JAGOLDENBXSTR

Rumors through the grapevine are that Carlos de Quesada driver/principal and the boys from Alegra Motorsports have teamed up the Fiorano Racing and drivers J.F. Doumolin and Scooter Gabel to run in the 24 Hours of Daytona. From what I heard is that de Quesada is determined to take the class win this year in their new 997 Cup Car. As motivation one of de Quesada's friends sent him a fake Rolex Daytona. I think these boys have a good shot, anyone else agree?

earlyapex

Looking at the GA web site, Fiorano Racing placed 24th in team points at the end of the year. They placed 10th in class and 21st overall in the 06 24hrs of Daytona.

They are a long shot in this years race IMO.

Good luck to them anyway. Racing is racing and luck may fall their way. Unfortunately, there are a good number of better team/driver combinations that have to have bad luck and poor performances for them to win

Adam@Autometrics

I saw their new 997 at daytona on Tuesday. Is that just a stock car and not the new Grand-Am spec model?

GREEK-TURBO-RACER

Adam , yes it's just the stock car. Henry Hsu is sending us the new "spec" parts when ever they are not backordered. And of course the Hoosier tire and new gears issue just adds to the drama.


Theo

JAGOLDENBXSTR

Well I guess to all those haters out there they eat their own words. By some way, probably skill, Alegra Motorsports, http://www.alegramotorsports.com/index.php won the GT Class. Much respect and props goes to such a small organization that can take it to the big boys!

JAGOLDENBXSTR

Alegra Motorsports Claims Rolex 24 GT Class Victory...
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (January 28, 2007) -- In a 24-hour battle of speed, weather, fatigue and the largest single class to compete in the Rolex 24 At Daytona, Scooter Gabel, Jean-Francois Dumoulin, Carlos de Quesada and Marc Basseng overcame them all, claiming the GT victory in the 45th anniversary of North America’s premier endurance race in the No. 22 Alegra Motorsports/Fiorano Racing Porsche GT3.

Overcoming an early race incident that saw the Gabel’s No. 22 machine slide off-course and make heavy contact with the tire barrier in Turn 1 and capitalizing on misfortune from the race-leading No. 85 Farnbacher Loles Porsche GT3 in the race’s 23rd hour, the Florida-based team won by a slim, 7.072-second margin.

The decisive moment of the race came with a little more than 90 minutes remaining, when Dirk Werner was forced to pull his No. 85 Porsche down pit road with a lingering oil leak, opening the door for the Alegra/Fiorano team, as Dumoulin crossed the stripe just ahead of Paul Edwards, who debuted the new No. 07 Banner Racing Pontiac GXP.R.

"There were so many good cars out there," said Dumoulin, a 2004 Rolex 24 SGS class winner. "We needed to be quick without doing too much harm to the car. We were able to keep our head down and stay ahead of them. It was a lot of fun."

The No. 22 car only led the final 48 laps in the of the race, but fast and efficient pit crew members, coupled with persistent and consistent drivers, completed the "underdog" story.

"You always have to believe you can win in racing," said Gabel. "I thought the odds were stacked heavily against us, with the problems we had in testing. We didn’t have a solid set of data to get a good setup with. The GT class was huge and they were all good cars, and for us to come out on top, it’s a huge honor."

Battling the proven Porsche fleets of TRG, Tafel Racing and Farnbacher Loles, the No. 22 machine flew under the radar heading into Daytona. And with 41 GT machines taking the green flag--the single-most class entries to start the Rolex 24 in the race’s 45-year history--it was easy to get lost in the shuffle.

"This is the biggest success of my career," said Basseng. "This is a great series, and for us German guys, we love coming here because we all want this watch. The win definitely feels good."

"This team has been working so hard this off-season and I couldn’t be happier for them," said de Quesada. "We had a little incident early in the race that put us five laps down, but we knew that if we continued to focus on what we could control and kept turning out good laps, we’d have a pretty good chance."

Edwards finished second in the No. 07 machine, co-driving with Kelly Collins, Andy Pilgrim and Johnny O’Connell. Banner Racing fielded a pair of Pontiac GXP.Rs in the Rolex 24, and although lacking the straight-line speed of the Porsches, handled remarkably through Daytona’s infield road course.

Jim Lowe, Jim Pace, Johannes van Overbeek and Ralf Kelleners finished third in the No. 64 TRG Porsche GT3, followed by Banner Racing’s second entry, the No. 06 Pontiac GXP.R, driven by Leighton Reese and Tim Lewis Jr., with help from Edwards and O’Connell. The No. 70 SpeedSource Mazda RX-8 rounded out the top five, with drivers Sylvain Tremblay, Nick Ham, David Haskell and Randy Pobst.

Germany’s Wolf Henzler took the lead from polesitter Patrick Huisman in Turn 1 of the opening lap, and led the first 29 circuits aboard the No. 74 Tafel Racing Porsche GT3. Alongside co-drivers Jim Tafel, Eric Lux and Dominick Farnbacher (113 laps led), Henzler and the No. 74 machine looked like a strong bet in the early going. The 2006 GT class runner-up led 83 of the first 88 laps.

Mechanical issues during the night hours, however, forced the machine into the garage for extensive repairs, seemingly dashing the team’s hopes at a victory. Much of the damage was caused when Lux locked the brakes in Turn 1 and was forced to limp the car around the track with front-left damage.

Tafel Racing’s misfortune handed the class lead to the No. 85 machine, which led throughout most of the night hours. It looked as though the Farnbacher driver lineup of Werner, Jörg Hardt, Pierre Ehret and Leh Keen, would run away with the race until the late oil leak problems. Hardt led a race-high 208 laps and Werner, who did the majority of the driving for the team, spent 56 laps on the point position.

The Banner Racing and Alegra/Fiorano entries used mid-race caution periods to make up time lost to the faster No. 85 car.

A total of 13 drivers exchanged the lead 25 times and the winning team covered more than 2,228 miles in the 626 laps around the 3.56-mile, 14 turn speedway road course.

The machines of the Rolex Series enjoy a little more than a month before Round 2 of the 2007 championship, when the Daytona Prototypes and GT machines travel south of the border to contest a 400 km race at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.

Mike K.

Good call ! Would have been nice to have a few bucks down on then . Wonder what the odds makers had them at? I believe Fiorano has been involved with the winning GT at the 24hrs before . Too bad Nick Longhi was not along for the ride.

GREEK-TURBO-RACER

Nick had a strong car. The Mazdas were quick , and we knew this. Our work was definatelycut out for us.


Theo

Mike K.

I think Nick did great( 7th ) , as well. Just from a my spectator's point, it's great to see Nick & J.F. running together.
http://www.motorsport.com/photos/gra...4h-eg-0639.jpg

Dennis in SE PA

I am happy for Alegra and for TRG who placed 3rd in GT with #64. I was at the track and was told #66 lost some laps to change a clutch, but the TRG web site says they (#66) were hit by a prototype and needed rear suspension work. Anyone know the truth? It looked like they were replacing the clucth when I went into the garage.

earlyapex

My congratulations goes out to the team. They obviously deserved the win as much as any of the other teams.

I think my orginal comments were right on.

bobt993

Eric, I completely agree. I thought you were very accurate and if anything, wishing them luck.