The Roar Before The 24: The Final Lap

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So this olelongrooffan and some buddies are winding up our quick laps through the garages here at the Daytona International Speedway during the Roar Before The 24 a weekend or so ago. And as always I was searching out some off the wall crap to share with my fellow Hoons. I was only moderately successful this weekend but a good time was had by all. That is until I woke up Sunday morning as sick as the Zombie Racer was last week. While we were out strolling around the garages, we did spot the transporters comprising some of the mobile office suites for the Grand Am racing series.

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And just across the way in the away from the track side of the yellow garages, we spotted this Vehicle Technologies Dodge Viper. Yeah, they are are once again known as Dodge Vipers. Go figure. But a pretty sleek machine and this olelongrooffan is glad to see them back. FIAT needs all the help they can get.

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And another matte black R8 for MV. The finish on this one, although just as matte, was  a tad bit more professional.

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Interestingly enough, at least to this olelongrooffan, last year the Audi Sport Customer Racing R8’s were clad in festive Red/White/Blue color scheme.

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And just a few of the transporters this olelongrooffan was unsuccessful at capturing a few weeks ago out in the Turn 1 Plaza.

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And Patron sponsors the ALMS series so I thought it was interesting they were running a Ferrari here this year. It seems Extreme Motorsports has their hands full this winter with their similar, yet different, 458s running in both the Rolex24 at Daytona as well as the 12 Hours of Sebring in March.

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So after checking out those transporters, this olelongrooffan turned my attention back to the yellow garage area. And I guess if you drive an Aston Martin, you can double park across any garage are you want to.  And not be considered an asshat.

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Even if it is in front of the Patron Tequila Ferrari.

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I suspect given the proximity of this TRG decal bearing Aston, the TRG Porsches in the background and the Patron Ferrari, there is a fair amount of technical support shared between these groups of race cars.

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And this olelongrooffan desperately needs one of those Aston Martin decals. I’m not sure what the hell I would do with it but man, I sure want one.

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And my elcheapoebayacquired image taker decided to act up once again, this time while taking an image of Mikey’s #55 Ferrari, one of two he brought out that weekend.

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And he was sharing the driving duties with the NASCAR title winning runner up this Rolex practice weekend.

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Over in the blue garages we saw something that really hurt our feelings. I think this was one of Jack Rousch’s Pony Cars although I’m not 100% certain.  Wrecks just suck!

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This olelongrooffan was instructed to gather up these images of these non TRG team sharing Aston Martins and that is just what I did.

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Yeah, these Canadian Hoons brought a trio of Astons down just for the viewing pleasure of this olelongrooffan and my fellow Hoons.

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Pretty awe inspiring they were.

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One of the questions that came up amongst we spectators was whether these Subarus were all wheel drive or were they required to have that system deactivated in order to run in this series. Unless one of my fellow Hoons knows this answer, that is just another mystery to solve next weekend.

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I was able to capture one of the Ferrari Show cars from Tampa on a lift just over those Ferrari dudes having a leisurely lunch.

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And although RJ owns two Corvettes, a continuation Cobra and a Boxster, he mentioned he thought the engine compartment on this Mustang looked a whole lot meaner

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than the one on this Camaro. Of course, his brother, TheMickeyMouseDude, a diehard bowtie fan but also a Porsche driver, had to disagree. We all had a hearty chuckle about that.

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And what trip to the garage area during a non race event would be complete without a trip down to see all of the old NASCARs that are now part of the Richard Petty Driving Experience?

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And this olelongrooffan would have to suspect this solves the whole damn Bimmer vs. Beamer question that was round these here parts a whiles back.

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And a Series 1 M, not to be confused at all with an M1. Given the BMW nomenclature question of last week, I guess this listing is somewhat appropriate.

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And after checking out this dashboard of this Ornch race car, we decided to head back out to that somewhat illegally parked Vibe and head back to our familiar stomping grounds at the west horseshoe.

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So we whipped up to my olebeaterpickemup truck and  this olelongrooffan scrambled out of the rear of that orphaned longroof and climbed in to the bed of my Indian to gather some images of some on track action. But first, RJ had to make sure his beverages emanating from the city with the arch, although actually loaded to bear over Tampa way, were still chilled and plentiful for his enjoyable consumption that day. Me? I stuck with my Diet Cokes and in the pack blue smokes. After all, I was driving that evening, even if my final destination of my Garage was within earshot of the noise of that Speedway.

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And I gathered up a few images of those DPs and the like out there at the entry to the west horseshoe for our viewing pleasure.

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Just a bit later, a pack of DP’s came by and the number 8 slowed considerably and drifted around the corner coming to a stop just just near the re-entry to NASCAR turn 1, off yonder in the distance.

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Now this olelongrooffan does have this to say about that. These trackside motorcoach parking spots my rich buddies have been coming to for years sure offer some fantastic views. And the fact they have been treating this cash strapped olelongrooffan to the pleasure of it this past few years only heightens the fun of it. Thanks guys.

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We did get to see that number 8 DP go by on the parade route just a few minutes later.

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We never did find out what broke on that racecar but it couldn’t have been to major as

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shortly after these images were taken, it was back out tearing up that late afternoon asphalt down there in that storied infield that is the Daytona International Speedway road course.

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And while I was out there near that parade route, this olelongrooffan gathered up an image of some of the swag we gathered up from the Continental Tire Chickadees. I, of course, signed up using the Chief Blooger’s email address.

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And the parade continued with another Ferrari transporter entry, similar but different to the one I had spotted from Canada the other morning.

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And this one had its own chase car.

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Shortly thereafter, the Brumos guys decided they had seen enough action this weekend between the rain on Friday and the sunny weather on Saturday, sticking around for more rain on Sunday wasn’t in the cards. Not when their own beds were just over an hour away. and not to mention their GT3 going kurplunk that morning. (thanks Bill!)

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And while there are a ton of nighttime images of the action available around these here tubes this olelongrooffan just had to share this one of the Stevensen Motorsports Camaro in action.

This olelongrooffan can’t wait until this weekend!

Image Copyright Hooniverse 2013/longrooffan

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9 responses to “The Roar Before The 24: The Final Lap”

  1. MVEilenstein Avatar
    MVEilenstein

    Awesome, man. Thanks. I'm not even a big R8 fan, but in matte black those things look mean.

  2. JayP2112 Avatar
    JayP2112

    I hope the Subarus are AWD.
    Would the Mustangs and Camaros be afraid of a little turbo 4?? 😉

    1. apfeifer3 Avatar
      apfeifer3

      They were AWD last year, but only one ran the season. It had reliability issues but was extremely fast. Especially at NJMP where the track was slick.

  3. Bill Avatar
    Bill

    The Brumos Team blew the motor Sat. AM pratice and took out the tranny.

    1. longrooffan Avatar

      Love the back story…Thanks…

  4. Rust-MyEnemy Avatar

    That was definitely an epic post, and I can totally appreciate the effort taken. Good work, man.
    Also, I'd really like to be in FLA right now.

  5. boxdin Avatar
    boxdin

    Great Race Coverage !!

  6. Busplunge Avatar
    Busplunge

    And this olelongrooffan would have to suspect this solves the whole damn Bimmer vs. Beamer question that was round these here parts a whiles back.
    LOL– this is prime Longrooffan, factual with just a pinch of sarcasm layered with hoon humor and photos to boot!
    I love it!
    Good post John! Oh yeah, I found Waldo but he was easy to spot this post.

  7. Heather A. Bussard Avatar

    Check out those decals. These GT cars get the finest vinyl stripes from sponsors. While original JDM stickets cost around $100.