 The No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing team celebrate in Victory Lane after winning the Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway Sunday. (GETTY IMAGES) |
There is one thing you have to understand to truly appreciate the Rolex 24 at Daytona GRAND-AM Series race: It is a place where the cars are the stars.
It took the compiled efforts of four drivers — Juan Pablo Montoya, Scott Pruett, Charlie Kimball and Memo Rojas — for the Chip Ganassi Racing team to win the twice around the clock classic at Daytona International Speedway’s 5.696-km road course on Saturday and Sunday — but only one car, the No. 01 Daytona Prototype BMW Riley.
The Rolex 24 is, before anything else, a test of endurance for high-end sports cars like the DPs right down to the GX class of cars that come right off the assembly lines with some modifications.
The winning teams — like the Ganassi bunch that have won five out of the past 10 Rolex 24s — spend almost all of their time preparing the cars, hoping the drivers don’t mess it all up on the track.
|