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News From the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship - Rolex 24 at Daytona 2014
A new beginning for 2014
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WHO IS GOING TO CHASE DOWN THE CHAMPS?
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s the world’s premier sport car makers roll out their latest GT artillery, the Rolex 24 at Daytona entry list for the GT Le Mans class is a who’s who in GT sports car racing: Aston Martin, BMW, Corvette, Ferrari, Porsche and SRT Viper. Each enters 2014 with a storied history, a powerful line-up and a strong team as evidenced by the fact that all six manufacturers celebrated 2013 victories in the predecessor American Le Mans Series or FIA World Endurance Championship It is an axiom in sports that to be the champ, one must beat the champ. That makes Corvette Racing, home to both the 2012 and 2013 ALMS champions the ones to beat in 2014. With nine wins in the final 19 ALMS races, Pratt and Miller extracted great performances from its highly developed pair of Corvette C6.Rs. Now, the team enters 2014 competition with the exciting new Corvette Stingray C7.Rs, cars that will turn their first race miles here in the Rolex 24 at Daytona race. The new Corvettes have been testing on track since a surprise appearance at the Monterey Reunion in August, but testing and simulations are not the same
as racing and a 24 Hour race is an especially difficult opening act. Porsche also debuts new cars as it launches a new Porsche North America factory team with CORE autosport. An impressive 1-2 finish at Le Mans last June leaves little doubt that the latest 911s are well developed and proven at this distance. Poised for another title run after a pair of victories in its inaugural season with the Z4 in 2013, are the 2010-2011 ALMS champions from BMW Team RLL - led by Bobby Rahal and Jay Connell. A championship run is exactly what the SRT Viper team has in mind for 2014. The Bill Riley led team had a breakout season in 2013, with three poles and its first win since returning to competition in mid-2012. Ferrari is always a major threat, especially at the longer races. The Ferrari 458 Italia from mega successful Risi Competizione Ferrari of Houston will be a formidable competitor. The team came on strongly in the final events of 2013, claiming a victory at VIR and the pole at Road Atlanta. Joining the Daytona party is the Aston Martin factory team from Britain’s famed Prodrive team with the stunning and quick Aston Martin Vantage. With six prestigious marques, including five full-on factory teams, and outstanding engineers and drivers, no one can afford to go a lap down, so expect them to be in total attack mode for the entire 24 Hours. What a great way to start the 2014 season. And, yes, race fans definitely want some of this!
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2013 GTLM DRIVER LINE-UPS ASTON Turner Lamy Mucke Stanaway Dalla Lana CORVETTE Magnussen Garcia Gavin Milner Briscoe Liddell
BMW Mueller Priaulx Auberlen Edwards Hand Martin Rahal Werner FERRARI Malucelli Fisichella Bruni Beretta
PORSCHE Tandy Lietz Long Christensen Bergmeister Pilet SRT Farnbacher Goossens Bomarito Wittmer Hunter-Reay Bell
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W E L C O M E T O D AY T O N A
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Where Y’all From?
here will be a heavy accent on the “International” at the Daytona International Speedway for the 2014 Rolex 24 at Daytona. The massive 68-car TUDOR United SportsCar Championship field with over 200 drivers includes drivers from more than two dozen countries. The diverse field of manufacturers, teams and drivers reflects both the importance of the Rolex 24 at Daytona and the prestige of the Daytona International Speedway. Adding a major boost for 2014 is the launch of the TUDOR Championship that has created new excitement for manufacturers, teams, drivers and fans. The 11-car GT Le Mans class alone includes drivers from 14 different countries. Some driver line-ups are nationalistic, with most of the drivers coming from the same country. This can be based upon team experience, sponsor preferences and even language. The Risi Competizione Ferrari provides considerable Italian flair with stars Matteo Malucelli, Giancarlo Fisichella and Gimi Bruni.
