At a time when the world of motorsports in U S was reeling under the pressure of dwindling interest of drivers and their fans what was needed was a move that would not just revive the sports car racing scene but would ensure that it would have a long lasting impact. That spark was provided by the Grand-Am Road Racing Association which made a remarkable debut with the running of the 2000 Rolex 24 At Daytona and changed forever the future of motorsports, especially in the American contest. With a name like Rolex which has always done the unthinkable getting closely associated with thrilling world of sports car racing had meant that the world of motorsports would become one of the biggest forces to reckon with in the sphere of adventure and sports and that is precisely how things have turned out to be. As the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series shall begin its 2010 season at the Rolex 24 At Daytona it would mark the 10^th anniversary of that momentous day when in 2000 at the same place birth of what is now world’s favorite motor racing tournament had taken place.

In September 1999 a new series of motor racing was announced in the New York City which had the backing of NASCAR as well as the International Speedway Corporation and the Rolex 24 was sanctioned. The first season of the series was to feature 10 races with Rolex 24 being the very first race. The series was to consist of five different classes which included Sports Racer Prototypes, SRP II focusing on small engine cars and three different GT classes namely GTO, GTU and AGT. The first season was made very appealing and attractive by making some very interesting rules. The qualifying driver was to be the one who would finally start the event with maximum driver per car limit kept at four. Not only that the teams were not allowed to switch their drivers from car to car. But since many of these rules were untenable in practice these did lead to a lot of problems from the very first race at Rolex 24 itself.

2000 Rolex 24 At Daytona saw race drivers like Max Angelelli, David Donohue, Wayne Taylor, Max Papis and Rob Dyson racing down the speedway in Cadillac LMPs, GTO Vipers and Corvettes. That Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series would turn out to be the best among the best in the world of motorsports became evident at the first race at the Rolex 24 itself. The first race ended with the closest finish in the history of Rolex 24 as Team Oreca Dodge Viper battled with Corvette to finally win the race by a margin of 30.878 seconds only.

2000 Rolex 24 At Daytona, the very first race in the year 2000 became the harbinger of the things to happen in the days to come and with involvement of Rolex to the extent that it became the title sponsor of the racing tournament itself the face of motorsports changed forever. As the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series makes its first stop of the 2010 season with the Rolex 24 At Daytona it would the completion and celebration of a very fruitful decade of motor racing which saw Rolex and Grand-Am Racing Association coming together to set new standards in the world of motorsports.

Tags: 2000 Rolex 24 At Daytona, Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series, Rolex 24 at Daytona

This entry was posted on Friday, November 6th, 2009 at 2:16 pm and is filed under Rolex Culture, Rolex Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.