Grand Am Daytona 2008 Pictures
 

Here are pictures from the Grand Am Daytona Event. I'll continue to post throughout the weekend. We had Rolex Practice and the Koni Race.

I took lots of pictures of the RX-8's and some of others. I hope you all enjoy. The Speedsource #70 qualified at POLE!!!

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I made some decals for ROAR on short notice, so they graciously ran one for me! All the tracks in the Koni Challenge Series except New Jersey which isn't complete yet. I can now say that I made decals for a Grand Am Pro Team! :) They rock!

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Qualified 2nd.
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F-18's flew by a few times.
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The #70, I'm in love:

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One of the coolest vehicles there!

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More Tomorrow!

Awesome, great pics and thanks for the info on the 8 forum about the 1st lap incident.

Tell the boys from ROAR I said hello!

Fantastic to see so many racing again like the old days. Thanks for posting your pictures. I like this one!

Ok, more pictures....

Some maybe out of sequence, but you'll get the idea. During the evening I made a couple trips back into the garages to get an update on casualties of the race. I've got some pictures and explanations from those as well.

Pre race prep:

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Here's the configuration with the oil coolers closer in:

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I love the graphics on these cars:

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The Edge Racing RX-8:

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More of my love. I gotta have one of these....

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The Sahlen's guys were very nice and talkative too. Told me that the only GM part on that car is the engine and they rebuild that as soon as they get it. The rear end is a Ford. That made me laugh. :)

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More to come, I'm wiped and going to bed. I have more to post, but not til tomorrow.

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That is my friend in car #75... He doesn't drive a Mazda tho... He finished 6th, I think he beat every RX-8 in ST...

Who do you know on the #75? I know Karl and the gang, use to live right around the corner from the shop. On my way back from Petit last year we ran in to each other in line at Duty Free at one in the morning, they were on their way home from VIR.

The driver, Christian Miller. I met him a few years ago, he drove in the SCCA world challenge touring car in 2006.

Hoping you can try to get a pic from the #70 when shifting... with the flame coming out..?
Nice picture...:icon_tup: couldn't be there this year... darn!

Gerald.

1st and 5th for the rx8:score: :djcelebra :smiley309 :jump: :blue: :bubrub: :gotrice: and all of them finished

these pictures are total SEX!!!! i can't wait to see more!

GT class #1...:djcelebra:smiley309:jump::101384_l:

There were some good shots during the broadcast on TV last night of the #70 shooting flames. I love the new paint scheme on the car, looks fucking awesome.

I agree the paint scheme is flipping sweet! Man I was scream when the #70 RX-8 came in first. I am going next year to this event thanks to the great picture taking of
Legokcen. Looks like an awesome event! Congrats Legokcen on the decal exposure!

I would LOVE to see some Rotary Power at this years 24 Hour LeMans - LIVE
That's right i'm going to the LeMans for the third time :fawk:

coooll pics,
so what are the specs of the RX8s are they 20B tripple rotors or are they custom tripples rotors, eg are they using custom shafts with FD Housings and plates?

All of the Mazda RX-8s competing in the ROLEX GT Series are fitted with a 3 rotor Mazda R20B engine, based directly off of the street going Mazda RX-8.

Tube chassis with a N/A 20B PP from the Cosmo.

No, those are 3 rotor Renesis engines, not Cosmo.

Mazda USA reference to RX-8 GT 3 Rotor Renesis

The 20b's used in Rolex GT share SOME components and technology of the Renesis generation rotary. Much of what is being used to win has been understood for some time. You can call Sylvain tomorrow, or Steve Sanders and they'll tell you it's a Renesis 3-rotor but they wouldn't be telling you the entire truth.

+1.

No, they're modified Cosmo 20Bs with (at least last year) Racing Beat off-the-shelf peripheral port rotor housings... meaning conventional peripheral exhaust ports as they went into at a tech discussion at Sevenstock a couple years back. The same article refers to the old BK car as running a Renesis 3-rotor. It wasn't actually a Renesis either, at least not Renesis as defined by the side exhaust or sharing any parts with any engine that came from the factory in an RX-8.

Rotary powered racecars cannot compete in the 24 Hours of Le Mans starting in 1992 due to rule changes. This was after the Mazda 787B won in 1991, still the only Japanese victory and the only victory by a non-piston engine.

It was nice to see the Mazda rotary back on the podium at Daytona! :icon_tup: