Updates from the Rest of the Racing World
Atlas F1 Magazine Writers
Advice: The points tables for most series covered by Elsewhere In Racing are available here. Individual series are linked to their corresponding points table after each report.
Rain Over Daytona
Rain intensified sufficiently to red flag the race for just short of three hours in the mid-morning with the Howard-Boss Motorsport Crawford-Chevrolet three laps up on the Bell Motorsports entered Doran-Pontiac. The Crawford, driven by sportscar veteran Andy Wallace and NASCAR front runners Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhardt Jr took up the lead again when the race resumed late in the morning but Stewart had to contend with a gradual right rear suspension failure aboard the Crawford.
Also giving chase was the Riley-Pontiac entered by SunTrust Racing and driven by Wayne Taylor, Max Angelelli and Emmanuel Collard. Their charge faded though when the car ran out of fuel just short of the 500 lap mark, leaving Max Angelelli temporarily stranded out on the circuit before retiring with half an hour to go with driveshaft failure.
Just over ten minutes later the Crawford spun out of the race, its suspension problems now terminal. Having caught two of the three lap lead the Crawford had held prior to the red flag, Forest Barber soon had the lead of the race and went on to take a surprising victory after 526 laps of the combined superspeedway/road course circuit.
Three laps behind, a desperate battle was staged over the final hours for second position as the Orbit Racing Porsche 996 GT3-RS fought off the GT3 Cup Porsche from Flying Lizard Motorsports. During the night Robin Liddell built up a formidable class lead in the GT class as the Orbit Porsche overtook the Daytona Prototype cars one by one. A rear windscreen collapse had little effect during the night running and the six hours of the race spent either under yellow pace car, or stopped completely under the red, but as the circuit dried out in the late morning the difference in speed, particularly on Daytona's banking, left the car vulnerable and the team was unable to push the three remaining Prototype cars ahead of them. It left them vulnerable to the factory supported Flying Lizard team, with Mike Rockenfeller cutting rapidly into the lead Johnny Mowlem had once taking over the car in the final hour from Mike Fitzgerald.
"We had a pretty good lead and we just had to take care of it. I tried to hang in there and give Johnny as big a lead as I could, said Fitzgerald. "We got help from the Orbit crew, they did just a fantastic pitstop at the end of the race and gave Johnny a bit of a cushion to work with so he didn't have to push too hard, driving around on slicks in the rain. I'm very grateful to Rodger Hawley, Joe and Jay Policastro and all the Orbit guys."
In a complete justification of the ability of the Doran JE4 chassis, fourth place and five laps down went to the car fielded by its constructor, Doran Lista Racing. From a poor starting position the Toyota-powered car climbed rapidly into the upper order only to be delayed significantly after some clashes during the second stint. They fought back to within five laps of the lead at the finish as their opponents dropped out of the race, passing two of their stricken class mates in the final 15 minutes of the race.
Classified fifth, third in class, was the suspension wounded Crawford-Chevy. Sixth outright and fifth of those cars still running was BE Racing's much travelled Ferrari 360GT. The winners of last year's trial Le Mans Endurance Series event, Klaus Engelhorn's team of Andrea Montermini, Philip Peter and Dieter Quester fell just eight laps short of taking fifth from the Crawford. The team claimed the final podium spot for GT cars and was the only non-Porsche in class to finish within fifty laps of the Orbit Porsche.
Behind the Riley was the first of the Super Grand Sport category, the Doncaster Racing Porsche 996 of Robert Julien, Jean-Francois Dumoulin, Greg Pootmans and Marc Lieb, winning the exclusively Porsche class by three laps over the Randy Pobst, Marc Bunting, Andy Lally, John Littlechild and Michael Levitas driven GT3 Cup fielded by TPC Racing.
The Chip Ganassi Racing supported Riley-Lexus completed the top ten. The team that took pole position (after a scorching lap by Scott Pruett) was delayed significantly on Sunday with rising engine temperatures and windscreen fogging problems. Defending champions The Racers Group brought their lead car home in 14th position as gear selection problems bit late in the race as the team struggled with a drivetrain problem that had plagued the car since the second hour of the race when it was damaged after a spin. The team's other Porsches finished 17th and 21st respectively.
Result of Rolex 24 at Daytona, Daytona International Speedway, United States:
Judge Awards CART Assets To OWRS
A federal bankruptcy judge in Indiana awarded the assets of the bankrupt CART series to the Open Wheel Racing Series (OWRS) last Wednesday, despite a higher bid by the rival Indy Racing League (IRL).
Judge Frank Otte made his ruling based on two factors, a promise to continue the series and the likelihood of protracted litigation by race promoters who had long-term contracts from CART that would have been threatened by a partial IRL takeover.
