In some ways, it seemed inevitable: Telmex-Ganassi would take the lead of the 2012 Grand Am Rolex 24 at Daytona. The team which holds the record for the most Rolex wins in a season, the team which holds the most championships, the team which finished one-two in the 2011 Rolex, would continue to dominate the series and would begin that domination by winning the 50th Anniversary Rolex 24.
The Ganassi cars lack the pure speed but they have arguable the tightest, most experienced team—the Ganassi crew doesn’t make a lot of mistakes.
And here they are, at the head of the field with five hours left to go.
But five hours is almost two regular Grand Am races—with all the things that could go wrong in a single race, there are two races’ worth of laps still to run. Can the Ganassi guys hold on?
Scott Pruett in the #01 Telmex-Ganassi Riley-BMW has a comfortable but not insuperable lead over Oz Negri in the #60 Shank Racing Riley-Ford, while Allan McNish is a lap back in his # 8 Starworks Riley-Ford. The second Shank car is another two laps back. The next cars in the running order are four laps back—which means the race is till up for grabs.
A lap down or 90 laps down, like the #99 Gainsco Corvette-Riley, every driver on the track is pushing hard; if the Ganassi drivers let up for a alp, they will be run down from behind. If anything breaks or just seems to break (as happened in the 2010 race) or if one of the drivers has a momentary lapse of concentration—or if another driver does—the Telmex-Ganassi team could be done for the day in an instant.
In GT, the #59 Brumos Porsche has a slight cushion over the #44 Magnus Porsche, and a lap over last year’s winner, the #67 TRG Porsche. Another lap down, the #63 Risi Ferrari is ready to move up to a podium spot if anyone makes an error.
For 2012, Grand Am has instituted a rule like ANSCAR’s “Lucky Dog” rule, where the first car a lap down when a yellow flag waves can drive around the field to get back on the lead lap. A lot of cars have been counting on a caution period to get back on the lead lap, but for four hours the race has run cleanly. Can this possible keep on? Can 55 cars race for nine hours—the final nine of a 24-hour race—without someone somewhere doing something wrong? Without something breaking? As the cars get more beat up and the drivers more beat down, can the cars and driver continue to perform faultlessly?
A yellow flag could dramatically change the complexion of the race.
Basically, there are two entire races left to run before one team in each class can be crowned as winners. It is as if the Superbowl was followed by a pair of Superbowls. Regardless of who is ahead now, any team could end up on the podium in five hours. And just as if there wre three superbowls, the fans will be the real winners.
The rest of the 50th Anniversary Grand Am Rolex 24 at Daytona is televised live on Speed-TV in the United States, and motors TV in Europe.
