Grand-Am, Rolex 24 at Daytona – Preview
Part 1 – The Daytona Prototypes

While I make no secret of the fact that the Rolex 24 at Daytona is probably my favourite event of the sporting calendar, I find that writing the preview for it is akin to buying a Christmas present for an aged relative - you agonise over it for ages and try to be creative, but at the end of the day it’s usually a small variation on what you got them the previous year - and a more realistic title for this piece should be, “How The Bloody Hell Am I Going To Pick A Winner From This Lot?”

Flippancy aside, with ten of the 17 DPs containing a former F1 pilot, a Le Mans winner, a Daytona 24 winner or an Indy 500 winner – and in several cases multiple examples of the above – it is clear that the top class is packed with racing talent; and that’s not to mention the many other hugely talented drivers who are liberally sprinkled throughout the field. Let’s also consider the winning margins from the last four Rolex 24s:

2009 – 0.167s
2010 – 52.303s
2011 – 2.426s
2012 – 5.198s

As anyone who watched these races will attest, these were not ‘manufactured’ results arising from the use of suspiciously-thrown yellows, but the culmination of four action-packed events. True, yellows are numerous and not everyone is in favour of a safety car procedure which allows cars to regain laps lost, but it was very noticeable that then-Race Director Mark Raffauf and his team kept conditions green wherever possible in the closing hours of these races when it would have been very easy to throw a caution following late incidents; and this is proven by the fact that the distance covered by the winner was the highest since 1992.

2012, though hard-fought to the end, was very much a Riley benefit following a difficult debut for the Corvette DPs in the field. The #60 Riley Ford of Michael Shank Racing (MSR) prevailed after a mighty challenge from the #8 Starworks version, and so we’ll begin with a look at these two teams.

As things turned out, the Rolex 24 was to be only win of the season for MSR, but if you are only going to win one race it may as well be the biggest.

AJ Allmendinger, Ozz Negri, John Pew and Justin Wilson drove a flawless race – the NASCAR star going door-to-door with Allan McNish on the banking in spectacular style in his efforts to regain the lead – and they reunite this year for a crack at a second consecutive win. They will be joined by a second Sprint Cup racer, Marcos Ambrose; the Australian drafted in to the squad by Michael Shank as back-up to Negri, who suffered a leg injury in the off-season.

The #6 MSR Riley sees half of the squad that took third in 2012 returning for this year’s race. South American duo Jorge Goncalvez and Gustavo Yacaman will this year be joined by Canadians Michael Valiante and Chris Cumming, who raced together in the GTC class of the ALMS last year in a JDX Racing Porsche.

Valiante also claimed victory at Mid-Ohio in the Grand-Am Rolex Series last year in the Spirit of Daytona Corvette DP he shared with Richard Westbrook.

The recent Roar Before The Rolex 24 (RBTR24) test saw the #6 set the fastest laptime over the three days, while the #60 was third in the combined results. However, given that Valiante’s time was about a second off the pace of the corresponding test in 2012, it is clear that there was liberal deployment of sand-filled bags throughout the DP ranks at the Speedway earlier this month. Nonetheless, the signs are that MSR will pose a significant threat once more at this year’s race.

Starworks’ 2012, meanwhile, just got better and better, winning the North American endurance Championship (NEAC); finishing second in the Rolex Series, including a win at Watkins Glen; taking LMP2 wins at Sebring, Le Mans and Sao Paulo; and ultimately taking the LMP2 title in the FIA WEC. Ryan Dalziel and Alex Popow (who also took the PC title in the ALMS) have been at the core of Starworks’ success and they are joined in the #2 by Allan McNish – who is desperate for a winner’s watch – and Sébastien Bourdais.

With a lineup like this, there is no reason to suppose that Peter Baron’s winning steak will have come to an end.

The second Starworks Entry, #8, is much more of an unknown quantity.

At the time of writing, only two names are confirmed – Ivan Bellarosa and Scott Mayer – but the car will be attracting much interest on account of Italian racer Bellarosa being the fourth winner of the Sunoco Rolex Challenge. His predecessor Felipe Nasr finished up on the podium last January, and he’ll have to go some to emulate that achievement. Much depends on who will be occupying the final two seats.

Enzo Potolicchio made his Grand-Am debut at the Rolex 24 alongside fellow Venezuelan Popow in 2011 in a Starworks DP, but split from the team at the end of last season. For 2013 he brings his own team, 8Star Motorsports, and a Corvette DP stuffed full of former Peugeot LMP factory drivers – Anthony Davidson, Pedro Lamy, Nic Minassian and Stéphane Sarrazin.

In anybody’s books that’s a meaty lineup, and the Corvette will be a very different proposition to its fast-but-fragile incarnation at the 2012 Rolex 24; but will that lead to unrealistic expectations for a  brand new team? Then again, Potolicchio is unlikely to have asked the other four to join him with anything other than a top finish in mind.

One team almost guaranteed to end up on the podium – a record of four wins and three second-places in eight years speaks for itself – is Chip Ganassi Racing. Having said that, neither the #01 nor #02 Riley BMW achieved that last year, with late gearbox issues demoting Scott Pruett and co. to fourth.

