The sports car (Grand Am?) season kicks off this weekend (29-31 January) with the 48th Annual Daytona 24 Hour Endurance race. Anyone plan on going? I'll be attending the Friday support race (Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge On Track Fresh From Florida 200) as well as the 24 Hour race itself. I'll be sure to post up pictures from the weekend in this thread.

 

This is the first year I'm going to miss it in 3 years

 

Done and Done. I have pit passes for the entire weekend, so I'll be doing some serious wandering snapping photos...

 

I snuck into the pits last year with some friends, Lots of fun back there. Didn't want to leave because I knew we wouldn't get back in lol

 

First year I went we (me and the pops) did that. We played the ignorant, Spanish speaking only foreigners when they asked us for our passes.

 

Lol... tricky guys. I'll be in both the Stevenson GS and GT Camaros this weekend, drop by the trailer(s)! The cars look beautiful this year, very photogenic, if you get my drift..............

 

Good luck this weekend!

 

Thanks! It'll be a busy one!

 

Thought about it for lets say 30 seconds, but wanted to attend Sebring more.
I checked for hotels around Sebring.
Unless you want to stay in a mosquito, alligator infested swap motel, there is not enough lodging around that place.
Im sure bottled water is 6 bux each too.
Shame cause its a good race for a 12 hour.

 

camp there, I've camped there since 05 and will be doing it again this year. its not that bad and all it costs is 25 for the car to get in.

Good luck this weekend!

 

Camping is not for me.
Now if its renting a motor home with all the good things id do it.
But most rental places want like 1200.00 for a weekend.
For that much i can stay in the nicest of hotels if they werent all booked up.

I'll check into it though.
Thanks.

 

have you tried the kennyworth lodge, i stayed there once for the race at last minute one year. was a nice place.

 

nice job in the Conti tire challenge race. I think you got up to 6th at the pit stop, the car finished 5th? I was watching timing and scoring.

Congrats to the C360R Honda Civic guys with a strong showing in the ST class with Aschenbach taking first place and the others finishing mostly just outside the podium. Cant wait to see the race on TV.

 

whhhoooaaaaaa. just got split by two dp cars on the straight. i would have crapped down my legs. lol.

 

those mazdas are fast!!! to bad for bmw

 

i love RX8's when they down shift. fireballs are cool...

 

yea, i kinda love those speedsource rx8s. they sound awesome too

 

Just got back, it was a complete madhouse. Ill update with pics later.

And the Turner M6 is just as loud if not louder than the Rx8's.

 

yeah, but less fire..

 

Update with pics nao!!!

 

I was in the infield, it was an awesome experience. Saw a lot of nice cars in the infield including some clean hondas.

 

Yeah, my spotter said something along the lines of:

"2 DP's closing... 2 DPs tailing. DP's high-- LOW-- HIGH--... DP inside... out-- side... in........"

I said "Well THAT was exciting". The crew reported back that that gave us some nice free TV time.

It was an awesome race with a really great team. We were lapping fairly consistently and just trying out best to keep out of trouble. We were in 4th with 3 hours to go, 2 laps down from a wounded Porsche in 3rd place, just waiting to catch him. One of our drivers got a bit tangled with another wounded GT car and crashed into the International Hairpin wall, sending us to the garage for the better part of an hour for repairs. Ended up in 10th which was amazing anyway!

The Conti race went equally well. Qualified 9th behind cars weighing as little as 1000lbs less than us (!!!) but had to start in the back due to a loosened bolt that controlled our static camber. In the starting stint I went from 41st (I believe) to 4th. Jeff Bucknum then took it and went from 12th (after a second fuel stop) back to 5th where we finished. This is amazing since we we set only the 15th fastest time!!! Consistency pays off!

To give you all an example of how poorly homolgated we are currently, the BMW's AVERAGED 2.5 seconds per lap faster than OUR FASTEST TIME. They weigh MUCH less and have about the same power, and are in a much slipperier chassis. Grand Am promised us that they will adjust the competition soon so we can have some close racing.

 

Fantastic showings! Congratulations on your races.

 

Matt were you at Daytona? I kept walking by the Turner and Magnus garages to meet
some HT people.

 

What a looooonnnnnggg weekend...If I didn't walk 20 miles through that damn infield...sheesh...

Had a great time in Daytona over the weekend. Took over 550+ pictures, but I'm no photographer, so they weren't very good... here's a couple I found interesting...

Kia Forte? Looked cool, not exactly competitive in ST...


Jack Roush by his son's Mustang...Ran really well in the opening stint...then kinda faded


Rum Bum M3. The M3's were bunches faster then everyone else. Pretty sure this car won GS.


Stevenson Camaro getting hitting the track for Practice


Chip Ganassi? I think it is...


The Telmex Ganassi boys were having engine troubles, they busted this one out of the crate during practice...It was all for not, as the motor let go in the middle of the night anyways...


Saw a thread made on this car, so I took a pic...


Turner M6. Sounded awesome. Deep, bellowing sound. SUPER LOUD. Lovely looking car, getting some software changes made here...


Man crush alert*


Scott Pruett sure is looking old these days...

Hard to get a picture of this guy. He was being abused...


Pretty sure someone wanted a picture of these cars? Sure were good looking cars...


My pick to win GS on Friday. Engine lost oil pressure I heard...so...I didn't win...


That's all I guess...let me know if you guys want to see specific cars...