In no particular order, here are the teams (one car or five), which in the rarely humble opinion of Yours Truly have the better chance of scoring a GT podium for the 2010 Rolex 24 At Daytona.
BUCKLER’S TIDE ALSO RISES
The Racers Group's Kevin and Debra Buckler went from a garage-parts retailer to one of Porsche's largest independent parts sellers worldwide.
The Buckler’s (and both, along with their three children are here) brought five Porsches to Daytona in an effort for the team to acquire, win or otherwise gain a fifth Rolex Daytona timepiece since first winning its class in 2002.
As compared to 10 years ago, on the professional front TRG today is the Big Gorilla that other race teams seek to take down.
As if to further buttress an already formidable effort, Buckler hooks up with today’s Other Big Gorilla, Flying Lizards’ Seth Neiman, who also puts 2007 Porsche Cup winner Johannes van Overbeek and reigning Rolex 24 winners Patrick Long and Jörg Bergmeister in the drivers’ seat. Yes, Neiman also is a driver of the car but let’s be clear: the man wants the Rolex 24 win and he didn’t achieve his present life’s status by making like a dummy. Result of the combination: Still Bigger Gorilla.
But wait, there’s more as another hotshot Porsche duo, Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas, are in the No. 71 TRG Porsche - their car number mimicking that of TRG’s sister-company’s Chevrolet in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series and from which comes 2000 NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Bobby Labonte who, like his two-timing Cup champ-brother Terry Labonte, has an ardent love for racing sportscars every now and again.
Rounding out the five-driver team are Tim George and Spencer Pumpelly, the latter having also claimed a Rolex Daytona timepiece in a 2007 Rolex 24 GT-class victory – in a Porsche, of course.
“The one thing I like most about Kevin is that he’s a team owner who likes to win,” Labonte said.
“Every team has a budget, of course, but Kevin will do all he can to give his drivers, no matter where they race, all they need to get that win. There just aren’t too many owners anymore with that mindset and it's a big reason I went with him over on the Sprint Cup side."
But wait, there’s still more in TRG’s No. 66 Porsche, at the wheel of which will be found 2006 Rolex Series GT driving champion Andy Lally, 2005 Rolex 24 winner Wolf Henzler, Ted Ballou and a California cat named Kelly Collins - who in 2007 captured the Rolex Series’ GT championship’s top driving honors. In 2001, Collins teamed with Andy Pilgrim, Dale Earnhardt and Dale Earnhardt Jr. in a GTS Corvette for a fourth place finish, overall. Some of Collins' and Pilgrim's stories of that magical time leave listeners rolling with laughter; others, not so.
(It’s at this point that an official Chevrolet media release would also glowingly convey as to how the four cheered on fellow ‘teammates’ – Ron Fellows, Franck Freon, Johnny O’Connell and Chris Kneifel – as their No. 4 Corvette took an overall and class first-place finish, but I ain’t going there.)
As if the preceding team talent isn’t enough, TRG has still more from whence the above came – but with no intended disrespect, it’s time to move on to Alex Job Racing’s No. 23 Porsche.
THE SINGLE GORILLA
Alex Job has mastered almost all things Porsche and especially in endurance events, having first honed his ability for Daytona endurance events back in 1976 when Job co-drive a 914/6 here.
As he’s done in recent years (except when tangling with cars while on a motorcycle) Job’s been more inclined to do his thing in the pits, this year putting Jack Baldwin, Claudio Burtin, Dominik Farnbacher, Mitch Pagerey and Martin Ragginger in the No. 23 Foametix Porsche.
Ragginger’s snowboarding while enjoying “downtime” evidently paid off here in early January's frigid Daytona conditions, often putting the AJR Porsche at the top of the GT time boards.
Just a few short years ago when the Ruby Tuesday really wasn’t, as yet, AJR came in with a Porsche-powered Crawford DP03 and all but stood Rolex 24 participants on their ears. That car was so fast that it was capable of running laps around competitors without a lot of "yellow" help. Ultimately, the team was derailed by two too many transaxle bearing failures.
In returning to the GT ranks Job essentially has returned home and knows how to handle Buckler, it’s just that there’s another fleet of cars with which all of the Porsche guys will first have to contend.
