Just over one week ago the newly minted Tutor
United Sports Car (TUSC) championship series held its first "Roar
Before" the Rolex 24 January 3-5 in preparations for the forthcoming 52nd
running of the Daytona 24 Hours classic endurance race this January 25-26 which
Y'all can watch upon Fox Sports-1, (FS1) which sadly your humble No Fenders
scribe will miss watching this year...
Thus a very brief recap of what happened
during "the Roar" according to various sources upon thee A-L-L
knowing Intrawoods follows below, albeit info seems to be a bit sketchy..
DAY-1
Very minimal reporting on the first day's
activities other than Christian Fittipaldi placed the No. 5 Action Express Racing Corvette DP
on the top of the time sheets in the car he'll be co-driving with past Rolex 24
winner Joao
Barbosa and le 'Hamburgular, nee Sebastain Bourdais.
The factory-backed Porsche North American 911 GTLM #911 with Nick Tandy at the
controls was the fastest GT car on Day-1...
DAY-2
For the first time since Friday, somebody
other than a Corvette DP led the time sheets with Chip Ganassi's #01 Riley-Ford
DP driven by 'RASSCAR Ace Jamie McMurry on top which is somewhat funny since
his regular "Day Job" sees him piloting a Chevy... Yet the 'Chebbies
have been quick both days and were definitely nipping at the Ford's heels as the
Vettes' took over the top time during the night test subsequently...
on the GT side, I'm not overly surprised to
see that MAGS', aka Jan Magnussen was quickest of the GTLM cars on Saturday as
after all the 'Vette's are known for their Uber quick pace and reliability
whilst amassing many class and overall victories in endurance racing, as this
is the car that Ryan Briscoe will be co-driving alongside Magnussen and Antonio
Garcia. Second quick was the lone (GTLM) Aston Martin while the 'Seester #4
Corvette Stingray C7R was third quick.
And speaking of reliability, apparently the
Ford powered "Eco-boost" Prototypes of Chip Ganassi and Michael Shank
Racing both elected to forgo the test's final day of running as there appears
to be some niggling reliability issues with auxiliary bits 'N pieces of the new
"Blown" V-6 turbo-units...
DAY-3
Richard Westbrook in the No. 90 Spirit of Daytona led the prototypes on the final day of testing aboard his Corvette DP which he'll be sharing with Michael Valiante and Mike "Rocky" Rockenfeller.
Not surprisingly the Corvette C7R's led the
way in GTLM on Sunday, albeit this time it was the No. 4 with "Ollie"
(Oliver) Gavin at the controls ahead of the Seester' No. 3 racecar while Sam
Bird was once again quickest in the PC (Prototype Challenge) for the second day
in-a-row...
And Y'all may be interested in taking a ride
around Daytona Int'l Speedway with two-time 24 Heurs du Mans winner David Brabam
who'll be trying to defeat the faster Daytona Prototypes aboard his LMP2 Honda
ARX-03b racecar...
And as with all testing times, nothing should ever
be taken too seriously, since after all its just testing, as notice the
seriousness of this interview below, as it's nice to see A.J. finally hamming
it up once again...
