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GRAND-AM
ROLEX 24: Ganassi Goes Big With Rolex 1-2
The only major victory missing from Chip Ganassi's amazing 2010 season was a win at the Rolex 24. After major recoveries by both cars, he earns his 4th win at the famed endurance race.
Chip Ganassi Racing celebrated its fourth Rolex 24 victory. (Photo: John Dagys)
A costly pit lane mistake could have kept Joey Hand and the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing team from victory in the 49th Rolex 24 at Daytona. But a smart late-race call by the Tim Keene-led crew and a remarkable drive by the BMW factory driver propelled the defending Rolex Series champions to a dramatic down-to-the-wire win and Ganassi’s first 1-2 finish in America’s famous endurance classic.
The No. 01 Telmex/Target Riley-BMW was hit with a 30-second stop-and-hold penalty after Hand hit a tire while exciting pit lane with under two hours to go. Rejoining the fray over 50 seconds behind, Hand had what could only be considered one of the drives of his life, making up over 30 seconds in his final stint to leader Scott Dixon.
But it was a yellow with just over an hour remaining, in which the No. 01 car was the only of the leaders to pit for fuel. It turned out to make the difference, as co-driver Scott Pruett leapfrogged the No. 02 machine during the final round of stops thanks to a short-fill.
Another late-race caution for the self-destructing Coyote-Chevrolet of Sascha Maassen with under ten minutes to go set up a one-lap shootout. But there was no denying the No. 01 crew, which celebrated an historic victory for the organization
“We knew we had a strong car,” said Pruett, who scored his fourth overall Rolex 24 win. “Obviously all of us were a little disappointed with that [penalty] call. But you can’t think about it. You have to keep focused on trying to get to victory lane. The thing that all of the drivers did was keep the car absolutely immaculate. That’s what it takes to be in contention and win this race.”
While Ganassi notched his fourth 24-hour win, it gave the team consecutive triumphs in the Daytona 500, Indianapolis 500, Brickyard 400 and the Rolex 24 in under twelve months. And that's not also mentioning their IZOD IndyCar Series and Rolex Series championships, either.
The win also marked firsts for Hand and Graham Rahal, who teamed with Pruett and regular-co-driver Memo Rojas this weekend. For Hand, it was not only his first 24-hour race win, but also the 35th anniversary of the Bavarian manufacturer's first overall Daytona win. That incentive surely gave the California-native even more incentive.
“During that last stint, we got that penalty call,” Hand said. “Like I was telling the guys, I was at ramming speed; I was a little bit ticked off at the call, so I tried to just put my head down and get as much back. I knew if I got a lot of it back, knowing Scott would get in next, I knew he would definitely seal the deal.”
For Rahal, one of Ganassi’s new IndyCar hires, the open-wheel star scored his first sportscar victory, but also on the 30th anniversary of his father, Bobby's, win in 1981.
“To be my first race with Ganassi and kicking this year off in a year I’m really looking forward to with the IndyCar schedule beginning in a month or two, there’s no better way to do it than with a win,” Rahal said. “It feels so sweet to do it here. We were all sitting there looking at these watches and thinking that these are things you’d dream of. Looking at dad’s [watch] for many years, I always imagined I'd have one some day, although I didn’t think it would come this soon.”
This year’s twice-around-the-clock classic wasn’t necessarily a typical trouble-free Rolex 24 for the usually bullet-proof Ganassi squad. A gear cluster change in the second hour cost the No. 01 car a lap early on, but was regained thanks to GRAND-AM’s new full-course caution wave-by procedures, which benefited a number of DP and GT teams this weekend.
Registering 721 laps, over 2,550 miles, the winning Ganassi machine finished just 2.426 seconds ahead of the sister Riley-BMW of Dixon, Dario Franchitti, Juan Pablo Montoya and Jamie McMurray. Having to undergo a gear stack cluster change as well, the car also lost two laps overnight after Montoya ran over debris, forcing a front splitter change.
While the sister car held the upper edge in the final stages of the race, both Montoya and Franchitti agreed their Riley-BMW felt different in the closing hours. The NASCAR star said the car was gettin gmore difficult to drive.
“The guys on the 01 car did a great job and I think the whole Telmex/Target team did an amazing job because we had to rebuild both these cars, certainly the 02 at times throughout the race,” Franchitti said. “It was bloody impressive to come back with a 1-2. While we’re disappointed with second, but it was ultimately a team effort.”
