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Since 1991, the Rolex Watch Co. is the title sponsor of the race under a Naming Rights arrangement, replacing ''Sunbank''. Winning drivers of all classes receive a Rolex watch, probably the most prestigious way to acquire one. BEGINNINGS A few years after the track was built, a 3 hour Sportscar Racing event was introduced, won by Dan Gurney . He drove a Ford-powered Lotus despite being a factory driver for Porsche at that time. Many Porsche 718 were driven by privateers, but these 1600cc cars were considered rather underpowered for a short and fast race despite having won the at the twisty Targa Florio or the tough 12 Hours Of Sebring . In 1964, the event was expanded to 2000km (1220 miles), doubling the classic 1000km distance of races at Nürburgring , Circuit De Spa-Francorchamps and Autodromo Nazionale Monza . Also, it is roughly the half of the distance the 24 Hours Of Le Mans winners covered at that time, but similar to the Sebring 12 Hours which is also in Florida and hosted a few weeks later. Thus, the Daytona race was styled since 1966 after the even more famous 24 Hours Of Le Mans race itself. 24H HISTORY As in the Spa 24 Hours (introduced in 1924) and the 24 Hours Nürburgring (since 1970), the purpose of the event is to determine which team of drivers can take their Sports Car or Gran Turismo the farthest in a fixed time period (24 h), rather than the shortest time over a fixed distance as in conventional auto racing. Unlike the French Le Mans event, the Daytona race is conducted entirely over a closed course within the speedway arena without the use of any public streets. Most parts of the steep banking are included, interrupted with a chicanes on the back straight and some sweeps in the infield behind the pit lane. As the French classic is held in the middle of June, the night there is as short as possible, unlike at the Daytona race, which is held in late January (as of 2006, the race is held in the last week of January) or early February and run under lights in the longest of all 24 Hours race nights. After having lost in 1966 both at Daytona and at Le Mans to the Fords, the Ferrari P rototypes staged a triumphant 1-2-3 side-by-side parade finish at the banked finish line in 1967. To celebrate the victory over the rival at his home race, Ferrari named its V12-powered road car Ferrari Daytona after the race. Porsche repeated this show in their 1-2-3 win in the 1968 24 Hours. After the car of Gerhard Mitter had a big crash caused by tyre failure in the banking, his teammate Rolf Stommelen supported Vic Elford / Jochen Neerpasch . When the car of the longtime leaders Jo Siffert / Hans Herrmann dropped to second due to a technical problem, these two also joined the new leaders while continuing with their car. So Porsche managed to put 5 of 8 drivers on the center of the podium, plus Jo Schlesser / Joe Buzzetta on 3rd place, with only Mitter being left out. The regular teams were expanded to 3 pilots in the 1970s. Nowadays, often 4 drivers compete, with occasional "taxi" rides for less lucky team mates adding to the total as sportsmanship to support "total team effort" dedication, up to seven in the winning car of 1997. GRAND AMERICAN & DAYTONA PROTOTYPES After IMSA had it ups and downs, the Daytona event now belongs to the Grand-Am series, which has different organizers and rules than the Le Mans -based ALMS series. The links to NASCAR are close, the focus is on USA-based technology and personnel. In order to make Sports Car Racing less expensive than elsewhere, new rules were introduced in 2002. The dedicated ''Daytona Prototypes'' (DP) do not use expensive materials and technologies, and simple aerodynamics reduce the often highly expensive effort of development and testing. On the other hand, especially the rather big and wide closed cockpits with their full size roll cages look clumsy compared to the slim, sophisticated and fast Audi R8 , BMW V12 , Porsche 911 GT1 , Mercedes-Benz CLK-GTR and others that dominated Sportscar Racing elsewhere since the late 1990s. However, the "clumsy" look has been able to control speeds and aerodynamic controversies for safety, something which has been an issue at Le Mans in recent years. Specialist chassis makers provide the DP cars:
