon on lap 293Quoteboard:
Ø “This was an incredible day all around. At the end of it, having known Hurley (Haywood) real well over the years by racing with him and just as a friend and then to have him there was a very pretty special thing. … One thing when you get together with a group like this with Memo, Charlie and Juan, you don’t try to be Superman. We’ve got some very incredibly talented guys that can step in and close it out I’m proud to be part of the team, and it was exciting to finish up on top.” – Scott Pruett, No. 01 TELMEX/Target BMW/Riley
Ø “One of the cool things about doing the Rolex 24 with Chip you’re a favorite every time you come here. You always have a chance of winning. Everybody that comes here with Chip finds that out. It’s fun and it’s exciting. I feel bad for the guys in our No. 02 because they had a ton of speed and they could have easily won, too.” – Juan Pablo Montoya, No. 01 TELMEX/Target BMW/Riley
Ø “We were hoping on our strategy to make it on fuel and stay out until the end. That’s why we took on no tires on our pit stop. Montoya – in that car – was A-class, we were B class. Today Jordan and Ryan did a great job and the crew never made a mistake.” – Max Angelelli, No. 10 Velocity Worldwide Corvette DP, finished second
Ø “We knew Montoya would be tough to beat. On that last restart, I got around Juan on the outside into Turn one, and I knew I had to go. I went side-by-side with Joao but got pushed off, and that filled the radiator with dirt and we had to pit. That was disappointing, but it was ‘go time,’ no hard feelings there. I felt we weren’t going to beat Montoya, but thought we might get second. Ganassi Racing did its homework like we did last year. When it’s your year, you’ve got to capitalize on it.” AJ Allmendinger, No. 60 Michael Shank Racing Ford/Racing, finished third
Ø “I knew that I had to do a splash and dash, but I didn’t know if I had to push. I started to have problems with my gears. I had to use the clutch to upshift, which was not good, I was losing time. Then when I saw “Winkie” (Markus Winkelhock) and Rene (Rast) behind me, they were really fast and I knew I would not last long with me having these problems. When I saw the white flag I had a moment in corner one. I had been doing this for 24 hours, but the last corners were so hard to do, it felt like I could miss it. Unbelievable. First time at Daytona, first win. — Filipe Albuquerque, No. 24 Audi Sport Customer Racing/Alex Job Racing Audi R8, GT winner
Ø “This is unbelievable. That drive by Felipe (Albuquerque) over the last two and half hours was the best drive I’ve ever seen in a race car driver by far. We thought we were down and out. We were down by a lap and we thought we had no chance. But Felipe put us here, with great support by Alex Job and Audi.” – Dion von Moltke, No. 24 Audi Sport Customer Racing/Alex Job Racing Audi R8, GT winner
Ø “It was a heck of a finish. The last two or three hours I pushed like a sprint race. I had a lot of fights with Ferraris, Audis and Porsches. Everything was fair, but the Audi won by two or three seconds. It’s a bit frustrating, but we had a great race. It was great fun, and hopefully, next year again.” – Rene Rast, No. 52 Audi Sport Customer Racing/APR Motorsport Audi R8, finished second in GT
Ø “It’s been a long time. I won this race in 2009, albeit a different class. New class with new cars – I was in the inaugural DP race, but didn’t win that one. Napleton Racing’s Ron Barnaba and Mike Colucci are long-time old friends, and Shane Lewis picked this early on and handed it off to me. Also Jim Norman and Nelson Canache did a great job.” – David Donohue, No. 16 Napleton Racing Porsche Cayman, GX winner
Ø “This is unbelievable. Two 24-hour wins in one month (he earlier won at Dubai), and there’s nothing sweeter than winning the Rolex 24 At Daytona. Awesome.” – Shane Lewis, No. 16 Napleton Racing Porsche Cayman, GX winner
Coming Up:
Round 2 of the 2013 Rolex Sports Car Series season will be the inaugural race at Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas, on Saturday, March 2. The race will be televised live on SPEED.
Matt Cleary
Sunday Group Management
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