2018 Rolex 24 At Daytona

This just got uploaded and a long 2 days waiting, we're back to racing in the northern hemisphere!  Time to roll out the best competition in racing and pay tribute to an old champion legend and a dear friend to many.

R.I.P. Dan, you were the man to chase.

All Ford entries who competed during the IMSA weekend bore a special decal for Ford racing legend Dan Gurney, who died Jan. 14, 2018.  The serial number on the winning Ford EcoBoost engine is 'GT40'.  “To get to drive a Ford GT is just a dream come true it's just awesome,” Briscoe said, driver for Chip Ganassi.

Roll'em Out!

IMSA has an excellent press release (it's linked) on the race but I'm going to pass on that for the ones who have not seen the race.  This is Part 1 of 4 so enjoy the opener of the racing season!

IMSA Official  (Parts 2, 3 and 4)



Favorite GT40

12 Hour of Sebring Highlights

Scott Pruett, coming 28 years after a GTO class victory in the 1986 Twelve Hours. Co-drivers Pruett, Memo Rojas and Marino Franchitti also made Chip Ganassi Racing in its first Twelve Hours of Sebring appearance – the first team to win Sebring, the Rolex 24 At Daytona, the Indianapolis 500 and the Daytona 500. The last time Ford won at Sebring was in 1969. The last win for an American car was in 1996, when Wayne Taylor, Jim Pace, Eric Van de Poele took the checkered flag in an Oldsmobile R&S Mk3.

Joerg Bergmeister, the No. 912 Porsche North America RSR crossed the line 5.296 seconds ahead of No. 93 SRT Motorsports driver Jonathan Bomarito in the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class to remain undefeated in its debut factory season, run in conjunction with CORE autosport.

IMSA News

 

Sebring 1969 

In 1969, facing more experienced prototypes and the new yet still unreliable 4.5 L flat-12 powered Porsche 917s, the winners Jacky Ickx/Jackie Oliver managed to beat the remaining 3.0 litre Porsche 908 by just a few seconds with the already outdated GT40 (in the very car that had won in 1968 - the legendary GT40P/1075). Apart from brake wear in the Porsche and the decision not to change pads so close to the race end, the winning combination was relaxed driving by both GT40 drivers and heroic efforts at the right time by (at that time Le Mans' rookie) Ickx, who won Le Mans five times more in later years.