So, earlier this olelongrooffan mentioned I had attended the Roar Before the 24 up at the Daytona International Speedway. It was a blast to meet a fellow Hoon who also happens to be an engineer on the DeltaWing race team and to see some pretty cool stuff in the lot while there. I thought my fellow Hoons might enjoy a brief stroll through the garage area with this olelongrooffan.

As I was driving down International Speedway Boulevard, I lowered the windows on my longerroof and cut the power to its massive sound system so I could enjoy the sounds of these cars roaring around the track. It was, and still is, music to my ears. Prior to entering the garages area, I climbed up into the bleachers at the Univeral Horseshoe to check out some practice racing action. Spotted the DeltaWing and one of the C7 Corvettes along with tons of other cool race cars.

It was there I spotted the Mazda SkyActiv prototype pass by at significantly reduced power, eventually stopping on the track just around the corner from us. Now, during practice, whenever a car stops on track requiring a yellow flag, a red is flown and all cars must exit the track until the obstruction is out of the way. 

As this was the case with the SkyActiv, I thought I might grab a few images of it on a strap passing by those bleachers. I then figured what the h*ll, might as well head into the garages area to see what was what. Well, I will tell my fellow Hoons, I did see some pretty interesting stuff, at least to this olelongrooffan.

“What were those things?” I can hear my fellow Hoons asking.  Well my fellow Hoons, you can go just about anywhere on these here interwebs to see the results of the practice speeds, race car durability, driver performance and all the like. This olelongrooffan is interested in those results as much as the next Hoon but let me ask this, have my fellow Hoons ever seen the aluminum auxilary lights used by that SkyActiv team to work on their busted race car? Only a somewhat obscure team accountant knows what aluminum structure costs and that light attached to it sure lit up that team member’s bald head and the engine compartment quite nicely. Yeah, that is the stuff this olelongrooffan notices.

Of course, I like to check out the transporter lineup as well.

Since this is the first season of the TUDOR race series combining the old Grand Am teams as well as the ALMS race teams, there were several classes of race cars I had never seen in the flesh, so to speak. Thanks to Bradley Brownell’s excellent preseason analysis, I know this car to be in the Prototype Challenge series devoted to open top race cars.

This PC series seems to be a pretty interesting one and their cars, constructed of what this olelongrooffan believes to be predominately kevlar, are a sight to behold.

And every team in this series had at least one extra rear end and front end body parts in reserve.

I never did get a chance to ask why the “moving pad” was placed over the engine compartment. I know that in NASCAR they do this to keep the competitors from seeing what is under the hood. One time during a Preseason Thunder NASCAR practice session, one of the team member’s on the Lowe’s team chided this olelongrooffan about taking images of their engine compartment. Yeah, like I would know if something was amiss under that bonnet anyway. But I guess someone did anyway.

I gathered this image of the helmet clad dudes on the other side of the car defueling it upon its return from practice. There is one guy actually defueling the car and the other guy is holding a fire extinguisher, just in case. This olelongrooffan knows from previous inquisitions the removal of the fuel is required to determine how much fuel was used on a certain run. The number of laps is compared to the amount of fuel used to determine the fuel mileage. I can hear my fellow Hoons asking if the use is measured in miles per gallon or liters per gallon. Neither. The weight of the remaining fuel is subtracted from the weight of the initial fill up and that is used to determine mileage. Seriously, my fellow Hoons, this olelongrooffan just can’t make this sh*t up.

And I just had to add this image, well, just because I this it is a pretty dang cool front end and I thought my fellow Hoons might enjoy a close up of it.

So at some point during my time out there at my former hometown speedway, practice for the big boys was ending up and I happened to be stationed there at the start of pit road and was able to get a few images of those race cars exiting the track. (Those are the pit stall seen just to the left.) See that dude with the pony tail on the right in this image? He is the dude who every year carries around a Rolex 2,900 miles of racing sign and tries to get all the drivers to sign it. I guess that is pretty cool but not really my cup of tea. I mean as a driver would I sign something like this year after year knowing this guy is probably going to ebay it for a profit? Not for me.

I did happen to see one of the Vipers in attendance this year. Man, that thing sounded sweet and it’s good to see Fiat represented at the Rolex24.

But man oh man did these C7 Corvettes sound just awesome. Pure, raw, power and a classic american sports car to boot. Yeah, this olelongrooffan will definitely be cheering this team on this year.

As an aside, see building 209 in the background of the above image? It houses the restrooms closest to the entrance to pit road. Prior to every race, all of the drivers utilize this facility. Rabid NASCAR fans stand in the area where the Ganassi transporters are parked to try and gather up a signature or two from those now relieved drivers. I just can’t imagine doing that but then again, I’m not a rabid NASCAR fan.

