[h=1]Jeff Gordon hops into the No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi 2017 Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona Jimmie Johnson comments by phone as race is about to resume/yellow flag[/h]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvOSnPuPeBc

 

[h=1]Jeff Gordon Rolex 24 At Daytona Interview 1/28/17[/h]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggQucaWTJ-o

 

[h=1]Class Winner Interviews | 2017 Rolex 24 at Daytona - WeatherTech SportsCar Championship[/h]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irML2R9PcXE

 

Two Drivers Break Record for Youngest Rolex 24 Winner
Thursday, February 2, 2017
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When the checkered flag dropped on Sunday afternoon after the 55th Rolex 24 At Daytona, two drivers found themselves breaking a race record that dates back more than 30 years.
Michael de Quesada, co-driver of the No. 28 Alegra Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R, and Patricio O’Ward, in the No. 38 Performance Tech ORECA FLM09, won in GT Daytona and Prototype Challenge, respectively. De Quesada is 17 years, 63 days old, while O’Ward is 17 years, 239 days old, and both smashed the record for the youngest driver to win the Rolex 24 At Daytona.
“It’s incredible,” said de Quesada. “I was there in 2007 when my dad (Carlos de Quesada) won, and since then have dreamed about winning myself. It was the 10-year anniversary since my dad’s first win, which makes it even more special. The dream kept going because I was in a Porsche also, plus doing it with incredible guys like Daniel (Morad), Jesse (Lazare), Mike (Christensen) and my dad was amazing.”
Prior to this year’s race, the record was held by John Jones, winner of the GTO class in the 1985 Rolex 24 At Daytona. He was 19 years, 109 days old. The closest any driver had come to breaking Jones’ record was in 2005 with GT winner Dominik Farnbacher, who at the time was 20 years, 113 days old.
"Winning in Daytona is the biggest accomplishment I have achieved during my 11 years of racing,” said O’Ward. “It was such a special win for me because it was my first ever endurance race with teammates I really enjoyed working with. The race was so difficult because the rain and the cold weather made it absolutely miserable on our legs and hands, but at the end we did it! We won the Rolex 24 in the PC class and I couldn’t be happier to do it with Kyle (Masson), James (French), Nick (Boulle) and the whole Performance Tech team."
FERRARI WINS ROLEX 24 DEKRA GREEN RACING AWARD: The first DEKRA Green Racing Award of the year was awarded to the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE after the Rolex 24 At Daytona. The award goes to the most environmentally clean, fast, and efficient car in the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class. The Ferrari was the recipient of the award several times in 2016 as well and the Risi team won the year-end team DEKRA Green Racing Award.
IMSA partners with the Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Society of Engineers International to develop a formula for calculating each car’s environmental impact. The formula is composed of three components- Clean, Fast, and Efficient- and scores from each component are added together to create a total. The car with the lowest score, representing the smallest environmental impact, receives the Green Racing Award.
“The DEKRA Green Racing Award recognizes the manufacturer that has made an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through technological advances on the team’s engine platform,” explained Geoff Carter, IMSA Senior Director of Technical Regulations and Compliance. “Trophies are handed out after each race, as well as at the end of the year, as a reward for the team and manufacturer that have made the least environmental impact in the GT Le Mans class.”
Risi Competizione now leads the DEKRA Green Racing Team Championship, and Ferrari leads the DEKRA Green Racing GTLM Manufacturers Championship.
CHIP WILE READY TO TAKE ON BUSY FIRST YEAR AS DIS PRESIDENT: Two down, at least 13 more to go – and that’s only between now and the Fourth of July.
But if those first two races – the 55th running of the Rolex 24 At Daytona, preceded by the BMW Endurance Challenge at Daytona – were any indication, Daytona International Speedway hasn’t lost a step in the off-season leadership transition between outgoing Track President Joie Chitwood, III, and his successor, Chip Wile. Chitwood was promoted to the job of chief operating officer of International Speedway Corporation (ISC), which owns the Daytona track.
“So far, so good,” said Wile, in the closing hours of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season kickoff, “though we can’t control the weather.” The fact that about half of the Rolex 24 was run in wet conditions sounds more imposing than it was – most of the time the rain was light, and the last five hours were cool and dry. And with that nail-biting finish – three of the four IMSA WeatherTech class wins were decided by less than three seconds – few were complaining.
Still, literally and figuratively, Wile got his feet wet as he oversaw the sports car racing weekend, good training for the approaching Speedweeks which begins with the Lucas Oil 200 ARCA race on February 18 and ends with the Daytona 500 February 26. Beyond that, there’s Bike Week, the Country 500 music festival, the Coke Zero 400 and more.
“It’s certainly different here,” Wile said, comparing Daytona to his last tour of duty as head of Darlington Raceway, “but still, I’m used to being on the go.”
And after the Rolex 24, he’s certainly sold on sports car racing.
“Our partnership with IMSA, and working together at the Rolex 24, is so important for Daytona,” he said. “It’s great to have so many international brands here – to see the sport growing this way. The vision Jim France has” – IMSA Chairman France is the son of Bill France, Sr., NASCAR founder and builder of Daytona International Speedway – “continues to resonate. He has always believed in sports car racing, as well as stock car racing. To see how the operation handles things here has really opened my eyes.”