Others take a global view. For example, the two Corvette Racing GTLM class cars have six drivers from six different countries; U.S.A. (Tommy Milner), England (Oliver Gavin), Denmark (Jan Magnussen), Spain (Antonio Garcia), Australia (Ryan Briscoe) and Scotland (Robin Liddell). The SRT Viper factory squad, includes Americans Jonathan Bomarito and Ryan Hunter-Reay, Canadian Kuno Wittmer, Germany’s Dominik Farnbacher, Belgium’s Marc Goossens, and Britain’s’ Rob Bell. Aston Martin Racing’s squad has Portugal’s Pedro Lamy, Britain’s Darren Turner, Germany’s Stefan Mucke, Canadian Paul Dalla Lana and New Zealand’s Richie Stanaway. The new Porsche North America GTLM factory team is anchored by American Patrick Long, with teammates, Michael Christensen of Denmark, Joerg Bergmeister of Germany, Austria’s Richard Lietz, UK’s Nick Tandy and Patrick Pilet of France. BMW Team RLL counters with Americans Bill Auberlen, Joey Hand, John Edwards and Graham Rahal who are joined by Germany’s Dirk Mueller
and Dirk Werner, Belgium’s Maxime Martin and Andy Priaulx of Normandy, Guernsey, a British protectorate. As a North American championship, the series sees a majority of drivers from the U.S., Canada and Mexico. They are joined by drivers from Argentina, Brazil, Columbia and Venezuela. There is also a very strong European contingent with drivers from Austria, Belgium, England, Ireland, Scotland, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, The Netherlands, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Portugal, Spain, Monaco, and Russia. Asia rings in with China, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. Why such a diverse field? True racers seek out the best competition and the more manufacturers and top teams seek to enter a championship, the greater the demand for top drivers. As one team manager puts it, “it doesn’t matter where you are from as long as you are quick.”
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CHANGE IS E C
hange is in the air, in the paddock, and on the track at Daytona International Speedway for the Rolex 24 at Daytona in 2014. The inaugural event of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship merges the “best of the best” from the GRAND-AM and American Le Mans Series into a new, unified championship. The overwhelming response from manufacturers, teams, sponsors and fans has produced great anticipation. The defending race champions from Target Chip Ganassi Racing have made a big change as the TCGR entries are now Ford EcoBoost powered. Scott Pruett seeks an unprecedented sixth Rolex 24 win. Former winner Michael Shank Racing is also powered by the turbocharged Ford V6 EcoBoost. A powerful line-up of Corvette DP’s dominated the recent Roar Before the 24 testing with Action Express, Wayne Taylor, GAINSCO Bob Stalling’s Racing and the Spirit of Daytona entries all impressive. Marsh Racing Corvette has also moved up from GT to Prototype competition for 2014.
The familiar DPs will take on new Prototype challengers from Honda, Nissan and Mazda. Adding to the excitement is the arrival of the 2012-2013 ALMS P1 champions from Muscle Milk Pickett Racing which debuts a new ORECA-Nissan package for Klaus Graf and Lucas Luhr. European stalwart Oak Racing also goes with Nissan power in its Morgan. Scott Sharp’s Patrón-sponsored ESM Hondas are well developed and drivers here include Ryan Dalziel, David Brabham and Simon Pagenaud. Mazda has a pair of stunning new prototypes powered by the new Mazda SkyActive diesel. Sylvain Tremblay’s SpeedSource team leads the development that looks to build upon his team’s success in GT. Certainly the most distinctive car on the track will be the radical DeltaWing prototype. The ultra-narrow nosed car has shown consistent performance and handling in a wide range of conditions. With speed differentials between the classes and variations as to where on the track each has advantages or deficits, traffic is expected to be an important factor. Pit stops, race strategies and avoiding contact will all be important as the field is exceptionally deep.
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EVERYWHERE Prototype Challenge (PC)
GT Le Mans (GTLM)
GT Daytona (GTD)
New for 2014 is the PC (Prototype Challenge) class featuring single specification Chevy powered ORECA prototype chassis. With identical cars the competition is always close and teamwork and driver performance are key to success. The PC class provides strong performance for the dollar and its mandated combination of professional and sportsmen drivers is an attractive package for teams. Peter Baron’s Starworks, the BAR 1, Level 5 Motorsports, and Enzo Potolicchio‘s 8 Star team are all top contenders. ALMS 2013 PC class driver champion Mike Guasch is aboard the PR1/Mathiasen entry, while the threetime defending team champion CORE autosport squad has Colin Braun paired with team owner Jon Bennett.