The engines are also often delivered by specialists and only branded as major names. Unlike elsewhere, the vehicles are designated ''Engine-Chassis'' at Daytona, as the chassis makers are rather unknown and don't sell road cars. In 2003, with the new DPs being few, slow and unreliable, even a road-car based Porsche 996 GT3-RS has managed to win overall, despite only being entered in the 3rd fastest class. As the Rolex 24 has a winter date during off-season for other racing series, many top class drivers are able and willing to take part in the Rolex if sponsorships committments allow this. The track's marketing package has aggressively marketed the roll call of champions, with track officials focusing on the roll call of professional-level racing champions and superstars in the race. Recently retired NASCAR star Rusty Wallace joined IRL superstar Danica Patrick in the 2006 race, while Tony Stewart has gained a reputation of "checkers or wreckers" after his gallant 2004 drive with a badly stricken car in the lead, while attempting to nurse it to victory with less than 20 minutes remaining, the suspension finally gave up and Stewart crashed. Indy 500 champions Buddy Rice and Dan Wheldon have also made appearances in the race, with Wheldon's 2006 victory in the Rolex the first time a reigning Indy champion had won the classic. Previous Rolex 24 races have featured Dale Earnhardt , Dale Earnhardt, Jr . (the two were paired in the 2001 race, a memorable moment in the history of sportscar racing, and it is said they began this revival of the all-star format), Jimmie Johnson , Greg Biffle , Paul Tracy , Sebastian Bourdais , Kurt Busch , Kyle Petty , Randy LaJoie , and stars who have raced in every major form of motorsport. While it has been criticised by some purists in sportscar racing, the drivers enjoy the all-star showdown, and some believe the racing only intensifies because some drivers have decided they want to be the hotshot against the aces, and created passionate driving in the 2006 race. In 2006, the race moved into January to prevent the race from going up against the Super Bowl. DAYTONA GTS The Grand Turismo class cars at Daytona are closer to the road versions, similar to the GT3 class elsewhere. For example, not the usual ''RS'' or RSR racing versions of the Porsche 996 are used, but the more standard Cup version. Recent Daytona entries were also BMW M3 , Corvette , Mazda RX-8 and Pontiac GTO . A lone Ferrari 360 also added some red color to the 2006 race. In an effort for teams to save money, GT rules have now changed to permit Spaceframe cars clad in lookalike body panels to compete in GT (the new Mazda for example, and some forthcoming Infiniti G35s). These rules are somewhat similar to the old GTO specification, but with rather more restrictions. (The intent of spaceframe-clad cars is to allow teams to save money -- especially after crashes, where teams can rebuild the cars for the next race at a much lower cost, or even redevelop cars, instead of having to junk an entire car after a crash or at the end of a year.) 2006 RACE In the 2006 event, teams which are traditionally linked to Porsche made an effort to "reconquer" Daytona, like the ''Brumos Team'' which has fielded Porsches traditionally numbered as #58 and #59 since the 1970s. Porsche factory drivers were also scattered around the teams running Porsche engines in their DPs, and it was German Lucas Luhr who set the pole position time with the #23 Porsche-Crawford of ''Alex Job''. In the race, the car that was also driven by Mike Rockenfeller (D) and Patrick Long (USA) led for some time, but lost time during a repair of a driveshaft, and finished only 3rd ahead of the #58 ''Red Bull Brumos'' Porsche-Fabcar with fellow ''Porsche Junior'' Sascha Maassen (D). Two Lexus-Rileys finished 1-2, with ''Target Chip Ganassi '''s all-star line-up of Scott Dixon , Dan Wheldon and Casey Mears taking the overall win. The GT class saw, as usual, virtually dozens of Porsche's, and their faster drivers like Wolf Henzler were allegedly told not to be too fast in Qualifying in order to avoid being punished by extra handicap weight. The Pontiac GTO of experienced team ''TRG Racing'' not only set the GT pole, but also lead much of the early part of the race, battling with the best 911s of the new 997 series, finishing 10th overall ahead of 21 Prototypes. The Porsche of ''TPC Racing'' did 3 laps more and took the GT win plus ninth overall, though. The second best non- Porsche 997 GT was the other TRG GTO at 26th overall, 13th in GT. STATISTICS Frequent winning cars (or engines) were Porsche with 20 victories scored by various models, even the road based 911, 935 and 996. All other major car making brands had
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