Team Sahlen bumped Michael Shank Racing off the top of the time sheet, during day two of the final pre-season test before the 24 Hours of Daytona, at Daytona International Speedway.
Team Sahlen may be new to Daytona Prototype, but not to Grand-Am racing: the team has been around the series for over a decade. Saturday, it put its experience to good use, driver Dane Cameron lapping faster time than Michael Shank Racing's Michel Valiante
Cameron, in the No. 42 BMW/Riley, clocked a 1min42.101s, and Valiante, in the No. 6 Ford/Riley, a 1min42.160s.
Patrick Long topped the sheet in GT, thanks to the 1min48.569s he bagged aboard his No. 73 Park Place Motorsports Porsche GT3.
Napleton Racing was again the quickest team in the new GX class. Shane Lewis logged a 1min56.167s in the same No. 16 Porsche Cayman co-driver David Donohue drove yesterday.
Jan Kopecky (Skoda Fabia S2000) got the best of Bryan Bouffier (Peugeot 207 S2000) at the European Rally Championship (ERC) season-opening Jännerrally, in Austria.
Kopecky had to overcome a puncture, in the earlier stages of the rally, to eventually beat Frenchman Bouffier.
Photo: Best-of-rallylive.com
Nevertheless, in the end, he came through... by only half a second, it must be said.
The tough winter conditions offered a perfect setting to Kopecky's heroic run through the field.
Raimund Baumschlager (Skoda Fabia S2000), the 53-year-old 10-time Austrian rally champion, completed the podium.
The BBC captured these images of Ferrari F1 drivers Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa trying out the world's fastest roller-coaster.
The day was November 11, 2010, three days before the Formula One season finale at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Fernando Alonso, who at the time was still in the running for the drivers' title, and Felipe Massa embark on the Formula Rossa, the world's fastest roller-coaster.
The Formula Rossa is part of the Ferrari World amusement park, in Abu Dhabi.
It reaches its top speed of 240 km/h from a standing start in just 4.9s.
It generates up to 4.8 Gs.
Its sharpest turn has an angle of just 70 degrees.
'Push-to-pass' and hybrid systems are just two of the technical innovations that could be introduced in 2014, when a new wave of regulations hits the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC).
"After 11 years under the same set of rules a face-lift was needed," admits WTCC promoter Marcello Lotti on the series official website.
The "face-lift" Lotti is referring to is aimed at luring new manufacturers to the championship.
Photo: WTCC.com
Citroën is already queuing to jump aboard in 2014, with the help of nine-time WRC champion Sébastien Loeb. Renault is reportedly also in line.
The said face-lift would not only include the 'push-to-pass' technology (a system such as the ones seen in Champ Car and IndyCar racing), and a common hybrid system.
Lotti also promises "an increase of power and sound, a reduction a weight, bigger wheels and more aggressive look", as well as more freedom in homologating suspensions, to avoid technical waivers.
BMW, VW and Mercedes are all likely to post record sales for 2012 even as demand for cars in Europe has tumbled. Deutsche Telekom is partly to thank for that.
GM is sticking with its decision to introduce a new, more environmentally safe refrigerant in its vehicles despite claims by Daimler that it may cause fires in an accident.
BMW, VW and Mercedes are all likely to post record sales for 2012 even as demand for cars in Europe has tumbled. Deutsche Telekom is partly to thank for that.
AJ Allmendinger and Andy Lally, who won the 2012 24 Hours of Daytona in Daytona Prototype and GT respectively, topped the first day of action at the 2013 Roar Before the Rolex 24 testing, yesterday at the Daytona International Speedway.
Photo: Brian Cleary via Facebook.com/Grandamroadracing
AJ Allmendinger, returning to the wheel of his No. 60 Michael Shank Racing Ford/Riley turned a lap of 1min42.918s, edging ahead of the two BMW-powered Ganassi entries.
Lally, back in the cockpit of Magnus Racing's No. 44 Porsche 911 GT3 clocked a 1min49.322s, which Alex Job Racing's Marco Holzer just couldn't match.
Photo: Brian Cleary via Facebook.com/Grandamroadracing
David Donohue, in Napleton Racing's No. 16 Porsche Cayman, topped the new GX class with a 1min57.466s.
All three drivers set their best lap in the afternoon, when the damp track was starting to come around.
Photo: Brian Cleary via Facebook.com/Grandamroadracing
Teams are still testing today, and tomorrow as well.
