Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series.

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This thread is open for all discussion on Daytona Prototypes and Grand-Am Racing in general. Koni Challenge, the Rolex Series itself, specs, the future anything is open for debate, there are no boundaries besides the topic being Grand-Am.

I'll kick it off. The parking meter for the first generation of Daytona Prototypes is about to run out. Love 'em or hate 'em, and say what you want about Grand-Am there is no denying the incredible growth Grand-Am has experienced in the Daytona Prototype era. The cars are cheap, turnkey racecars not just for the elite of the racing world. Heck, it wouldn't be out of the question for a few guys at GT Planet who want to go racing to do it in DP. Realistically there won't be dramatic change to the basic formula GARRA seem to like to follow. However, what changes to the DP's do you want to see? It's been stated that engine manufacturers will be allowed more freedom in submitting manufacturer specific body work. Strict rules on who can submit second generation cars are in place, is this a good idea or a bad one? The rumor that Lola and Volkswagen amongst others wanted into GARRA seemed to have died down, if not left the face of the Earth completely. I'll voice my opinion on that later.

For now, next round of the Grand-American Rolex Sports Car series is at VIR. The classes are split this year with the GT's run Saturday, April 28th and the Daytona Prototypes running, live on Speed, Sunday, April 29th. The GT's will be broadcast Saturday night at 8 eastern FYI.

VIR is a personal favorite circuit of mine. Grand-Am do have a good schedule, that can't be argued with in my opinion. The 3.27 mile road course twists and turns around the countryside in Alton, Virginia and has provided great racing over the years. The last time the Daytona Prototypes and Grand-Am were at VIR we saw one of the most exciting finishes all year with the Ruby Tuesday Championship Racing Porsche-Crawford edging out the #10 Suntrust Riley and the #01 Chip Ganassi Lexus-Riley, if I recall correctly. I am expecting nothing less this year.

The thread is now open for discussion!

Cheers,
 
I came up with this old thread way back on July 8th of 2004:

https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/showthread.php?t=45561

I commented in the past (after staying neutral) that these aren't seriously pretty cars or fast cars. Believe it or not, I've actually eased up on Daytona Prototypes. These are great machines for what they are. I still think the designers could make better-looking and slicker designs. What I like about newer DP specifications is how they now sort of have these rules in which they sort of look like road-going examples. Check out these Picchio renders for a potentially new DP based off the bellisima (Italian for "beautiful") Alfa Romeo 8C: < http://www.autoblog.com/2007/02/18/alfa-romeo-8c-daytona-prototype-by-picchio/ >. There's actually a great future for these Daytona Prototypes. As long as there are beautifully-designed DP's racing against one another, I have no problem with watching these things compete. Trouble is, will Picchio have to ugly up its designs to make a proper race car out of this thing? Think about the early renders of the Multimatic Focus vs. the uglied up abomination that took to the track at Daytona in '03.

Either way, there's a future for these machines even as they are having their fifth year of existance in GARRA. Remember that most of the current classes of racing (as of 2002) were axed to make the Daytona Prototypes as the premeire race cars in the series. This would eventually trickle down to just a DP class and a GT class. And I'm still not going to forget what kind of car won the 2003 Rolex 24 outright.

Love or loathe my bi-partisan views... they have a future. I'm just not seriously convinced even to this day.
 
Actually, if you want to kill two birds with one stone, Lola has Bought Multimatic's Daytona Prototype Constructor's License and Will Produce a Daytona Prototype for 2008
http://www.racingone.com/article.aspx?artnum=33993

Apparently, they've partnered up with Krohn Racing and the 1/2 scale mockup is already in the wind tunnel.

Also, it's worth noting that the first ever 2nd Generation DP is on track with Cheever Crown Royal Racing: The new Fabcar.
2011d.jpg
 
Aaah. I didn't know that the Cheever car was 100% the second generation car. I assumed Grand-Am were just throwing them a bone so someone would have a worthwhile reason to stick with them this year.

Cheers,
 
Daytona-2005-02-06-059.jpg


Yep, as you can see in comparison to the out-going Fabcar, there's a complete change in the greenhouse, the nose, the rear bodywork, even the body sides. There's probably still some chassis similarity, especially around the rear suspension to maintain its geometry around the goofball flat-six, but it is a new car.
 