Montoya clearly showed the desire of wanting his third Rolex watch: “We’re drivers and we want to win,” he said. “You can’t go home being happy knowing you had a chance. We’re just here to ‘frickin win. When you finish second, it sucks. And that had a bit of sugar on it, trust me!”
Defending Rolex 24 champions Action Express Racing came home third with its No. 9 Porsche Cayenne-engined Riley of Joao Barbosa, Terry Borcheller, Christian Fittipaldi and Max Papis. Not having the pace of the two Ganassi machines, the second-year squad ran a consistent race, but elected not to repair the car's bodywork after damaging it during the nigh-time hours.
“There was some damage to the rear-end,” Fittipaldi explained. “We don’t know when we got it, but it was during the night. We thought about repairing it, but at the same time we were afraid of losing too much time. So in the end, we opted not to do it... Even if we had repaired it, I don’t think anything would have changed. We were very consistent, but we definitely lacked a little bit of speed.”
Barbosa, who along with Borcheller head into the second round of the season at Homestead-Miami in March tied for second in points, was pleased with the solid start to the season.
“The team did an amazing job transforming the car for the race,” Barbosa said. “It was slightly battered, but we knew that we weren’t going to be the fastest car out there and we were very consistent. All the drivers did a perfect job and nobody put a wheel wrong. We were [contending] for the top positions all the time, so that made it easier in the end to go for it. But Ganassi had the edge on us this year.”
United Autosports made a splash in its GRAND-AM debut, finishing fourth overall with its Michael Shank Racing-prepared Riley-Ford. British superstars Martin Brundle and Mark Blundell joined Mark Patterson and team co-owner Zak Brown and were in position for a podium position until the final hour when the 19888 World Sportscar champion began to slowly slip back.
The top-four cars all finished on the lead lap, with the No. 10 SunTrust Racing Dallara-Chevrolet of Max Angelelli, Ricky Taylor, Ryan Briscoe and Wayne Taylor rounding out the top-five after rebounding from an overnight clash with the No. 02 car of Montoya.
Early race favorites, the pole-sitting No. 45 Flying Lizard Motorsports Riley-Porsche showed considerable pace, leading the opening 27 laps. However, an off-course excursion for team principal Seth Neiman, which set the Lizards back nearly 20 laps, effectively took them out of contention. But it was a fire in the 23rd hour that knocked Neiman, Jorg Bergmeister, Patrick Long and Johannes van Overbeek out of the race altogether.
The No. 01 Telmex/Target Riley-BMW was hit with a 30-second stop-and-hold penalty after Hand hit a tire while exciting pit lane with under two hours to go. Rejoining the fray over 50 seconds behind, Hand had what could only be considered one of the drives of his life, making up over 30 seconds in his final stint to leader Scott Dixon.
But it was a yellow with just over an hour remaining, in which the No. 01 car was the only of the leaders to pit for fuel. It turned out to make the difference, as co-driver Scott Pruett leapfrogged the No. 02 machine during the final round of stops thanks to a short-fill.
Another late-race caution for the self-destructing Coyote-Chevrolet of Sascha Maassen with under ten minutes to go set up a one-lap shootout. But there was no denying the No. 01 crew, which celebrated an historic victory for the organization
“We knew we had a strong car,” said Pruett, who scored his fourth overall Rolex 24 win. “Obviously all of us were a little disappointed with that [penalty] call. But you can’t think about it. You have to keep focused on trying to get to victory lane. The thing that all of the drivers did was keep the car absolutely immaculate. That’s what it takes to be in contention and win this race.”
While Ganassi notched his fourth 24-hour win, it gave the team consecutive triumphs in the Daytona 500, Indianapolis 500, Brickyard 400 and the Rolex 24 in under twelve months. And that's not also mentioning their IZOD IndyCar Series and Rolex Series championships, either.
The win also marked firsts for Hand and Graham Rahal, who teamed with Pruett and regular-co-driver Memo Rojas this weekend. For Hand, it was not only his first 24-hour race win, but also the 35th anniversary of the Bavarian manufacturer's first overall Daytona win. That incentive surely gave the California-native even more incentive.
