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The
new Michael Shank Racing Ford EcoBoost car. Photo by: Trevor Horn. (Image
source: motorsport.com)
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Otay, so it'll be the price I pay for Santa Claus
giving me another trip to Hawaii, as this will be the first Rolex 24 I've missed
watching/listening via thee Telescreen in several years now - Y'all sheddin'
Crocodile tears for your humble No Fenders scribe already? Tiny bubbles...
Hooah! (Although the
NASTY ARSE FLU I had for the entire week before leaving made up for my kneading
to get away to Kona) But I digress...
And with the long overdue merger, I mean its really
a merger, not a takeover by the France family, right? Thus the High-tech
American Le Mans Series and its "Racin' is rubbin' 'RASSCAR" Grand Am
Sports Car series have unified into the wait for I-T; tuh-Duh! The Tutor United
Sports Car Championship... Oh Vanna, I'd like to buy a vowell, please?
This mergification will see a most
interesting morphing of the two series multiple classes with the advent of four
major classes known so far split evenly between Prototypes and GT racers, with
the four classes being: P, PC, GTLM and GTD.
as effectively the speediest LMP1 cars are
gone; Hey! Y'all really didn't think the majority of Grand Am's Taxicab rank 'N
file were gonna dispose of their Daytona Prototypes (DP) did Yuhs? Although the
DP's will be combined with the ALMS's LMP2 category - which should cause
nothin' but confusion, eh? As the Delta-wing chassis is also allowed entrance
in this category, with obviously the overall winner of the race coming from the
new top P-class's 17-entries...
The PC class is all Squeaky-clean like it's
acronym, i.e.; "Politically Correct;" Err PC which is a straight
carryover from the ALMS Prototype Challenge category, as IMSA, the sanctioning
body for the new Sports Car league has upped the anty by confirming 12-entries
for the class, as all PC entrants will compete in spec Oreca chassis propelled
by Chevrolet motors and running on Continental tyres...
As typical the round-the-clock races most
entries should come from the "Production-based" Grand Touring cars,
which GT stands for, with there being two separate divisions of, which I have
NO idea if they'll look similar to each other?
The GTLM class has 12 confirmed entries for
its GT Le Mans spec racers while the GTD stands for Grand Touring Daytona which
is an amalgamation of the previous GT classes - featuring the most entries with
28...
THE BIG BOYZ... (P
Class)
Not only will the primary Chip Ganassi Prototype entry for multi-time champion Scott 'Scooter Pruett and co-driver Memo Rojas be radically different this year as the 'Cheepster has dumped his BMW lumps' in favour of Ford's new Eco-boost "blown" V-6 turbo motors - to which Papa Bear Tomaso correctly pointed out over Turkey-Lurkey (Thanksgiving) dinner there's NO such thing as "Economy" in motor racing...
But also missing from the Ganassi fold will
be two familiar faces, as Dario "REO Speedwagon" Franchitti has
forlornly announced his retirement due to medical advice while (Juan Pablo)
'MAC Montoya has jumped ship to take up refuse in Indy Cars for "The
Captain's" (Roger Penske) rival Powerhouse racing team. as wouldn't it be
kOOL if Roger entered a DP for 'HULIO, (Castroneves) 'DJ WillyP (Will Power)
and 'MAC - but DON'T hold your breath too long as Y'all might turn blue...
Thus I'm thinking that an all IndyCar lineup
could fill Ganassi's second part-time entry, featuring 'TK Follow-your-Schnoz
Kanaan, Scott Dixon, Charlie Kimball and Ryan Briscoe, although NO report if Toni's
nose will fit behind the windshield? Hooah! While perhaps Daytona 500 & Brickyard 400 winner Jamie
McMurry and upcoming superstar Kyle Larson will co-drive with Pruett & Rojas?
Or some combination of both will fill-in the two cars driving rosters.
Otay, my guessing Pre-Roar Before testing on thee
'Cheepster's two car driver's line-up was pretty close, as the #01 will feature
Pruett, Rojas, McMurray and reigning Indy Lights champion Sage Karam. The #02
will have Dixon, Kanaan, Larson and Dario's 'lil bro Marino Franchitti at its
keyboard this year...
Also discovered early this year that le
'Hamburgular, nee 'SeaBass, aka Sebastain Bourdais will be co-driving the No. 5 Action Express Racing Corvette DP with
Christian Fittipaldi and Joao
Barbosa.
And look for "Thy Leggy Juan," aka
Katherine Legge to be behind the wheel of the lone Delta Wing chassis,
co-driving with her regular partner Andy Meyrick and just announced
American F1 hopeful Alexander Rossi, who's apparently gotten permission from
Caterham...
And unfortunately past Daytona 24hrs winners
MSR (Michael shank Racing) have apparently consolidated into a single car entry
this season with longtime team drivers '(Oswaldo)
Ozz
Negri and John Pew behind the keyboard of their very
potent P-Class Riley-Ford prototype, as the team's blown No. 14
"Feurd" Eco-boost lump chassis with Colin Braun as its chauffer set two FIA speed
records last October upon having gone 210mph at Daytona International Speedway!
Breaking the previous records set in 1979...
