Modern.
Elegant.
And, effectively, fairly.
These aren’t phrases your typical NASCAR fan tends to make use of so much when describing race automobiles. Nor does one count on to listen to NASCAR followers conversing quietly amongst themselves in Spanish, French, Japanese, Italian.
Extra:Rolex 24 At Daytona: It’s time to race! Need to know fast facts for Saturday, Jan. 30.
However this weekend’s working of the Rolex 24 is totally different. Not so totally different as to be unrecognizable — at its coronary heart, racing all the time boils all the way down to a mixture of daring drivers and expertise pushed to its limits, hurtling round a monitor at superhuman pace. And when Daytona Worldwide Speedway begins one of many world’s premiere endurance races this afternoon, a number of the automobiles will look (principally) like precise automobiles. However the sphere of 49 is break up into 5 courses, and people within the “prototype” teams extra carefully resemble alien transport from a science-fiction film. The Speedway’s 2.5-mile tri-oval can be reworked right into a twisty, 3.56-mile street course.
Even racing veterans like Chase Elliott are a bit exterior their consolation zone. He can be driving his first Rolex 24 with a staff that features IMSA Sportscar Champion Felipe Nasr of Brazil.
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“I’ve by no means even pushed certainly one of these items, so it’s going to be a steep studying curve for me,” Elliott instructed NBC Sports activities, talking of the Cadillac DPi he’ll be driving. “I’ve accepted that. I’m wanting ahead to the problem for positive and simply making an attempt to not mess it up too unhealthy for my teammates.”
Daytona Seashore confronted a steep studying curve with the Rolex, as effectively. However native followers have realized to adore it. It attracts a special crowd — extra worldwide and, to be sincere, extra prosperous. On the identical time, there can be acquainted faces, together with Jimmie Johnson driving his first post-NASCAR race and Austin Dillon making his Rolex debut.
The mix of racing cultures and types makes the Rolex a race like no different, and one which has drawn larger crowds yearly.
After all, that received’t be the case this yr. Speedway officers are limiting the group dimension and incorporating all the protection measures they’ve used with shorter races. However they’re additionally prefacing the Rolex with different attention-grabbing races, in a method that would some day develop into one other Pace Weeks occasion. As soon as the coronavirus pandemic is behind us, we count on this race to proceed its fanbase-building development.
Even in a yr hobbled by COVID-19, then, the Rolex 24 is one thing to have a good time, a stunning mix of pace, hazard, endurance — and sure, magnificence — that solely will get higher yearly.