Pruett and Mexican teammate went on to take the Rolex Sports Car Series title for the third year in a row and for the fourth time in five years, so can only be considered as amongst the hottest favourites next weekend; especially given that they will be supported by the not inconsiderable talents of Scott Dixon, Charlie Kimball and Juan Pablo Montoya. Of this quintet, only Kimball hasn’t won before; indeed, this will be his sportscar and Daytona debut. Despite this, he is unlikely to be regarded as a weak link and could well end up with a new watch by Sunday evening. However, the gearbox dramas have struck this car in both of the previous two races, so could lightning strike for a third time?

The two Scotts are also listed in the #2 lineup, where they will be joined by Dario Franchitti, Jamie McMurray and Joey Hand.

BMW works driver Hand collected his watch in 2011, leaving just NASCAR racer McMurray without one in this squad. Again, it’s hard to see this car as anything other than a top contender.

Were these seven cars the only DPs in the race, it would be a hell of a contest; but there are still ten to go and at least half a dozen of these could easily be considered potential winners.

Action Express Racing took the winner’s laurels on its racing debut in 2010 and returns with a brace of Corvette DPs, both packed with racing pedigree.

There have been a number of changes at AER over the winter and the team’s core now comprises João Barbosa, Christian Fittipaldi and the Frisselle brothers, Brian and Burt. Despite racing on ‘home turf’, Brian Frisselle may well have been taking a crash course in Portuguese recently, as he is joined in the #5 by Barbosa, Fittipaldi and two more Brazilian racers, Felipe Nasr and Nelson Piquet Jr. The #9, meanwhile, sees Barbosa reunited with his victorious 2010 teammate Mike Rockenfeller and joined by Burt F. This car took two wins during the 2012 season and both DPs are sure to run strongly in the Rolex.

Max Angelelli saw pole position turn into first retirement for the SunTrust Corvette DP last year, and the Italian will be eager to bury that disappointment deep in his subconscious with a second win in the big race.

Now renamed VelocityWW in honour of its new sponsor, Wayne Taylor’s team will be much more confident after a season of ironing out the kinks in the DP3G.

Angelelli and Ricky Taylor took three wins in the Rolex Series in 2012, but it will be Corvette factory racer Jordan Taylor who joins Mad Max and Ryan Hunter-Reay in the black and orange car after replacing his older brother in the family team. Even amongst such top-class competition, this feels like a tight and very strong package and could just have its nose out ahead in the betting odds – and as we’ve seen, a nose is pretty much all that’s in it as the flag drops at the Daytona International Speedway nowadays!

Ricky Taylor may no longer be working for the family business, but he hasn’t exactly been left high and dry. Instead, he’s ended up with another top drive, this time alongside Richard Westbrook at Spirit of Daytona Racing.

The #90 Corvette DP also recorded three victories in the 2012 season and saw the Daytona-based team finish third in the standings. Confidence is high as they enter 2013 and the addition of Corvette works racers Oliver Gavin and 2009 Rolex 24 winner Antonio Garcia. In fact, with Taylor officially British on account of his being born in Surrey, SDR could almost add the colours red and white to its trademark blue livery and display the Union Jack on the Corvette’s roof. Again, it’s hard to spot the chinks in the armour here.

Darren Law stood alongside Garcia on the podium in 2009 as a member of the winning Brumos team, and now finds himself helping Bob Stallings, Alex Gurney and Jon Fogarty in the ir quest to finally get their hands on the elusive Rolex 24 trophy.

The race hasn’t been kind to the #99 ‘Red Dragon’, with a best result of second in 2008 but – astoundingly – only one more top-ten finish (7th in 2009) since Fogarty and Gurney teamed up in 2006. There is thus a glaring hole in the trophy cabinet, but the team was winless in 2012 and it’s difficult to see that changing next week. They will be doing all they can to prove me wrong, however, and Memo Gidley will provide solid support as the fourth driver.

Team Sahlen perhaps surprised a few people with a strong showing at the RBTR24 from their two Riley BMWs and it will be very interesting to see how they get on next week as they make the move from the GT to the DP ranks.

The core of the team remains the Nonnamakers – Joe, Will and Wayne – Joe Sahlen and Dane Cameron, and they will be joined at Daytona by Simon Pagenaud, Bruno Junqueira and Tomy Drissi. Cameron set the second fastest time of the January test and it’s not impossible that we’ll see a strong top ten result from one or both of the #42 and #43 cars. Certainly Cameron and Pagenaud will make a potent duo.

Doran Racing know how to win the Rolex and finished a very respectable seventh last year. Paul Tracy and racing neurosurgeon Dr Jim Lowe return for another crack at the 24 and have healthy support in the form of Colin Braun and Jon Bennett.

The #77 Dallara Ford had a solid RBTR24 test, but is currently in the process of being converted to DP3G spec and won’t get its first run in its new incarnation until first practice on Thursday morning – in other words, they have to get it right first time. Here’s hoping all goes well with the build.

The final two DPs are unlikely to trouble the leaders next weekend.

BTE Sport fields a Riley Ford DP for Emmanuel Anassis, Anthony Massari and Doug Peterson, and is something of an unknown quantity, while the #50 Highway to Help Riley BMW returns – sans Brian Johnson – to raise more money for charity in the hands of Frank Beck, Carlos de Quesada, Byron Defoor and Jim Pace.

We wish both teams the best of luck in their endeavours.

The weather forecast for the race weekend currently suggests dry and pleasantly warm conditions, meaning this is likely to be an out and out sprint race for 24 hours (subject to the usual cautions, of course). Whatever happens, the dividing line between success and disaster in the DP ranks looks thinner than ever. This is going to be entertaining!

MH