2009 Rolex 24 at Daytona (January 22-25)

[chocmonster7]

Originally Posted by ghinzani

Just sat and watched Channel 5's supposed Daytona 24hrs coverage which started at 4.30am. They only went and showed the 2008 race... whats the point of that?

They are showing this years race next week.

Rolex Grand American (Motoring)
Time - 03:35 - 05:10 (1 hour and 35 minutes long)
When - Monday 9th February on five
Rolex 24 at Daytona.
Extended highlights from the Daytona International Speedway as the new season of the Rolex Grand Am gets underway. Juan Pablo Montoya won his second consecutive Rolex 24 at this event last year - can he make it three in a row?

[joeb]

Originally Posted by chocmonster7

....... Juan Pablo Montoya won his second consecutive Rolex 24 at this event last year - can he make it three in a row?

My money is on no! hahahaha

[b555]

News update.
Grand am has unofficialy come to the conclusion that there standard help( rpm & weigth break) will not be enough to help the pontiac powered teams.they are now looking at what it will take to make them competitive.Gainsco has made it clear that they will not stay with pontiac if the engine does not improve & are looking at other engines(rumor:ford).the same goes for crawford (they have spoken to porsche).the first engine dyno tests has not revealed anything new at this point.grand am already knows these numbers.more tests will be done.they don't know if they will penalise the ford & porsche engine(have betweeen 5 & 8 hp more than the bmw & lexus) or help the lexus & bmw engine.a very difficult situation for grand am,because 1 group will be very unhappy.more news will follow.

Gt news.Mazda is asking Grand am for more rpm.they have said that they need the rpms to battle the porsche armada.pontiac also wants help because they feel that the porsche & mazda are to fast & they can not compete against them.

thanks for the advice speed king.

[Jonerz]

I know times are tight, but what is stopping Pontiac and Mazda from developing their motors further? Is there a rule against development? It would be better to allow teams and manufacturers to develop their equipment in my opinion than to enforce rules breaks, or rules penalties.

Chris

[Aslak Vind]

Mazda is not developing much, thats up to AIR all together?

[old man]

We had a good canter through the winners weight problem here and concluded that Grand-Am, now it is a Nascar run product can expect some flexibility of rules and penalties, in the interests of the show you understand, am I right?

Now I see in Autosport the peoples favourite in the other Daytona race was penalised for infringing the rule about being inside the white lines at a pit stop with a clear picture published showing how guilty he was, looks a good inch to me, the cheat!

Just adds to my puzzlement

[b555]

news update

Well like i said,after dyno testing there would be a winner and there would be a loser.As some of you may already know the pontiac engine has got some reg. help,they are allowed to run a different intake maniflod.more changes will be allowed if needed.Now we have the saga between ford & porsche and the rest.after dyno testing grand am maid some changes on the porsche engine.they now have to use a 5 speed gearbox and have 200 rpm less(9000 rpm).the ford engine was not penalised because grand am had the opinion that engine was already restricted(porsche engine wasn't according to grand am).restricting it even more,would make it uncompetitive.porsche was not happy and they had a meeting with Grand am,right before or after the 12 hours of sebring.porsche was told by grand am that they would re-examine the rules after the Verizon Wireless 250(round 3),maybe earlier.if the porsche teams loose to much speed,changes will be maid,so the restrictions MAYBE temporary.thats why the porsche teams also went to homestead test,to see how the rules changes would affect them.after the test it was clear that they lost some speed.time will tell what grand am,is going to do about it.

round 2 at VIR.Ganassi racing on pole(1:41.646),2.penkse(+0.587 sec),3.gainsco(+0.616).they race tomorrow.race starts at 14:30am on speed tv.

[TWK]

1430am?

What's this "Pontiac" thing. There ain't no "Pontiac?"

Sorry for being so obtuse, but your post is pretty much unreadable, b555; I've already given it as much time and effort as it deserves, with is very little. Anybody remember punctuation?

