Gentlemen, start your engines for the 24 Hours of Daytona
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It’s been a long, cold winter but this weekend’s 2013 Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona casts a few rays of warm sun and kicks off another season of auto racing in the United States.
The 24 Hours of Daytona is the opening event of Grand-Am’s 12-race season and features 59 cars across three different classes racing a 3.56 mile, 12-turn road course at the famous Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, FL. The around-the-clock endurance race tests man and machine as multi-driver teams fight for bragging rights and the first win of the season.
The cars of the Grand-Am Rolex series range from the most modern designed prototype race cars to race-ready versions of high performance sports cars from manufacturers like Porsche, Audi, Ferrari, Chevrolet, BMW and Mazda. Racing begins Saturday afternoon, and continues throughout the night as drivers fight back exhaustion and teams of mechanics work to keep the cars performing their best. When the winner is crowned on Sunday afternoon, nearly 12,000 tires and over 30,000 gallons of fuel will have been consumed.
Coverage can be found on SpeedTV beginning at 3 p.m. on Saturday. Coverage continues at 9 a.m. Sunday, with the race conclusion at 3:30 p.m. SpeedTV.com will also provide streaming coverage.
This is the last season of Grand-Am racing as next year marks the inaugural Grand-Am/American LeMans partnership. While many details have yet to be finalized, the 24 Hours of Daytona will certainly continue to be the season’s kickoff event.
