Potter Works His Magic And Wins A Rolex

[Ed. Note – This post ran yesterday... well,  part of it did. The rats got into the server room and ate the rest. So, we went in with wrenches and beat the rats away. Now, we present the full story today. --JG]

While we have already covered the Daytona Prototype victory with our post yesterday, the untold story of the race is the Grand Touring class battle. Following one of the tightest class victory battles in race history, and with a field that can be compared favorably to nearly any other in the history of the event, Magnus Racing took their historic first victory in the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series by taking the checkered flag at the 50th Anniversary of the Rolex 24 at Daytona. If you are going to have a first win, there is no better place to take it.

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Hooniverse Post Rolex24 Week Videos: The “Let’s Kill Productivity” Edition

Hands Off LRF

As my fellow Hoons might be aware, this past weekend was the 50th Anniversary of the running of the Rolex24 at the Daytona International Speedway. This olelongrooffan has previously posted, ad nauseum, about my attendance at that event, as well as the parade on the Friday before the Continental BMW Performance 200.

Well my fellow Hoons, this olelongrooffan, at each of those events, was able to capture, albeit with my elcheapo 28 dollar ebay camera, some grainy videos for your listening pleasure, but you have to make the jump to see them.

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Dinger does Daytona

A.J. Allmendinger has not won a single major international racing event since his departure from open-wheel racing for NASCAR at the end of 2006. After toddling around the middle of the Sprint Cup mid-pack with Red Bull Racing for the last six years, AyJay has moved to the Penske seat vacated by the recently sacked elder Busch brother. Red Bull pulled their team out of the series at the end of the 2011 season, leaving Dinger winless.

A.J. entered the 2012 season hoping to change all of that.

I should think that A.J. was looking forward to the 2012 season, thinking of the promised land that a seat at Penske offers a driver. Even he, likely, would not have thought his first win in 6 years would come at the wheel of a Michael Shank Racing Daytona Prototype.

Shank has racing history numbering in the decades, and has recently been running in the Grand Am Rolex sports car series. The team have notched up a couple wins since their entry into the series. While they have had some luck, by no means have the team proven themselves the equal of the Ganassi juggernaut. Last year, at the Daytona 24 hour, Shank’s team finished in fourth, and the year previous in fifth, giving them a pair of “there or thereabouts” finishes.

Taking it a few steps further, Shank pulled out all the stops and finished first and third with his cars just two days ago.

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Hooniverse Rolex24 Weekend Edition: Last Call: The “In The Weeds” Edition

Not Michael Waltrip's spin, his was later

If you expect to make it racing for 24 hours and 750 plus laps, you probably want to remember the engine in your Ferrari should stay to the rear.

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Hooniverse Rolex24 Weekend Edition: The Garage and The Horseshoes Edition

This dead tired olelongrooffan, unlike fellow Hoon Bradley Brownell, was able to stay and see the end of the Rolex24 Hours at the Daytona International Speedway. Unfortunately, the timing of Brad’s flight back to the home of the Rock & Roll Museum was such that he had to be at the airport a half hour before the race ended. He was gracious enough to allow me to drop his “bushwacked” butt off a little early so I could get back to the track to see the final laps. As I am leaving the actual race analysis to his extremely knowledgeable talents, prior to assuming the position of the horizontal dude seen above, this olelongrooffan thought I might pop up a few images of the garage and horseshoe turns I gathered among the over 1,200 images I captured this weekend.

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Hooniverse Rolex24 Weekend Edition: The Parade Out Front and Out Back

So, campsite 510 in the infield at the Daytona International Speedway is bordered on the front by the west horseshoe entry at turn 5 and on the rear by the main feeder road from the tunnel under NASCAR turn 1 and the old tunnel under NASCAR turn 4, which, incidentally, is the same age as this olelongrooffan.

As a result, on any given Hooniverse Rolex24 Weekend, there is quite a parade going on, both out front on the track and in the back yard.

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Daytona 24: 11 hours down

With 10 hours in the books, there has been some exciting racing. There are some clear leaders, and some that are clearly not leaders.  One thing that has surprised me is the utter lack of attrition induced middle of the night thrashes in the garages.  The teams that are falling out of the race are either so far gone that they pull the car into the garage, shut her down, and calmly walk away (as I saw Martin Ragginger do with his failed Burtin Racing Porsche), or they are still chugging along out on the track.

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Daytona 24: The Start

The start of the race was an amazing experience.  Shortly after the awesome flyover, I bore witness to one of the coolest starts in all of motor racing.  The start of the season.  It is a surreal feeling knowing that this is the first time of the year that anyone in major American based sports cars will hear the words “Drivers, start your engines.”  (Spoken by Sir Jackie “It’s a great day for a motor car race”  Stewart, by the way)

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Daytona 24: How Cool Are Flyovers?

The flyover is usually my favorite moment of a motor race.  The giddy feeling that I had in the bottom of my stomach at the start of the Daytona 24 this afternoon was greatly exacerbated by this amazing flyover. There is nothing more offensive than a terrible flyover. At an event last year, I even witnessed a pre-race flyover by a HELICOPTER!  Seriously?  Give me jets, give me backwash, and give me NOISE!

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Hooniverse Rolex24 Weekend Edition: A Stroll To The Garage

Still out here at the Rolex24 at the Daytona International Speedway and this olelongrooffan thought I might share my experiences earlier today. It is currently 4:15 pm Eastern and the race just got underway. For the record, 12 of us formed a pool and drew car numbers to win a slightly legal pool. For the record, I have the Michael Waltrip Ferrari #56, Action Express’s Corvette Protype #5 and Team Saleen RX8 #42 and Dr. McDreamy’s #40 Mazda RX8 Wish me luck and let’s take a stroll around shall we?

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