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

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!

Aston Attacks America!

Aston Martin is launching a major push into the North American racing market with a new partnership with Kevin Buckler and TRG Racing.

The aim is to provide customer cars for Grand-Am, ALMS, Pirelli Challenge as well as a for a new single make series.

The Aston Martin Vantage will run in GTE trim for ALMS, GT3 trim in Grand-Am and Pirelli World Challenge with the GT4 version ready for Continental Challenge and a  new single make series launching  in the fall of 2013.

The Aston GT4, as an alternative to Porsche and Ferrari in single make series or even as a track day car, offers some significant advantages.  It is more forgiving to drive,  is less expensive (under $200K) and crucially has wider service intervals.    Like the 458 Challenge but unlike the Porsche GT3 Cup, it has ABS meaning no flat spots.  Like the Ferrari it has an available paddle shifter eliminating the danger of expensive over-revs and even comes with a mind boggling  11 different traction control settings and air-con options.

TRG and Aston are betting "if they build it, they will come" but will they make a dent in Porsche's leadership?  I kind of hope so and I hope it encourages BMW to jump in,  the more competition, the better.

Press release after the jump and after this clip of a Vantage GT4 lapping Laguna Seca along with brochures and more info than you can shake a stick at.
Any further inquiries, email Kevin Buckler President of AMR/TRG.

2013 Roar

AF Waltrip Ferrari 458 Italia GT

Halston Pitman was shooting for us at the "Roar Before the 24" Test session at Daytona last week,  here are some of the contenders.

2012 Grand Am Championship week end at Lime Rock

Ricky Taylor and Max Angelelli scored their third consecutive Daytona Prototype victory at Lime Rock Park, while Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas took their third straight DP championship with a seventh-place finish.

Taylor held off Antonio Garcia to win by .334 seconds, giving the No. 10 SunTrust Corvette DP its third victory of the season. Garcia and Richard Westbrook also ended the season as three-time winners in the No. 90 Spirit of Daytona Corvette DP.

Jon Fogarty and Alex Gurney rounded out the podium in the No. 99 GAINSCO Auto Insurance Corvette DP, followed by the two Action Express entries (the No. 5 of David Donohue and Brian Frisselle, and the No. 9 of Darren Law and Joao Barbosa), giving the Corvette DP a sweep of the top five places to cap its first year of competition.

Needing a ninth-place finish, Pruett and Rojas iced their fourth DP title in five years by finishing seventh in the No. 01 TELMEX BMW/Riley. Ryan Dalziel entered the race with a mathematical shot at the championship, but finished sixth in the No. 8 Starworks Motorsport Ford/Riley started by Alex Popow.

Robin Liddell and John Edwards took their third GT victory of the season in the No. 57 Stevenson Auto Group Chevrolet Camaro. Liddell passed Andy Lally with three laps remaining, denying the No. 44 Magnus Racing Porsche GT3 started by John Potter its third triumph of 2012.

Lally then had to pit for fuel, promoting the No. 51 APR Motorsport Audi R8 of Dion von Moltke and Jim Norman to a second-place finish.

While 2012 GT champions Emil Assentato and Jeff Segal had problems early in the race that resulted in an eighth-place finish for the No. 69 AIM Autosport/Team FXDD Ferrari 458 Italia, a third-place finish by the late-entered No. 63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 458 Italia of Alessandro Balzan and Johannes van Overbeek gave Ferrari the GT manufacturers championship.

2012 Brickyard Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Sebastien Bourdais and Alex Popow survived a rough-and-tumble round of the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series to win the inaugural Brickyard Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the No. 2 Soloson Ford/Riley for Starworks Motorsport.

Bourdais pulled away on the final restart on the 2.534-mile Indy road course to clinch the Daytona Prototype division's first North American Endurance Championship presented by VISITFLORIDA.com.

It was another highlight in the team’s incredible season, which has included second-place finishes in the Rolex 24 At Daytona and Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen in addition to class titles in the endurance classic at Le Mans and Sebring.

The No. 01 TELMEX BMW/Riley of DP leaders Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas took second in the three-hour event, while Max Angelelli and Ricky Taylor finished third in the No. 10 SunTrust Racing Corvette DP.

Juan Pablo Montoya, who teamed with Scott Dixon in the No. 02 Chevron BMW/Riley Ganassi entry, stoked controversy with his driving stint, bumping Joao Barbosa and then Ryan Dalziel out of likely top-five finishes in the late stages of the race.

