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Commentary

What are you doing this weekend?

I will be watching the 24 Hours of Daytona. What about you?

Group photoshoot

Group photoshoot

Eric Gilbert

It’s here. It’s finally here.

While I am a long ways away from the roar of the engines this year in Daytona, the feeling is always the same.

Pure, ecstatic joy.

Tomorrow marks the official start to major motor racing in North America. Each year, this continent kicks off with this hallmark event, but it has never been this rich with storylines in its history.

#90 Spirit Of Daytona Corvette DP Chevrolet
#90 Spirit Of Daytona Corvette DP Chevrolet

Photo by: Trevor Horn

The new TUDOR United SportsCar Championship, America’s new endurance product, bring the worlds best drivers to some of the USA and Canada’s best circuits to decide a champion in four epic classes.

I had my doubts. It reminded me of the Champcar/IndyCar merger a little bit. That was also a great move, but there were some growing pains for a lot of teams.

Now that the cars are on track, photos and video are spreading throughout the world, we can all see this new ‘TUSC’ series is going to be a winner.

So, what are you doing this weekend? I will be finding any possible free moment to have the race turned on.

I hope you are all as excited as me about the vast variety of storylines this year.

#27 Dempsey Racing Porsche 911 GT America: Patrick Dempsey, Joe Foster, Andrew Davis, Marc Lieb
#27 Dempsey Racing Porsche 911 GT America: Patrick Dempsey, Joe Foster, Andrew Davis, Marc Lieb

Photo by: Trevor Horn

Can Patrick Dempsey get on the podium, or even the top step in his maiden trip to Daytona?

I don’t know about all of you, but his four part series that aired on Velocity last year made me a fan. Understanding the struggles of being a Hollywood gentleman driver, or the absolute gargantuan costs to a racing program made me appreciate what the television star goes through on his passion based journey to the top step of the rostrum.

Can the LMP2 cars overcome the great speed the Daytona Prototypes has displayed for far in Daytona?

#42 OAK Racing Morgan Nissan: Olivier Pla, Roman Rusinov, Gustavo Yacaman, Oliver Webb
#42 OAK Racing Morgan Nissan: Olivier Pla, Roman Rusinov, Gustavo Yacaman, Oliver Webb

Photo by: Trevor Horn

We all knew there would be some balance of performance prior to the season, but currently the DP cars are leaps and bounds ahead of the P2 cars. Rumor has it that the LMP2 squads in Daytona are tight lipped due to a better fuel load, consumption and tire wear, something that can level the playing field really fast.

While there are quite a few factory efforts taking to the GT ranks, what about those smaller teams, how can their luck turn during the twice around the clock race?

Corvette vs. Viper. Audi vs. Porsche. There are plenty of interesting manufacturer battles on track, but what about those smaller operations? The likes of Tracy Krohn and Krohn Racing, the Miami based NGT Motorsports or even the Russian squad of SMP Racing, running a Ferrari?

#30 NGT Motorsport Porsche 911 GT America: Henrique Cisneros, Christina Nielsen, Nicki Thiim, Kuba Giermaziak
#30 NGT Motorsport Porsche 911 GT America: Henrique Cisneros, Christina Nielsen, Nicki Thiim, Kuba Giermaziak

Photo by: Trevor Horn

These are all the stories I will be keeping an eye out for? The Rolex 24 is the equivalent of 12 Formula One, or IndyCar races. It has a total of 67 cars taking the green flag tomorrow. Each car has between three and five drivers in them meaning hundreds of professional, and semi-pro drivers are in Daytona right now.

Find your favorite storyline and sit back and watch it unfold this weekend. There has never been a better time for endurance racing than now, so lets enjoy it.

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