Death of the Daytona Rolex 24 Race

[VardaMan]

The Daytona Rolex 24 Race has died for anyone loving high performance & FAST sportscars. The Grand American Road Racing Association has rewritten the rules. The report in the 11/18/02 issue of AutoWeek told the story about their new Daytona Sports Prototype (DSP) vehicle but the new rules for the other classes were not mentioned. As best I understand it, two important new rules are:
- Maximum displacement of 6 liters
- No turbo's
This will eliminate our 8 liter Vipers, the 7 liter factory
Corvette's, Saleen's & Turbo Porsche's which were in the GTS class. It looks like they did not want these cars to blow by their new slower DSP cars.
If anyone was considering attending the race on 2/1/03, you may want to stay home & play with your Viper. It will be a faster ride then what the Rolex 24 has to offer.
This is the death of a great race event.
RIP

 

[dadsvpr]

bummer if true.

jason

 

[Stiffler]

No sense watching that race anymore. For me the GTS Class was the race.

 

[SNAKOIL VA]

And I just paid for my airline tickets and hotel last week. Bummer dude. Oh well, I'm going anyway.

Here are the GTS rules and schedules I pulled off of the GA site:
http://www.grandamerican.com/pdfs_12_13_01/GTGTS2002_new.pdf
http://www.grand-am.com/events2002/rolex24/rolex_schedule.html

 

[DEVILDOG]

The Grand Am Series is a joke. It's going to be turned into the NASCAR of sports car racing. Look who's running the show. Unfortunately, these people forgot that the sports car enthusiasts are true performance car enthusiasts not Nascar spectators. Ergo, all the cars you mentioned will go to the correct sports car series model the ALMS. I agree it's too bad the ALMS does not have the Daytona race, however, the Petite Le Mans in Atlanta should be a great race next year. I would also expect the ALMS to eventually schedule a 24 hour race. Panoz got it right, France got it wrong concerning sports car enthusiasts.
Support the ALMS!

Hey DC, how about some factory backed Oreca Vipers in the ALMS to kick some Vette, Porsche, Saleen, Ferrari and BMW a$$?????????????? BTW, Ford would be smart to have some factory backed Ford GT's show up. That would be an awesome addition to the ALMS and a great battle to watch against new SRT COUPES! Build it DC and they will come!

 

[pdmracing]

Acoording to my 2003 rules, the Viper is still eligable.

 

[Tomcat]

According to the Team Manager for American Viper Racing, they will not be fielding a Viper at the Rolex 24 hour since the displacement limit in now 6 liters. They will be at Sebring as their first race.

Tom

 

[kverges]

Actually, I woudln't mind if Grand Am became the NASCAR of road racing; did anyone here even hear about, let alone go to, the ALMS race at Texas Motor Speedway? I would estimate that fewer than 10,000 fans showed up. If Grand Am knows how to get fans and TV coverage, then more power to them. Racing costs money and sponsors want to know the customers are watching their logos go by, so the first order of business is to get fans to come to the races. So I hope Grand Am is successful, if for no other reason than to enlighten race fans that cars can turn left and right.

Plus, racing should be more about the driver and less about the car. I'd rather watch a close race of Hondas that a parade of mismatched cars.

 

[kverges]

Oh, and for you sports fans, do you watch only when your favorite team plays or because you like the game?

And while I am at it, your Viper does not have too terribly much in common with a race Viper, so it's not as if a winning Viper shows some kind of superiority of the street car. Even worse, look at the C5R compared to a street C5.

I never have gotten why someone gets so enamored of seeing a race car that bears limited, and largely cosmetic, resemblance to their own car.

I just like the racing.

 

[RedEnuf93]

I'm going anyway, vipers or not.
BUT....It would have been nice to see Vipers too.

Lauri