The OWRS, a group of team owners Gerald Forsythe, Paul Gentilozzi and Kevin Kalkoven, bid $3.2 million for the assets in open court. The IRL, led by founder Tony George, offered $13.5 million.
Judge Otte said: "I realize there's a difference between $13.5 million and $3.2 million but this bid (process) must account for the assumption of these contracts.
"We know for certain there would be litigation and there would be damages."
The Judge also said it was a "second chance" for the series, which will now open in Long Beach, California on April 18.
CART, which began racing in 1979, became a public company in 1998 but filed for bankruptcy last year after its shares plummeted.
The OWRS sought to buy the stock but later withdrew its offer and instead made a bid for the bankrupt company of $1.6 million. The IRL then stepped in with an offer of $3.2 million.
After hearing the IRL was not interested in taking over the CART series, track promoters of races in Surfers Paradise (Australia), Long Beach and Elkhart Lake (Wisconsin) filed an objection to the sale of their contracts.
Report provided by Reuters
French Say Dakar Rally Kidnap Bid Foiled By Agents
French secret agents foiled a bid by Islamic militants to kidnap contestants in the Paris-Dakar rally last month as they raced across the Sahara desert state of Mali, the Defence Ministry said on Thursday.
"French intelligence had information which led us, with our colleagues in Mali...to take decisions which you have been able to read about in the press," a Defence Ministry spokesman said.
Le Point, whose details the ministry declined to confirm or deny, said Defence Minister Michele Marie-Alliot discussed the threat during a trip to Mali's capital Bamako in December.
It said the French-backed operation had prevented leading French driver Stephane Peterhansel and Spanish motorcyclist Nani Roma from falling into the Islamists' hands.
Le Point said the group, heavily armed with machineguns mounted on their all-terrain vehicles, had intended to kidnap the pair in Mali's southern Sokolo region on January 10.
The magazine said the group had fled north once they realised the ambush scheme had been discovered.
Report provided by Reuters
Sportscars
The first major circuit event of the season has produced a close race between several competitors over the course of a rain-drenched 24 hours of Daytona, with the superior longevity of the international GT cars wearing down the faster locally-developed Daytona Prototypes, with neither class proving conclusively superior in the end. The team that did prove superior come the quarter past one finish time was the Bell Motorsports Doran-Pontiac driven by sportscar racers Terry Borchellar and Andy Pilgrim, along with second year NASCAR racer Christian Fittipaldi and team owner Forest Barber.
"You can't give up in any endeavor," said Barber. "Things can change in the last five minutes. You have to work as hard as you can. We're thankful for the opportunity that came our way today and proud of the people who made it happen, but we never take joy in anyone's misfortune. Our team worked so hard to get us to this point though, and it's a real honor."
The third Doran JE4 entered in the race, the Michael Shank Racing car, finished in seventh, taking the position from the stricken Sun Trust Riley-Pontiac on the last lap of the race, giving Doran a 1-2-4 class result.
Pos Drivers Car
1. Forest Barber/Terry Borchellar/ Doran JE4
Christian Fittipaldi/Andy Pilgrim
2. Mike Fitzgerald/Robin Liddell/Johnny Mowlem/ Porsche 996 GT3-RS
Jay Policastro/Joe Policastro (1st GT)
3. Peter Cunningham/Seth Neiman/Lonnie Pechnik/ Porsche 996 GT3 Cup
Mike Rockenfeller/Johannes van Overbeek (2nd GT)
4. Marc Goossens/Jan Lammers/Fredy Lienhard/ Doran JE4 Lexus
Didier Theys
5. Dale Earnhardt Jr/Tony Stewart/Andy Wallace Crawford-Chevrolet
6. Klaus Engelhorn/Andrea Montermini/ Ferrari 360GT
Philipp Peter/Dieter Quester (3rd GT)
7. Kelly Collins/Thomas Erdos/Brent Martini/ Doran JE4 Lexus
Mike Newton/Cort Wagner
8. Max Angelelli/Emmanuel Collard/Wayne Taylor Riley-Pontiac
9. Jean-Francois Dumoulin/Robert Julien/ Porsche 996 GT3 Cup
Marc Lieb/Greg Pootmans (1st SGS)
10. Scott Dixon/Jimmy Morales/Max Papis/ Riley-Lexus
Scott Pruett
US Open Wheel
Rally Raid
A spokesman said the DGSE foreign intelligence service had played a key role in preventing what the Le Point weekly news magazine said on Thursday was a plot by a 100-strong gang to attack participants in the rally. The 10th and 11th stages of the 11,000 km race were scrapped due to the security alert.
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Volume 10, Issue 5
Articles
Stand and Deliver
Technical Analysis: BAR 006
Technical Analysis: Renault R24
2004 SuperStats: Winter Testing
2004 Countdown: Facts & Stats
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