Finally, the worlds of sports car racing are united. Finally, the future is here. Finally, the racing season is here. Follow the TUDOR United Sports Car Championship's 52nd Rolex 24 at Daytona here.
(Welcome to Rennsport's 2014 Rolex 24 at Daytona live blog for Jalopnik! All of today's posts will be written in ascending order with a time stamp next to them in Eastern time as well as a letter signifying the author of the post. For instance, anything posted by "P" is by myself, Fred "Porsche9146" Smith, while anything posted by "D" is from DannyCatSteve, anything posted by "N" is from Nobody and anything posted by "B" is from Bakkster. Most of the photos we will be using today, including the beautiful rotation of headlining shots above this little wall o' text, are from Halston Pitman of MotorSportMedia. Enjoy the race!)
2:36PM, B: Tight racing in GTLM already, side by side and swapping both positions and paint.
2:31PM, B: Taking this break to look at early pace, the #6 Oreca Nissan of Muscle Milk is the fastest P2. While they're only ahead of the #31 DP on track, their fast lap so far is better than half the DP field. The DeltaWing is a bit behind on raw pace, but are holding their own. As with everyone, they want to keep the car safe so they car be there to race to the finish.
2:24PM, B: Caution during the commercial break. Very hard hit, lost it under braking into T1 and sent into the pit wall. He's out of the car and OK, but the #46 Audi is going onto the flatbed. Would have been contending for the class win.
2:21PM B: The underdog Highway to Help and Krohn cars have already been to the pits. Krohn's privateer GTLM car grabbed tires, the H2H DP has an oil leak. The Highway to Help car is a 2013 specification DP that is not expected to be on pace and have all 50 year old and older drivers.
2:19PM, B: My timing and scoring solution of choice is here. Drivers are beginning to settle in, cars in lower classes already being lapped just 4 laps in.
2:14PM, B: Pole sitting PC team Core Autosport owner gets spun by the pole sitting GTLM viper, but otherwise a very clean start. The Corvette DPs are predictably pulling away.
2:11PM, B: We're Green!
2:05 PM, B: Welcome to the live blog! We're getting ready to go green. Things to watch for include the Corvette DPs having a significant pace advantage, pay attention to see how they perform over full fuel and tire stints. Also look for the class top speeds. The slowest cars over a full lap in GTD are some of the fastest on the oval, 5-8MPH quicker than the GTLM and PC cars in the higher classes. Look for lots of traffic and clashes under braking and onto and off of the oval. Buckle in and get ready for 24 hours of hard racing between 67 cars!
2:00 PM, P: Welcome to the world of tomorrow! Over the next 24 hours, 67 racing cars born of carbon fiber and horsepower will wage a battle for the first ever Tudor United Sports Car Championship race win and, for each driver on that top step of the podium, the most important watches in motor racing. The first two hours of coverage will be on the FOX network for most, so find your local affiliate, sit back, and enjoy the start of a new era of American sports car racing.
52nd Rolex 24 at Daytona - The Live Blog