DAYTONA BEACH, Fla., — The Roar Before The Rolex 24, the three-day test session for the historic 50th Anniversary of the Rolex 24 At Daytona on Jan. 28-29, kicked off on Friday at Daytona International Speedway.<\/p>\n
Between GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series and Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge, 112 cars are tackling the twists and turns of Daytona\u2019s road course preparing for the Rolex 24 At Daytona Weekend. As the cars hit the track on the first day of the Roar Before The Rolex 24, it was clear that teams are taking this weekend\u2019s test as seriously as any event on their 2012 schedules.<\/p>\n
A few teams also announced their driver line-ups for the twice-around-the-clock challenge including Michael Shank Racing, which unveiled their team for the No. 60 Riley-Ford. This year\u2019s race marks Michael Shank Racing\u2019s ninth consecutive running at the Rolex 24 At Daytona.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have kind of the original team that I started with kind of back in 2006 with AJ Allmendinger, Justin Wilson, John Pew and Oswald Negri,\u201d said owner Michael Shank. \u201cI\u2019m really glad we were able to put these guys back together.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel good about the race team,\u201d said Allmendinger. \u201cIn the short amount of time that we have had with the new Riley, the car has been really good and I think we just have to keep developing it over the three day test. We\u2019re going to have a really good shot at this thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a reason I always love doing this race \u2013 I think it\u2019s the prestige of it and the way it kicks off the season obviously here at Daytona for us Cup guys. When it comes to the Cup side of it and the Penske organization, it\u2019s the best opportunity that I\u2019ve ever had.\u201d<\/p>\n
This past month has been a whirlwind for Allmendinger. He signed to drive the No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Dodge for Penske Racing and participated in the recent World Karting Association Daytona Kartweek.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a fun crazy off-season,\u201d said Allmendinger. \u201cThings that I had planned for and other things that I hadn\u2019t planned for that happened to me that are really good. I\u2019m really excited about this year as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n
Spirit of Daytona: The locally-based Spirit of Daytona announced that Antonio Garcia, Richard Westbrook, Oliver Gavin and Jan Magnussen will team up on the No. 90 Chevrolet Corvette Daytona Prototype.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the best lineup I\u2019ve had and I\u2019m happy all of the stars have lined up for the 50th Rolex 24,\u201d said Spirit of Daytona owner\/manager Troy Flis.<\/p>\n
Saturday fan forums: On Saturday, fans can interact with their favorite Rolex 24 At Daytona drivers and teams during three fan forums:
\nSelect TRG Racing drivers from 12-12:15 p.m.
\nChip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates and select drivers at 12:15-12:30 p.m.
\nDempsey Racing and 50+\/Predator Racing select drivers at 12:30-12:45 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla., — The Roar Before The Rolex 24, the three-day test session for the historic 50th Anniversary of the Rolex 24 At Daytona on Jan. 28-29, kicked off on Friday at Daytona International Speedway. Between GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series and Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge, 112 cars are tackling the twists and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[195],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-road-racing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8690\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}