Andy Lally and John Potter prevailed in GT in the No. 44 Magnus Racing Porsche GT3, securing the $50,000 NAEC honors in the division.

Fire!

Part of the final test for NASA's competition school involved getting out of the race car, from fully strapped it with the engine on, in fifteen seconds.
It's not as easy as you'd think: you have to shut the engine, open the door, drop the net, undo your belts and radio plug and crawl out. It's a damn good thing to practice though because, you just never know.

And it's not just Ferraris that spontaneously combust, check out what happened to the Magnus Racing Porsche driven by John Potter at the Sahlen Six Hours of the Glen when the electrics let go.

Not sure why Potter does not activate the onboard extinguisher but the fact it takes almost two minutes before a fire extinguisher is deployed might be because the 2012 Daytona winner pulled off the main track and onto the "NASCAR" shortcut, stopping away from a marshal station.

Practice getting out of your car!

UPDATE: Magnus Racing told us Potter did activate the onboard extinguisher but that the system is aimed at the driver's legs, the engine and the fuel cell, not the dash.
You can read Magnus Racing's blog HERE

2012 EMCO Gears Classic at Mid Ohio

Richard Westbrook held off Scott Pruett’s late charge to win Saturday’s EMCO Gears Classic, giving the No. 90 Spirit of Daytona Corvette DP started by Michael Valiante its second victory of the season.

Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas finished second, .236 seconds back, matching the best finish of the season for the No. 01 TELMEX BMW/Riley. The defending DP champs also regained the points lead.

David Donohue and Terry Borcheller took third in the No. 5 Action Express Racing Corvette DP. Starworks Motorsport took fourth and fifth, with Alex Popow and Lucas Luhr fourth in the No. 2 Soloson Ford/Riley and Enzo Potolicchio and Ryan Dalziel fifth in the No. 8 Duncan Ford/Riley.

GT also came down to the wire, with Bill Auberlen holding off Jeff Segal by .952 seconds. It was the first victory of the year for Auberlen and Paul Dalla Lana in the No. 94 BMW M3, while Segal and Emil Assentato maintained the GT points lead in the No. 69 AIM Autosport Team FXDD Ferrari.

Robin Liddell finished third in the No. 57 Stevenson Auto Group Chevrolet Camaro started from the pole by John Edwards, .952 seconds back, followed by the No. 70 Mazdaspeed/Modspace/Castrol Mazda RX-8 of Sylvain Tremblay and Jonathan Bomarito, and the No. 44 Magnus Racing Porsche GT3 of John Potter and Andy Lally.

Photo Credit: MotorSportMedia | Halston Pitman | Jake Galstad
 Text: Grand-Am.com

2012 Grand Am Grand Prix of Miami at Homestead.

Ricky Taylor and Max Angelelli won Sunday’s rain-shortened Grand Prix of Miami, while Jeff Segal and Emil Assentato won in GT to score the first victory for the new Ferrari 458 Italia Grand Am.

Taylor managed to dodge an incident between race leader Richard Westbrook and Enzo Potolicchio to move from third to first on lap 28, and then led the final 25 of the 54 laps to give the team its 19th Daytona Prototype victory.

Steady rain fell throughout the event. Conditions continued to deteriorate, leading race officials to halt the event 52 minutes short of the scheduled distance (2 hours, 45 minutes).

It was the first victory of the season for Taylor and Angelelli in the No. 10 SunTrust Corvette DP. Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas finished second in the No. 01 TELMEX BMW/Riley, followed by David Donohue and Darren Law in the No. 5 Action Express Racing Corvette DP.

Segal took the GT lead on lap 41, shortly before what proved to be the final caution period of the race. Dane Cameron and Wayne Nonnamaker took second in the No. 42 Team Sahlen’s Mazda RX-8, followed by Robin Liddell and Ronnie Bremer in the No. 57 Stevenson Auto Group Chevrolet Camaro.

Source: Grand-Am.com
Photo Credit: MotorSportMedia | Halston Pitman | Jake Galstad

Best of racing clips 4/7-4/8/2012

FIA GT3 from Nogaro



FIA GT1 from Nogaro



Grand Am from Barber Motorsport



Ferrari Challenge from Monza

Postcard from Alabama

© Halston Pitman | MotorSportMedia

Overall race winner Spirit of Daytona Corvette DP by Halston Pitman.

