Memo Rojas and Scott Pruett will defend their Grand-Am Rolex Series title in 2013 after being announced for a seventh consecutive season for Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates.
Victory in 2012 gave Pruett his sixth Daytona Prototype championship and his fourth alongside Rojas, their latest title completing a series of three consecutive titles that the pairing will be aiming to add to in their Riley-BMW car next season.
Their title defence – and the Rolex Series season – begins on January 26-27 with the 51st Rolex 24 at Daytona.
For the race at Daytona International Speedway Rojas and Pruett will be joined by Earnhardt–Ganassi Racing NASCAR driver Juan Pablo Montoya and Charlie Kimball, part of Ganassi’s team in the Indycar Series.
The team will also enter a second car in the season opener, driven by Montoya’s EGR teammate Jamie McMurray, Target Chip Ganassi Racing Indycar teammates Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti. Joey Hand, who in 2012 competed in the DTM championship on BMW’s return to the championship.
“This race is always exciting for me,” said Chip Ganassi. “Because it is a 24-hour race, there are so many factors that go into having success. You need the drivers, the people, the equipment and the partners – but most importantly they all have to act as one team and that is where I think our strength lies. And having a little bit of luck on your side never hurts. When you make it to victory lane in this race, you know that you have accomplished something really special. In addition, it is not often when we can bring such a diverse group of drivers from NASCAR, Indycar, Grand-Am and ALMS together to compete in one race. It is a great kick off to our racing season.”
Ganassi teams already have four Rolex 24 wins – of the 2013 line-up only McMurray and Kimball, who will make his Rolex 24 debut – have not won the race previously.
The eight man team also represents a total of seven American open-wheel titles, five Indianapolis 500 wins, two class wins in the 12 Hours of Sebring and a single Daytona 500 victory – McMurray’s 2010 triumph.
