2017 Rolex 24 At Daytona

Core Autosport Porsche 911 GT3 R

Alright, this kicks off the racing season the Rolex 24 at Daytona. Between the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and the IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge, IMSA now has 17 official automotive partners, including five that are new for 2017: Acura, Cadillac, Lexus, McLaren and Mercedes-AMG.
The complete list is as follows:  Acura, Aston, Martin, Audi, BMW, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Ferrari, Ford, Honda, Lamborghini, Lexus, Mazda, McLaren, Mercedes, MINI, Nissan and Porsche.

By Lanky Turtle Mercedes-AMG GT3

The line up is really assume making it the largest grid in this series history. Mercedes-AMG GT3 will be blasting around Daytona and Lanky Turtle is once again in the garage area and out on the track capturing the sound and sites of the new line up.

Some other news: For the 2017 Rolex 24, Gordon will join Wayne Taylor Racing in the team’s brand new Daytona Prototype International (DPI), the No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPI-V.R, where he will compete alongside Jordan Taylor, Ricky Taylor and Max Angelelli. Gordon turned his first laps in the car at in an IMSA-sanctioned test at Daytona on Tuesday afternoon. 

Let's get out to the garage area and check out the rides and at time stamp 2:17 listen to that Cadillac Gordon is driving out of the garage area, frickin monster!  Great sound Lanky, nice job.

IMSA

Lanky Turtle

 

FOX Sports will offer 23 hours of live programming from the 2017 Rolex 24 At Daytona, beginning with a three-hour FOX network telecast beginning at 2 p.m. ET on Saturday, Jan. 28, followed by expanded coverage on FS1 and FS2.

More vids of this incredible series at IMSA Official YouTube 

The New Mclaren GT4

Rolex 24 Part 1

Sweet, been waiting for the team at IMSA to post the race and here it is in 720p60 and that's why I wait, thanks IMSA! 

Relive all the action from the Rolex 24 At Daytona, the first race of the 2017 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season and Round 1 of the Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup.

All the stats on the race at IMSA, I'm not going to spoil it if you haven't seen the race, this was historic! 

IMSA Official (the full race in 3 parts)

 

Rolex 24 Mishaps 

Check out some of the mishaps on track thus far, banging up one of these sweet machines is nothing but Cha Ching$. 

SPEED - MOTORS on FOX



Heritage Exhibition Highlights

The Shelby and the old fat slicks on the Porsche - clip pic from Lanky Turtle Vid

Before the Rolex 24 launched the fans were treated to the Heritage Exhibition of time gone by of these race beauties. Thanks to Lanky Turtle we get to see these old monsters run!

Lanky Turtle

Monterey at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca

One of the greatest handling circuits MONTEREY, Calif., May 4, 2014 – Extreme Speed Motorsports (ESM) won today’s Grand Prix of Monterey at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and set a number of historical marks in the process.  The No. 2 Tequila Patrón Honda Performance Development ARX-03b (HPD) of Ed Brown and pole-winner Johannes van Overbeek claimed the first overall victory for ESM in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship.

It was the first win for the duo of Brown and van Overbeek. On Saturday, van Overbeek, from Oakland, Calif., won his first overall pole position and brought home the win on Sunday afternoon in a caution-free event.  He made the winning pass with 15 minutes to go.  Brown was the starting driver for the No. 2 machine. In a career-best run, Brown was competitive and kept a top-10 position throughout his 22-minute stint before turning the car over to van Overbeek.  The team pitted under green and was shuffled back in the field.

At the start of his stint, van Overbeek was scored 12th and improved his position with each lap. In 13 laps, he was running fifth. Then 16 laps later, van Overbeek was the race leader. Prototype program another podium finish Sunday at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, moving Chevrolet back into the lead of the Engine Manufacturer championship standings for the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship. 

The two brothers drove the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette DP to a runner-up finish – their third such result in four rounds of the inaugural TUDOR Championship. 

