Aston Martin Racing will run the 2016 Rolex 24 at Daytona with works team regulars Richie Stanaway (NZ), Mathias Lauda (AT), Pedro Lamy (P) and Paul Dalla Lana. The weekend race on 30-31 January is the season opener for this year’s IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship, arguably North America’s top sports car competition.
The factory Aston Martin team returns to Florida with their V12 Vantage GT3. It looks to become a hard fought, classic Daytona race because testing times of the top 18 GTD runners are separated by a mere 1.62 seconds in practice.
Four Audi R8 LMS GT3 cars will be on the grid for the season opener. Three of the all-new Audi R8 LMS GT3 racecars, driven by the Stevenson and Magnus racing teams, and one previous generation R8 LMS driven by the Flying Lizard Motorsports team, will join the 22-car field for the GT Daytona (GTD) class – which has adopted full FIA GT3 technical regulations in 2016.
BMW works driver Marco Wittmann (DE) makes his first appearance at the 24 Hours of Daytona. The team will field two BMW M6 GT3s in the GTD. Wittmann will share the driving in the number 96 car with BMW works driver Jens Klingmann (DE), Bret Curtis (US) and Ashley Freiberg (US). It is not only Wittmann’s debut at the 24 Hours of Daytona, but his first race in the U.S.
The newly-developed BMW GT racing car will run its first race at Daytona. Turner Motorsport will run the GT3 version in the GTD class, while BMW Team RLL competes with two BMW M6 GTLMs in the faster, high bucks, high stakes GTLM class.
Alongside Aston Martin Racing’s factory entry, the British marque will also be represented by its North American partner, TRG-Aston Martin Racing. The California-based team, who are also running a V12 Vantage GT3 in the GTD class, will be Mexican with drivers Santiago Creel (MX), Antonio Pérez (MX), Ricardo Pérez de Lara (MX), and a token Brit Lars Vilijoen (GB), with support from Mexican driver Sergio Pérez.
Rolex and Gorsline on Snodgrass Award:
Four sports car team owners – Kevin Buckler (Petaluma, Calif.), Chip Ganassi (Pittsburgh, Pa.), Bobby Rahal (Chicago, Ill.) and Bill Riley (Mooresville, N.C.) – have been named as candidates for the 2015 Rolex Bob Snodgrass Award of Excellence, presented by Gorsline Company, based on their team’s success on the track during the 2015 race season.
The award recipient will be chosen by a panel of motor sports professionals and announced on Friday 29 January 2016 during the Grand Marshal dinner at the Rolex 24 At Daytona. The 2015 honoree will be presented with an engraved Rolex Stainless Steel and Platinum Yacht-Master timepiece.
The Rolex Bob Snodgrass Award of Excellence was created to recognize the team owner or team manager who has demonstrated the qualities of integrity, passion for the sport, and love of cars for which Bob Snodgrass was known during his life and career. The award, supported by Gorsline Company, an insurer of high-risk professionals, has been presented previously to Bob Stallings (2010), Joe Sahlen (2011), Peter Baron (2012), John Stevenson (2013) and Alex Job (2014).
Backgrounds on candidates for the 2015 Rolex Bob Snodgrass Award of Excellence follow:
Kevin Buckler, TRG-Aston Martin Racing:
Buckler, is the CEO and owner of Adobe Road Winery and TRG-AMR North America. TRG has run a multi-car effort at Daytona since 1997 and is the only team to ever run a five-car team successfully for eight straight years.
Highlights of the 2015 season include winning pole position at the Rolex 24 At Daytona, second-place finishes at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, the Chevrolet Sports Car Classic, Continental Tire Road Race Showcase and the Oak Tree Grand Prix, and finishing third in the Northeast Grand Prix, to earn second place in the GTD Championships for Driver and Team.
Chip Ganassi, Chip Ganassi Racing:
A veteran of auto racing for more than 30 years as a race-car driver and team owner, Ganassi is a successful and innovative owner in the sport. He currently runs two cars in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, four in the Verizon IndyCar Series, two in the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship, two in the World Endurance Championship and two cars in Global Rally Cross.
