MSR News: A Good Day At Daytona...

It was a good day at Daytona for Michael Shank drivers AJ Allmendinger and Colin Braun....Hopefully both of their race days will go well too!

AJ is In!

AJ Allmendinger will start the #44 Valvoline Dodge from 20th on the Daytona 500 grid this Sunday. Last time he was there, he was leading the Rolex 24 at Daytona in a Michael Shank Racing Ford Riley.

The race marks AJ's first Daytona 500 start as he embarks on his third season of NASCAR Sprint Cup competition.

Free tickets, I got your ticket right here!!

The upcoming lid-lifter for the Mustang Challenge and round two of the KONI Sports Car Challenge will see a unique spectating opportunity, as the two series and the track have allowed anyone who would like to come visit for free. Given that the event drew modest crowds in the past, this could be a great way to get people in the door and aware of both these production-car based series.

HMS, which has had more iterations and configurations than Penske has sponsors who pay him to NOT be on the car (Marboro, Verizon, etc...) in the past few years, has no trouble selling out the big Ford finale NASCAR weekend, but is actively working to be successful with the moved IndyCar date (from March to October, along with the Rolex Series), which has been strong, but nothing like the Ford Champions weekend.

Will this work? We will see...but it could create a lot of opportunity that would not have existed in a more traditional promoter partnership.

Interested? Click herefor your own set...

RSR Motorsports

RSR Motorsports was well represented at the KONI season-opener. Three cars with new paint schemes, a full RV and trailer layout in the paddock, and one more RV in the infield as part of the support operation, not to mention six quick drivers. Unfortunately the weekend didn't turn out as hoped for, as the "...rabbit out of a hat..." top ten finish was thwarted by a halfshaft problem.

Riley Scores Fifth

The Rolex 24 battle saw Riley Technologies score an amazing fifth in a row as the Mooresville-based manufacturer locked out the Daytona Prototype podium once again in Daytona...

Winners Presser@24

KONI Checks on the Champ...

Grand-Am's website covered Caddell's big weekend at Daytona...

Riley TDC

At $185,000, track day car lets fans join fun
Larry Edsall / Special to The Detroit News

Later this month, 20 cars are expected to be on the starting grid for the 47th annual 24 Hours of Daytona sports car race. Those cars will be powered by Porsche, Pontiac, Lexus, Ford and BMW racing engines.

Of those 20 cars, a dozen or more will be Riley chassis, designed and built in Mooresville, N.C., by Riley Technologies, a company that traces its heritage to famed Indycar and aerospace engineer Bob Riley.

More here as Detroit News talks Track Day Car...

Mustang Champ shows speed and poise on the high banks...

Caddell Strong in KONI Challenge Debut at Daytona

Impressive performance before procedural penalty sets Champion back
Daytona Beach, FL (23 January 2009) – 2008 Ford Racing Mustang Challenge Champion Andrew Caddell showed his championship credentials on the big stage Friday as he posted a strong performance in his Grand-Am KONI Sports Car Challenge GS Class debut in the Fresh From Florida 200, co-driving a Ford Mustang FR500C with fellow Mustang Challenge racer Jim Click to a tenth place finish. The race outing came as part of the Ford Racing Champions Prize for the Mustang Challenge Champion as Caddell converted his strong season-long performance in Mustang Challenge competition into the chance to race the Ford Mustang FR500C at the “World Center of Racing.”

Read the rest here

Belated BurHop

Read here about the Bur-Hop debut at Daytona....

Bummer ending....

After leading and running strong with both cars, Michael Shank Racing withdrew from the Rolex 24 At Daytona after encountering problems in the drivetrain. Read here

Marks Take

Mark Patterson is as skilled with the Blackberry as he is with the race car, as he tells some fantastic first-person tales of what it's like behind the scenes of Rolex Sports Car Series racing. Read about it here...

Race time...

With everything else done...a busy grid and some final interviews as everyone got focused on the racing...

One more thing...and then racing...

The final item on the list after the driver meeting, and before the driver introductions was the autograph session, which was well-received...