Great Show at Daytona

The final minutes of the 2013 Rolex 24 at Daytona with the proper commentary.  Grand-Am put on a hell of a show at Daytona but Speed TV sure did their best to ruin it, cutting to commercial constantly in the final phases,  I'm sure I was not the only one who felt like throwing something at the TV if I heard about rednecks one more time...

In DP there was much grumbling about the performance advantage of the Ganassi BMW Rileys,  not to mention some allegations of funny business when the 02 stopped on track, causing a yellow flag which allowed the winning 01 car to un-lap itself.

Despite some heroic driving by AJ Allmendinger, you can see from the video that, in the very final phase of the race, it was no contest, Montoya just put the hammer down and that was that.

In GT, Audi almost pulled out an incredible 1-2-3 finish but the RumBum AudiR8 ran out of gas on the final lap giving the AIM Autosport Ferrari 458 the final spot on the podium.

GT was up in the air to the final minutes, Magnus looked like they might have been able to repeat last year's win but they ran low on gas and could not attack. Earlier, the AIM and the Scuderia Corse/Michelotto Ferraris looked in control but they came together under braking into turn 1 and the Scuderia Corsa car got hit with a stop and go.

Earlier still, the #30 Momo Motorsport looked like it was in the catbird seat. Kuba Giemaziak had the GT lap record with a 1:47.983 but then, disaster on the fastest part of the track when the front left suspension came apart at 180mph. Giemaziak did well to not hit anything but their hopes for a win were dashed. Gutted for Momo and Ramez at NGT, the home of the Axis GT3 cup car, and Henrique Cisneros, Sean Edwards and Patrick Pilet.

Hard luck for the second Alex Job car, 2012 Team Axis co driver Damien Faulkner was so close... I know my friend Declan must have been close to tears!

But it was the best day ever for AJR when Portuguese DTM star Felipe Albuquerque made a final splash and go and took the win, celebrating with some great donuts.... shame drivers cannot do that in F1, who does not love a good victory donut? ( I guess they are so close to weight limist they are afraid to vaporize any rubber at all)

Albuquerque drove the AUDI Sport Customer Racing/ AJR R8 Grand-Am with fellow DTM drivers Italian Edoardo Mortara and Briton Oliver Jarvis. What a great team to be on for American Dion Von Moltke whose future looks bright.

The first ever GX winner was the Napleton Porsche Cayman in the historic Hippie Livery you know from the Cayman Interseries. They also get the award for the cleanest car after 24 hours of racing.

Behind them, playing hooky from their usual Bimmerworld gig were James Clay and Seth Thomas in the Canadian Bullet Racing Cayman. Well done guys!


DP:

1. Chip Ganassi /Felix Sabates BMW Riley. Montoya, Dixon, Kimball, Pruett, Rojas
2. Velocity WW Corvette DP. Angelilli, Hunter-Ray, J.Taylor
3. Michael Shank Racing Ford/Riley Allmendinger, Ambrose, Negri, Pew, Wilson.

GT:
1. Audi Sport Customer Racing/ AJR Audi R8. Albuquerque, Jarvis, Mortara, Von Moltke
2. Audi Sport Customer Racing/APR Motorsport LTD.UK/ Baas, Basseng, Rast, Stippler
3. AIM Autosport Team FXDD with Ferrari Ferrari 458. Assentato, Lazzaro, Longhi, Wilkins

GX:

1. Napleton Racing Porsche Cayman, Canache, Donohue, Lewis, Norman
2. Bullet Racing Porsche Cayman. Clay, O'Young, Rogers, Thomas, Thompson
3. BGB Motorsports Porsche Cayman. Davis, Eversley, Foss, Mosing, Tecce

Full Results HERE

For anyone tuning in from Portugal or Brazil,  the final minutes of the race with Portuguese commentary in after the break.

Photos by Halston Pitman. MSM