24 hrs of Daytona

Well finally got the LeGrand home in the garage :-) Man what a trip it was though. Justin Stone and myself set out to pick the car up in Orlando, FL on January 28th and after 17 hours and 1300 miles we were in Orlando. After a few hours of chit chatting with the Haddocks and going over the car (man this thing is awesome!!! So cool to finally own a REAL race car), we had the car loaded up and headed off to Ormond Beach to hook up with Per Schroeder of Grassroots Motorsports Magazine to check out his Mk18. We made a quick stop for dinner at an awesome BBQ joint than headed to Per's.

Per's LeGrand was really cool to see especially with the new ZX10 motor installed. It was also nice to see another LeGrand for some ideas and pointers on how these cars are put together.

From there we headed to Justin's Dad's and crashed after JR Fisher finally got to the house. We woke up Saturday around 7:30 and headed for Daytona International Raceway to check out the 24hrs of Daytona!!! Man what a race! I always watch it on TV but, what a difference in person. Not event the rain or cold temperatures cold dampen the fun. We were at the track until 3:30 a.m. Sunday morning than headed back to Justin's Dad's for a few hours of rest before heading back to the track for the rest of the race.

The RX8s were an awesome sight and sound to behold!!! The #70 Speedsource won this year (having also won in 2008). The Dempsey Racing entries also showed some really good pace. Man those 3-Rotors kick some serious ass:





The new Camaros were really impressive as was the new Turner Motorsports M6. Both these cars sounds REALLY mean, nothing like the high pitch scream of the RX8s though:





The Daytona Prototypes were also really cool to see live, in person. The eventual winner was a new privateer team on the block running a v8 from a Caynenne. I'm sure the powers to be at Porsche had a few things to say to the works team running the flat sixes:



We headed home after the race and after another 17 hours and 1300 miles were were back safe and sound and with a really cool new race car!!!

Check out my Facebook album for more pictures.