On the way to SEMA in Las Vegas . . .
SCHEDULE TIME
For all you skeptics out there, yes, it's true, there will be a 2012 Rolex Sports Car Series without being presented by Crown Royal.
(Thank goodness . . . that is, for a reduction in the previous never-ending story, um, er, series title.)
Lucky thirteen - the number of venues the series' will be undertaking in 2012, beginning at Daytona International Speedway with the 50th Anniversary race of Rolex 24 At Daytona and ending in New York City at a very well known, longstanding hotel where certain other series also celebrate their season's end.
Between the beginning and end are 11 other races - one more than every season since 2006, during which Infineon (Sonoma) and Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca were on the Left Coast swing, Autodromos Hermanos Rodriguez on the southern end and Watkins Glen to the north.
Look for some interesting revamps - like a big date change for Lime Rock Park - when Grand-Am president Tom Bledsoe will be announcing the rest at SEMA.
KROHN DOES AND, MAYBE, DOES NOT DAYTONA
"Krohn Aviation" (as was on the side of the team's No. 76 car) tested Oct. 25-26 at Daytona International Speedway.
Even though testing with the 50th Rolex 24 At Daytona in mind, owner Tracy Krohn and Krohn Racing head Jeff Hazell were pretty doggone non-committal about returning for the Rolex 24.
"It depends on what they (Grand-Am) do with our car," Krohn said, Hazell later echoing the boss' words.
Following its DIS test, the Proto-Auto Lola car was destined to face the manufactured winds of Langley Research Center's wind tunnel.
Located adjacent to Virginia's Langley Air Force Base and a part of a ever-shrinking NASA, the wind tunnel, built in 1934, is billed as "the world's largest."
Ask some racing folks long familiar with it, Langley is also "the world's leakiest," "antiquated," and shouldn't be used for establishing the aerodynamic efficiencies of one Daytona Prototype, much less comparing and establishing the differences between Daytona Prototype models.
"Whether we come back (to Daytona and the Rolex 24) depends on what Grand-Am gives us or takes away, aerodynamically," Krohn said, who tilted with and won all but one (minor) of the multiple civil counts leveled against it in 2009 by Lola.
"I've spent a lot of money on legal fees (Proto-Auto v. Lola) and little to show for it. So, now, I'm just waiting to see what they'll do after they take it to the wind tunnel.
"I'm not interested in running for the sake of running. I'm a competitor. So if whatever they give us, whatever they say is 'okay' aerodynamically and we think it'll work, then we'll be here (for the Rolex 24).
"But if we think it won't work, if we think we don't have a real chance at winning, why come?"
THE NEW CORVETTE DP
"Your next door neighbor, even if she's never even heard of a DP, would know this car is a Corvette when she saw it. I don't get all fired up over body shapes but this car is the most bad-assed car I've ever seen," one (Corvette DP-to-be) owner said recently, off the record.
Those who wish to see the car and, perhaps, the likes of Jimmie Johnson on hand for its unveiling, should be in the vicinity of Daytona International Speedway come Nov. 15 - the day preceding the Rolex Series' test commencing on the 16th.
MY FAVORITE ROLEX 24 PICS
Over the years, especially when the world depending on dark rooms to move a picture from camera to print, Ol’ DC took his fair share of pictures, especially at the Rolex 24. Some were good, some weren’t so good. Nevertheless, herein over the next few months will occasionally appear some never-before-published Rolex 24 images taken over those years by yours truly.
At left is the 1988 winner, managed by Tony Dowe and driven by Martin Brundle (GB), Raul Boesel (BR) and John Nielsen (DK) in Tom Walkinshaw Racing’s No. 60 Jaguar XJR-9. It completed 728 laps in 24:00:34.940, one lap in front of a second-place Porsche 962 driven by Bob Wollek, Brian Redman and Mauro Baldi, after the No. 60 Jag qualified 6th on the grid with a a 1:40.716.
Later,
DC
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