“During that last stint, we got that penalty call,” Hand said. “Like I was telling the guys, I was at ramming speed; I was a little bit ticked off at the call, so I tried to just put my head down and get as much back. I knew if I got a lot of it back, knowing Scott would get in next, I knew he would definitely seal the deal.”
For Rahal, one of Ganassi’s new IndyCar hires, the open-wheel star scored his first sportscar victory, but also on the 30th anniversary of his father, Bobby's, win in 1981.
“To be my first race with Ganassi and kicking this year off in a year I’m really looking forward to with the IndyCar schedule beginning in a month or two, there’s no better way to do it than with a win,” Rahal said. “It feels so sweet to do it here. We were all sitting there looking at these watches and thinking that these are things you’d dream of. Looking at dad’s [watch] for many years, I always imagined I'd have one some day, although I didn’t think it would come this soon.”
This year’s twice-around-the-clock classic wasn’t necessarily a typical trouble-free Rolex 24 for the usually bullet-proof Ganassi squad. A gear cluster change in the second hour cost the No. 01 car a lap early on, but was regained thanks to GRAND-AM’s new full-course caution wave-by procedures, which benefited a number of DP and GT teams this weekend.
Registering 721 laps, over 2,550 miles, the winning Ganassi machine finished just 2.426 seconds ahead of the sister Riley-BMW of Dixon, Dario Franchitti, Juan Pablo Montoya and Jamie McMurray. Having to undergo a gear stack cluster change as well, the car also lost two laps overnight after Montoya ran over debris, forcing a front splitter change.
While the sister car held the upper edge in the final stages of the race, both Montoya and Franchitti agreed their Riley-BMW felt different in the closing hours. The NASCAR star said the car was gettin gmore difficult to drive.
“The guys on the 01 car did a great job and I think the whole Telmex/Target team did an amazing job because we had to rebuild both these cars, certainly the 02 at times throughout the race,” Franchitti said. “It was bloody impressive to come back with a 1-2. While we’re disappointed with second, but it was ultimately a team effort.”
Montoya clearly showed the desire of wanting his third Rolex watch: “We’re drivers and we want to win,” he said. “You can’t go home being happy knowing you had a chance. We’re just here to ‘frickin win. When you finish second, it sucks. And that had a bit of sugar on it, trust me!”
Defending Rolex 24 champions Action Express Racing came home third with its No. 9 Porsche Cayenne-engined Riley of Joao Barbosa, Terry Borcheller, Christian Fittipaldi and Max Papis. Not having the pace of the two Ganassi machines, the second-year squad ran a consistent race, but elected not to repair the car's bodywork after damaging it during the nigh-time hours.
“There was some damage to the rear-end,” Fittipaldi explained. “We don’t know when we got it, but it was during the night. We thought about repairing it, but at the same time we were afraid of losing too much time. So in the end, we opted not to do it... Even if we had repaired it, I don’t think anything would have changed. We were very consistent, but we definitely lacked a little bit of speed.”
Barbosa, who along with Borcheller head into the second round of the season at Homestead-Miami in March tied for second in points, was pleased with the solid start to the season.
“The team did an amazing job transforming the car for the race,” Barbosa said. “It was slightly battered, but we knew that we weren’t going to be the fastest car out there and we were very consistent. All the drivers did a perfect job and nobody put a wheel wrong. We were [contending] for the top positions all the time, so that made it easier in the end to go for it. But Ganassi had the edge on us this year.”
United Autosports made a splash in its GRAND-AM debut, finishing fourth overall with its Michael Shank Racing-prepared Riley-Ford. British superstars Martin Brundle and Mark Blundell joined Mark Patterson and team co-owner Zak Brown and were in position for a podium position until the final hour when the 19888 World Sportscar champion began to slowly slip back.
The top-four cars all finished on the lead lap, with the No. 10 SunTrust Racing Dallara-Chevrolet of Max Angelelli, Ricky Taylor, Ryan Briscoe and Wayne Taylor rounding out the top-five after rebounding from an overnight clash with the No. 02 car of Montoya.
Early race favorites, the pole-sitting No. 45 Flying Lizard Motorsports Riley-Porsche showed considerable pace, leading the opening 27 laps. However, an off-course excursion for team principal Seth Neiman, which set the Lizards back nearly 20 laps, effectively took them out of contention. But it was a fire in the 23rd hour that knocked Neiman, Jorg Bergmeister, Patrick Long and Johannes van Overbeek out of the race altogether.
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