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ROAR BEFORE THE 24
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| The no. 10 Suntrust Corvette DP was consistently one of the fastest prototypes at the Roar Before the 24 |
With 57 cars provisionally entered for the 2012 Rolex 24 at Daytona – 13 in Daytona Prototype, and 44 in GT – things will be more than a little bit busy throughout the race. As is often the case in endurance racing, being fast is good, but surviving the inevitable traffic and changing conditions will be the best way to get to victory lane. Remember, this race lasts an entire day. Drivers have to deal with a lot – changing light conditions, faster and slower traffic, battles for position, etc. The crews, don't forget, need to execute perfect pit stops each and every time, and they are up throughout the entire race as well. (At least the drivers get to take naps). So, in endurance racing, it is difficult to predict who will be at the front at the end because there are so many unknowns.
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| Action Express's no. 5 and no. 9 cars showed the speed to repeat their 2010 win at the Rolex 24 at Daytona. |
However, you can get a glimpse of who will be fast based on the annual Roar Before the 24 test, which was held over this past weekend at Daytona.
In Daytona Prototype, the new Corvette Daytona Prototypes led the way in each day of testing. The No. 10 Suntrust Racing Corvette DP topped Friday and Sunday's testing, while the No. 5 Action Express Racing Corvette DP was quickest on Saturday. Also fast was the sister car, the no. 9 Action Express Corvette DP, and the No. 99 Gainsco Corvette DP. While there are several cars running older style bodywork, the winner of this year's race will likely come from one of the teams running the new Corvette or Riley bodywork.
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| The new Ferrari 458 Italias, such as this example from Extreme Speed Motorsports, showed plenty of speed at the preseason test… |
In the GT class, Porsches have historically dominated the Rolex 24 at Daytona but the new Ferrari 458 Italia appears to be at least equal on pace with the brace of Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars entered in the race. The Mazda RX-8s, several years into their development cycle, do not appear to have the pace of the latest Porsches and the Ferraris but will have the reliability to make it the entire twenty four hours. The two Audi R8 Grand-Am's will likely have the reliability to make it to the end, based on their European history, but need more development work in their Grand-Am spec to match the speed of the Porsches and Ferraris.
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| …but there were plenty of fast Porsches at the test as well. This is the 2011 Rolex Series champion, the famous no. 59 Brumos Porsche. |
The Ferraris from Risi Competitzione, FXDD/Aim Autosport and Extreme Speed Motorsports will face their stiffest competition from the no. 66 and no. 67 Porsches from The Racer's Group, the no. 44 Porsche from Magnus Racing, and the no. 17 Porsche from Burtin Racing. Turner Motorsport's pair of BMW's, Stevenson Racing's Camaro, and the no. 70 Speedsource Mazda RX-8 will be factors if they can improve upon their reliability from the 2011 race. The no. 70 Mazda is a former winner of the 24 hour, while last year's race was won by the no. 67 TRG Porsche.
The Rolex 24 at Daytona will start on Saturday, January 28 at 3:30 PM ET. The race will be broadcast live on SPEED Channel, with the overnight portion being broadcast on Speed.com. Take a look at Grand-Am.com for show times and more information about the series.
MotoIQ will be covering the Rolex Series throughout 2012. Let us know which cars you would like to have profiled, and we'll see what we can do about getting them featured on MotoIQ.com.
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