Race Car Stuff

Berny Herrera of Rotarynews.com sent me a list of all of the RX7 finishes at the Rolex 24 (and 24 Hours of Daytona before the title sponsor). I knew the RX7’s had a great history at this event, but I had forgotten exactly how successful. I remember the first car in the first year of production, and I remember the Firestone sponsored car driven by Lee Meuller, and the Malibu Grand Prix car of Tommy Kendall.

Here is the list of results for the cars. For those of you who don’t know, the SA22C RX7 is the unique 78-80 car, the FB is the 81-85, the FC is the 86-92, and the FD is the 93-99 car. Check out the success:

*****
1979
RX-7(SA)-Overall: 5th / In Class: 1st GTU
RX-7(SA)-Overall: 6th / In Class: 2nd GTU

1980
RX-7(SA)-Overall: 7th / In Class: 3rd GTU

1981
RX-7(FB)-Overall: 5th / In Class: 1st GTU
RX-7(FB)-Overall: 9th / In Class: 4th GTU
RX-7(FB)-Overall: 10th / In Class: 5th GTU
RX-7(FB)-Overall: 11th / In Class: 6th GTU

1982
RX-7(FB)-Overall: 4th / In Class: 1st GTO
RX-7(FB)-Overall: 6th / In Class: 1st GTU
RX-7(FB)-Overall: 7th / In Class: 2nd GTU
RX-7(FB)-Overall: 10th / In Class: 3rd GTU

1983
RX-7(FB)-Overall: 3rd / In Class: 1st GTO
RX-7(FB)-Overall: 12th / In Class: 1st GTU
RX-7(FB)-Overall: 17th / In Class: 3rd GTU

1984
RX-7(FB)-Overall: 12th / In Class: 1st GTU
RX-7(FB)-Overall: 14th / In Class: 3rd GTO
RX-7(FB)-Overall: 18th / In Class: 3rd GTU

1985
RX-7(FB)-Overall: 11th / In Class: 2nd GTO
RX-7(FB)-Overall: 12th / In Class: 1st GTU
RX-7(FB)-Overall: 18th / In Class: 2nd GTU

1986
RX-7(FB)-Overall: 7th / In Class: 1st GTU
RX-7(FB)-Overall: 10th / In Class: 2nd GTU
RX-7(FB)-Overall: 18th / In Class: 4th GTU

1987
RX-7(FC)-Overall: 10th / In Class: 1st GTU
RX-7(FB)-Overall: 13th / In Class: 2nd GTU
RX-7(FC)-Overall: 19th / In Class: 6th GTO
RX-7(FB)-Overall: 23rd / In Class: 4th GTU
RX-7(FB)-Overall: 27th / In Class: 5th GTU
RX-7(FB)-Overall: 28th / In Class: 6th GTU

1988
RX-7(FC)-Overall: 15th / In Class: 1st GTU
RX-7(FC)-Overall: 16th / In Class: 3rd GTO
RX-7(FB)-Overall: 19th / In Class: 4th GTU
RX-7(FB)-Overall: 34th / In Class: 7th GTU
RX-7(FC)-Overall: 35th / In Class: 8th GTU

1989
RX-7(FC)-Overall: 11th / In Class: 5th GTO
RX-7(FC)-Overall: 12th / In Class: 1st GTU
RX-7(FC)-Overall: 14th / In Class: 3rd GTU
RX-7(FB)-Overall: 21st / In Class: 6th GTU

1990
RX-7(FC)-Overall: 7th / In Class: 2nd GTO
RX-7(FC)-Overall: 12th / In Class: 1st GTU
RX-7(FC)-Overall: 15th / In Class: 3rd GTU
MX-6 (Rotary)-Overall: 16th / In Class: 4th GTU

1991
RX-7(FC)-Overall: 13th / In Class: 1st GTU
RX-7(FC)-Overall: 14th / In Class: 5th GTO
MX-6 (Rotary)-Overall: 15th / In Class: 2nd GTU
RX-7(FC)-Overall: 16th / In Class: 3rd GTU
RX-7(FC)-Overall: 26th / In Class: 6th GTU

1992
RX-7(FC)-Overall: 7th / In Class: 1st GTU
MX-6 (Rotary)-Overall: 21st / In Class: 7th GTU
MX-6 (Rotary)-Overall: 36th / In Class: 11th GTU

1993
RX-7(FC)-Overall: 9th / In Class: 1st GTU
MX-6 (Rotary)-Overall: 31st / In Class: 6th GTU

1994
RX-7(FC)-Overall: 26th / In Class: 6th GTU
RX-7(FC)-Overall: 36th / In Class: 18th GTU
RX-7(FC)-Overall: 42nd / In Class: 21st GTO

