oh happy day... matos was very impressive...

 

Speedsource + DirecTv + Speed HD = FTW
Hope we get more HD coverage of racing in ALMS and Grand Am.

 

i hate you.... i have not put my call in for a new directv hd dvr..

note to self!!!!!

beers

 

any where to get this race online?
________
Classaction lawsuit

 

Very happy to see that beautiful black RX8 finish first in GT. I was excited to see the win, but only slightly disappointed that there was very little drama. The #70 easily won.

Random thoughts...

I can't believe Randy Pobst decided to run a Pontiac this year instead of a Mazda or Porsche. It just boggles the mind.

I enjoy watching GT so much more than DP. I can't believe the DP's get all the glory. Although, I was happy to see the GT's get more attention than I anticipated.

I don't know how to feel about the caution / pit rules. It almost smells of the "phantom cautions" from NASCAR designed to stack up the field, to provide closer racing. Remember that NASCAR owns Grand-Am.

I love the paint on the #70 rx8. It looks the same as the flat black that SportCompactCar used on their project 08 WRX.

 

24hr race on line.

I'd line to see that folder size.

 

awesome speedsource, that is the first step to a great season! i cant wait for the next race.

 

One thing that Grand Am gets to do is not pay to have an event. I believe they get to have a venue for free. Because of that, they have to have a "good race" in order to attract enough of an audience to make it profitable for the venue. They have to have a close good race.

 

Here're some of the casualty photos from the night:

Rear suspension damage after getting punted. Had to retire for the evening.



Engine trouble. Told me that they found metal when draining the oil. MPC, blown casing.



Suspension failure. Old blue eyes had a limp.



Brake failure. Went off track and had to come in to get new brake pads/rotors installed. Took about 3 minutes to change all 4 pads/rotors.



The pads were down to the backing after about 9 hours of racing. For perspecitve, new pads have about 7/8"

material. Here's a picture of a new set.





Broken fronnt sway bar. They changed the whole front end in about 15 minutes with the driver still in the car.




Damaged front end after an off track excursion. Needed new front end work and radiator. Rotors/pads changed.



Even Chip helped! You don't usually see the owner doing any work. I was impressed.

 

nice pics!

 

I love the access that fans have at Rolex Daytona. A couple of years ago, I basically was under a car which was being worked on while the crew was answering my questions- it was a Banner Racing Corvette now that I recall. If I were them, I would have thrown my *** out of the paddock. Leighton Reese is a patient man.

 

I'm impressed you were in there to take those shots. Based on the flash, I'd say you can't claim you were taking them though a fence with a zoom lens this time

 

yea,

it is really cool.. i think that is going to be tapered off a bit.. the crowds for the friday race, were shocking.. and it was cold.

beers

 

Lego, you rock!
Some of that was on SpeedTv - Never thought to look for you in the background!
Especially in the Target garage - someone with Tivo look for a dude with a camera!

 

Congratulations To Sylvain and his team breaking the mold of Porches dominating this race. "WOW"!

 

Great pics in the garages. Thanks for posting them for us.

 

Total congrats to Sylvain Trembley and the Speedsource team. They did everything right; perfect preparation and damn near perfect driving! What a victory! RX8 FTW!!

 

What an awesome race! Rain and wind be damned, it was still a beautiful sight to behold. I spent most of my time watching the infield - fun to watch an RX8 pressing a GT3 Cup down the straight, then passing.
Second the comments of others: this is way racing should be run - lots of connection between the fans and the action.

 

Zoom Zoom, Great to see an 8 win. Great job SpeedSource!!

 

That + computer+broadband=+FTW
It was better than being there.

 

What happened to the Spencer car?
And I assume the GoldinBro car retired due to some type of powertrain failure?
________
Burningchick

 

The Spencer car from what I understand wasn't able to be ready in time. The GoldinBro car had problems with their shocks and weren't able to continue. Last I talked to them (~7:30pm) they were waiting to the Penske guy to show up.



They got the drive train sorted out with the transaxle now. They told me they're going to continue throughout the season.

 

It's been a long 15 years since a RE powered racer won at the Daytona 24, so it's great to see RE power back on top of the GT class. The IMSA glory days seemed so far away!

The SpeedSource boys brought home the SpeedSource/Castrol RX-8 home ahead of a Porsche armada that was unrelenting, it was great to see... Congrats to the whole team! I communicated with John D, of Mazda, and Sylvain, SpeedSource, shortly after the race, and I can not tell you how excited and happy they were.

Guys, please feel free to leave a small message of congratulations to the boys at following the RN.COM story, as we are in direct contact with the SpeedSource squad, and they truly appreciate hearing from all the RE faithful!

http://rotarynews.com/node/view/984

We will forward all comments to the boys in the next few days!


A little history:
The win marked the first for a production-based GT-spec Mazda in the race since 1993 when Dick Greer, Al Bacon Peter Uria and Mike Mees took their RX-7 GTU to victory lane. All in all, 22 Mazda-powered entries have now triumphed at Daytona International Speedway.

The historic win also marked an end of an era for one of the manufacturer's archrivals. The 2008 race was the first time that Porsche has not at least won class in the Rolex 24 race since 1993, the year of the last Mazda victory.


Sylvain said told me right after the race.... "today is a win 4 all rotary fans"


Enjoy and Thanks,

-Bern

 

Randy and Mazda had a few conflicts-of-interest this year, and the succesful partnership could not continue. As many know, Randy runs several diferent race series and manufacturers, and this year, unfortunately, there were a few diferences that could not be sorted out, to allow Randy to continue with Mazda. All this was based strictly on professional decisions, with no hard feelings or drama involved.


-Bern

 

Awesome news - very impressed .
Just curious , how is it the mazdas can run an engine that did not come with the car originally . I imagine all the other GT cars would have .....