But back to those Corvettes. They both were in their garage area when this olelongrooffan strolled on by. Earlier in the morning, I had stopped by thejeepjunkie’s shop to say hey and he asked if this checkered flag paint scheme was going to be in place for the season? This olelongrooffan told thejeepjunkie that I didn’t then know the answer to that question but by the time I posted this blog that determination would be known.

Well, as I was checking out this dude defueling that Vette, I noticed the inside of the door frame of this race car was in the painted in the classic Corvette Racing yellow and this olelongrooffan has it from some extremely reliable sources these race cars will sport the traditional yellow with black lettering come the big race at the end of this month.

Just down a few pit stalls, I spotted the Gainsco/Stallings Corvette Prototype from the Grand Am series. This olelongrooffan fondly remembers a couple years ago when this another Oops I did it again experience was in my world out there in the Goodyear Tower.

And the particular car I saw being unveiled that day was the Spirit of Daytona Corvette Prototype. I struck up a conversation with one of the big wigs while I was out there that day and told him the story of my attendance at that unveiling and he burst out laughing and congratulated this olelongrooffan on my ability to gain admittance. I mentioned the age old adage, “act like you know what you are doing” and he again laughed about that. I asked him if this was the same car and he mentioned “No, that one is on display at our shop. This is actually 0007. We smashed up 0006 on the front stretch about a month ago when we lost a tire in tire testing.” This olelongrooffan tried to find a video of that crash but suffice it to say my YouTube Fu leaves much to be desired. However, it was reported that no one was injured and the driver was to be in the seat of the newly prepared racecar that weekend.

Just down from that Corvette DP was one of the other Vipers in attendance.

And down in the auxilary garages was this entry from Dempsey Motorsports. It is funny, I am not a TV watcher, except for some racing, having not owned a cable connection since 2008. I seldom watched the boob tube for many years prior and was unaware that the owner of this race team was anything other than a race team owner and driver.

One time I was explaining to one of the women in my life who have moved me to the friend’s corner (and then bitched about the lack of nice guys out there) what the draw of this level of motorsports holds for me, I mentioned there are the big names like Ganassi, Stallings, Krone, Micheal Shank Racing, and Turner Motorsports competing against the likes of Stevenson Motorsports and Patrick Dempsey Racing. She immediately stopped this olelongrooffan mid explanation and asked about PDR. I mentioned it was a relatively successful mid range team and she again stopped me. She google imaged Patrick Dempsey and I mentioned that, yeah, that’s him. Well my fellow Hoons, this olelongrooffan got a whole ‘nother education that evening about “Dr. McDreamy.” But Hoons, to me he will always be a race car team owner and driver, much like James Garner, Tommy Smothers and that guy named Newman.

A whiles back I was schleping trailers out at my home track and spotted something similar to this load a wrecked GT3 parts car on a roll back. Here’s to hoping that won’t be necessary this year.

While I was out and about, I spotted this winged Porsche GT America. Facebook friend and fellow Hoon(?) Randy Pobst was due to test in one of these team cars on Sunday. Not sure of the results of that test but this olelongrooffan, for one, wishes him all the best in landing a ride this season.

Just down a ways from that GT America was this beautiful Maserati  Aston Martin. I’m guessing Northwest has some pretty deep pockets based on their sponsorship of this beauty as well as the sponsorship of the Turner Motorsports teams in years past.

Speaking of Turner, this Z4 GT3 BMW will be matched with an identical one for their assault in the GT-D class of the TUDOR sports car series. This olelongrooffan can only guess the easiest way to work on the interior of one of these Bimmers is similar to the C7. “Hey Swartz, just take the dang door off, it’ll only get in the way.”

And over in the Continental Series garages were these two familiar BMWs. I’m not sure if these are carry overs from last year, possibly the two they had for sale a whiles back or two brand new race cars but the sure were pretty. BTW the team member holding the fire extinguisher for the guy defueling the 96 car is just out of screen range to the right. And instead of the hot young Turner Girls regularly attending this event, this year it was the Turner Moms in attendance. Equally as hot to this olelongrooffan and a bit of a change up from years past.

And just down from the Turner Conti team in the blue garages was the RumBum team, another perennial favorite in the Continental Racing Series. This year instead of a pair of BMWs, they are running an M3 as well as a Porsche. 

This is the new look of the series sanctioning transporters. Instead of flashy graphics of yesteryear’s Grand Am transporters, these are more subdued with the 12 race schedule listed on the rear end of these and the different track layouts along the lower sides of them.

It will be an interesting season with, this olelongrooffan would suspect, lots of rules and class modifications and, hopefully, a safe competitive series of races. I wish my good luck to all the teams and look forward to the entertainment this season will bring.

Image Copyright Hooniverse 2014/longrooffan