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Can one of the all Star Penske Acura DPi's win upon
Thar Debut at Daytona this year? (Image source: sportscar365.com)
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As will Team Penske win upon Thar DPi Debut? Or can
Scotty Sharp's ESM Nissan concern keep Thar winning streak intact?
DPi RUNNERS...
For last year's riveting No Fenders Rolex 24
Prototypes preview, I found seven entrants listed for the 55th running of the
24 Hours of Daytona, which I regaled Y'all in;
As it's always encouraging to see a racing
series new format or technical regulations package seeing increased growth in its
second year, as the Prototypes class has Mushroomed overall to Gasp; 21
entries! If I've done my ryth-Muh-tickin' correctly? While the manufacture derived Daytona
Prototype International *DPi( Class has increased its numbers by three, to a
total of ten with the addition of two Acura's and one more Caddy'.
Author's
Note
Having lavishly
been upon thou Californian & Oregon Trailz' for a fortnights time, I
haven't had a chance to read All Duh latest, dizzying Fodder pertaining to this
year's Rolex 24. Hence, I'm just jotting my first, preliminary thoughts that
come to mind upon researching this year's entrants...
ACURA (2)
Acura
ARX-05
Engine: 3.5-litre V-6 Turbo
Team: Acura Team Penske
#6) Juan Pablo Montoya, Dane Cameron and Simon Pagenaud
#7) Helio Castroneves, Ricky Taylor and Graham
Rahal
Surely most IndyCar Fans Attenzione will be squarely
focused upon El Capitano's, nee Roger Penske's latest foray into Sports Car
racing, after having wrassled the Hondre' Works programme away from Michael
Shank, in order to field his two car All Star lineup, featuring two of Indy's
Biggest names, i.e.; Castroneves & Montoya. While in typical Penske
tradition, Thars' NO weak links in the Driver selections, as "Symone
Pagenoe," nee Pageantry, aka simon Pagenaud and The Graminator', nee
Graham Rahal will contest the endurance events. With two of the past two year's
series championship winners filling out the ranks.
And although I'm
not expecting Penske to win this year's Rolex 24, since they've yet to run a
24hr Enduro' in race conditions, nonetheless, it's worth noting that Michael
Shank Racing with a similarly powered Ligier JS P2/Honda Prototype won the 2016
Petit Le Mans...
CADILLAC (4)
Cadillac
DPi VR
Engine: 5.5-litre normally aspirated V-8
Teams: Action Express Racing, Spirit of Daytona Racing and Wayne Taylor
Racing
#5) João
Barbosa, Filipe
Albuquerque and Christian Fittipaldi
#10) Jordan Taylor, Renger
van der Zande and Ryan Hunter-Reay
#31) Eric
Curran, Felipe Nasr,
Mike Conway and
Stuart Middleton
#90) Tristan Vautier, Matt McMurray and Eddie Cheever III
While Wayne Taylor Racing is the defending
Rolex 24 winner, that's about all that remains the same from last year, as
Thars' changes ah-plenty in the Caddy teams lineups en masse.
As Jordan Taylor's the only holdover from the
No. 10 Daytona and series winning Cadd-Oh-Lac' from last year, as his brother
Ricky's jumped ship to Penske and both RASSCAR' legend Jeffry "Pretty
Boy" Gordon and Max "the Ax" Angelelli are now enjoying their respective retirements
from racing.
Former Spirit of Daytona Racing chauffeurs Renger van der Zande
and "The Dude!" RHR, aka Ryan Hunter-Reay, the 2014 Indy 500 champion
will co-drive with Jordan, with van der Zande running the full
season.
Similarly, Action Express Racing's (AXR) two
car squad features "Tweaked" Driver Rosters. But don't count out AXR,
who after all have won three consecutive Daytona Prototype (DP) class titles
between 2014-16.
Twice with the formable Duo of JB', aka João Barbosa
and Christian Fittipaldi Jockeying Thar' familiar No. 5 "Mustang
Sally" Steed; Err Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPi, As João 's Countryman Filipe Albuquerque joins the Mustang racecar
cockpit Fulltime in 2018, with Fittipaldi taking on a new team role and just
contesting the endurance events.
The team's Seester' car #31 Welland
Engineering Caddy,
, the2016 series DP Champions with Dane Cameron
& Eric
Curran, saw Cameron depart for Acura Team Penske at the end of last year.
As
Curran will now be partnered by former Sauber F1 Pilote Felipe Nasr for the
season, while some Dude known as Mike "Ice-Ice,
Baby!" Conway returns for another crack at winning a Rolex watch. And
Stewart Middleton, winner of last year's Welland Engineering Challenge takes
the fourth seat as his prize.
Spirit of Daytona Racing campaigned the lone
Riley/Multimatic LMP2 Spec chassis last year, with van der Zande
& Mark Goosens as its drivers. But for this year's Weathertech SportsCar
season, the #90 will be a shiny new Cadillac VR racer instead, along with an
all new compliment of chauffeurs.
As ex-IndyCar driver Tristan Turbo' Vautier
joins the squad. Along with Matt McMurray, who formerly piloted a Porsche 911
in the GT Daytona class. With the interesting third Schue' being some Potato
Chip munchin' Indy 500 winner's son.
But most interesting to Mwah, for which I
wasn't awares' of, the Chevy; Err Cadillac's have had Thar' engine's
displacement downsized seven-tenths of a litre, now sporting the same engine as
the Corvette Racing GT Le Mans cars?
MAZDA (2)
Mazda
RT24P
Engine: 2.0-litre Inline-4 turbo
Team: Mazda Team Joest
#55) Jonathan Bomarito, Harry Tincknell and Spencer Pigot
#77) Tristan Nunez, Oliver Jarvis and
Rene Rast
This is the Daytona Prototype International
Team I'm most curious about, even more so than Penske's, as Mazda's massively
revamped their DPi programme. Most notably by effectively re-designing their
chassis, along with switching race teams last year, from Speedsource Engineering
to Europe's Team Joest, who are well known for winning le 24 Heurs du Mans
outright many times; Ja volt!
Thus the majority of the Driver Ranks are new
recruits with just Bomarito & Nunez being Holdovers, whilst once again FAST
EDDIE's' (ECR) lead Gunslinger Spencer Pigot will Moonlight at this year's
Rolex 24.
NISSAN (2)
Nissan
Onroak DPi
Engine: 3.8-litre V-6 turbo
Team: Extreme Speed Motorsports
#2) Scott Sharp, Ryan
Dalziel and Olivier Pla
22) Johannes van Overbeek, Pipo Derani and Nicolas Lapierre
The Tequila Patron ESM Nissan Squad's coming
off a 1-2 finish at last year's season finale Petit Le Mans with the bulk of its
driver core intact, along with a past driver returning to the fold, nee Olivier
Pla. As the only new Schue is this Lapierre Chap, who's name sounds somewhat
familiar to Mwah.
As the Nissan's theoretically should be Cadillac's
fiercest rival for victory, while the verdict's still out upon the Acura's, and
the Mazda's are the Dark Horses in the DPi contingent...