Drivers, start your engines. This is the first race of the Tudor United Sports Car Championship, melding the American Le Mans Series, and the Grand Am Rolex Sports Car Series. This field is stacked with competitive teams. Look out for Wayne Taylor Racing, Muscle Milk Pickett Racing, and Chip Ganassi Racing (five-time and reigning champions). Gnassi Racing has two cars. Scott Dixon, Tony Kanaan, Marino Franchitti, and Kyle Larson are in this car.
It is powered by a Ford turbo V6 motor. Four classes will race in the next 24 hours. Prototype, Prototype Challenge, GT Le Mans, and GT Daytona. The polesitting #99 Chevrolet Corvette DP is piloted by Alex Gurney, Jon Fogarty, Memo Gidley, and Darren Law. GT Daytona will be a very competitive class. We're getting ready for a start. This race will be a shootout towards the end. Here we go!
At the start, in front of a record crowd, we're racing! Dixon wants by the Corvette's who are leading. The Deltawing is moving up. There's contact already. The polesitting PC car for CORE Autosport of Jon Bennett, spins. This is the #54 car shared by Bennett, Colin Braun, James Gue, and Mark Wilkins. Traffic will be bunched up all over the place. The speed differentials will be a big deal. The Corvette's are th dominant force for these high downforce prototypes.
There's a lot of bumps going between turn six and the transition back to the Nascar banking. Having some tech problems, folks. We're in the opening laps of this race. Just six minutes have elapsed. Alex Gurney still leads over Richard Westbrook and Burt Frisselle. Prototypes take up the whole of the top ten right now. The Deltawing and the Pickett Racing Oreca Nissan round out the top ten. The top GT LM car is Jonathan Bomarito in the #93 SRT Viper. Christopher Haase leads GT Daytona in his Audi R8.
We are now under yellow. Charlie Putman has crashed his #46 GT Daytona racer, into pit wall. He had a mechanical problem with the Audi R8 LMS he shares with Charles Espenlaub, James Walker, and Oliver Jarvis. Jarvis won in GT in an Audi R8 in this race last year. But, these cats are headed for the house early. Game over. Pit stops are underway. Joao Barbosa brings the #5 Action Express Corvette in. Water and noil temp alarms have appeared. Not good.
ESM is also in with their #1 HPD ARX-03 with Scott Sharp at the controls. Audi is in, too. Both Flying Lizard cars are in. Tim Pappas is at the wheel. Use the grounding cable to eliminate sparks during refueling. If you extend the hose length, you will get more fuel in the cars. Sunset at 9;56 P.M. Sunrise at 7;16 A.M. Almost 12 hours of darkness here at Daytona compared to just five at Le Mans.
Green flag. We're underway again. Watch Richard Westbrook in the Spirit of Daytona Corvette. Scott Dixon locks the brakes on the #02 Riley Ford. Jonathan Bomarito still leads GT LM in the lead SRT Viper. Correction... that's Marc Goossens in the #91 car. Bomarito races the sister car, #93. Nick Tandy is pushing the factory Porsche past the Aston Martin, too. Watch out. Corvette and AAston Martin are banging wheels already. Oliver Gavin is at the controls of the new Corvette C7R. No dodge 'em cars, boys. Cool it.
Roush Racing built the Ford road racing program and dominated everywhere in GT racing with Ford Mustang's and Mercury Cougar's. In GT Daytona, Christopher Haase is under pressure from Mika Salo in the Risi Competizione Ferrari 458 Italia, #62. Haase shares with Bryce Miller, Rene Rast, and Matt Bell. Now, the other cars to watch are the new Mazda diesel prototypes. This was originally a Lola chassis. This is a 2.0 liter four cylinder diesel, with a water pipe issue. Joel Miller is at the controls of the #07 sister car to the #70.
Alex Gurney still leads this race right now. There's a long, long way to go yet. With the Mazda team, their drivers stack up this way. Car #07: Tristan Nunez, Joel Miller, and Tristan Vautier. Car #70: Sylvain Tremblay, Tom Long, and James Hinchcliffe. The Deltawing has spun and the Muscle Milk prototype took evasive action. Andy Meyrick is at the controls. It's unusual, but it's lightweight, and efficient. The car uses a Mazda motor. Prototype Challenge sees Bruno Junquiera leading the class, with Renger van der Zande in the second place car.
These cars are all Oreca chassis with Chevrolet V8 engines. The #07 Mazda is in trouble again. He has to move. Joel Miller has to stay off the line. Andrew Davis is running for Patrick Dempsey's team in their #27 Porsche 911 GT America. Dempsey and Davis, share with Joe Foster and Marc Lieb. Porsche this year has customer teams, factory 911's, and their new Le Mans prototype racer. Rocketsports Racing team mates battle in Prototype Challenge.
Alex Tagliani is in the #08 and Bruno Junquiera in the #09. They run for former driver Paul Gentilozzi. Now, Junquiera was trying to pass, but he couldn't. The winds have turned 180 degrees and it's a tailwind as opposed to a headwind during qualifying. Three wide on the banking with the Viper's and the #007 Aston Martin in GT Daytona entered by The Racer's Group and Kevin Buckler. Nick Tandy begins pushing the Viper's of Bomarito and Goossens.
In GT LM it's Viper, Viper, Porsche, Ferrari, Corvette. Gianmaria Bruni and Nick Tandy are dicing. The Tudor Championship Porsche squad, is their own factory team, while there are other teams in Europe and all around the world. Coming to the end of the opening hour of this race. A GT car straightlines the chicane. Alex Gurney keeps leading. Richard Westbrook still has second overall. He had a horrendous wreck in testing at Daytona, but came out fine.
Westbrook sharing with Michael Valiante and DTM champion, Mike Rockenfeller. Third is the second Chip Ganassi Racing Riley Ford V6. Scott Dixon is driving. The Ford V6's are a couple miles an hour slower than the Chevrolet V8's. Speaking of that, here comes the #9 Action Express Corvette pit with Burt Frisselle at the controls. Change the air blocker for the radiator, to cool it. Muscle Milk Pickett Racing is into the pits. Klaus Graf driving, doesn't have a drink bottle.
So, a crewman gets him one. You have to replenish fluids during these races. The closed cockpit cars will be really hot and the open cockpit cars will be really cold. Andrew Davis continues driving the #27 Dempsey Racing Porsche. He'll pit and hand over to Patrick Dempsey, soon. Franz Conrad and Chris Crawford are helping out. Konrad is a veteran endurance racer in Europe. Hurley Haywood is a consultant for the team. Marc Lieb, a Porsche factory driver, is also in the car.
Lance Willsey spun the sister Dempsey Porsche as Alex Gurney pits for fuel and tires. Ganassi Racing is also in. It's Scott Pruett. Tires and fuel are the routine. They are having an issue with a car in front leaking oil, and covering the windshield. Klaus Graf is on the apron, with the Oreca Nissan, slowly coming into the pits. Richard Westbrook pitted the Spirit of Daytona entry. Pit lane speed is limited to 60 miles an hour. Or maybe, it's 60 kilometers an hour (37 miles an hour).
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