Prototype Battle Looms
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Prototype michelinalley.com battle looms News From the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship - Rolex 24 At Daytona 2015 TUDOR United SportsCar Championship - Rolex 24 the News From Carving out a racing career OLIVER GAVIN USES AN OLD SCHOOL “HACK” TO SUCCESS his year’s 53rd Annual Rolex to produce a relentless battle featuring 24 At Daytona is the first major Chevrolet, Ford, Honda, BMW and race of the year in the United Mazda powered prototypes and a pair 2 States and kicks off the 2015 of potent independent threats. Here is a TUDOR United SportsCar brief rundown of the top Prototype class TChampionship. The race is expected for 2015: FORD CHEVROLET HPD Ford enters a second season with Chevrolet enters the Rolex 24 At Michael Shank Racing is a pair of Ford EcoBoost Riley DPs Daytona as the defending 2014 race celebrating ten years in sports car entered by the five-time Rolex 24 and Series Prototype Manufacturer racing and looking for a second winning Chip Ganassi Racing with champions. Chevrolet has updated win here. The winners of the 2012 Felix Sabates. the new Corvette DP bodywork Rolex 24 have partnered with Honda Veteran ace Scott Pruett and new to reflect the styling of the C7 Performance Development to power teammate Joey Hand combine with production Corvette. their new Ligier JS P2. Charlie Kimball and Sage Karam Leading the Chevy charge are Longtime drivers John Pew and Ozz while IndyCar’s Scott Dixon and Tony defending Rolex 24 and series Negri will team for their 58th start Kanaan join Kyle Larson and Jamie champions from Action Express. together. Joining them here will be AJ McMurray. The team triumphed in 2014 with Allmendinger and Matt McMurry, the The team has been quick in the four championships including team, youngest driver to have competed in official tests and is certainly a major and driver titles for Joao Barbosa and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. threat as the eight driver combined Christian Fittipaldi, who are joined Scott Sharp’s Tequila Patrón tally is 144 race wins and 11 here again by Sebastian Bourdais. Extreme Speed Motorsports team championships. Joining Action Express for 2015 is enters its sixth year in sports the Whelen Engineering Corvette DP car racing with two new Honda with drivers Dane Cameron and Eric Performance Development ARX- Curran and for Daytona, veteran Max 04b coupes. The Florida-based team Papis plus Brit Phil Keen. features Sharp and Ryan Dalziel Adding to the bowtie brigade is paired with David Heinemeier a pair of 2014 race winners. Last Hansson while Ed Brown and year’s Daytona and Championship Johannes van Overbeek are teamed runners up from Wayne Taylor with Jon Fogarty. Racing have Max Angelelli returning to partner with brothers Ricky and Jordan Taylor. The former Spirit of Daytona team is now rebranded as VisitFlorida.com Racing with drivers Richard Westbrook and Michael Valiante joined by Mike Rockenfeller. BATTLEGROUND 3 BMW MAZDA INDEPENDENT The Florida-based Starworks team The Speed Source MAZDA factory Tracy Krohn’s veteran Le Mans lives up to its name at Daytona with team returns with their SKYACTIV Krohn Racing team trades his GTLM F1’s Rubens Barrichello, 2014 Indy prototypes for 2015. class Ferrari F458 for a new Onroak- 500 winner Ryan Hunter-Reay, factory The Multimatic-built, Lola-based built Ligier JS P2 prototype for 2015. Porsche LM P1 driver Brendon P2 cars have undergone extensive Krohn Racing was the first American Hartley, Tor Graves and Scott Mayer, updates – concentrating on enhanced team to commit to the Ligier and is aboard their Riley-BMW DP. cooling. the first prototype fitted with the Judd Meanwhile after a 12-year hiatus, This has produced solid gains for V8. FOX commentator Dorsey Schroeder the turbo-diesel prototypes – both in Speeding the development are the joins Bryon DeFoor, David Hinton lap time and straight line speed. two primary Ligier JS P2 development and Jim Pace in their Fifty Plus Racing New signing Jonathan Bomarito drivers, Alex Brundle and Olivier Pla, Endures for a Cure, Inc. / Highway to joins nineteen year-old Tristan who will pair with Krohn and team Help Race Team Riley-BMW. Nunez in one car with team owner regular Nic Jonsson. A multiple championship driver, Sylvain Tremblay while Tom Long Dr. Don Panoz’s Georgia-based Schroeder now 61 years old, has shed and Joel Miller are joined by Ben DeltaWing Racing Cars team returns 20 pounds in training for his chance Devlin. with their radical DeltaWing DWC13 to race again in the Rolex 24. featuring a number of off-season Making its Rolex 24 debut after improvements for the Elan-powered acquiring a Dinan BMW- powered prototype. The team ended the 2014 Riley DP from Michael Shank Racing season with a solid fourth place finish is a new Ohio-based team formed by in the ten-hour Petit Le Mans. Robert Gewirtz. The start-up team Drivers Katherine Legge, Gabby will feature Gewirtz, Mark Kvamme Chaves, Andy Meyrick and Memo and Shane Lewis. Rojas have all shown strong race While the big manufacturer pace. tied Prototype teams will lead the marketing, if not on track battles, two highly capable independent entries pose outside threats. 