Put your ear to the breeze and open a window. Can you hear that? didn’t believe so. It’s quite quiet, isn’t it? Avoid becoming used to it. The roar that has made our area familiar with the automobile and its capacity to push the boundaries of motorized speed will start to pierce the local air this coming weekend.
A WHITE ROLEX? Will there be snow at Daytona International Speedway for the Rolex 24 test? It has previously occurred. In actuality, the engines start up first at the annual Chili Bowl Nationals, which takes place in Tulsa from Monday through Saturday. This event attracts a wide range of racing skill and large crowds due to the spectacle of midget-car racing. After that, all eyes will be on Daytona and two nearby circuits that put up lengthy performances of their own around this time of year for fans of short-track and dirt racing.
January 17–19: Experiments, experiments… The Rolex is on its way.
Daytona Beach is also home to IMSA, which, like its big brother NASCAR, starts each season with a home game. But not before a thorough shakedown.
Formally called the Roar Before the Rolex 24, the three-day test session will take place at Daytona International Speedway from Friday through Sunday. Grand Touring Prototypes (GTP), the slightly slower Le Mans Prototype 2, and Grand Touring Daytona (GTD), which is actually divided into two classes within the class (GTD and GTD Pro), are the three classes of Rolex 24 sports cars that are included in this collection. As a throwback to the past, Sunday’s official qualifying session to set the field for the Rolex 24 the following weekend will no longer be part of the test weekend. Rolex weekend qualifying has been moved back to Thursday. In relation to…
January 22–26: The Rolex 24 and more IMSA’s “big-league” circuit, the WeatherTech Championship series, attracts the most attention, but there are two other IMSA properties that take place during the long weekend: the Michelin Pilot Challenge series (think NASCAR’s Xfinity Series), which starts the season with a four-hour Friday race, and the sporty-and-spec Mazda MX-5, which races twice over the weekend. Naturally, from 1:40 Saturday afternoon to 1:40 Sunday, the 63rd edition of the twice-around-the-clock endurance classic will take place.
February 1-2: A throwback to NASCAR at Bowman Gray
Although it’s not local, it’s a major NASCAR event, and since NASCAR is local, hence The preseason Clash, which has been hosted in the Los Angeles Coliseum for the last three years, is taking a decidedly retro approach this year by traveling to Winston-Salem, North Carolina’s historic Bowman Gray Stadium. Short-track modifications, which are a common sight at Bowman Gray, will be featured on Saturday night. On Sunday night, the more recognizable cars and NASCAR stars will take on the quarter-mile oval.
February 12–16: The Daytona 500 and Daytona NASCAR Speedweek Using the gearsWhy Kyle Larson desires a bright Indianapolis. The court case continues to move forward. This is your schedule for the World Center of Racing’s leaner season-opening week for NASCAR: Wednesday: To secure the front row for the Daytona 500, pole qualifying is required. Thursday: Two 150-mile qualifications will determine the Daytona 500 field and send some teams home if over 40 cars show up. Friday: The start of the Truck Series. ARCA and Xfinity will play a doubleheader on Saturday. The Great American Race will run for the 67th time on Sunday.
Remember the local short-track activity in the meanwhile. As you may or may not be aware, many of the major racing enthusiasts who visit this region in January and/or February never set foot on the Daytona International Speedway grounds. Rather, they take refuge in two places called Samsula and Barberville, where the party never ends and the road never ends, as the song puts it. Or so it appears. Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville, which bills itself as the World’s Fastest Half Mile, will have plenty of opportunities to prove it from January 22 to February 15. Dirt-track vehicles of all shapes and speeds will compete over the course of a few weeks, and several familiar NASCAR vehicles will likely be seen strap in at some point along the way.
Late-models, sprint cars, modifieds and the famed World of Outlaws will take turns slinging dirt and chasing trophies.
Feb. 7-15: The World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing began in the late ’60s at New Smyrna Speedway, a (nearly) half-mile track with corners banked at 23 degrees.
Modifieds and late-models dominate the nine nights of action.
