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2013 Grand-AM 24 Hour Rolex Race – we made it!
Posted on 25th Nov 2015
| We can
still hear the buzz of the 50+ cars going for 24 hours straight at the
Daytona International Speedway in Daytona, FL. We went down to watch the race
as well as a few other races like the Ferrari Challenge and the BMW
Performance 200 since we camped on the infield of the race track from
Thursday-Sunday of the event. Personally it was the third time I’ve attended the race, but the sensory overload that happens with the constant noise, race gas in the air, and partying is something every car enthusiast must attend at least once in their life. The weather was perfect for the four days with only a bit of fog halting the main Grand-Am 24 hour race for about 1.5 hours early in the morning on Sunday of the race. We started off the weekend early on Thursday, Jan. 24 and stayed through the finish on the 27th, but there were certainly enough events going on during the time. Naturally the teams get practice sessions to dial in the settings for their cars and make sure everything is good to go for the race, and with the addition of the Ferrari Challenge and BMW Performance 200 races, there were many events to watch for all the gear heads around the track. Being able to walk in the pits was a huge advantage to attending this race – you get to walk right up to the teams and watch them work as well as even ask questions if you find an engineer taking a break. All of the teams were very friendly and no doubt running on copious amounts of caffeine during the stretch. After all, it’s not just the driver that makes a winning car – it’s the team that goes behind it all. There’s a lot of strategy involving pit stops, fuel, suspension settings and down force and the teams have 4-5 drivers that rotate in sessions to ensure that one doesn’t get burnt out. A great aspect of the 24 hour race is that there are two main classes of cars – the Daytona Prototype (DP) and the Grand Touring (GT) classes that race at the same time – not against each other, but on the same track. The DP cars were a good 6-7 seconds faster on each ~1:45 minute lap just to give you an idea of how fast these purposely built single seater race cars are compared to the already fully prepared GT cars that are based on street cars. The main and only tire sponsor of the race is Continental Tires which is a huge undertaking for them considering that each car goes through 25-30 SETS of tires for this race. That’s a bunch of rubber. So who won after all of this preparation? Well, you can check the full results, but the Team Ganassi BMW / Riley 01 car won the DP class with Juan Pablo Montoya at the wheel, and the WeatherTech Audi R8 won the GT class overall. There were three Audi R8s on the podium for the GT class – quite impressive! This was also the first year that a diesel team entered the race in the new GX class. Mazda entered the race with 3 Diesel Mazdaspeed6 cars – unfortunately, none of them finished the race. Watching the millionaire amateur racers of the Ferrari Challenge was a bit of fun – there were two 15 lap races that happened before the main 24 hour race. Notable drivers in this class include Robert Herjavec of Canada – you might recognize him from the TV show Shark Tank on ABC. In closing, this is a fantastic event that any car enthusiast should attend – it is very well organized and the amount of access given to fans is amazing. We even walked out with a couple of body pieces from a crashed Ferrari 458 Italia Challenge car – not a bad weekend at all!
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