It was a good start Saturday for the Gainsco-Bob Stallings Racing Chevrolet Corvette Daytona Prototype team as they won the Grand-Am of the Americas Presented By Gainesco and Total at the new Circuit of the Americas track in Austin, Texas.
GRAND-AM Racing
Corvette is off to a good start in the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series.
Max Angelelli, Jordan Taylor, and Ryan Hunter-Reay – competing for Wayne Taylor Racing – came through with the first-ever Daytona 24 podium position for the Corvette Daytona Prototype as their No. 10 Velocity Worldwide Corvette DP finished second on Sunday during the 51st running of the Rolex 24 at Daytona.
Calling it a philisophy based on inclusion, Grand-AM and the American Le Mans Series announced the new class structures that will take effect when the two organizations merge into one in 2014. The announcement came on Friday prior to the start of Grand-AM’s “Roar Before the 24″ test weekend at the Daytona International Speedway.
![[VIDEO] ShakeDown asks: Is Corvette Racing the Greatest American Racing Brand?](http://www.corvetteblogger.com/images/content/2012/100912_1.jpg)
When it comes to racing, Corvettes have a storied history. Highlights on their racing resume include wins at Daytona, Sebring, and LeMans, the C4 Corvette Challenge Series, and ALMS dominance over the last decade. In the ShakeDown episode after the break, host Leo Parente takes a brief look at Corvette Racing from its inception all the way up the recent American Le Mans Series GTE title and the Grand-Am Engine Manufacturers Championship in the Corvette Daytona Prototypes.
A dominating debut season for the Corvette Daytona Prototype came to a close Sunday with another win for the Corvette Racing team and the prestigious 2012 GRAND-AM Rolex Series Engine Manufacturers’ Championship for Chevrolet.
SunTrust Racing closed the season with a victory at Lime Rock Park, giving Corvette Daytona Prototype teams their eighth win out of the 13 races in 2012.
Corvettes – and Chevrolet – dominated at Laguna Seca Raceway over the weekend.
Richard Westbrook started from the pole position in the No. 9 Spirit of Daytona Corvette Daytona Prototype (DP) and then joined forces with teammate Antonio Garcia to win the Continental Tire Sports Car Festival GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series race Sunday.
In the process, Westbrook and Garcia became the first team to win three Rolex DP races this season. Overall, it was the seventh Corvette DP win of its inaugural season and moved Chevrolet closer to the highly sought Engine Manufacturers’ Championship with one race left.
It was Corvette against Corvette for the title in the closing seconds of the Rolex Sports Car Series at Watkins Glen International on Sunday.
Joao Barbosa, in the No. 9 Action Express Racing Corvette DP, rallied to take a narrow victory in the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen, nipping Alex Gurney and the No. 99 GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing Corvette DP.
![[VIDEO] C5 Z06 Driver Goes Off-Course While Attempting a Burnout at Dallas Cars and Coffee](http://www.corvetteblogger.com/images/content/2012/060612_3.jpg)
Want to learn how to be a high-performance driver?
Then you would do well to check out the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving after noting that the top instructors there came away with victories in all five of their races at the Chevrolet Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix on June 2 and 3.
![[GRAND-AM] Action Express DP Corvettes finish 1-2 at Detroit Belle Isle](http://www.corvetteblogger.com/images/content/2012/060412_3.jpg)
Don’t mess with a good thing, goes the old saying.
Action Express ignored that advice Sunday when it broke up the longest-running driver pairing in the paddock, giving Darren Law and David Donohue new partners after the duo had competed together in more than 100 races.
The strategy proved to be a good move by Action Express.
Law and Joao Barbosa teamed to take first place in the Daytona Prototype class at Belle Isle Park in Detroit, just ahead of second-place finishers Donohue and Terry Borcheller.
After a four-year hiatus, Detroit is abuzz this weekend with the return of GRAND-AM and IndyCar racing at the city’s 2.1 mile road course on Belle Isle.
Armed with a title sponsorship, Chevrolet will have the opportunity to show off its latest performance cars which will be serving pace car duties for the two major series races.
