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GRAND-AM
GRAND-AM: 50 Years Of Rolex 24, 1985
With a year of left-right competition under his belt, Jack Roush stepped up to racing 24 hours and more than 2,000 miles in 1985...
Jack Roush has a storied past at Daytona, and not just in NASCAR. (Photo: LAT)
Jack Roush began racing in events of a quarter-mile lasting only a few seconds.
With a year of left-right competition under his belt, Roush stepped up to racing 24 hours and more than 2,000 miles in 1985.
After drag racing through the 1970s, Roush got a taste of sports car racing when he entered and partnered with Zakspeed to build Ford-based GT and prototype cars for Ford in 1982 and 1983. For 1984, Roush partnered with Charlie Selix and Gary Pratt and competed in the SCCA Budweiser Trans-Am Series. Greg Pickett and mid-season addition Willy T. Ribbs each won four races in Roush Protofab Mercury Capris, while Tom Gloy won three races and the championship in a Roush Protofab-built Capri.
With the SCCA season complete, Roush turned his attention to the IMSA Camel GT season finale – giving fans at Daytona International Speedway a sneak peek at the team that would race there the following February.
Joining Ribbs at the Eastern Airlines Finale in the No. 67 Roush Protofab Mustang was Wally Dallenbach Jr., the young son of the Indy car star. Dallenbach competed against Roush as an independent in the 1984 Trans-Am in a Camaro prepared by a few of his friends – the Colorado Connection – earning Rookie of the Year honors.
Ribbs and Dallenbach went on to take Roush to victory lane in the Thanksgiving weekend event, finishing eighth overall and first in GTO – six laps behind the winning Lowenbrau Special Porsche 962 of Al Holbert and Derek Bell.
No one knew at the time that Roush was beginning an unbeaten streak at Daytona that's yet to be broken.
For the 1985 Daytona classic – then known as the SunBank 24, Roush took a pair of Mustangs and a solid plan with high expectations.
"I was pretty ambitious," Roush later admitted. "I wanted to sit on the pole, lead every lap and win the race if I could."
Ribbs brought home goal No. 1 by capturing the pole in the team's No. 06 Mustang, co-driven by John Bauer and Jim Miller. The team then went to work, capitalizing on a loophole in the regulations.
"I read the rule book, and it said we couldn't change the engine," said Roush, who wore a standard sponsor ball cap at the time – his trademark straw fedora was a few years down the road. "I wanted to get the pole, so I brought the car down with the engine organized for two sets of cylinder heads, two camshafts and ran the engine as a qualifying engine to start with. After we won the pole, we took the engine out of the car, disassembled it on the bench, changed the camshaft and cylinder heads, and put it back in."
Ribbs had a scare at 1 a.m. when a brake rotor shattered and put him into the wall at 150 mph. He emerged unhurt, but was out of the race. The second car – the No. 65 Mustang driven by Dallenbach, John Jones and Doc Bundy – had a flawless run and won the GTO class by a whopping 38 laps.
"We had a great race car and we basically smoked them," Dallenbach recalled. "Roush's effort really set the bar on what was to come. Jack really knew his stuff when it came to endurance racing. His secret was just preparation."
That victory began a run of nine consecutive victories for Roush Fords in the Rolex 24. After sitting out a year to concentrate on his growing NASCAR efforts, in 1995 Roush fielded a Mustang in honor of Paul Newman's 70th birthday. The veteran actor – joined by Mark Martin, Tommy Kendall and Michael Brockman – finished third overall in the Nobody's Fool Mustang and won the GTS-1 class.
That's 10 consecutive victories in the Rolex 24. Will Roush be back to attempt that open-ended streak in the historic 50th Rolex 24 in January? "The Cat in the Hat" isn't telling – but Roush Fenway Racing is helping prepare a Mustang for the upcoming Rolex Series race at Watkins Glen for NASCAR drivers David Ragan and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Don't be surprised to see him back at Daytona in January.
With a year of left-right competition under his belt, Roush stepped up to racing 24 hours and more than 2,000 miles in 1985.
After drag racing through the 1970s, Roush got a taste of sports car racing when he entered and partnered with Zakspeed to build Ford-based GT and prototype cars for Ford in 1982 and 1983. For 1984, Roush partnered with Charlie Selix and Gary Pratt and competed in the SCCA Budweiser Trans-Am Series. Greg Pickett and mid-season addition Willy T. Ribbs each won four races in Roush Protofab Mercury Capris, while Tom Gloy won three races and the championship in a Roush Protofab-built Capri.
With the SCCA season complete, Roush turned his attention to the IMSA Camel GT season finale – giving fans at Daytona International Speedway a sneak peek at the team that would race there the following February.
Joining Ribbs at the Eastern Airlines Finale in the No. 67 Roush Protofab Mustang was Wally Dallenbach Jr., the young son of the Indy car star. Dallenbach competed against Roush as an independent in the 1984 Trans-Am in a Camaro prepared by a few of his friends – the Colorado Connection – earning Rookie of the Year honors.
Ribbs and Dallenbach went on to take Roush to victory lane in the Thanksgiving weekend event, finishing eighth overall and first in GTO – six laps behind the winning Lowenbrau Special Porsche 962 of Al Holbert and Derek Bell.
No one knew at the time that Roush was beginning an unbeaten streak at Daytona that's yet to be broken.
For the 1985 Daytona classic – then known as the SunBank 24, Roush took a pair of Mustangs and a solid plan with high expectations.
"I was pretty ambitious," Roush later admitted. "I wanted to sit on the pole, lead every lap and win the race if I could."
Ribbs brought home goal No. 1 by capturing the pole in the team's No. 06 Mustang, co-driven by John Bauer and Jim Miller. The team then went to work, capitalizing on a loophole in the regulations.
"I read the rule book, and it said we couldn't change the engine," said Roush, who wore a standard sponsor ball cap at the time – his trademark straw fedora was a few years down the road. "I wanted to get the pole, so I brought the car down with the engine organized for two sets of cylinder heads, two camshafts and ran the engine as a qualifying engine to start with. After we won the pole, we took the engine out of the car, disassembled it on the bench, changed the camshaft and cylinder heads, and put it back in."
Ribbs had a scare at 1 a.m. when a brake rotor shattered and put him into the wall at 150 mph. He emerged unhurt, but was out of the race. The second car – the No. 65 Mustang driven by Dallenbach, John Jones and Doc Bundy – had a flawless run and won the GTO class by a whopping 38 laps.
"We had a great race car and we basically smoked them," Dallenbach recalled. "Roush's effort really set the bar on what was to come. Jack really knew his stuff when it came to endurance racing. His secret was just preparation."
That victory began a run of nine consecutive victories for Roush Fords in the Rolex 24. After sitting out a year to concentrate on his growing NASCAR efforts, in 1995 Roush fielded a Mustang in honor of Paul Newman's 70th birthday. The veteran actor – joined by Mark Martin, Tommy Kendall and Michael Brockman – finished third overall in the Nobody's Fool Mustang and won the GTS-1 class.
That's 10 consecutive victories in the Rolex 24. Will Roush be back to attempt that open-ended streak in the historic 50th Rolex 24 in January? "The Cat in the Hat" isn't telling – but Roush Fenway Racing is helping prepare a Mustang for the upcoming Rolex Series race at Watkins Glen for NASCAR drivers David Ragan and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Don't be surprised to see him back at Daytona in January.
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