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.

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!

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

2009 24 Hours of Daytona

I confess the Daytona Prototype spec cars do nothing for me but a 24 hour race is still a hell of a thing to accomplish.  The 2009 race starts at 3PM EST.    

Juan Pablo Montoya is back and going for three in a row.   Scott Pruett and Scott Dixon are both listed in two cars, the 01 and 02 Chip Ganassi Lexus/Rileys,  I guess that's one way to hedge your bets for a finish. Danica Patrick will be in a Pontiac-Riley trying to be the first woman to win the Daytona 24hrs.   Farnbacher-Loles has five cars in GT .  We'll cheer for them since they take good care of some of the Axis cars!
You can find live timing and scoring at this link HERE

After 16 hours the top four cars are separated by only 2 seconds!

Let's take a trip down memory (or history) lane.

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