2012 Porsche 250 at Barber Motorsport

It was a day of firsts in the Porsche 250: the first victory for the Corvette DP, the first DP triumph for Spirit of Daytona and Richard Westbrook followed up his first pole on Friday with his first DP victory. Antonio Garcia, who gave Spirit of Daytona its first DP pole at Barber last year, got his second career Rolex Series victory. The team led 84 laps, with Garcia prevailing in a three-lap sprint to the checkered flag after a late-race caution.

Sylvain Tremblay and Jonathan Bomarito lapped the GT field in the No.70 SpeedSource Mazda RX-8, denying the No. 69 AIM Autosport Team FXDD drivers Emil Assentato and Jeff Segal from giving the new Ferrari 458 Italia Grand Am its first victory.

Results

DP
1st: Antonio Garcia and Richard Westbrook, No. 90 Spirit of Daytona Corvette DP
2nd: Alex Gurney and Jon Fogarty, No. 99 GAINSCO Auto Insurance Corvette DP

3rd: Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas, No. 01 TELMEX BMW/Riley

GT

1st: Sylvain Tremblay and Jonathan Bomarito, No. 70 SpeedSource Mazdaspeed Mazda RX-8
2nd: Jeff Segal and Emil Assentato, No. 69 AIM Autosport Team FXDD Ferrari 458 Italia Grand Am
3rd: Leh Keen and Andrew Davis, No. 59 Brumos Racing Porsche GT3


Margin of Victory: 2.326 seconds (overall); one lap (GT)
Average Speed: 86.116 mph (overall); 81.458 mph (GT)

Cautions: Four for 17 laps

Photo Credit: MotorSportMedia | Halston Pitman | Jake Galstad


- Scott Pruett gambled by pitting for tires during the final caution period. It paid off, as he gained two positions and was closing on Alex Gurney's second-place car during the three-lap sprint to the checkered flag. Pruett and co-driver Memo Rojas won three of the last four races at Barber, in 2008, 2010 and 2011.

- David Donohue qualified the No. 5 Action Express Racing Corvette DP in third and was running with the leaders throughout his shift. Shortly after Darren Law took over, contact with Max Angelelli in the No. 10 SunTrust Corvette DP sent the Action Express team to the garage for lengthy repairs.

- Rolex 24 At Daytona winners Ozz Negri and John Pew lost several laps after Negri took to the grass to avoid a spinning GT car. They went on to finish eighth.

- Horton Autosport rolled out a brand-new No. 73 Neo Synthetic Oil Porsche GT3 that turned its first laps in Thursday's practice. Eric Foss then qualified fourth on Friday. The team's only previous Rolex Series race was at Watkins Glen in August in an older Porsche, with Foss and Patrick Lindsay set to run the remainder of the season in the new car. Foss ran third before an off-course excursion led to an unscheduled stop. They finished 14th.

- The new No. 51 APR Audi R8 GRAND-AM was qualified seventh by Dion von Moltke, but was sent to the back of the grid for a ride-height violation due to a bolt being too low on the splitter. Dr. Jim Norman started the car, and went on to join von Moltke in an 11th-place finish.

- Magnus Racing lost a brand-new engine in Thursday's opening practice session - and switched to the powerplant that carried the team to its first victory in January's Rolex 24 At Daytona. Andy Lally led four laps and joined John Potter in a fourth-place finish to maintain the lead in the championship.

The Quotes:
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" Spirit of Daytona has a magic sauce here, based off what they've done here the last few years. We tried real hard to find out their secret, but we're only about halfway there." Alex Gurney, No. 99 GAINSCO Auto Insurance Corvette DP

- "Tough day, tough weekend. We did what we could. It was exciting to see the 90 car get to Victory Lane. Now we'll try to make things better for Miami." Scott Pruett, No. 01 TELMEX/Target BMW/Riley

- "I feel great. The car was running perfectly and it was very smooth - no surprises. It was fantastic to lead a lap - that was my first pass for the lead in GT. I would have liked to have led more but we had no fuel left and I had to come in." Emil Assentato, No. 69 AIM Autosport Team FXDD Ferrari 458 Italia Grand Am.

- "A DP spun me and that put us back a bit. I was trying to be patient and trying to put the power down." Patrick Dempsey, No. 40 Visit Florida Mazda RX-8.

Be Leh Keen for 5 minutes

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86,400 Seconds Later

Some understand how motorsports can be shared in new ways and with a cool eye. James Kirkham is one and I'm not just saying it because he's working at TRG, "our" team.

Check out these pictures of battle scarred 911 GT3s, anything but fresh after 86,400 seconds of racing in the 2012 Rolex 24 at Daytona.

James and the team from yaer are working on a proper video clip from the race. Can't wait.





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