By Gary Rosier
The 2021 IMSA Weather Tech SportsCar Championship season kicked off yesterday (Friday Jan 22) with the first day of testing in what has previously been called The ROAR. Normally this takes place in early January (3rd, 4th, 5th) but because of the pandemic IMSA scheduled it just a week before the ROLEX 24 at Daytona International Speedway here in Daytona the end of the month.
I have been a fan of this series now for the last 5 years since retiring - after all it takes place in my backyard as I'm 3 miles from the track, so hear them roar all day and night. It's not a problem when you're such a fan, and why not - who doesn't love the sound of 600 hp engines, the track itself, colorful cars and racing toe to toe - even swapping paint or an occasional spinout on one of the horseshoes!
The track by the way is a 12 turn, 3.56 mile DIS (Daytona International Speedway) road course at the World's most Famous track - Daytona!
While the pandemic has put a damper on things certainly, the teams have showed up, unloaded all their gear and cars from the trailers and the buzz once again has everyone after the same thing - speed and a place in the lineup for the ROLEX 24 this next weekend. (Speed they got too as the fastest lap yesterday was turned in by the No. 48 Action Express Racing Ally Cadillac, 1 minute, 35.312 seconds or 134 plus mph!)
Stay tuned - lots of racing action still to be had! Here are some Day One practice photo's I've taken. Hope you'll enjoy them- and maybe if you close your eye's - you can just hear them ROAR!