 Stars Converge on Season-Opening Rolex
24 At Daytona For Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (January 22, 2008)
– Racing stars from around the world will converge on the
“World Center of Racing” this weekend with the 46th
running of the Rolex 24 At Daytona for the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car
Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16, the top endurance race in
North America and the official start to the 2008 international
motorsports calendar.
Defending
race winners Scott Pruett, Juan Pablo Montoya and Salvador Duran return
to the twice-around-the-clock classic – which starts at 1:30
p.m. ET Saturday (1 p.m. ET on FOX Sports; 2:30 p.m. ET on SPEED;
Sunday – 6 a.m. ET on SPEED) – looking for their
second consecutive wins specifically and third straight for team owners
Chip Ganassi and Felix Sabates.
The 2004
Rolex Series co-champion Pruett and Montoya – the 2000
Indianapolis 500 winner, Formula One star and current NASCAR Sprint Cup
driver – will share the No. 01 TELMEX/Target Chip Ganassi
Racing with Felix Sabates Lexus Riley with Pruett’s
season-long teammate Memo Rojas and reigning Indianapolis 500 winner
Dario Franchitti. Duran, meanwhile, will compete in the No. 02
Target/TELMEX Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Lexus Riley with
the teams’ third Indy winner Dan Wheldon, former IndyCar
Series titlist Scott Dixon and 2007 Indy Pro Series champ Alex Lloyd.
Pruett and
his No. 01 team finished second in their championship standings last
season to Bob Stallings Racing and the No. 99 GAINSCO Pontiac/Riley
team with co-champions Alex Gurney and Jon Fogarty. Gurney, who set the
Daytona Prototype track qualifying record last season at 1:43.375, and
Fogarty will try to capture the only major prize which eluded them last
season with two-time defending NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Jimmie
Johnson and 1996 Champ Car World Series titlist Jimmy Vasser.
The No. 10
SunTrust Racing Pontiac Riley team finished third in points in 2007 and
finished third in last year’s Rolex 24 despite running five
laps behind the leader’s pace at one point. Lead driver Max
Angelelli returns to the team with newcomer Michael Valiante and the
father/son duo of Wayne Taylor and 18-year-old Ricky Taylor, who is
making his first appearance in the race.
Wayne
Taylor is also involved in the No. 9 Penske-Taylor Racing Toshiba
Pontiac Riley team, who boasts two-time Indianapolis 500 winner and
Dancing With The Stars titlist Helio Castroneves, his Penske IndyCar
Series teammate Ryan Briscoe and 2004 NASCAR Sprint Cup champ Kyle
Busch. All three have made previous appearances in the Rolex 24.
Ford
Racing has increased its involvement in the Rolex Series for 2008 and
will power four cars in the Rolex 24, all with all-star lineups. Among
those in the Michael Shank Racing stable are AJ Allmendinger (No. 6)
and Justin Wilson and Graham Rahal (No. 60). Wilson, Allmendinger and
team regulars Oswaldo Negri and Mark Patterson took the No. 60 machine
to second overall in 2006, while team regulars Ian James and John Pew
as well as series regular Burt Frisselle look to run up front again
this season.
Another
Ford-powered team, the No. 61 AIM Autosport Ford Riley, will see NASCAR
Craftsman Truck Series driver and former Rolex Series regular Colin
Braun and defending NASCAR Canadian Tire Series champ Andrew Ranger
join team regulars Mark Wilkins and Brian Frisselle. The team finished
fifth in last year’s race.
IndyCar
Series team Vision Racing has put together a last-minute effort for its
regulars A.J. Foyt IV, Ed Carpenter, John Andretti, Vitor Meira and
team owner Tony George. Foyt, Carpenter and George debuted last season,
Meira is a rookie and Andretti was a co-winner in the 1989 race.
SAMAX also
fielded an IndyCar Series team in 2007, but the team has been a staple
in Rolex Series competition for many seasons and has again put together
a two-car effort for the Rolex 24. The team’s No. 11 Pontiac
Riley finished second in last year’s race with entered
drivers Milka Duno and Ryan Dalziel, who will share the car with Tomas
Enge and Harold Primat.
SAMAX’s
No. 2 Pontiac Riley has European pilots Allan McNish and former Rolex
Series regulars Lucas Luhr and Mike Rockenfeller along with Henri
Zogaib.
Five-time
Rolex 24 winner Hurley Haywood returns for his 35th start in the race
and is one of the lead drivers in the No. 59 Brumos Porsche Riley, also
a former race winner. His teammates include JC France, Joao Barbosa and
Terry Borcheller. The car finished fourth in last year’s
race. The team’s No. 58 car includes team regulars David
Donohue and Darren Law as well as 2004 Indianapolis 500 champion Buddy
Rice.
Other
Rolex 24 champions in Daytona Prototype competition include Fabio
Babini (No. 16 Cheever Racing Pontiac Fabcar), Johnny
O’Connell (No. 91 Bob Stallings/Riley-Matthews Motorsports
Pontiac Riley) and Andy Wallace (No. 23 Ruby Tuesday Championship
Racing Team Porsche Crawford).