 

ZFDreamJobs Rolex 24 Daytona 2017


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lci2...ature=youtu.be

 

2017 Rolex 24 Pitlane and Garage


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PY80aUD2fFI

by MidnightR1

 

MOTORSPORT : PORSCHE AT THE 24 HOURS OF DAYTONA l FILM

Fantastic Rolex 24 at Daytona for Porsche: The new 911 RSR celebrated a successful race debut, clinching second place in GTLM, and the 911 GT3 R celebrated its first victory (GTD) at the long-distance classic in Florida.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNo_xomBVc0

A successful race debut for the new Porsche 911 RSR at the 24 Hours of Daytona: With a fantastic charge through the field in the last hours of the race, Porsche factory drivers Patrick Pilet (France), Dirk Werner (Germany) and Frédéric Makowiecki (France) secured second place in the GTLM class for the Porsche GT Team factory squad. After 634 laps on the demanding Daytona International Speedway, they were just 2.988 seconds shy of claiming victory. However, a win at the season-opening round of the IMSA SportsCar Championship was celebrated by the Porsche customer team Alegra Motorsports: With the Porsche 911 GT3 R and supported by Porsche factory pilot Michael Christensen (Denmark), the squad won the GTD class. For Porsche, this was the 77th class victory at the world famous long distance classic in Florida.

 

Mastering the selfie stick

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eL-fVICOL8Q

[h=1]DAYTONA ROLEX 24 HOUR RACE | CHANCE OF A LIFETIME! | WHAT A RACE[/h]

 

Mariage proposal at Daytona Rolex 24
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwVEnt_EOZU

Easy to remember that date...

 

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Published on Jan 31, 2017
The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Rolex 24 at Daytona wasn’t decided until the final minutes Sunday, after a controversial move by winner Ricky Taylor that secured the lead for the No. 10 Cadillac DPi V.R.

Filipe Albuquerque was leading in his Mustang Sampling Racing Cadillac DPi with less then 10 minutes to go. Taylor was in close pursuit. After trying to pass Albuquerque several times, with the clock nearing seven minutes left, Taylor lined up behind Albuquerque as the two entered turn 1. Taylor dove into the corner and Albuquerque appeared to turn down. The two cars touched, with Albuquerque spinning. Taylor was able to streak by to take the lead. Albuquerque recovered and was soon catching him.

IMSA officials reviewed the incident and declared no penalties for the contact. Taylor and his team, including Jeff Gordon, celebrated the win while Albuquerque and his team had to settle for second.

Prototype (P): The top, fastest class of endurance racing prototypes in North America, geared primarily towards teams of professionals. This class is somewhat based upon the international LMP2 spec, for those of you familiar with the cars that run at Le Mans. However, IMSA and the manufacturers who back its series wanted to allow marques to customize cars more so they wouldn’t be giving mere lip service to branding a car a “Mazda” or a “Nissan.” This birthed the Daytona Prototype International (or DPi for short) spec of cars that runs here, although the regular LMP2s that are eligible to run at Le Mans can also run in IMSA’s P-class. It’s a little complicated, but tl;dr—these are the fastest things you’ll see on track, and they’re incredible both up-close and at speed.
Prototype Challenge (PC): Like the P class, PC is all purpose-built race cars that were designed from start to finish for track use—and track use only. These identical open-top cars are run by pro-am teams—in other words, with a mix of professionals and amateurs. This is the last year they’ll be running as a class, thought. These cars have been around for a while, and with more racers preferring a closed cabin for safety reasons, IMSA opted to scrap this class for 2018.
GT Le Mans (GTLM): The GT classes are the ones based on everyday road cars. GTLM cars are based on Le Mans’ GTE spec, and are driven by professionals. If you’ve ever wondered what’s possible with a modern-day roadgoing chassis, consider GTLM your weekend dose of inspiration. With cars like the BMW M6, the Porsche 911 and the Ford GT in the mix, this is where the next generation of mid-life-crisis-mobile tech is born.
GT Daytona (GTD): Not every amateur wants to race a PC car, and thus, GTD is here to save the day with a collection of everything from Lamborghini Huracán GT3s to the brand-new for 2017 Acura NSX GT3. Like PC, GTD cars are driven by a tightly controlled mix of professionals and amateurs. These cars all adhere to the global FIA GT3 specification, making it relatively easy to buy one from a manufacturer, already race-prepped and ready to go. GTD cars are a little slower than GTLM, but they’re also meant to be less expensive than the spec used by the pros.
Of course, who constitutes a “pro” versus an “am” is a hot mess of a debate in its own right, and there’s a lot of incentive to ask for a lower status than you actually deserve for bizarre political reasons you can read all about here. Many of the so-called “amateurs” (which include a five-time winner of this race!) are actually pretty good! Part of the reason for so many classes comes down to sources of funding—as in, it’s often an amateur with cash that keeps a team afloat, and those amateur drivers need a place to play with cars more suited to their non-pro status.
Jeff Gordon has taken a very serious approach to his participation in the weekend's Rolex 24 at Daytona. However, the four-time NASCAR champion was all smiles after climbing out of his Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac DPi following his first stint behind the wheel Saturday evening.
Gordon is joined in Prototypes by IndyCar driver and Dancing With the Stars contestant James Hinchcliffe.

Hinchcliffe is driving the No. 70 for Mazda Motorsports with Tom Long and Joel Miller.

• Chip Ganassi has a host of familiar names driving for his four-car team in GT Le Mans. Ryan Briscoe and Scott Dixon are sharing the No. 67 car with Richard Westbrook and Sebastian Bourdais is one of the drivers in the No. 66. Tony Kanaan is a co-driver on the No. 69 car.

The defending champions of the class are Corvette Racing, and the Chevy team is back with a two-car team.

• The class with the most cars is GT Daytona (27). It includes two Acuras from Michael Shank Racing, who won the 2012 Rolex 24 with AJ Allmendinger behind the wheel at the end of the race. Allmendinger isn’t driving for MSR this year, but Ryan Hunter-Reay is in the No. 86 car for the team. Graham Rahal is sharing duties in MSR’s No. 93.