Friday, January 25, 2008

Rolex 24


Well it’s almost time to kick off the 2008 racing season with this year’s twice around the clock running of the Rolex 24.

And although I was finally able to find a preliminary 2008 Rolex 24 Entry List, it was not updated. (Hello Grand AM!) So I decided NOT to spend countless hours studying it to figure out who all of the really-really-really “Big” names in this year’s contest are, here’s a brief listing of celebrity drivers participating. (In alphabetical order)

Champ Car
The Champ Car World Series will have four drivers; Justin Wilson, Graham Rahal, Robert Doornbos, Jan Heylen, plus 1996 CART Champion Jimmy Vasser as well as the Long Beach promoter and reigning Champ Car Atlantics champion Rafael Matos on hand.

Indy Car
Team Penske’s current drivers Ryan Briscoe & Helio Castroneves along with Target Chip Ganassi’s triumberant of Scott Dixon, Dan Wheldon and Rookie Alex Lloyd will contest the race aboard DP Prototype’s.

Sprint Cup
And it still seems weird thinking of Juan Pablo (“MAC”) Montoya and Dario “Forgot my Pants” Franchitti as RASSCAR drivers, who’ll be trying to make history for Chip Ganassi as the first three time consecutive winner of the Rolex 24.

Even funnier is the “Cheepster’s” pairing of the Sprint cup duo
Along with his Sports Car “Hired Gun” Scott “Juicy-fruit” Pruett, recall that MAC Montoya punted Pruett off track to win his first Busch Cup event in Mexico last year! Along with the two aforementioned RASSCAR “Stars” will be Curt Busch and Jimmy Johnson.

And this brief recap doesn’t even delve into the many Sports Car stars contesting the event this year. Also of note is this year’s Grand Marshall. His name is Dan Gurney.

You can catch all of the competition along with Robert Nearn this weekend (January 26-27) on SPEED & Fox’s 17+ hours of live coverage…