One of the highlights of the new TUDOR Championship is the arrival, virtually intact, of the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class featuring factory teams from Aston Martin, BMW, Corvette, Porsche North America and SRT Viper, together with the powerful Risi Competizione Ferrari squad. (See page 2)
The largest class in the race is GT Daytona (GTD) featuring professional/sportsmen drivers in a wide range of GT machinery. Alex Job Racing is the defending Rolex 24 at Daytona GT champion and like Ganassi in Prototype, AJR has made a switch for 2014; going from its race winning Audi R8 LMS to the new Porsche 911 GT America. Despite the switch, driver Leh Keen thinks the AJR team has a key advantage. “Alex pushes each of us to deliver our best every lap and he knows how to get that. He has a lot of very good; highly experienced people and they have worked together for long time. They support you as a driver and you want to do your part,” said Keen. The competition in the huge 28 car GTD class will be intense as Porsche, Audi and Ferrari take on Aston Martin, Viper and BMW. The Racers Group fields new Aston Martin Vantage V12s, Riley Motorsports debuts the new SRT Viper GT3 R and Turner Motorsports goes to the BMW Z4. Other changes for 2014 include longtime Porsche favorites Flying Lizard switching to Audi, the move of the SpeedSource Mazda team to Prototypes and the continued strengthening of driver line-ups to meet the competition.
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FAST FACT Are you watching? The Rolex 24 at Daytona can be seen from flag to flag on multiple platforms including the FOX Network. International television coverage will also be available in more than 335 million households across 144 countries and territories including SPEED (Canada), Fox Sports Latin America, Motors TV (Europe) and Network Ten (Australia), among others. Saturday, Jan. 25 2-4 pm: FOX 4-9 pm: FOX Sports 2
Overnight (Jan 25-26) 9pm-7am: IMSA.com Sunday, Jan. 26 7am-3pm: FOX Sports 1
2014 Schedule January 25-26
Rolex 24 at Daytona
March 15
Twelve Hours of Sebring
April 12
Long Beach (P and GTLM only)
May 4
Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca
May 31
The Raceway At Belle Isle Park (P, PC & GTD only)
June 7
Kansas Speedway (PC only)
June 29
Six Hours of The Glen
July 13
Canadian Tire Motorsport Park
July 25
Indianapolis Motor Speedway
August 10
Road America
August 24
VIR (GTLM/GTD race; PC race)
September 20
Circuit of The Americas
October 4
Petit Le Mans
Anybody Hungry? Napoleon said that “an army marches on its stomach,” which makes Marion Champlain and her daughter, Sandra, two of the most important people at any race. The preferred mealtime venue for the TUDOR Championship teams and sponsors, “Marion’s” which started 28 years ago and is considered neutral territory for rivals, will provide over 10,000 meals during race week for drivers, mechanics, sponsors and families.
Sandy beaches IMSA officials sternly warned TUDOR Championship teams about “sandbagging” or hiding true levels of performance during recent tests at Daytona. IMSA officials use data from the tests to determine any performance balancing concessions. Many teams have historically hidden their true performance to gain concessions or avoid being slowed down. Of course, being racers, everyone performed at optimum levels at all times during the three day test, except for those who didn’t.
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“I wasn’t sure I was going to see this in my lifetime but I’m pleased I have and I am really happy that I am here as part of the new dawn”
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DAVID BRABHAM TALKS ABOUT THE BIRTH OF THE TUDOR UNITED SPORTSCAR CHAMPIONSHIP
Run the Numbers Returning to the ROLEX 24 for the first time in 13 years, Michelin’s Chris Baker was asked to compare the company’s preparations here to the 24 Hours of Le Mans where they have won overall for the last 16 consecutive years. “We have over a million race miles at Le Mans in the past 16 years and precisely Zero race miles and 10,000 test miles here in the past 13 years,” said Baker.
Passports please Drivers, engineers and team leaders in the TUDOR Championship rack up tens of thousands of airline miles during the year, but Chicago-based John Dagys, of SportsCar 365.com may be the mileage champ. Dagys, 27, spent 225 days on the road covering 34 major sportscar events on four continents in 2013.
