Roar Before The 24: The Über-Daytona Über-Gallery

By Raphael Orlove January 7, 2013 5:20 pm EST

While the multi-class merger between America's top two GT racing series was making our heads spin, the cars were whipping around the track in the shakedown for the 2013 Grand Am season and looking absolutely amazing.

There were over 100 cars at the event, both from the teams running in Grand-Am and those competing in the lower, production-based Continental Tire series.

The fastest lap of all came from Michael Valiante, driving the Michael Shank Racing Ford-Riley Daytona Prototype around the track in 1m 42.058s. That's an average speed of 125.576 miles an hour, though we're not sure what his top speed on the banking was.

Fastest of the GT field was the lilliputian Patrick Long with a 1:48.569 lap in the No. 73 Park Place Motorsports Porsche GT3. That's an average of 118.045 mph over the course.

Our favorite part of GT racing is always seeing more cars come onto the field. This year we get a new GX class, bringing Porsche Caymans and diesel Mazda6 sedans. Those Mazdas sadly aren't based off of the road car chassis; they're tube frame cars, just like the current Camaros and last season's Mazda RX-8s. At least we see a form of the diesel engine in production cars.

No matter what politics is going on, we're as happy as can be to see the return of GT racing for 2013, heralded by the always-amazing shots from photographer Trevor Andrusko. The shot of the lone #01 Ganassi BMW-Riley, which set the second fastest time of the weekend, is our personal favorite.

Trevor Andrusko and Track 9 also gave us some onboard footage of the Whelen Motorsports Corvette, a car we rode with practically all of last Grand-Am season. We can hear the V8 whenever we close our eyes.

Don't forget to click 'Expand' on the lower right of each picture to see them in full wallpaper size!

Photo Credit: Trevor Andrusko/Track9 Media

Video Credit: Whelen Motorsports
Photo Credit: Trevor Andrusko/Track9 Media

Photo Credit: Trevor Andrusko/Track9 Media

Roar Before The 24: The Über-Daytona Über-Gallery

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