Rolex 24 at Daytona

[YF19pilot]

Okay, so it ended some 48 hours ago, but I'm sure you're itching to know how JPM faired in his first Grand Am race.


Chip Ganassi Racing has become the first team to have multiple titles in the new Daytona Prototype class. The number 01 Target/TelMex Lexus Riley piloted by Montoya, Scott Pruett, and Salvador Duran took the checkered flag on Sunday.

The win also gives Pruett the all time record of Rolex 24 class wins, with seven. He also ties the record for most overall victories in the Rolex Series, tying him with James Weaver.

There was a red flag during the night after part of the infield gaurdrails got damaged. The track crews managed to have the guardrails fixed quickly and the race was resumed about an hour or so later. As the local paper said:

How did the Speedway crew manage to repair 80 feet of guardrail in a couple of hours overnight Saturday?
Skill and determination. Obviously not the guys in charge of widening Nova Road. (burn!)

Some of the focus was also placed on the Nextel drivers to see how well they would fair. Jeff Gordon's #10 Pontiac Riley held the lead at one point, but finished 3rd. Bobby Labonte's #19 Ford Crawford took him to 10th. Jimmie Johnson and his team found bad luck late in the race when the engine on the #91 Lowe's Pontiac Riley failed, putting them back at 36th. Tony Stewert and the #20 Pontiac Crawford was plauged early on with problems, finding itself in 48th.

The other "man of the hour" was Steve Johnson, driving the #81 Porsche GT3 cup, coming 27th overall and 11th in his class. For those unfamiliar, Steve Johnson is a former receiver for the New England Patriots and Dallas Cowboys. He had a short lived career from 1988-89 with the Patriots and in 1990 when he went to Dallas, and suffered a knee injury that ended his career with them. However he was not pleased at a certain driver who he kept unknown, that knocked him off the track during a restart Sunday morning, keeping the #81 Porsche out of the top 10.

For official results click here.




As for my personal experiances, I must say that I really really hate Jeff Gordon fans. I don't hate Jeff Gordon per se, as he has proven himself on a world class level (RoC), however, when getting in line to get driver's autographs, a blood clot of sorts formed around Jeff Gordon where his fans poked cameras in his face, circle jerked, and pretty much made anyone who was in line behind them miss any opertunity to talk with the drivers or get autographs had he not been there.

However, I did get to rub elbows with some of the drivers on pit road as they were lining up the grid. Two large crowds congregated around Montoya and the Playboy car (though the former was definately larger than the latter), but I managed to get JPM's autograph. I also got to chat with Bobby Labonte, Bill Lester, the guys of the #76 Krohn Racing Pontiac Riley, Jimmie Johnson and a few others. Pretty cool guys the lot of them, especially Bill Lester.

Fun times during the weekend, and a good race. Got wet, but still fun nonetheless.

And I got to drive my car on the track

[ESPNSTI]

I watched it on TV over the weekend on Speed, it was a good race.
The start (the first 1-2 hours) was supposed to be on Fox, but the jackasses at the local Fox station decided to air some lousy basketball game , and then the dumb asses proceeded to air it at 4 in the morning.
Luckily I still saw most of it on Speed.

The commentators were excellent, they were knowledgeable and funny.
I wish more motor sports events had commentating like this. (And I wish they'd get rid of John Watson covering A1 GP, I can't stand his commentating.)

[tmbrudy]

I was unfortunately in houston for a confrence and missed all of saturday, but I got home and got to watch the last 2 hours on sunday. I really love this race and really want to go some time, maybe next year, although sebring is higher up on the wanna go to list.

The commentators on speed are really awesome, both the normal sports car commentators and the f1 commentators, or when they both join forces and commentate on one race.