<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by gene johnston:
Nice Photos's. Back during the late '70's early '80's use to go to the IMSA final in Daytona. It was always a good auto weekend.
Have you heard anything on the anticipated turnout for the 24hr next year? Brother wanted to know if we'd be going again this year. I'm kinda holding out to see if much shows up.<hr></blockquote>
Gene:
Thanks for the comments... I really don't know what to expect for the 24-hour race next year. Fortunately the organizers do a good job of putting a couple of race series together giving several days of racing, including the HSR races, Motorola Cup, and the various classes that comprise the actual running of the 24-hours of Daytona (aka "Rolex-24").
I'm not completely up to speed on what they're allowing and not allowing next year, but my understanding is that the big prototype cars we've been used to seeing since the mid-90s are not going to be present next year, or at least not in their present form. Grand-Am's new rules have eliminated the R&S Chassis several teams are using (Dyson racing, Bahama Joes, etc), even past winners like the Ferrari 333SP are eliminated due to the rules-changes.
The attitude seems to be toward pushing the new "Daytona Prototype" class as the ultimate top-end class in the event. I've seen two of these class prototypes up close and have been somewhat unimpressed with them asthetically - but have yet to see either of them run on the track (I'm using kind words here compared to what has been muttered on other forums, many people just outright hate the new cars and have turned their interest to the ALMS series).
Still, I think you can be guaranteed there will be more than a fair share of Porsche 911 derivatives, the odd Ferrari, Corvette, Marcos, and Viper in the slower classes.
By the way - as I said, the organizers get a few racing series together for the event. It's well worth your while to plan on attending at least on Friday to see some of the other cars run. The HSR racing may not be as "cut throat" as the current series are, but they are series racers using some very famous cars. Even so, if you come for the weekend and intend on parking in the infield plan on getting to the track EARLY on Saturday. I got there around 9:30 this year and drove around for an hour looking for parking before I left and parked across the street from the track at one of our offices - it was a mob scene to say the least!
-Scott
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Pretty Please - add it to our Events forum(s) and add to the calendar! >> 
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