"Congratulations to Ricky and Jordan Taylor, and Wayne Taylor Racing on today's runner-up Prototype finish,” said Jim Lutz, Chevrolet’s Program Manager for Corvette Daytona Prototypes.  “Given the difference in performance between the Corvette DPs and the rest of the field, this is an outstanding achievement and moves Chevrolet back into the lead of the Prototype Engine Manufacturer championship."

Jan Magnussen scored their second straight GT Le Mans victory in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship on Sunday.  The duo won a hard-fought battle for the second consecutive season at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca – this time in their No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R. 

Garcia won by 4.710 seconds as Corvette Racing took its third straight win at the track and seventh since 2004. 

"Today was another fantastic day for Jan Magnussen, Antonio Garcia and Corvette Racing,” said Mark Kent, Chevrolet’s Director of Racing.  “It was a tremendous performance by everyone involved.  The strategy and execution were perfect from the start.  We saw again why this class of racing is among the best in the world."

Bill Auberlen Long Beach

On FOX Sports 1 this past Sunday witnessed one of Bill Auberlen's best drives in recent years as the BMW Team RLL race treated fans to another demonstration of what has made him one of the best in the world.  In the closing stages of the two-hour TUDOR United SportsCar Championship race, the BMW ace raced from fifth to second, extending his lead (along with co-driver Andy Priaulx) in the GTLM class championship points standings. 

In the final three laps of the 84 lap race, all eyes were glued to the battle between Auberlen's No. 55 BMW Z4 GTLM and the No. 911 Porsche of Nick Tandy.  Lap 82 - Hounding Tandy from third Auberlen was "hip-checked" off the track in turn 11 as he tried to pass the Porsche.  Lap 83 - Fighting back, Auberlen was close enough to try the same move in the same turn, but bam! he was hit again and off in the dirt. Lap 84 - Not to be denied he charged back and tried for the last time in turn 11 and, this time, despite an excellent defense by the Porsche, Auberlen was through for second with a masterful left-right move under braking to finish just 4.710 seconds behind the winning Corvette.  (Tandy was penalized post-race for his actions and dropped to ninth.)

IMSA News 

Video uploaded by U Tube user SPEED - MOTORS on FOX

 

P/GTLM Race Broadcast 

The Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix powered by Mazda was the fourth race for the P & GTLM classes in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship.  (Full Race, Thanks, Guys) 

Video uploaded by U Tube user TUDOR Championship

 

Grand AM at Belle Isle 2013

This was one race with a lot of banging and pushing going on, so many of the Corvette Prototypes were busted up, thanks to Gustavo Yacaman (he's on probation now) by driving too aggressively and that is going to cost the teams.  It was estimated at about $300,000 in damage for the teams.  The win for  the DP class was No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing who is on top of the standings. 

But aside from that, No. 57 Stevenson Motorsports in the GT class pulls three straight victories in a row, how appropriate for Chevy in Detroit!  

As for the GX class, the little diesel that could is in the winners circle once again!  The second win for No. 00 the Skyactive Diesel Mazda team, Speedsource. 

GrandAmVids




Grand-Am Diamond Cellar Classic 6/14-15/13

Happy Father's Day and wouldn't you know it Yacaman gets into Chip Ganassi Racing the 01 car and he's on probation!  Well something broke because he couldn't drive through the turn and after blasting off the track, an oil line or gas line broke and the car cooked, Michael Shank Racing has got to be thinking is this guy worth it even though he brought on sponsors.  Shank said it's going to be hard to get a car together for Watkins Glen. 

Joao Barbosa gave Action Express Racing its first Daytona Prototype victory of the season, “Just racing here is intense,” Barbosa said. “It was really hard racing.

No.31 Marsh Racing Corvette was driving down hard behind No. 94 BMW Turner Motorsports but was penalized with less than 2 laps to go in the race for contact. Tough call these guys' were racing hard for many laps, No. 94 got the win for the GT class.

 Once again the little engine that could, that's right Pod Skyactive Diesel.  Sylvain Tremblay and Tom Long took the first GX victory for the No. 70 SpeedSource Mazda 6, with the pair leading 96 of the 100 laps. 

This season has been great so far, don't miss a race!

Grand AM Road Racing

GrandAmVids