As I posted yesterday, this past weekend I was in Daytona watching the Rolex 24 hour race. It was my first time watching the race in person, and thanks to a few MotoringFun.com members who assisted me with tickets and lodging, I was able to watch the race in style from the Daytona 500 Club overlooking victory lane (huge thanks to LgEnf and Deviant!!).

Not only was the entire weekend fully catered (I think I gained about 5 pounds), but the access we had was unbelievable. With full indoor seating looking out at the start-finish line and roof-top seating to check out the entire track, I got a glimpse of how the big wigs watch a race lol. I have to hand it to the Grand-Am series – their fan access is second to none. We were able to be IN the garages during the race while teams feverishly worked on their cars to get them back out. I tried to take as many shots as possible so check them out in the gallery.

Overall, the race was awesome. Juan Pablo Montoya, Scott Pruett, Memo Rojas and Dario Franchitti took top honors overall in the DP class, while Sylvain Tremblay, Nick Ham, David Haskell and Raphael Matos captured the GT win and finished a respectable 9th overall. Not too shabby for a Mazda RX-8 eh? We actually ended up in victory lane for the GT champs and were so close we got sprayed with champagne! Hope you enjoy the pics – click the link below!

[ Rolex 24 At Daytona Photo Gallery ]

Phew! What a weekend!! I just got back from Daytona where I attended both the Grand-Am KONI Challenge and the Rolex 24 races. I also managed to sneak away from the track for a few hours to hop over to Ocala for an impromptu Sunshine MINIs picnic which attracted almost 100 MINIacs! Look for the picnic to become an annual event after this kind of showing! I am still sorting out photos and video from the weekend, but I did at least get the KONI Challenge photos uploaded tonight (click link at bottom of this post).

Here is a quick recap of the race… The RSR MINIs were doing very well in a field of almost 100 cars. Lap times were about 10 seconds faster than last year and the improvement was noticeable on the track. Unfortunately, both cars suffered flat tires, which relegated them back to finishing 31 and 36. All in all it was a great race and fun was had by all. We even got to hang out with Randy and the RSR crew in the garages where we got the opportunity to hop in the race cars and snap some photos! Special thanks to Randy and team for their hospitality. Looking forward to seeing them at another track soon! I will hopefully have video posted soon as well as photos from the Rolex race.

[ Grand-Am KONI Challenge Series @ Daytona Gallery ]