Making all the right noises: 1974 Porsche RSR

If you prefer cars that go VROOM rather than fzzzzz.

Let's ride with racing legend Bobby Rahal onboard a 1974 Porsche RSR for the final two laps of the Group B race at this years Classic 24 at Daytona, sponsored by HSR.

Campaigned  by gentleman racer George Dyer  in IMSA GTO it was a winner at the 1977 12 Hours of Sebring.

Nice to see even a legend like Rahal can crunch a gear sometimes!.

Save of the day: Tire failure at 180mph on the Daytona banking

Guaranteed to haunt you next time you're flat out in your RSR on the 31 degree Daytona banking...

Let Jim Pace show you around Daytona in a Porsche 962

Your Porsche 962 in the shop getting prepped for next month's HSR Classic 24 at Daytona  but are still a bit confused on the correct approach to the Bus Stop or just how much you should lift for the kink?

Fear not, ace vintage racer Jim Pace was kind enough to prepare a handy circuit guide for you!

Ride in the Axis 458 Challenge at Daytona

Halston Pitman/MotorSportMedia

Ride with Carlos in the Axis 458 Challenge at Daytona.   Above is race 1 on Friday, where CG scored a third place podium.   Note how top speed of the 458 is 184 mph in clear air but 191 drafting. Turn 1 apex speed is about 45 mph so you are scrubbing145 mph to make it around.  Hairy.

Below is race 2.   Track was damp on Saturday morning making conditions so tricky the pole sitter lost it on the warm up lap and crashed into the wall...D'oh!

At the start of first clip, Carlos makes a move for the lead into turn 3, losing his left mirror in the process.

In the second clip things get more exciting as CG, blind on his left comes under attack.    Did I mention turning in to the bus stop was tricky?

Podium finish for Axis in the first 2014 Ferrari Challenge race at Daytona

2014 Ferrari Challenge at Daytona.  Photo: Ferrari 

Driving the #26 Axis of Oversteer Ferrari 458 Challenge,  Carlos Gomez  scored a third place finish in the first race of the the 2014 Ferrari Challenge North America Series at Daytona on Friday.  The race was won by Scott Tucker/  In second place, it was Mexican driver Ricardo Perez.

Race 2 will start this morning at 9:45ET

Carlos Gomez in the Axis of Oversteer Ferrari 458 Challenge. Daytona 2014. Photo;Ferrari

Meanwhile, at Daytona....

Group photo: Halston Pitman/MotorSportMedia

Still confused about new IMSA championship rules after the GrandAm/ALMS merger?  Be sure to check out Marshall Pruett's guide on Racer Magazine.

Postcards from Daytona

Rolex 24 testing at Daytona.  Pictures MotorSportMedia/ Halston Pitman.

Fog over Daytona

@swelk57/twitter

A thick fog has descended over the Daytona Speedway with about 8 hours left in the 2013 Rolex 24,  the safety car is out and has bunched up the field.   At the moment leading in DP class is the  Velocity WW Corvette DP of Max Angelilli but there are five cars still on the lead lap,  Ganassi BMW, Starworks Ford, Action Express Corvette and Spirit of Daytona Corvette.

In GT there even more cars on the same lap, six to be exact.  Two Ferraris are leading at the moment, with Nick Longhi leading in the AIM Autosport 458.   in .  He's followed by the Scuderia Corsa-Michelotto 458 of Olivier Beretta, the AJR and the Rum Bum Audis and the two Porsches from Momo Motorsport and last year's winners Magnus.

Check out some pictures from yesterday evening Halston Pitman shot for us yesterday evening after the break.

Ready for Battle!

The night before the storm by Halston Pitman/MSM

Tune in for the 51st running of the Rolex 24 at Daytona at 3 PM on Speed TV and at some point on Grand-Am TV.    

Don't have much interest in DP,  just hope Montoya wins.  GT is where it's at, as far as we are concerned with huge competition between Porsche, Ferrari and Audi  slugging it out with BMW and Camaros.  