Two former
Rolex 24-winning teams have entered a pair of seven car efforts to
bolster one of the most diverse GT fields in event history. TRG and
Farnbacher Loles Motorsports will field 14 Porsche-powered machines of
the 42 GT entries in a class that packs the series’ and
sports car racing’s top names.
In all,
entrants made up of Pontiac GXP.R, Ford Mustang, Mazda RX-8, Porsche
GT3, Corvette, Ferrari 430 and BMW M6 race cars will be gunning for GT
supremacy in the Rolex 24.
Horst
Farnbacher and Greg Loles put together a championship-winning team in
2007 and welcomes back Rolex Series GT class champion driver Dirk
Werner for 2008. Werner’s season-long No. 87 Farnbacher Loles
Porsche GT3 teammate Dominik Farnbacher won the 2006 Rolex 24 in GT
with Wolf Henzler, who will compete in the No. 86 Farnbacher Loles
Porsche GT3. 2006 Daytona Prototype champion Jörg Bergmeister
(No. 86) and Pierre Ehret and Timo Bernhard (No. 87) have also been on
Rolex 24 winning teams, while fellow German Sascha Maassen is among the
many Porsche factory drivers on hand to compete in the Rolex 24.
The team
is also comprised of a third fulltime car, the No. 88 Porsche GT, with
Dave Lacey, Greg Wilkins, Pierre Kaffer and Frank Stippler, two Team
Seattle cars and two additional machines from the U.S. and Italy
competing only in the Rolex 24. Former Rolex 24 class winners Luca
Drudi and Gabrio Rosa will pilot the No. 89.
Kevin
Buckler’s TRG team also features stout lineups throughout the
team’s seven-car effort. The 2002 GT and 2003 overall Rolex
24 winning stable is led by the No. 66 Mitchell Rubber/Marquis Jet
Porsche GT3, with fulltime drivers Bryce Miller and Ted Ballou,
longtime TRG hotshoe Andy Lally and Richard Westbrook. Romain Dumas and
2005 Rolex 24 co-winner Emmanuel Collard join Tim George Jr., Bryan
Sellers and Spencer Pumpelly in the No. 67 TRG Porsche GT3.
Jim Pace,
a co-winner overall in 1996, anchors the No. 64 Globus/Adopt A Pig
Porsche GT3, along with Johannes van Overbeek, Jim Lowe, RJ Valentine
and Tim Sugden, while sports car legend Jack Baldwin will co-pilot the
No. 62 Burtin Engineering Porsche GT3 with Claudio Burtin, Martin
Ragginger, Scott Tucker and Ed Zabinski. The Nos. 63, 65 and 68 are
also entered.
Neither of
those teams, however, has Rolex 24 bragging rights. Those accolades sit
with Alegra Motorsports/Fiorano Racing, which has two cars entered this
season. Defending race winners Carlos de Quesada, Marc Basseng and
Scooter Gabel return to the race, spread among the Nos. 22 and 29
Gaterade/TodayMD.com Porsche GT3s. Also entered is Louis-Philippe
Dumoulin, brother of the fourth 2007 winner, Jean-Francois Dumoulin.
Jean-Francois
Dumoulin is now with Blackforest Motorsports and will compete in the
No. 15 USG Sheetrock/DeWalt Tools Ford Mustang with Tom Nastasi, Boris
Said and David Empringham, one of two Blackforest entries.
Other
teams winning races in 2007 included Banner Racing and SpeedSource with
three victories each. Banner was second in last year’s Rolex
24 with Kelly Collins, Paul Edwards and 2004 co-winner Andy Pilgrim,
and the trio welcomes Jan Magnussen to the No. 07 Pontiac GXP.R in
2008. The No. 06 Banner Racing entry will be piloted by Edwards,
Pilgrim, Robert Nearn, Marc Bunting and team owner Leighton Reese.
SpeedSource,
in turn, has team owner Sylvain Tremblay, Nick Ham, David Haskell and
Raphael Matos in the No. 70 Castrol Syntec/Mazdaspeed RX-8, while Emil
Assentato, Nick Longhi, Jeff Segal and Lonnie Pechnik will share the
No. 69 FXDD Mazda RX-8.
Other top GT pilots include 2004 Daytona Prototype
co-champion and 2002 Rolex 24 overall winner Max Papis (No. 72 Autohaus
Motorsports Pontiac GXP.R), Robert Doornbos (No. 81 Synergy Racing
Porsche GT3) and Ron Zitza (No. 17 Terra Firma Motorsports Millenia
Fine Art Porsche GT3), who co-won the 2000 Rolex 24 in the AGT class
and 2002 SPRII Rolex 24 winner Anthony Lazzaro (No. 14 Autometrics
Motorsports Mac Papers Porsche GT3).
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