American Le Mans Series and Grand-Am Road Racing officials have announced the class structure they will use for the 2014 and 2015 seasons, when the two series are set to merge.
The first step in merging the two championships was to delete the P1 class, the fastest prototype category of the ALMS.
Organizers then proceeded by mixing together the ALMS' P2 class and Grand-Am's Daytona Prototype category. This class will also feature the revolutionary DeltaWing car.
Prototype Challenge (PC) competitors will keep racing separately, as they are right now in the ALMS.
As far as the GT cars where concerned, it was decided to let classes from each series continue racing separately among the field.
That being said, the ALMS' GT Challenge class (GTC) could blend with Grand-Am's half of the GT runners, or form a class of its own.
The GX class, debuting this year in Grand-Am, is facing the same situation; it could race on its own in 2014, or fuse with Grand-Am's half of the GT cars.
Starting today, AIR MILES card holders in Canada will receive reward miles when purchasing or leasing a vehicle at any Chevrolet, Buick, GMC or Cadillac dealership.
''Our customers are our number one priority and this partnership with AIR MILES will provide even more value with the purchase or lease of a new Chevrolet, Buick, GMC or Cadillac vehicle,'' said Marc Comeau, vice-president of sales, service and marketing at General Motors of Canada.
All Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac dealerships across Canada are participating in the AIR MILES partnership.
Three-time F1 world champion Niki Lauda has walked away from his managerial role at Air Berlin to focus on his new job at Mercedes GP.
Lauda, a 63-year-old Austrian, had been mixing work in motorsport and aerial transportation for a while now. On top of winning three world championships as a driver, he also headed at different point in time his own airline companies, and Jaguar's F1 team.
Most recently, Lauda became involved in Mercedes' Formula One effort, already making an impact on the team by helping recruiting Lewis Hamilton from McLaren.
Lauda reportedly left Air Berlin to focus on helping Ross Brawn and the whole of the Mercedes F1 team, who lost in December the input of Norbert Haug, get to the top.
"The Board thanks Niki Lauda for his commited, stimulating work for the benefit of the company," said Air Berlin's chairman Dr Hans-Joachim Koerber, as quoted by Autosport.com.
Ferrari has lend two of its factory drivers to AIM Autosport for the 51st running of the 24 Hours of Daytona, Giancarlo Fisichella and Toni Vilander.
The Italian and the Finn will partner Jeff Segal and Max Papis aboard AIM Autosport's second entry, the No. 61 Ferrari F458, backed by Remo Ferri, the same man who owns the Ferrari of Ontario, Ferrari of Toronto and Ferrari of Alberta dealerships.
"I'm looking forward to the Daytona Rolex 24 this year," said Ferri. "I feel we have the best chance to win it."
As it happens, AIM Autosport Team FXDD won the Grand-Am GT championship in 2012, with Jeff Segal and Emil Assentato. The addition of Fisichella and Vilander to the mix will certainly not hurt their chances.
Fisichella is well remembered for his former GP career, which lasted 223 races, of which he won three.
Vilander too is known for his quick hands. He never made it to F1, but still, his resume includes a class victory at the 2012 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Sauber has announced it would launched its 2013 car, the Ferrari-powered C32, on February 2, at its Hinwil factory, in Switzerland.
The team's two new drivers, Nico Hülkenberg and Esteban Gutiérrez will be on hand when the car they will race next year is unveiled, two days before the start of pre-season testing, in Jerez, Spain.
In 2012, with Sergio Pérez and Kamui Kobayashi, Sauber finished sixth in the constructors' championship, scoring 126 points.
McLaren and Force India are the only two other teams to have announced when they would launch their new cars.
The 2013 McLaren contender will make its first public appearance on January 31st, whereas the 2013 Force India will be launched the day after, on February 1st.
In another sign of Coda Automotive's financial woes, the assembler of Chinese-made electric vehicles furloughed employees Friday, its second round of cost-cutting in the last month.
Happy New Year from all of us here at Autoweek -- we sincerely hope you enjoyed your year-end celebrations and had plenty of time to recuperate. Here's what you may have missed as you rang in 2013.
Ford has sold 239 acres at a former assembly plant in suburban Detroit to Trident Barrow Management, a unit of Barrow Development of New York. The sprawling plant located northwest of Detroit in Wixom, Mich., opened in 1957 and closed in 2007.
Dealers trying to block Tesla Motors Inc.'s retail stores in Massachusetts lost another round this week when a judge dismissed their lawsuit against the electric vehicle maker.
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