T
he Rolex Sports Car Series provided another scintillating year of action in 2013, with large grids and close racing once more a hallmark of the series. The series opened in traditional style, as Telmex-Ganassi Racing won the Rolex 24 at Daytona. GrandAm’s traditional curtain-raiser had been Ganassi-land for some years and 2013 was no different – these guys really do have a handle on this race like few others. It was their fifth in 10 years, and the fifth too for driver Scott Pruett. He was joined in the car by long-time partner, Mexican Memo Rojas, debutant Charlie Kimball and F1, Indy and NASCAR star Juan Pablo Montoya. In GT, Audi took their first victory at the 24 as Alex Job Racing scored the win with an R8 GrandAm packed with factory drivers. Olly Jarvis, Filipe Albuquerque, Edoardo Mortara and Dion von Moltke shared the wheel and drove near-flawlessly to victory – by the very slightest of margins from APR’s similar car. Frank Stippler, René Rast, Ian Baas and Marc Basseng were second. The new GX class attracted few entries, and Mazda’s diesels crumbled very early, leaving the race comfortable for the Napleton Porsche Cayman. Jim Norman, David Donohue, Nelson Canache and Shane Lewis took the first-ever GX win. After the opening festivities came the “regular” races, beginning with Texas’ COTA. Alex Gurney and Jon Fogarty, in the GAINSCO Corvette DP, just edged the Starworks entry of Ryan Dalziel and Alex Popow. After a disastrous Daytona, Turner turned it around
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