Rolex 24 – Starting Drivers
And Other Pre-Race Information
Scottish Hand Gestures
© Janos Wimpffen Utterly asinine—that’s the only way to describe what it’s like here. As one wag put it, there’s the right way, the wrong way, and the speed way. It’s pissing rain in the hours leading up to the start, and the World Center of Racing—in their infinitesimal wisdom, are enforcing a rule of no umbrellas—furled or open through the “Fan Zone”—the centrally located corridor that is necessary to traverse. Common sense is an attribute long since dissipated from the minds of the self-important. The Speedway is worse than most governmental agencies. Please, please—keep me from coming back …. By the way, the weather forecast is for rain starting mid-afternoon and lasting through the morning. The drivers don’t particularly like the wet weather rubber—stay tuned. Mr. McNish had his hand hanging down during test days, wiggled them a bit more positively the other day—what about this time tomorrow? The GTs do not have intermediates—more fun. Returning to the specter of a 24-hour race, I am not alone in having been at two such enduros in the span of two weeks. Here are the drivers who have been both to Dubai and are preparing to run at Daytona. Pierre Kaffer, 6th overall in the Lechner Porsche in the wet desert, here in the No. 88 Farnbacher Loles Porsche. Mirko Schultis, 44th overall, 2nd in class with the Lotus, will drive the Chase—assuming it lasts long enough. Damien Faulkner was a late Dubai retirement in the other Lechner Porsche. He’s with Synergy here—No. 80. Richard Westbrook will drive the No. 66 Racer’s Group Porsche and was aboard the Proton car at Dubai. Jim Michaelian crashed Miro Konopka’s Porsche there and is here with the Gotham Competition car. The team owner is aboard the Chase. Starting drivers for the 24 Hours are the same as those who set the qualifying time, in typical Grand-Am fashion. Also in typical Grand-Am fashion there has been an ongoing snafu about the qualifying procedure. There was a time when teams were told that the fastest time from either session would be registered, while the top 30 positions were to be locked in on day one. After various levels of confusion, the end starting grid has the cars in order of day one, with those who went out both days having their day one times cancelled in favor of day two times and have been gridded accordingly. Did you follow that? That comes from the series that is trying to simplify sports car racing. Starting Drivers
1 60 Shank, Riley-Ford Negri
2 6 Shank, Riley-Ford Allmendinger
3 91 Stallings, Riley-Pontiac Goossens
4 10 SunTrust, Riley-Pontiac Angelelli
5 61 AIM, Riley-Ford Wilkins
6 01 Ganassi, Riley-Lexus Pruett
7 58 Brumos, Riley-Porsche Donohue
8 11 Samax, Riley-Pontiac Dalziel
9 7 Sigalsport, Riley-BMW Plumb
10 02 Ganassis, Riley-Lexus Dixon
11 99 Stallings, Riley-Pontiac Gurney
12 23 Job, Crawford-Porsche Hand
13 9 Penske, Riley-Pontiac Castroneves
14 2 Samax, Riley-Pontiac Rockenfeller
15 76 Krohn, Riley-Pontiac Jonsson
16 77 Doran, Doran-Ford Gidley
17 59 Brumos, Riley-Porsche Haywood
18 3 Southard, Riley-Lexus Lewis
19 12 RVO, Riley-Pontiac Kasemets
20 03 Vision, Crawford-Porsche Meira
21 16 Cheever, Coyote-Pontiac Bobbi
22 09 Spirit of Daytona, Fabcar-Porsche Cosmo
23 31 Connolly, Chase-Pontiac Ingram
24 51 Cheever, Coyote-Pontiac Newton
25 75 Krohn, Riley-Pontiac Krohn
26 70 SpeedSource, Mazda [1st, GT] Tremblay
27 56 Mastercar, Ferrari Montanari
28 67 TRG, Porsche Pumpelly
29 34 Orbit, Porsche Mowlem
30 21 Connolly, Pontiac GTO.R Alessi
31 80 Synergy, Porsche Heylen
32 62 TRG, Porsche Ragginger
33 30 Racer’s Edge, Mazda Thorne
34 57 Stevenson, Pontiac GXP.R Liddell
35 88 Farnbacher Loles, Porsche Stippler
36 66 TRG, Porsche Miller
37 89 Farnbacher Loles, Porsche Hardt
38 87 Farnbacher Loles, Porsche Werner
39 86 Farnbacher Loles, Porsche Henzler
40 15 Black Forest, Mustang Emringham
41 69 SpeedSource, Mazda Segal
42 07 Banner, Pontiac GXP.R Edwards
43 90 Automatic, BMW Russell, Jr.
44 27 O’Connell, Porsche Roush
45 22 Allegra, Porsche Basseng
46 29 Allegra, Porsche Gabel
47 63 TRG, Porsche Ende
48 14 Autometrics, Porsche Lazzaro
49 06 Banner, Pontiac GXP.R Pilgrim
50 40 Hyper Sport, Mazda Espenlaub
51 72 Autohaus, Pontiac GXP.R Aschenbach
52 50 Black Forest, Mustang Said
53 83 Farnbacher Loles, Porsche T. Bergmeister
54 85 Farnbacher Loles, Porsche Bentley
55 64 TRG, Porsche van Overbeek
56 81 Synergy, Porsche Huisman
57 74 Autometrics, Porsche Murry
58 52 Mastercar, Ferrari Bertuzzi
59 43 Sahlen, Corvette Wayne Nonnamaker
60 68 TRG, Porsche Mayes
61 84 Farnbacher Loles, Porsche Bingham
62 17 Terra Firma, Porsche Zitza
63 44 Bullet, Porsche Nixon
64 65 TRG, Porsche Oasis
65 26 Gotham, Porsche Joe Jacalone
66 08 Goldin, Mazda Keith Goldin |