However, most think five drivers are at least one too many in set-up compromises.
THE MAZDA ARMADA
One manufacturer has finally decided to go toe-to-toe with Porsche – the all-time long-distance race champ, for sure, and therefore quantitatively popular in every Rolex 24 since Dr. Ferdinand Porsche said “Vroom!” (in Deutsch, natürlich!). Still, Porsche will enjoy a nearly 2-to-1 numbers advantage.
The "zoom-zoom" at Daytona first started when New Jersey Mazda dealer Ray Walle drove his Mazda to the 1975 Rolex 24, with co-driver Tom Reddy captured Mazda's first Rolex 24 class win and then drove the doggone car back to New Jersey post race.
While doubtful 2008 Rolex 24 winner and SpeedSource team owner Sylvain Tremblay has driven, or even will drive his winning Mazda RX-8 back and forth along Interstate 95 to his shop, one can easily imagine he’d rather like doing such.
So dominating was Tremblay, Nick Ham, David Haskell and Raphael Matos’ performance in the 2008 Rolex 24 that Mazda-craving folks started coming out of the woodwork.
Ham is almost certain this will be his last ride with Tremblay - a strange thing when one considers Ham is fast, fast and, in case you missed it, fast.
Still, Tremblay's done alright by hisownself and, one presumes, he's thought carefully about the matter.
Ham? Frankly, he's torn between undertaking culinary school and continuing to race. The overall problem is that those in the restaurant business are more likely to spend time working than race car drivers and Ham wants also to have the extra time to walk, hike, ski and break legs on and around the Rocky Mountain peaks near his home.
There are others, also possessive of a British accent like that of Ham, who are interested …
The SpeedSource built, crewed and tanked No. 69 of Emil Assentato, Anthony Lazzaro, Nick Longhi and Jeff Segal is likely to do just as well as the mother lode. It's been known to find Victory Lane, too.
Last season started with Tremblay's No. 70 defending Rolex 24 champs rupturing a fuel cell early and it just didn’t get a whole lot better as the season went on - though the Mazda squad's talking points included pointing the fickle finger of fate in the Pirelli Tires' direction.
“I’d have to say that was our Achilles heel last year,” Tremblay said of the 2009 season.
“I think this year’s Achilles heel is my not charging enough” for the Mazdas that SpeedSource has assembled (after receiving the frames from Riley Technologies) for Rolex Sports Car and Continental Tire series competition - all built during the off-season break in Tremblay’s Sunrise, Florida-based SpeedSource Engineering shop.
“The guys in the shop really worked hard to get 10 cars built between the end of last season and the beginning of this one,” Tremblay said.
The most recent Mazda RX-8 was delivered in late-December to Patrick Dempsey Racing, which this year doubled its team operations.
“Oh, don’t worry, I think he’ll make it,” Patrick Dempsey Racing head Joe Foster deadpanned when told of Tremblay’s wishing he'd charged more for a new Mazda chassis.
Count ‘em, seven Mazda RX-8’s are in this weekend’s Rolex 24 At Daytona at Daytona International Speedway and therefore leads more than a few folks to opine the twice-around-the-clock battle will be among the noisiest in Rolex 24 history.
Suggestion to DIS president Robin Braig: get more telephone operators.
In the No. 41 PDR RX-8, the result of a smartly expanded Patrick Dempsey Racing program, defending Rolex GT driving champ and now ex-Porsche guy Leh Keen is joined by former Roush Driver X participant James Gue (goo-EH; and get used to it, too, because he and Keen are likely to be among those actually contending for season-long championship honors).
For the most part, the duo say they hope only to put in a solid Rolex 24, come out with some likewise solid points and head down the road solidly in the championship hunt.
The two drivers are joined by Dave Lacey and Don Kitch Jr. - the latter having over the years raised $3.4 million for Seattle's Children's Hospital and, after a short retirement from Rolex 24 competition, is back with a new $5 million goal. The reality is that Kitch is the weakest link and might be content to just do laps. Keen and Gue are interested in doing laps, too, but at the front of the pack because finishing 15th or better this year sends those teams home with the same number of points.