NGT being the home of the Axis cup car,  we will be cheering for the number 30 Momo Motorsport-NGT Porsche GT3.   Super strong international driver lineup with Venezuelan Henrique Cisneros, Brit Sean Edwards,  Pole Kuba Giermaziak and and Frenchman Patrick Pilet,  a last minute substitution for Jeroen Bleekemolen who will instead drive for Alex Job/Weather Tech.

Sean Edwards qualified the car third on the grid but in post race tech the car were found to have the rear wing too far back and was disqualified.  The team appealed and now rather than starting from the very back, they will start 12th.   You would think qualifying is not that important in a 24 hr race but the reality is that these races are run as 24 hour long sprints so yeah, it does matter.

We'll also keep and eye on the all Brazilian GT3 number 21  team led by Rubens Barrichello and Tony Kanaan.

Audi will also be interesting to watch, obviously the factory has put in a big effort placing top drivers in the different teams, Mortara, Biela, Rast, Stippler, Basseng...  hopefully they will more reliable than last year.

Follow Axis on Twitter for updates
Click below to view pictures by Halton Pitman / MSM  who is at Daytona with Axis credentials this week end, cool!

Meanwhile at Daytona...

Private testing for Park Place Motorsports shot by Halston Pitman and Jake Galstad / MotorSportMedia.  

Porsche factory driver  Patrick Long will be driving the Park Place Motorsports GT3 Cup  along with our old friend Spencer Pumpelly in the 2013 Rolex 24.

Park Place (the ex- Horton Autosport team) will be battling a healthy field of TRG, Momo-NGT, Magnus and Alex Job Porsches as well as Audi R8s and Ferrari 458 Grand-Am.

Add a Corvette ZR1, a Viper, a Camaro and a Mazda RX8  to the mix and top with the best GT drivers in the world, from Edoardo Mortara to Papis, Faulkner, Bleekemolen, Lieb, Lally, Keen...just to name a very few, GT Class should be more exciting then ever at the Florida classic coming up at the end of January.

Here is a night in car from Dion Von Moltke's Audi R8

Rolex 24 at Daytona: Battle Axis 68 makes it to the end!

The TRG / Axis of Oversteer car driven by Chris Cummin, Kevin Estre, Damien Faulkner, Carlos Gomez and Ben Keating crossed the finish line at the 50th edition of the Rolex 24 at Daytona in twenty fourth position in class.

The team completed 640 laps and after starting on the last row and managing to make its way up to as far as 8th place had second gear fail in the middle of the night. Second gear is crucial at Daytona and from then on the race became an excersize in damage control. Unfortunately Sunday morning the gearbox on the Porsche GT3 let go and had to be swapped for a new one.

The TRG mechanics put in another stellar effort to get the guys back on track and in a position to cross the finish line even after the car was punted by one of the McDreamy/Dempsey Racing Mazdas with about an hour and a half to go.



The GT class was won by Magnus Racing in the 44 Porsche of Andy Lally, Richard Lietz, John Potter and Rene Rast from the TRG / Sargent & Lundy GT3 of Steve Bertheau, Jeroen Bleekemolen, Marc Goosens, Wolf Henzler and Spencer Pumpelly.

Don't miss our giant high resolution photo gallery, after the jump...

Rolex 24 at Daytona: Morning report

The TRG/Axis of Oversteer 68 lost second gear overnight and the guys have had to struggle. Unfortunately, second is key in the 911 at Daytona in turns 1, 3, 5 and 6. Not having it is at least a 2 second per lap penalty.

As of now 68 is in 12th place, one lap down from 11th. Damien Faulkner is in the car.

TRG's number 67 car is currently leading GT with Marc Goosens at the wheel.




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Rolex 24 at Daytona: 6 Hour Report

Approaching 6 hours into the 2012 Rolex 24 at Daytone and the number 68 Axis of Oversteer/ TRG car is sitting in P13 in class one lap down from the lead.

All drivers so far have double stinted, coming in just for fuel.
Because of the (cough!) slight collision in practice, Team Axis missed qualifying and Damien Faulkner had to start from the very back of the field, second to last.

