DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The more things change, the more they seem to stay the same. Although that may be a tired, old cliché, the fact is that it appropriately sums up this past weekend’s pre-season Grand Am Rolex Sports Car Series test with the Chip Ganassi owned Telmex Lexus Riley of Scott Pruett, Memo Rojas, Dario Franchitti, and Juan Pablo Montoya setting the fastest lap.
The quartet posted a 1:41.232 clocking around the 3.56-mile combined high-bank and infield road circuit at the massive Daytona Int’l Speedway complex, a considerable improvement in speed over the times Daytona Prototype drivers were turning a year ago at the 2007 Rolex 24. Indeed, the entirety of the field, both the prototypes and their GT division opposite numbers, were all far quicker than last season, a fact many attribute to the change from the Hoosier tires of 12 months ago to the new Pirellis mandated for 2008.
Yet, what has not changed is the closeness of the competition in the DP and GT arenas, nor the leader board, which showed that those who were quick in ’07, are quick in ’08. Although Franchitti is a new addition to the Ganassi stable, joining fellow Indy 500 winner Montoya not only for the Rolex 24, but also on NASCAR’s premier Sprint Cup circuit, the fact is that the Ganassi ’07 Rolex 24 winning crew is taking up right where it left off.
Perhaps even more important, are the rest of last year’s frontrunners. One of those is the Gainsco 2007 championship DP Pontiac Riley squad of Jon Fogarty and Alex Gurney, who are with the help of the reigning NASCAR Sprint titlist, Jimmie Johnson, and former CART crown winner, Jimmy Vasser. The Gainsco entry was third on the speed charts on Friday afternoon in the second practice session, the fastest practice period of the weekend, with a 1:41.761 lap. Separating the two Riley chassis, was a similar third car, the exception to the rule that it was “business as usual” at Daytona. This “interloper” was the Pontiac Riley of the newly created Penske-Taylor Racing, a joint effort between Roger Penske and Wayne Taylor that saw Penske drivers Ryan Briscoe, Helio Castroneves and Kurt Busch take second place on the time charts on Friday, turning in a 1:41.277 tour around the track.
In all, there were less than 1.5 seconds separating the top 11 Daytona Prototypes during that quick session, an indication that this month’s Rolex 24 will be the hard-fought, long-distance “sprint” affair it has become in recent years.
As for the GT community, the winning 2007 Rolex 24 Alegra Motorsports teams led by Carlos de Quesada and Luis Philippe Dumoulin, with Bob Woodman and Scooter Gabel, led what was essentially a parade of Porsche 911 GT3 Cup entries with times in the 1:51 bracket. Even so, the ever-growing fleet of super-quick Mazda RX8s, showed that they, as well as the Pontiac GXP-Rs and the Ford Mustangs, can hang in with their German opposition, the only problem being the question of their reliability over the race’s 24-hour duration.
With some 10 NASCAR stars and a host of other top talent from both the single-seat and sports-car universes, the 2008 Rolex season opener could prove to be one of the more memorable events of 2008 Rolex Grand Am season.