1995
RX-7(FC)-Overall: 14th / In Class: 7th GTS-2
RX-7(FC)-Overall: 47th / In Class: 17th GTS-2
MX-6 (Rotary)-Overall: 50th / In Class: 18th GTS-2
MX-6 (Rotary)-Overall: 66th / In Class: 23rd GTS-2

1996
RX-7(FD)-Overall: 21st / In Class: 12th GTS-2
RX-7(FD)-Overall: 42nd / In Class: 22nd GTS-2

1997
RX-7(FD)-Overall: 55th / In Class: 23rd GTS-3
RX-7(FD)-Overall: 59th / In Class: 24th GTS-3

1999
RX-7(FD)-Overall: 60th / In Class: 28th GT3

2000
RX-7(FD)-Overall: 59th / In Class: 27th GT

The race is all over now. Dan Wheldon, Scott Dixon, and Casey Mears won the race with a record distance of 734 laps around the Daytona track. The No. 60 Flight Options Lexus Riley of Oswaldo Negri Jr., Mark Patterson and Champ Car World Series teammates A.J. Allmendinger and Justin Wilson was second one lap behind.

The teammates of the winning car driven by Scott Pruett, Max Papis and Luis Diaz had alternator problem after the first hour. They went to the garage for repairs, but returned and worked their way back to the lead. But the engine failed shortly before daybreak dropping the car from the race to an eventual 39th place finish.

The car making the mark was the number 23 Porsche Crawford for Alex Job Racing/Emory Motorsports. Lucas Luhr started the car from the pole position, and Luhr and his fellow Porsche factory drivers Mike Rockenfeller and Patrick Long were certainly one of the race’s many powerhouse driver lineups. The car was forced to the garage for the first time in the race’s third hour with suspension problems, dropping seven laps off the pace and into 17th place overall. Once the car returned to the track, however, it was clear that the Porsche Crawford was the quickest race car on the circuit and the car began making up laps, finally taking advantage of the next to last lap flat tire of the number 58 Porsche Crawford of Darren Law, David Donohue and Sascha Maassen, to earn a Podium 3rd place finish.

In the GT class the No. 36 TPC Superchargers Porsche GT3 completed 691 of the 734 overall laps to take the GT class win in the Rolex 24 At Daytona for TPC Racing, a perfect start to the 13-race season for team owner/driver Michael Levitas and co-drivers Randy Pobst, Spencer Pumpelly and Ian Baas.

The Speedsource RX8 of Sylvan Tremblay, Jeff Altenburg and Haskell led in the early going, but seemed to suffer from new car development problems, resulting in an retirement from overheating.

For a full play by play of the race:

Race notes from the Rolex 24

My general thoughts of the race are that it was a great race, with a very close finish by 24-hour race standards. The teams decided the race. It could have very easily been one way or the other based on the work of the team and crews in the pits and garages.

More importantly the field of car and the crowd of spectators was the best in years if not since the start of the event. There was no pacing or sandbagging by any of the teams. The pace was constant with many teams running times equal to qualifying pace.

I have been watching the coverage of the Rolex 24 with great interest. Apparently so have many other racing fans. I have always been a fan of prototype sports cars. My favorite racecars are probably the successful Ford GT40’s of the 60’s. They were incredible cars for their time. Much of their technology is still current. The thing that is often forgotten is that these beautiful racecars had their street counterparts. They may have been the last prototype racecar that could be practically driven as a street car. They could actually drive over a small speed bump in a workplace parking lot. There were a few that were driven more or less as daily drivers. Edsel Ford used to drive one after they had become collectable. He could probably have any car ever built, but chose a GT40 as a young man.

Prototypes have raced in various racing series over the years. The cars usually look fairly consistent, swoopy coupes with two seats, narrow rooflines, etc. The prototypes have remained, but the race sanctioning bodies have swapped in and out like a revolving door. The true reason for this is the simple fact that this form of racing is difficult to maintain from a business point of view. The cars were very expensive and unfortunately the number of fans, the media attention, and the costs of the cars just never seemed to work out. The media coverage in the magazines was good, but when a fan went to a race, saw that there were really 4 cars that had a chance to win, and a total field of maybe 8 cars, plus a bunch of production based field fillers, that became moving obstacles for the fastest prototypes. The cars were neat and very cool to see the design, engineering, and complexity. But you could see all of that in a museum display. The racing was usually pretty boring. It was great to see cars that turned laps as quickly as some of these cars, but that was just as interesting in a practice session as it was in the race.

Bottom line is the sanctioning body had a tough time promoting the races. With small crowd, payouts were small. The series would often become a hobby for rich guys. Without the true professional drivers the crowds would get even smaller. It was difficult to watch the IMSA races the year the two Toyotas would sandbag and still out qualify the field by several seconds. Toyota soon learned that there was little to be gained from its backing of such events.