LATE TO THE PARTY
(PC)
I'm a little surprised that Greg Pickett has
chosen the Prototype challenge class as his vehicle 'O choice for this year's foray
into Sports Car racing. And it appears that all of his dicking around ,
"will he, won't he?" Race in Sports Cars sees his vaunted Muscle Milk
team slated as the classes first alternate which hence, I believe means he
won't necessarily be racing this year?
As off the bat you'd have to say that the Level 5 Motorsports entry seems to
be the classes top Banana.
Meanwhile just noticed that Mercedes F1
"simulator Jockey" and 2013 GP2 championship runner-up Sam Bird has
signed a deal to contest the Daytona 24hrs, Sebring 12hrs and Petit Le Mans for
the Starworks team, so this could be a potential winner to watch for...
NOTE
On Jan 3, 2014 it was announced that Muscle Milk
Pickett Racing had joined forces with Nissan to become a NISMO Global partner
and will race its (LMP2-spec) Oreca prototype powered by a Nissan engine with last
year SFHR IndyCar rookie driver LucasLuhr
and Klaus Graf with Alex Brundle; Yeah, son of 1988 Rolex 24 and former F1
driver & Michael Schumacher team-mate Martin "billybob" Brundle
joining the Muscle Milk regulars at Daytona...
BIG BOYZ GT CLASS
(GTLM)
Reportedly there will be a dozen competitors
in the GTLM class with the likes of Aston's, Corvette's, Ferrari's, Porsche's
and SRT-Viper's mixing it up in the B-I-G BOYZ GT ranks on the high banks 'O
'DayToner. And while I'd like to see the lone Risi Competizone 458 Italia win,
I'm also pullin' for one of those nasty ARSE Dodge Viper's to pull off the
upset for GTLM class honours, although you probably should never bet against
the almighty Porsche 911 Panzerwagon, thee undisputed heavyweight stalwart of
round-the-clock racing, Ja Volt!
Yet if you're an IndyCar fan, then you'll definitely
wanna be rootin' for the #91 Dodge Viper which has just added 2012 Indy Car
Series champion RHR (Ryan Hunter-reay) to its driver line-up for the Rolex
24... And now I'm in a quandary over who to root for in this class, having just
learned that Ryan Briscoe will be partnering 'MAGS, aka Jan Magnussen and Antonio
Garcia in the #3 Corvette...
TEAM SEATTLE (GTD)
Was somewhat surprised to learn that Team
Seattle has jumped ship to AJR, nee Alex Job Racing while Dempsey Racing has
two entries in the class. Then again though, AJR is known for its championship
winning preparation, so look for the No. 23 Porsche 911 to kick Tail in this year's Rolex 24!
With Mario Farnbacher, Ian
James, Marco Holzer and Alex Riberas behind
it's controls.
PRE-RACE
PREDICTIONS
So now that I've previously posted my very quick "Roar Before the Rolex" post, NO real big surprise that the Corvette DP's, (P-class) Porsche's and Corvette Stingrays (GTLM-class_ were running up front. Yet being a sucker for Fords and the "little guys," I'll obviously be pulling for the#60 MSR entry with Negri, Pew, A.J. "#BIG SHOT" Allmendinger and Justin 'B-I-G UNIT Wilson at the controls. Not to mention the unlikely winning LMP2; Err No. 2 Extreme Speed Motorsports (ESM) HPD ARX-03b Honda P-Car entry featuring "Symone Pagenoe," (Simon Pagenaud) Johannes van Overbeek and Ed Brown, who just so happens to be the CEO of Tequila Patrón (Spirits) and co-owner of ESM along with Scott Sharp who'll be racing in the team's lead car #1 entry alongside Ryan "Razzle Dazzle" Dalziel and David Brabham...
As for the GT classes, naturally I've gotta
pull for my local Boyz, the two car Park Place entry, albeit I really can't say
I've ever heard of any of the drivers of either the #71 or #73 entries.
Also have
to root for the number 23 Alex Job Racing Porsche since its flying the
colours of Team Seattle this year, which Y'all can read more 'bout in;
Or check out this fantastic local charity which
pioneered the cash for laps completed donation scheme which has raised
$5.5-million for the outstanding work done by Seattle's Children's Hospital at;
While I'm also a sucker for the drivers behind the
wheel's of 'Meesh's favourite team owner "Booby Ruble's" (Rahal
Letterman Lanigan Racing) BMW Z4GTE's - with a handful of BAD ARSE 'Twisty Boyz
houndin' the competition with the likes of: Dirk Müller, Bill Auberlen, Joey Hand, John Edwards -
thee racer, not the politician; Hooah! And late to thee party Bobby's son
"Grahamcracker," aka Graham Rahal. As I'll just have to await the
results upon my return from the B-I-G island...
MULTI-MEDIA
Although didn't have time to confirm it this
year, I'm ARSE-sumin' that thee boys of Grab Bag Sports will be hosting their
yearly Daytona 24hrs Blogathon. So if you're looking for some crazy
interaction, and may be some THU-RILLIN' movie like last year's to watch along
with, then run on over to Grab
Bag Sports pronto
to see if they're indeed hosting their yearly Blogathon...
Also know that the race will be shown on the Fox
Sports-1 "terrestrial" television channel, which Y'all will need to
check your local listings for broadcast times, etc.
As
let thy engines roar!