During his 26 years of ownership, Ganassi’s teams have won 18 championships including his 11th IndyCar Championship in 2015. In addition, his team took its sixth overall victory in the 2015 Rolex 24 At Daytona.
He manages his teams from race shop facilities in Indianapolis and Concord, N.C., and a corporate office in Pittsburgh, Penn.
Bill Riley, Riley Motorsports:
Bill Riley is President of Riley Technologies and serves as Team Director for the affiliated company, Riley Motorsports, the entrant for the No. 93 Dodge Viper GT3-R that won the 2015 Rolex 24 At Daytona in the GTD class. Riley operates both companies with his father and company founder, Bob Riley, a member of the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America.
Their Daytona Prototype produced Riley’s most successful string of overall Rolex 24 victories, winning the Rolex 24 overall nine straight times from 2005 through 2013 with several different teams racing various generations of the Riley Mk VI, XX and XXII chassis.
The 2015 Rolex 24 produced the latest overall Riley Daytona Prototype win by Chip Ganassi Racing. Along with the Viper team’s GTD victory, the pair of 2015 Rolex 24 victories marked the 29th and 30th wins for Riley-built, -run or -entered race cars and teams in Daytona’s famous day-long race.
He also led the Riley Motorsports Dodge Viper GT3-R team to a class-leading four IMSA GT Daytona (GTD) race wins in 2015 and the Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup (NAEC) GTD Team and Driver Championships.
BOBBY RAHAL, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing:
Robert “Bobby” Woodward Rahal started with the SCCA’s feeder series to Formula Atlantic and then onto European Formula Two. In an 18-year career spanning F1, Can-Am, Le Mans/IMSA and CART, he’s won the 1986 Indy 500, the 1981 24 Hours of Daytona and the 1987 12 Hours of Sebring. Rahal started 264 races for five teams, taking the pole 18 times and scoring 24 wins before retiring after the 1988 season. With Buddy Rice’s win of the 2004 Indy 500, Rahal became one of a handful of individuals to win the Indy 500 as both a driver and a team owner.
As a principal in Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, Rahal has overseen the growth of the team from a one-car program to a multi-car organization. In 2014 the team joined the newly-named United Sports Car Series (USCC) which resulted from the merger of the ALMS and Grand Am Series. The two-car BMW GTLM class effort resulted in six podium finishes including a runner-up finish in the team’s first ever appearance in the Rolex 24 at Daytona and a third place podium finish in the 12 Hours of Sebring. In 2015, the team earned three wins, two poles and a total of eight podiums and finished second in the Manufacturer, Team and Driver Championships.
About Bob Snodgrass: Snodgrass, who died in 2007 at the age of 64, was president of Brumos Racing and president and CEO of the Brumos auto dealerships in Jacksonville, Fla., where he lived for 35 years. As a team owner he had three Daytona wins (Brumos Racing has eight) and a total of 10 wins at Daytona. He was a driving force behind the formation of the Grand American Road Racing Association and the Daytona Prototype class. Born in Elmira, N.Y., he saw his first race at Watkins Glen, N.Y. Known for his humor, wit and as an accomplished vintage car racer, Snodgrass (along with Peter Gregg, who owned Brumos Porsche from 1965 until his death in 1980) was instrumental in Brumos’ entry into motor sports.
About Rolex: A prominent member of the Swiss watch industry, its Oyster watches, all certified as chronometers for their precision, are symbols of performance. Pioneer in the development of the wristwatch in 1905, the brand is at the origin of numerous major innovations, including the first waterproof wristwatch in 1926, and the self-winding mechanism introduced in 1931. Rolex has registered more than 400 patents in the course of its history.
About Gorsline Company: It, arguably, pioneered the business of providing insurance for high-risk professionals. The company specializes in providing racing drivers and owners insurance packages and estate planning strategies.