Then a couple of years ago the GrandAm series developed the Daytona Prototype rules. They were joked and ridiculed as not being as complex as the “true” prototypes in the ALMS series. The first year the fields were thin, but the racing was close, and there were some true professional racers driving the cars. These cars were fast, they looks like true prototype couples, and they had some recognizable parts that connected them to the street Porsches, Toyotas, Fords and Pontiacs. After the first few races there were rumors of just about every racing team involved in sports cars building one. Many of these turned out to be rumors, but quite a large number of cars did materialize.

This past season the Daytona Prototypes could fill a field by themselves, without the need for a large field of production based GT cars to make a race worth watching. The racing was good, some of the best drivers in the country and the world made their way to the series.

Which brings us to this year’s Rolex 24 at Daytona. The series had attracted enough attention in the previous season that it seemed that many championship caliber drivers from other racing series were looking for a ride to be a part of he 24 hour race. GrandAm is claiming that there are 73 professional racing series champions driving in the Rolex 24, including the current NASCAR Nextel Cup champ, the IRL Champ, the Champ Car World Series champ. Not to mention numerous past champions in each of these series. This should make the Rolex 24 an interesting and successful race.

That is good for the one race, but the GrandAm has an entire season to present. I have seen entry lists that included many cars before in these series, but often many of the cars turned out to be air cars for whatever reason. They were on the entry list, but never on the track. Reading the qualifying list, there are a full 29 Daytona Prototypes that qualified. They all qualified well with no field fillers. The top 25 cars qualified within 2 seconds, all faster than the fastest of the GT cars. This is a nice entry, but qualifying at a 24-hour race doesn’t mean much. Granted it does not mean much for this race, but it does show that this is a very strong and competitive series for the season.

All of these point to it being possible that this might be the best 24 hour race ever at Daytona. It also has all of the things necessary for a fantastic season in GrandAm racing. It could be the best season ever of prototype racing, no matter what the alphabet soup name of the sanctioning body.

Toyota revealed its initial team lineup of Bill Davis Racing (whom, it should be said, Toyota has helped rejuvenate), Michael Waltrip, and a team with a major international backer (Red Bull?) but little more than a building so far.

Penske and Ganassi have both had past associations with Toyota in American open wheel, and Penske is America’s top Toyota dealer. Both camps say they are set with Dodge for the near future and have no immediate plans to change brands. There is much speculation that either or both could jump to the Toyota camp.

Toyota apparently plans to field 3 teams with six drivers in 2007, but Toyota’s Jim Aust said that with four makes competing, he expected eventually to have one-fourth of the teams in the paddock. That allows a lot of room for speculation for which other teams may align with Toyota.

There is much speculation that Toyota’s jump into the Nextel Cup Series of NASCAR will finally force the hand of Honda, which so far has been diffident to stock-car racing.

In an event that symbolizes the end of the winter off-season in the US, Lucas Luhr won the pole Today for the Rolex 24 endurance race at Daytona International Speedway with a lap of at 123.230 mph driving the No. 23 Alex Job Racing/Emory Motorsports Porsche Crawford. Mike Rockenfeller and Patrick Long will serve as Luhr’s co-drivers for the 24 hour race that starts Saturday.

Max Angelelli, the defending Rolex 24 champion, had the second fastest but was disqualified for a techincal infraction. 2003 Indy Racing League IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon moved to second on the starting grid with a best lap at 122.513 mph in the No. 02 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Lexus Riley. Dixon will share the car with 2005 IndyCar champion and Indianapolis 500 winner Dan Wheldon, and NASCAR regular Casey Mears.

Here is a complete list of qualifiers:

GrandAm qualifying for the Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway

After a very short retirement, Rusty Wallace has signed with ABC and ESPN to be the lead auto racing analyst. This will start with next month’s Daytona 500 and continue into the 2007 season, when ABC/ESPN will cover 17 NASCAR Nextel Cup race weekends. Until that time Wallace will spend his time covering the Indy Racing League races for ABC.

Well it was made official today that Toyota will be entering the top series of NASCAR in 2007. Toyota will be the first non-North American entry into the top levels of NASCAR racing. Toyota started in the Goody’s Dash Series with officicial support in 2000, even though privateers had competed in Toyotas for many years. Then in 2004 they entered the Craftsman Truck Series with a program that was run differently than any other NASCAR had experieced. They were not imediately successful, but have since done quite well in the series.

The ALMS cars took to the track today at Sebring International Raceway. The Audi R10 LMP1 was the star of the show. It is the turbo diesel powered endurance racer. Driver Frank Biela jumped out of the car after his first session and explaimed “It’s just like an Audi.”

Apparently the R10 was run alongside a Porsche RS Spyder LMP2 car as somewhat of a benchmark. The Porsche was currently faster, but that is expected to change as the development cycle continues on the Audi.

Team PTG was also in attendance with its two factory BMW M3s, the first GT2S cars to turn a wheel so far.