Something Old…..
For all that the TUDOR Championship is a new championship it is still one created out of two series, the DNA of both of which is clear in the entry list for the Rolex 24.
Nowhere is this more true than in the P class from where, almost certainly, the overall winner of the race will come from. The single class brings together the Daytona Prototypes of the Rolex Series, the LMP2 chassis from the American Le Mans Series and the DeltaWing. All three elements of the class are easily recognisable – though there are some changes – with many of the top teams from both series returning.
That means that the TUDOR Championship has two defending champions, with the Velocity WorldWide sponsored Wayne Taylor Racing team bringing their Chevrolet Corvette DP to the series at the head of the DP part of the class while Muscle Milk Pickett Racing come from the ALMS, though in their drop down to the P2 class having previously raced in P1, the team have been forced to bring Something New to the Daytona paddock.
Beyond the champions Extreme Speed Motorsports maintain their two HPD classis for the start of the season, while Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, Michael Shank Racing, Action Express Racing and Spirit of Daytona Racing – among the pace setters at the Roar Before the 24 test earlier this month – are among the teams that continue with the Daytona Prototypes after Rolex Series campaigns.
All the teams maintain at least part of the 2013 driving personnel. The Ganassi squad keep multiple Rolex Series champions Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas at the core of their lead entry, Michael Shank Racing go a step further, entering the same quartet of drivers that won the 2012 Rolex 24 for the team.
The continuity with 2013 continues outside the top class. The PC class – often one of the most hard fought in the later years of the ALMS – is brought across almost entirely complete – barring some changes to the technical regulations governing the class. That includes many of the teams, including 2013 class champions CORE Autosport and PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports who start the season with Mike Guasch attempting to defend his ALMS class drivers’ title in the new series.
However, perhaps the most important part of the series transplanted from its old home – especially in the eyes of the fans of the ALMS – is the GT class, now renamed GT Le Mans (GTLM). So often held up as the shining light of GTE class racing in the world the class was one of the primary concerns when news of the merger first broke. Understandably, then, it was also one of the first parts of the new series to be publically safeguarded when Scott Atherton, then the President and CEO of the ALMS, now the President of series sanctioning body IMSA, assured that the class would be ‘an addition’ to the Rolex 24 grid.
Corvette, Porsche, SRT, BMW and Ferrari all remain part of the class, all – in Something New for 2014 – with works supported teams. All, with the notable exception of Porsche, maintain the core of their driving teams from 2013. Fortunately for a class to well-followed the Roar Before the 24 test showed that the closely competitive nature of the class is also maintained from its ALMS predecessor.
As the amalgamation of the Rolex Series GT class and the ALMS all-Porsche GTC category the GT Daytona class contains brings together the two classes, with each bringing their own star names.
Though many of the cars in the race’s most populous class are new, the likes of Dempsey Racing, GMG Racing, Alex Job Racing and NGT Motorsports all come across from the ALMS class, though not all remain with Porsche for 2014. The Rolex Series own Porsche teams, led by 2012 Rolex 24 winners Magnus Racing and Park Place Motorsports keep the Stuttgart companies interest in the class high.
With one exception the variety of the Rolex Series GT class is maintained with Audi, Ferrari, BMW and Aston Martin all set to fight the Porsche hoards at Daytona, making the GTD class every bit a match for its French cousin, at least in terms of the range of machinery set to be unleashed in search of victory.
