SPEED,
FOX Sports Team Again To Offer Unprecedented Coverage of the Rolex 24
At Daytona
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.
(December 19, 2007) – For the second consecutive
year, motorsports fans across the nation will be able to catch Grand-Am
Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16 stars
battle with and against racing superstars from around the world on
network television as SPEED and FOX Sports will combine to offer 17
hours of television coverage from the 46th Rolex 24 At Daytona January
26-27.
At 1:00 p.m. ET on Saturday, January
26, the Rolex Sports Car Series will hit the national FOX Sports
airwaves for 90 minutes of coverage from the “World Center of
Racing.” Bob Varsha will host coverage for both the FOX and
SPEED coverage, joined in the booth by former racers David Hobbs and
Dorsey Schroeder, who will provide analysis, and Leigh Diffey, who will
deliver play-by-play. Brian Till, Calvin Fish, Chris Neville and Andrew
Marriott will be reporting from the Daytona International Speedway pit
lane.
In addition to the network coverage,
the first 90 minutes of the event will be simulcast on the 1,400-square
foot News Astrovision by Panasonic Screen prominently located at One
Times Square in New York.
“The Rolex 24 has
re-emerged as the event I fell in love with when I first
covered it for television in the early '80's,”
Varsha said. “Back then, everyone, and I mean
everyone, converged on Daytona in January to shake off the
winter blues. Why that magic went away is a long story,
but Grand-Am has recaptured it.”
SPEED’s coverage of the
Rolex 24 will encompass two parts totaling 15.5 hours of coverage. Part
1 airs from 2:30 to 10:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, January 26,
with programming returning to SPEED on the morning of Sunday, January
27 beginning at 6:00 a.m. ET and continuing through the checkered flag
and post-race interviews.
The 17 hours of coverage is a
two-hour increase from last season.
“A return to FOX Sports is obviously a positive addition to
the outstanding SPEED coverage for the Grand-Am Rolex Series and the
Rolex 24,” said Grand-Am President Roger Edmondson.
“We continue to believe that the Rolex Series is the most
exciting road racing anywhere in the world, and feel certain that the
viewers who see the race on FOX and carry over to the SPEED coverage
will feel the same.”
The Rolex 24 At Daytona will feature
Rolex Series champions such as Alex Gurney, Jon Fogarty, Scott Pruett,
Wayne Taylor, Max Angelelli and Jorg Bergmeister racing wheel-to-wheel
with NASCAR champions Jimmie Johnson and Kurt Busch, Indy 500 winners
Helio Castroneves, Dario Franchitti, Dan Wheldon and Buddy Rice and
defending Rolex 24 Champions (co-driving with Pruett) Juan Pablo
Montoya – also a former Indy 500 Champion – and
Salvador Duran.
Along with the television coverage,
SPEEDtv.com will offer exclusive insightful Rolex Sports Car Series
news and analysis from testing to the checkered flag at the Rolex 24,
plus behind the scenes reports and driver blogs, photo galleries and
more, updated throughout the event.
The Grand American Road Racing
Association, which operates and sanctions the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car
Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16 and the Grand-Am KONI
Challenge Series, is the premier road racing organization in North
America. The 15-race 2008 Rolex Series and the 11-race KONI Challenge
Series calendars deliver professional sports car racing to key markets
throughout North America in addition to being televised in the United
States and Canada on SPEED and distributed globally through ESPN
International. With title sponsorship support from Rolex Watch USA and
presenting sponsorship from Crown Royal Cask No. 16, the Rolex Series
showcases emerging and legendary drivers from around the globe and
thoroughbred racing machines from the industry's leading constructors
and the world's top automobile manufacturers. Learn more about Grand-Am
at www.grand-am.com.
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