Apparently the first Pirelli tests have been completed by the Grand-Am teams. As I understand it, this past week at both Homestead and Daytona road courses various DP and GT teams got their first tastes of the new spec tire set to be put in place next season. (Coming into play with the second generation DP's at the first official 2008 test at Homestead this November.)

Hazaa, more information can be found on the Grand-Am website.


Cheers,
 
The spec tire was riskay to start with for a few reasons, however it seems to have been a success (though I do miss seeing Good-Year on the sidewalls of DP tires...) Another strong indication Grand-Am are gaining influence internationally is the inclusion of an International tire supplier as the sole supplier. Hopefully the Europeans will give GARRA a chance and realize that though the cars aren't LMP's they do provide good racing in a privateer and fan friendly environment.

m.piedgros
 
News:

Ganassi Purchases Second Car For Program

Ganassi Racing has announced they have come to an agreement with Finlay Motorsports to run the 19 car under the Ganassi banner for the remainder of the 2007 season. The number 19, will make the switch from Crawford chassis and Ford power to Ganassi's prefered Lexus power in a Riley chassis. It is expected the "new" team will debut at the upcoming VIR round of the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series in two week's time. No word yet if sponsor Z-Line Designs will be dropped in favor of a Ganassi sponsor or what the agreement entails for the Ganassi team.


Matt Connolly Motorsports to run GTO.R

Matt Conolly Motorsports has announced its plans to compete in the rest of the season with Pontiac power. Connolly, having recently bought a GTO.R from ex-factory team The Racer's Group. TRG, who campaigned the car as a factory effort will aid MCM for the rest of the season with technical and setup information. No plans for VIR have been announced and it indeed looks like MCM will debut the car at Laguna Seca in mid May.


Lola-Krohn Program "Proto-Auto LCC" Breaks Ground"

The Lola-Krohn collaboration officially titled "Proto-Auto LCC" has got off to a roaring start not just with the development of the car in the Huntingdon UK Lola factory, but with several Grand-Am teams expressing interest in the new car. The Lola, which is based on the Multimatic chassis (and getting its life from the purchase of the Multimatic liscence) will be in the hands of Krohn Racing immediately following this year's season finale at Miller Motorsports Park and is set to be constructed in Atlanta, Georgia, as a Lola DP by the "Proto-Auto LLC" company.

Pichio Lead The Way in DP Again.

Bob Snodgrass Earns Deserving Induction Into "Legends of Daytona."

Cheers,
 
Actually, I like those renders of the Picchio deal they have there. At least it's better than most other DP's past and present (hate on me at will. Not my first rodeo on this topic). I'm supportive of Ganassi Racing. They are one of the best teams in any form of racing. I think it will be nice to see the GTO.R again. This is even if they are going to let go of the GXP.R like Panoz switched from their miserable 2001 prototype back to the LMP-1 Roadster.

And that would be all from me this time 'round.
 
Actually, at smaller courses like VIR, the GARRA officials feel it prudent to split the classes because there's too many cars and too little track. At a bigger track like Mid-Ohio or Watkins Glen, it's not so much of an issue. IMSA used to do this all the time. Splitting between GTP/Camel Lights and IMSA GTO/GTU.

It's actually a great problem to have. Though I wish that we'd get to run at Elkhart Lake instead of bloody Miller. Ferchrissakes, Road America is 30 times more technical than that Utah pile of spaghetti.
 
While I was searching through the TV schedule for the airing of the upcoming race(s), I found two separate times. My first thought was, "What are they doing to multi-class racing!?" However, your explanation makes sense.

Thanks for clearing that up. 👍
 
Brumos Racing Team boss (the great) Bob Snodgrass passed away Tuesday evening.

The-Paddock article.

That about sums it up. I'd start a Snodgrass thread but I have to jet.

My deepest condolences go out to the Snodgrass family.

m.piedgros
 
I was going to report that, m. piedgros. I am two days late, unfortunately. Here's a key phrase I read in that article: "One of the founding fathers of the Daytona Prototype concept..." Whether you like Daytona Prototypes or not, he was one of the ones responsible for a completely unique, high-class race car for the GARRA's Rolex Sportscar Series. I don't know everything about Snodgrass. All I do know is that he's a team owner, was one of the ones behind the DP project, and when you take on such responsibilities and have done this much, dying is a great shame. It's absolutely terrible to get this news.

Since I wanted to do a thread on him, let me use the title of my would-be thread which is a viable question:

How will you remember Bob Snodgrass?
 

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