[TWK]

Notice that the gaps between the qualifiers in Grand Am are hugely more than between those in ALMS? So much for "managed competition." (Ok, that's not fair, we know that it is "political realities" that determine Grand Am rules, don't we?

[Hugewally]

Originally Posted by b555

grand am maid

Is that a paid or volunteer position?

[skycafe]

Originally Posted by Hugewally

Is that a paid or volunteer position?

Hey, if they start putting grid girls (do they have grid girls?) in French Maid outfits, I may watch! Hubba!

[b555]

First of all,my apologies.I was in a hurry,so my previous post was a bit of mess.And my english is not that good.

News update:
Porsche:After the 2 race evaluation period,Grand Am gave porsche 2 options.they were allowed to choose between:
1. more rpm
2.a 6 speed gearbox,but the engine would loose some performance.
Porsche went with the gearbox. and there engine lost a 100 rpm,so it went from producing 9000 to 8900 rpm. the porsche drivers are happy that they have the 6 speed gearbox back.
The Gainsco guys are happy with the improved Pontiac engine.
Crawford is still struggling with there car.they have some drag and balance issues.
The Honda engine is a bit down on horsepower.

GT:
Porsche was given a weight break by Grand Am. They also have some issues with front end grip. GA has also made some changes to the Mazda RX 8 and Pontiac GTO.(car weight).

Starting Grid for the Verizon Festival of Speed:
1.Ganassi Racing: 1min19.8sec.
2.Suntrust Racing: 1min20.2sec.
3.Gainsco Racing: 1min20.3sec.
4.AIM Autosport : 1min20.469sec.
5.Penske Racing : 1min20.493sec.

The race starts at 1600h.

[Spyderman]

I'm not sure Porsche are that "happy".

"The changes in the technical regulations that were handed down to the Porsche Riley after its triumph at the 24 Hours at Daytona to handicap the vehicle, have partly been revoked by the Grand-Am decision-makers. The Daytona prototype may race in Laguna Seca again with a six-speed gearbox. However in return, the maximum engine speed has again been reduced – this time from 9000 to 8900 rpm. “This doesn’t mean things are immediately easier for us,” said Timo Bernhard. ”It helps of course to have the sixth gear back. But still the lower engine revs hurt. Somehow it's counteractive, it's not a real improvement for us." - Porsche PR

[b555]

New update:

It has been a while since i posted some Grand am news,but nothing really happend,so there was nothing to post. This weekend the Grand Am Series is back at daytona. There is some news.Here we go:

After lobbying by Porsche,Grand Am has made some regulations changes. The Porsche engine is once again allowed to have a maximum RPM of 9200. The engine is back to 24 hours of daytona specification. As expected some teams are not happy,because they feel that it will give the porsche powered teams a advantage on the long straights of daytona. But I heard that the rule change is for this race only. Grand Am will look at it race by race.

Spirit of Daytona team will have there improved Coyote car. They are also busy with improving there cayenne engine.

Crawford is still trying to find out whats wrong with there DP car.They have improved,but they feel that there is still a long way to go.

Ganassi has entered a second car,which will be driven by Kyle Busch and Scott Speed.
I wonder how they will fair against the likes of dumas,fogarty,pruett & co.

GT:
Not much to report.
The porsche GT3 teams have been a allowed to install cooling fans for there tires. it has been on the cars for 2 races now. It's Kind of a trade off,because the Mazda teams is allowed to run a new front splitter & there engine is allowed to run more RPM. Pontiac teams have also been allowed to tweak there car's balance.

P.S:Speed king:Porsche was happy to have 6 speed gearbox back,regardless of what the porsche memo said. And now with the extra RPM,they are VERY VERY Happy.

The Brumos 250 starts at 1400h.

[b555]

Sorry Speed King,I meant Spyderman.

[dxk1]

Apparently the changes in Porsche engine specs did not help them in this race. No Porsches were in contention at any time during the race except for Donohue's Brumos Porsche for the first few laps (4th-5th place) and then he dropped out with electrical problems.

DK