4 5 ong before “hacking” became mixed and poured into the bag as Gavin Magnussen and Garcia went on a mid- the nightmare that kept settled inside the cockpit. season tear, scoring four consecutive corporate IT professionals There was just one catch. “They started TUDOR Championship GTLM Class awake at night, young Oliver pouring and kept on pouring – way more wins before the dreaded Adjustment of Gavin experienced the most than I was expecting,” said Gavin. Performance (AOP) changes reeled the Lmemorable “hack” of his distinguished “As the foam started to form it quickly Corvettes back to the GTLM class mid- racing career. engulfed me in the cockpit. I was stuck pack. A former British Formula 3 series in the car. There was foam everywhere. Any disappointment over the 2014 champion and McLaren Autosport They had to free my hands from the season is long since passed as Gavin, Young Driver of the Year award winner, steering wheel.” Milner and the fabled Corvette Racing Gavin – a native of Cambridgeshire, The team mechanics were all having a team find further refinements, car setups England – was in France helping the big laugh. One of them handed Gavin a and adjustments for 2015. Renault F1 team conduct some straight- hacksaw blade to cut himself out of the “We are heading into the 2015 TUDOR line and development testing. cockpit while they headed to lunch! “It Championship with great excitement,” After trying to get the F1 seat fitted took me nearly an hour and a half to cut said Gavin. “We have a full year with the just right after a couple of previous myself out,” laughed Gavin. Corvette C7.R under our belts. adjustments, he asked the team for yet Since joining Corvette Racing in 2002, “Tommy and I have had some good one more update. Gavin, now age 42, has been fitted for offseason tests. We feel confident that While the race cars were high-tech, the a lot of seats and helped the team find we have a competitive package and process by which race seats were made solutions to the endless cycle of racing everyone has a bit of ‘AoP’ changes. We was then not. A large, black challenges. can’t wait to see where we stack up,” said plastic garbage bag was Along the way he has claimed 44 GT Gavin. placed inside the endurance race wins around the world Quiet, confident and with the ability car. The “part A” – 40 in the American Le Mans Series and and persistence to hack away at any and “part B” four at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. problems, Gavin and Milner, who are chemicals In 2014, the debut of the new joined here by IndyCar star Simon were Chevrolet Corvette C7.R produced Pagenaud, intend to build a successful four wins for Corvette Racing’s Jan 2015 TUDOR Championship run. Magnussen and Antonio Garcia, but The 11 races in the 2014 TUDOR surprisingly none for Gavin and co- Championship season saw 11 different driver Tommy Milner who had taken drivers claim GTLM class race poles and four wins and the 2012 ALMS GT 10 drivers set fastest race laps. Championship and a pair of wins in With top teams like BMW Team 2013. Opening the 2014 TUDOR United RLL, Porsche North America, Risi SportsCar Championship with the two Competizione Ferrari, Falken Porsche longest races in the series, the Rolex and joined here by Aston Martin Racing 24 At Daytona and the Mobil 1 Twelve and AF Corse, the drivers are all top shelf Hours of Sebring, the new Corvettes and the competition is exceptionally showed speed but experienced teething fierce. problems. Often it is a blend of speed, “We were quick here at Daytona and experience, feedback and even a bit of at Sebring with the new car last year humor that determines the winner. but ran into some of the inevitable “We are quietly confident,” said Gavin, mechanical new car issues,” said Gavin. who still laughs at the memory of using Indeed, Gavin set the fastest GTLM a hack saw blade to cut himself out race lap at Sebring and Milner did the that car. And with that, the 10-month same at Long Beach, but the two were long, high-speed hackathon is officially winless in 2014. underway. 6 FAST FACTS Watch us now Michelin ready Following its successful return to the Rolex 24 At Daytona in 2014, Michelin prepares to defend the GTLM class honors with on FOX a diverse range including BMW Don’t miss the first race of the 2015 TUDOR United Team RLL, Corvette Racing, SportsCar Championship as the series competes at the Rolex Risi Competizione Ferrari, AF 24 At Daytona.