Getting downright uppity about paddock-wide “sandbagging” accusations during the early December and early January DIS tests, the No. 41's Gue just up and set a GT fast-lap before a likewise sandbagging Porsche - the crews of which having previously complained about the sandbagging RX8 - went out and set a still-faster lap in the hands of "Red Rocket" Long, mentioned earlier as a member in good standing of the Still Bigger Gorilla team.
THE GOOD OL' RED, WHITE and BLUE
One gets the feeling that flying under the radar screen might sometimes be a preferred battle plan but it's one that hardly can be followed when some fellow by the name of Mike Johnson directs the operations of a screaming new red/white/blue Camaro GT.R fielded by Stevenson Motorsports – of which there are two: the No. 57 of Andrew Davis, Robin Liddell and Jan “Busted Butt” Magnussen; the No. 97 of Mike “Україна Not Polska” Borkowski, Gunter Schaldach, Matt Bell and Brady Refenning.
Frankly, even after a couple of multi-day tests it's hard to pin down what makes this team among those who are thought to be "podium material" until one realizes that the team wasn't on anyone's radar screen as recently as two seasons ago - during which they've been championship contenders in each.
ONE MORE QUIET TEAM
The Miller Barrett Racing No. 48 seems to have been in somewhat of a thrash while here.
While always best to work out any problems in a test, one nonetheless thought perhaps such would’ve been accomplished by now after Bryce Miller formed the team in the middle of 2009 - while doing so conveying an intent to shape the team for pursuit of a 2010 championship season. They've been fairly quiet and that sometimes makes others nervous - for good reason.
THE BMW GT CONNECTION
Two BMW M6 teams, the No. 32 Corsa Team PR1 (Rob Finlay, Max Hyatt, Thomas Merrill and Tom Westphal) and the No. 94 Turner Motorsport (Bill Auberlen, Paul Dalla Lana, Joey Hand and Boris Said) have been relatively quiet - as quiet as one can be with a throaty 8-cylinder engine.
Some in the GT class are scared of the BMW M6, which until this season has largely been a non-starter.
Frankly, does the Corsa team - as good as it may be - have a deep enough talent pool beyond Finlay? Such doesn't bode well for a podium, much less a victory. However, there has been more than one improbable victory recorded during the Rolex 24's previous 47 races.
The real wild card in the BMW GT camp, however, is Turner Motorsports.
Mr. Dalla Lana isn't your typical professional road racer because, as president of NorthWest Value Partners Inc., and chairman and of NorthWest HealthCare Properties, he isn't. (Frankly, one wonders why a Canadian-born chap heads a Canada-based, health-care-related company - admittedly limited to leasing only 3-million square feet space for such - when a supposedly successful universal publicly owned health care system is at work in our neighbor country to the north. Beats me, but be assured the question's answer will be sought).
But Auberlen, Hand and Said know a thing or two about pedaling in fast manner - and in BMW-powered hotrods to boot (one wild and crazy year, Auberlen, Hand and Said absolutely, positively and completely dominated the Rolex Series' GT division in Tom Milner BMWs).
Should Mr. Lana be smart enough to get the heck out of the way when needed, he might just be showing off a new Rolex Daytona at his next board meetings.
Then again, if Mark Patterson, John Pew and Hurley Haywood can do it, why not Lana?
(Hurley: I'm just bustin' chops, man, but the reality is that you're a gentleman.)
WANT SOME REAL IRONY?
More than a few otherwise well-connected types on Friday were surprised to learn that Continental Tire had not only taken on title sponsorship of the former Shock-Absorber series but will supply tires to the 2011 Rolex Series, as well.
It all started with Pirelli last summer seeking to renew its relationship with Grand-Am.
Put another way, Pirelli fired the first volley, supposedly "friendly," which led to its own demise in the Rolex Series.
The Rolex Series, having assured other tire makers it'd give them a chance to participate (bid) in future contracts, honored its word and, well, the rest is history.
Of course, Pirelli reportedly didn't help its own cause when it reportedly fell short of supplying tires that were somewhere reportedly short of acceptable to Grand-Am competitors until it reportedly rolled out the 2010 tire.
Evidently a classic "too little; too late" scenario or, at least, that's what was passed between rocks and hard places over the last half-year or so.
Later,
DC
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