Taylor x3 + Max It will be a family affair at Wayne Taylor Racing as the boss man joins his sons Ricky and Jordan (pictured right) aboard the #10 Corvette DP. The defending Prototype series champs are one of the pre-race favorites as the Corvette DPs looked especially strong in testing. Max “the Axe’ Angelelli will help keep the Taylor family driver line up from sounding like the name of a law firm.
Thursday, January 23, 2014 9:30 am -10:30 am
Practice #1 - TUDOR (All Classes)
10:45 am - 11:30 am
Practice #3 - Ferrari
11:45 am - 12:15 pm
Practice #3 – CTSCC
1:15 pm - 1:45 pm
Practice #2 - TUDOR (All Classes)
2:00 pm - 2:15 pm
Qualifying – CTSCC ST
2:30 pm - 2:45 pm
Qualifying – CTSCC GS
3:00 pm - 3:30 pm
Qualifying #1 – Ferrari
3:45 pm - 4:00 pm
Qualifying - TUDOR (GTD)
4:05 pm - 4:20 pm
Qualifying - TUDOR (GTLM)
4:30 pm - 4:45 pm
Qualifying - TUDOR (PC)
4:50 pm - 5:05 pm
Qualifying - TUDOR (P)
6:30 pm - 8:00 pm
Practice #3 - TUDOR (All Classes)
Friday, January 24, 2014 9:00 am - 9:30 am
Qualifying #2 – Ferrari
9:45 am - 10:15 am
Practice #4 – CTSCC
10:30 am - 11:15 am
Race #1 - Ferrari
11:30 am -12:30 pm
Practice #4 - TUDOR (All Classes)
1:45 pm - 4:15 pm
Race - CTSCC
Saturday, January 25, 2014 9:35 am - 10:20 am
Race #2 - Ferrari
11:45 am -12:30 pm
TUDOR Driver Autograph Session
1:05 pm -
Driver Introductions
2:00 pm - 2:30 pm
Pre-Race Ceremonies / Formation Laps
2:30 pm - Start:
52nd Rolex 24 at Daytona for the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship (Round 1) - 24 Hours
FERRARI
Malucelli/Fisichella/Bruni/Beretta Risi Competizione • Ferrari F458 Italia GT Le Mans Michelin
Smartphone scan code here
FAN FAVORITES
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Check out this video of the Risi Ferrari lap of Daytona International Speedway.
CORVETTE DP
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Westbrook/Valiante/Rockenfeller Spirit Of Daytona • Corvette DP Prototype Continental
HPD - HONDA
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Sharp/Lazzaro/Brabham Extreme Speed Motorsports • HPD ARX-03b Prototype Continental
RILEY - FORD
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Dixon/Kanaan/Franchitti/Larson Chip Ganassi Racing • Riley Ford Prototype Continental
CORVETTE
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Magnussen/Garcia/Briscoe Corvette Racing • Chevrolet Corvette C7.R GT Le Mans Michelin
BMW
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Auberlen/Hand/Priaulx/Martin BMW Team RLL • BMW Z4 GTE GT Le Mans Michelin
FERRARI
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Krohn/Jonsson/Bertolini/Dunbreck Risi Competizione • Ferrari F458 Italia GT Le Mans Michelin
SRT - VIPER
Wittmer/Bomarito/Bell SRT Motorsports • SRT Viper GTS-R GT Le Mans
PORSCHE
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Michelin
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Tandy/Lietz/Pilet Porsche North America • Porsche 911 RSR GT Le Mans Michelin
ASTON MARTIN
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Mucke/Turner/Lamy/Stanaway/Dalla Lana Aston Martin Racing • Aston Martin Vantage V8 GT Le Mans Michelin
Michelin North America, Inc • One Parkway South, • Greenville, SC 29615 • TEL: 1-800-458-5000 • www.michelin.com • Printed in USA, January 22, 2013 • Volume 8, Issue 1 No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without the prior permission of the publisher. • Copyright © 2013 Michelin North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Printed on recycled paper • 10% Total Recovered Fiber • All Post-Consumed Fiber