2011 News
Dalziel Back to Defend Daytona 24 Crown
- 07 January 2011
It was announced today that both Dalziel and Forrest will reunite behind the wheel of the #8 Miracle Grout Shield Ford-Riley Daytona Prototype to tackle North America’s premier sports car endurance event at the end of the month at Daytona Beach.
The Starworks Motorsport duo will be joined at Daytona by Tomas Enge, the Czech driver bringing F1, sports car and GT experience to the line-up, with Americans Colin Braun and Jim Lowe, with NASCAR and GT credentials respectively, completing the five-driver roster for the 24 hour race.
“I’m obviously really excited to be heading back to Daytona,” stated Dalziel ahead of the ‘Roar by the Shore’ test days this weekend. “I can’t believe it’s almost been a year since I won the race with Terry (Borcheller), Joao (Barbosa) and Mike (Rockenfeller). I’m happy that I’m getting the chance to go for another win with what I consider to be a very strong driver line-up for the #8 Starworks Motorsport entry. I know these guys and I’m particularly happy to be working with Tomas (Enge) again as last time we raced together we were pretty successful.
“Peter Baron’s done a great job of keeping the whole team employed throughout the off-season which is important as we’ve kept all the key people together and not everyone can do that. We’ve been working hard testing to make sure we’re as prepared as we can be for this race. Switching to the Ford engine definitely gives our program a boost and I’m confident we’ll have a good Daytona and a good season following that.”
Dalziel concluded, “I personally like our low-key, under-dog status, we’re not one of the ‘big name’ teams but it’s definitely cool to be in an event like this and hang out in the briefing room with the likes of Jimmy Johnson, Juan Pablo Montoya and Dario Franchitti as well as the best sports car racers in the world.”
The ‘Rolex 24 at Daytona’, the opening round of the 2011 Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series, starts at 3pm EST on Saturday 29th January with 24 hours of flat-out endurance racing following on the 3.56-mile road-course layout at Daytona International Speedway.
The race will be broadcast throughout North America live in parts by SPEED – www.speedtv.com
For info on the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series log on to: www.grand-am.com