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
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.
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.
The future of sports car racing in North America just got a bit more interesting with Wednesday’s announcement that NASCAR’s Grand-AM Series and the American Le Mans Series would merge into one entity beginning in 2014. Also included in the merger is Road Atlanta and the racing lease on Sebring International Raceway.
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.
![[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.
With Father’s Day just a couple of weeks away, maybe it’s perfect timing for 45-year-old racer Jeff Nowicki to make his debut in front of his own dad at this weekend’s Chevrolet Grand Am Detroit 200 on Belle Isle in Detroit.
“I started racing in 1990 at a local Waterford track. My dad (Ron Nowicki, 70, of West Bloomfield) is excited for me — he’s my best friend and this is the first time he will see me race in a profiled event,” he said.
Nowicki will be behind the wheel of the No. 46 red Corvette for Team MBR (Michael Baughman Racing), sponsored by our friends at George Matick Chevrolet. The race will mark Matick’s debut with Team MBR, and it also will be the dealership’s first motorsports sponsorship
It was a great weekend for Corvette Racing fans.
Max Angelelli and Ricky Taylor led the Corvette drivers with a victory in their No. 10 SunTrust Racing Corvette Daytona Prototype (DP) in the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series race held at New Jersey Motorsports Park.
