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Ferrari will be represented this weekend in
the 51st edition of the Daytona 24 Hours by
six cars as the 458 GrandAm aims to etch its
name into the roll call of winners for the
first time on its second shot at the
legendary race. |
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This
weekend sees the 51st edition of the Daytona 24 Hours,
which dates back to 1966, although as far back as 1962,
it ran as the Daytona Continental, the first three hour
endurance race. It is a legendary event, run over a 5.73
km track using part of the high speed Nascar tri-oval,
that features banked curves and a very twisty in-field
street section.
This American weekend is significant for Ferrari which
has always had close ties to Daytona: the Maranello
marque has taken overall victory twice, three over the
shorter distance and eight class wins, the most famous
coming in 1967, when it took a clean sweep of the
podium, with a car that that one year later gave birth
to the Ferrari 365 GT4, or as it is better known, “the
Daytona.” It is the ancestor to the current 458 Grand AM
which was a winner in last year’s American series, in
which Ferrari took the Constructors’ title in the car’s
debut season.
There are six Ferraris entered in the GT category in
this race, which as usual is also the opening round of
the Grand AM series, including two AIM Autosport cars,
the Number 61 machine run in collaboration with the
Canadian dealer, Remo Ferro, in the hands of the trio
made up of Giancarlo Fisichella – Max Papis – Toni
Vilander – Jeff Segal. Also at the wheel of a Ferrari is
one of the stars of Nascar, Clint Bowyer, crewed with
Rui Auguas – Robert Kauffman – Michael Waltrip, flying
the flag for AF Corse, the only Italian team running in
the GT class, while Ed Brown – Mike Hedlund – Scott
Sharp - Johannes Van Overbeek will be driving the
Extreme Speed Motorsport car. The second car is in the
hands of Emil Assentato – Guy Cosmo – Anthony Lazzaro –
Nick Longhi – Craig Wilkins from AIM Autosport, previous
winners in this marathon event. There are two more cars
entered by Scuderia Corse, who first raced in Grand AM
last year and these are crewed by Olivier Beretta –
Alessandro Balzan – Marco Frezza – Alessandro Pieguidi
and Chico Longo – Rafa Matos – Xandinho Negrao – Daniel
Serra.
The race gets underway on 26 January and is a major
challenge for the Prancing Horse, especially in light of
new technical regulations which in the GT class impact
on the power output, the tank capacity and the time
taken at pit stops. The first 15 minute sprint
qualifying session starts today (Thursday 24th January)
at 16.55, then comes a further hour of practice tomorrow
(Friday 25th) at 10.30, the final session before the
race which starts at 15.30 on Saturday 26th. Providing a
high class start to the weekend’s activities, the Stars
and Stripes Ferrari Challenge is a curtain raiser,
giving competitors their now traditional opportunity to
race their cars on a historic and thrilling tracks.
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