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Monday, January 21, 2008
"I drove last year with the Riley factory team with Marc Goosens, Jimmie Johnson and Jim Matthews," said Ryan Hunter-Reay, who will compete in the No. 91 Bob Stallings / Riley-Matthews DP with Matthews, Goosens and Johnny O'Connell. "The race itself was awesome. It's like the getting together of who's who in racing. Every good driver, every top driver is in a good car." By Dave Lewandowski
Of course, there's a score of IndyCar Series and Indy Pro Series drivers who can relate in regards to the grueling Rolex 24 At Daytona. Darren Manning and Milka Duno, who were members of the CITGO Racing team that was runner-up last year, immediately come to mind. Buddy Rice with the Brumos Racing team was an early contender before the car sustained multiple battle scars. Carpenter, a Vision Racing driver, is reminded of the "could have, would have and should have" top-10 finish that literally went up in smoke. Vision Racing's contingent finished 17th in Daytona Prototypes (29th overall) in last year's twice-around-the-clock event, which likely would have been higher if not for the engine expiring with 30 minutes left. "Last year's race was a success for the team in many ways, but coming up just short in the end left us hungry to give it another try this year," team owner/driver Tony George said of the first-year effort." Joining Carpenter and George in the No. 03 Pontiac Crawford will be A.J. Foyt IV, Panther Racing's Vitor Meira and NASCAR regular John Andretti. The team didn't participate in testing on the 3.56-mile, 12-turn circuit earlier in the month, but each driver got behind the wheel at Moroso Motorsports Park in Jupiter, Fla., Jan. 20-21. "I wish we had gotten it together a little sooner so we could go test a bit more, but we have 24 hours to race," Carpenter said. "I know the guys will put together a good car like they did last year and, hopefully, we can run the last 30 minutes that we weren't able to do last year." Practice and qualifications (to set the top 30 cars in class grid positions) is Jan. 24, with the 46th edition of the race taking the green flag at 1:30 p.m. (ET) Jan. 26. "The Rolex 24 provides our team and drivers a nice opportunity to get back in the mind-set of racing before we go testing in preparation for the IndyCar Series season," George said. Competition and camaraderie are part of the motivation for IndyCar Series regulars Ryan Hunter-Reay (Rahal Letterman Racing) and Rice (Dreyer & Reinbold Racing). "I drove last year with the Riley factory team with Marc Goosens, Jimmie Johnson and Jim Matthews," said Hunter-Reay, who will compete in the No. 91 Bob Stallings / Riley-Matthews DP with Matthews, Goosens and Johnny O'Connell. "The race itself was awesome. It's like the getting together of who's who in racing. Every good driver, every top driver is in a good car." Rice, the 2004 Indianapolis 500 winner, said the ante was noticably raised during testing earlier this month. "Last year we had a good shot at a win and definitely a podium," he said. "We had a car with the pace, and it was disappointing to see what happened. I think we're in contention again, but I think this year there are a lot more cars in contention. A lot of people really stepped up their game. One of the thing you noticed is a lot of teams had their lineups done early. I think that shows that the level of competition is up. "Everybody talks about how much fun it is to go do, but I think that the level that people want to compete at and win that race is going up." A rundown of other IndyCar Series and Indy Pro Series drivers (in bold) competing, along with Vision Racing co-owner Patrick Dempsey: Daytona Prototypes No. 02 Target Chip Ganassi with Felix Sabates (Pontiac Riley): Scott Dixon, Dan Wheldon, Alex Lloyd, Salvador Duran No. 3 Southard Motorsports (Lexus Riley): Shane Lewis, Bill Lester No. 7 Sigalsport (BMW Riley): Stephan Gregoire, Matt Plumb, Michael Cullen, Paddy Shovlin, Quentin Walsh No. 9 Penske-Taylor Racing (Pontiac Riley): Ryan Briscoe, Helio Castroneves, Curt Busch No. 11 SAMAX Motorsport (Pontiac Riley): Milka Duno, Tomas Enge, Ryan Dalziel, Harold Primat No. 58 Brumos Porsche (Porsche Riley): Buddy Rice, Darren Law, David Donohue No. 77 Doran Racing (Ford Doran): Memo Gidley, Brad Jaeger, Fabrizio Gollin, Gabriele Gardel No. 91 Bob Stallings / Riley-Matthews (Pontiac Riley): Ryan Hunter-Reay, Jim Matthews, Marc Goossens, Johnny O'Connell GT class No. 40 Hyper Sport (Mazda RX-8): Patrick Dempsey, Joe Foster, Charles Espenlaub No. 72 Autohaus Motorsports (Pontiac GXP.R): Max Papis, Craig Stanton, Tim Lewis Jr., Lawson Aschenbach No. 83 Farnbacher Loles Racing (Porsche 911 GT3): CR Crews, Tim Bergmeister, Peter Ludwig, Russell Walker, Ben McCrackin |
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