Damien put in a stellar drive and fought his way up to to 25th from 65th. He handed the car to Carlos "CG" Gomez who got it back on the lead lap thanks to some yellows and now Keving Estre got it all the way back to P12 in class. Next up into the night is Chris Cummings.

Long way to got, key is to be in the zone in the last few hours...



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Rolex 24 at Daytona Friday Gallery

Full screen looks nice...
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Daytona 24: TRG is ready!

Remember, Cheer for Number 68!

A look behind the scenes of TRG, one of the most successful teams in American sports car history, as they prepare for the 50th anniversary of the GRAND-AM Rolex 24 at Daytona. They return with 23 drivers in five cars as defending champions to this historic event. TRG has celebrated four Rolex 24 wins, including an overall victory in 2003.

With 45 other GT competitors and a field about as strong as any in the history of the sport, the race is sure to be intense.

Will TRG take home its fifth win at one of the worlds most challenging races?

Stay tuned for a TRG 2012 Rolex 24 at Daytona feature video.

Catch the race on SPEED, January 28th at 3:30pm est.

Cars: 2011 & 2012 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup

No. 64
Drivers: Gaetano Ardagna, Eduardo Costabal, Emilio Di Guida, Eliseo Salazar.

No. 65
Drivers: Spencer Cox, Mike Hedlund, Jack McCarthy, Jim Michaelian.

No. 66
Drivers: Dominik Farnbacher, Ben Keating, Patrick Pilet, Allan Simonson.

No. 67
Drivers: Steven Bertheau, Marc Goossens, Wolf Henzler, Spencer Pumpelly.

No. 68
Drivers: Chris Cumming, Kevin Estre, Damien Faulkner, Carlos Gomez, Ben Keating.

Interviews:

Kevin Buckler, TRG Founder and CEO
Jens Walther, President Porsche Motorsports North America

Thanks to our friends at Yaer Productions for the great work! YaerProductions.com

24 Hours of Daytona: Team Axis' Carlos Gomez interviewed.

(photos: James Kirkland/TRG)

How cool: our own CG, aka "the other Colombian" was interviewed by the pre eminent Latin American motorsport journalist Diego Mejia.

You may know Diego's work from Autosport where he covers NASCAR or for his racing coverage on SpeedTV.com (not to mention his recent karting induced visit to the emergency room, but that's another story.)

In any case, very nice interview, among other things Carlos explains how this will an especially interesting edition of the Rolex 24. While there is excitement for the new Daytona Prototypes,  it's just 14 cars. In comparison there are 50 plus GT cars and for the first time in ages, Porsches are not the only "real" cars in the field.

Yes, Camaros and Mazdas are still tube frame Riley silhouettes but along with Porsche there are now factory supported Ferrari, Audi, BMW and even a lone Dodge Viper.

About the recent "Roar before the 24" test session, Carlos described it as a "festival of sandbagging" where teams pretty much all stuck to the 1:50 lap time and gave little away as to their true speed.

As for the number 68 Axis of Oversteer car, Carlos will be sharing duties with Porsche Supercup rookie of the year Kevin Estre, Supercup UK star Damien Faulkner, IMSA GT3 Challenge driver Chris Cummings and Viper Cup champ Ben Keating.

Carlos concludes saying that the key to winning the 24 is not so much about outright speed but the mental game and consistency over the planned double stints of approximately 55 minute stints the car is capable of. TRG has the experience and the strategic knowhow to give Carlos a top tier car with a legitimate chance.

Daytona will be awesome!

I know a fair chunck of our audience is from beyond the English speaking world and we love that so, here is the interview in it original form with thanks to Diego and Germán Mejia.

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Axis of Oversteer/Capital Partners TRG Porsche GT3 in testing livery by James Boone

Oryx Racing Audi R8 by James Boone .

Daytona practice gallery

By James Boone
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Bump drafting in a Kart on the Daytona Banking...

Are you kidding me? That's awesome!

You are riding on Stephen Flatt's helmet in the World Karting Association Shifter 1 final at Daytona international Speedway.



(Thanks Trevor!)
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