DP FIELD, NOT NECESSARILY PICKIN’

DAYTONA BEACH – Short and to the point (yes, hard to believe, isn’t it?), below are ruminations on the 2010 Rolex 24 at Daytona.

The garage consensus says that despite the decreased field size, up is the overall quality of driving teams and – every bit as important – the quality of crew members and behind-the-scenes personnel.

No doubt readers have already heard quotes along the lines of “it’s going to be a 24-hour sprint race.”

In the 25 Rolex 24 races occurring over Daytona International Speedway’s 3.56-mile race course, the top-4 finishing cars in the 2009 race completed 735 laps (2,616.6-miles) – ranking fourth overall in completed laps and distance for the race.

The above was accomplished despite the 2009 race also recording 25 yellow flags lasting 117 laps – in both categories the most of any race occurring since the 3.56-mile track came into use.

Given a correct garage consensus and just an average number of yellow flags/laps, it’s probable a new race record for distance will be established by 3:30 p.m. EST Sunday.

THE COMPETITORS

(By 2010 qualifying order)

1. No. 10 SunTrust Ford-Dallara; Max Angelelli, Ricky Taylor, Wayne Taylor, Pedro Lamy. Quietly competent, this team has simply done its thing without getting out of shape. Fourth in 2009, it’ll be hard to beat this team this year.

2. No. 60 Crown Royal Ford-Riley; Ozz Negri, John Pew, Burt Frisselle, Mark Wilkins. Nearly always fastest at DIS, the garage consensus has this team “due” for 2010. On the other hand, this scribe hears Cream’s “Born Under a Bad Sign” when Michael Shank Racing and Rolex 24 are mentioned in the same breath – except when 2006 also appears in the same sentence.

3. No. 6 Michael Shank Racing Ford-Riley; Michael Valiante, Mark Patterson, AJ Allmendinger, Brian Frisselle. This car has commandingly led the previous two Rolex 24s. It’s likely to do so, again. Each member of MSR’s two teams are devoted to their boss, drivers and each other, but of the two MSR cars it’s the No. 6 that’ll most likely this year find DIS’ Victory Lane.

4. No. 02 Target Chip Ganassi Racing BMW-Riley; Scott Dixon, Juan Pablo Montoya, Dario Franchitti, Jamie McMurray Three of the team’s four drivers wear Rolex 24 victory timepieces. In 2005 McMurray teamed with Stefan Johansson and Cort Wagner to finish the highest (4^th) of any 2005 CGR Rolex 24 entry - it was also dominating the race until McMurray busted some key body components. Excepting practice for this race, McMurray’s had no further time in a DP and it’ll probably show.

5. No. 01 TELMEX Chip Ganassi Racing w/ Felix (where the heck is José) Sabates?); Scott Pruett, Memo Rojas, Justin Wilson, Max Papis. Marino Franchitti sought release from his CGR Rolex 24 contract after Duncan Dayton came calling - along with a 12-hour, Sunday, Jan. 31 test-availability proviso. Five days later Marino walked when CGR signed Mad Max Papis, who won the 2002 race in a Kevin Doran Judd-Dallara. If Max has slid comfortably into the team – which he should; his knowing the CGR “model” – Max, Pruett and Rojas will each score another Rolex. Wilson assuredly is not this team’s weak link – it’s the team’s familiarity with BMW power.

6. No. 55 Crown Royal/NPN Racing BMW-Riley; Christophe Bouchut, Scott Tucker, Emmanuel Collard, Sascha Massen, Sabastien Bourdais. Tucker, also entered in the No. 95 (14^th;Tucker, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Lucas Luhr, Richard Westbrook), appears ready to ascertain which of the two cars will do best and only then climb in one and only one car, because he can’t be scored in both. Loaded with talent and not sparing any expense, for better or worse the two-car Level 5 Motorsports team has single-handedly raised the price of playing DP poker. Will it be enough?

7. No. 59 Brumos Racing/Kendall Porsche-Riley; Darren Law, David Donohue, Hurley Haywood, Butch Leitzinger, Raphael Matos. Who knows when or even if Haywood will get in the car, which got a new 25-hour Porsche flat-six engine Thursday evening. Should the talent-laden team be lucky enough to win consecutive Rolex 24s, Leitzinger – ex of the ALMS Dyson team – will certainly bolster his chances for a season-long 2010 ride.

8. No. 9 Action Express Racing Porsche-Cayenne Riley; Joao Barbosa; Terry Borcheller, Mike Rockenfeller. Came in using precisely the same setup as its “technical partner” (immediately above) but having an engine with a higher center of gravity and about 100 lb. more weight. The resulting balance tweak was reportedly accomplished with relocating ballast. Barbosa and Borcheller’s initial enthusiasm with the 8-cylinder engine has reportedly hit a speed bump.

9. No. 75 Krohn Racing Ford-Lola-For-At-Least-The-Time-Being; Ricardo Zonta, Tracy Krohn, Nic Jonsson, Colin Braun. Proto-Auto head Jeff Hazel said this team would’ve won the 2009 Rolex 24 had the Ford not expired. He hasn’t changed his mind this year and the team is about the only one looking forward to whatever rain may fall.

10. No. 90 Menard’s Porsche-Cayenne Coyote; Buddy Rice, Antonio Garcia, Paul Menard, Darren Manning. Menard won sports car races long before heading to NASCAR’s Sprint Cup. Indeed, so too have the other guys. Um, won sports car races, that is. The Coyote’s built like a brick house and ready for abuse but is losing 3/10 per lap due to a heavier weight which owner Troy Flis spent $20k to rid all for naught. The math says this car wins only if the others do not (think about it).

11. No. 77 MacDonald’s Ford-Dallara; Memo Gidley, Brad Jaeger, Fabrizio Gollin, Derek Johnston. Johnston’s the only one who hasn’t been there nor done that and he’s been working hard to get a handle on endurance racing. Owner Kevin Doran has solely focused on what the race would take; not being fastest on the grid. The team’s 11^th-place start is misleading.

12. No. 7 Starworks BMW-Riley; Ian James, Bill Lester, Mike Forest, Dion Von Moltke (BTW: pronounced MOLT-kah). Should Peter Baron’s team make as few mistakes as it did a few years ago it’ll again be podium material.

13. No. 2 Beyer Racing Chevrolet-Crawford; Jared Beyer, Romeo Kapudija, Dane Cameron, Jan Diek Leuders, Cort Wagner. A lot of talent but way too many names on a team formed very late and only likely to provide seat time – if not much of it.

14. No. 95 Crown Royal/NPN Racing BMW-Riley; Scott Tucker, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Lucas Luhr, Richard Westbrook. See No. 6, above.

15. No. 99 GAINSCO Auto Insurance Chevrolet-Riley; Alex Gurney, Jon Fogarty, Jimmy Vasser, Jimmie Johnson. The only team consistent from last year to this has had the greatest level of headache, too. Fogarty says the car is close but not where he’d want it for the race. Fairytale ending? Might just be, given the team. Of course, conspiracy theorists will cry foul, just as they did in 2009 and, roughly, every year.

Later,

DC