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Rolex 24: Goodyear fast facts for Daytona

2 February 2000

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

GOODYEAR FAST FACTS FOR THE ROLEX 24 HOURS DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY 3.56-MILE ROAD COURSE DAYTONA BEACH, FLA., FEB. 5-6, 1999

NOTES AND QUOTES:

Goodyear opens its 2000 racing season at the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona, North Americas premier round-the-clock sports car race. The course, utilizing the 31-degree NASCAR high banks and a fast and tight infield section, features four classes of racing machinery competing together for the entire 24 hours. At press time, 89 cars were entered for the first major sports car competition of the new millennium.

The Rolex 24 is the first race for the new Grand American Road Racing Association. The series was known as the United States Road Racing Championship and Can-Am in previous years.

Goodyear will bring nearly 3,000 tires, including rain tires, to Daytona for the Rolex 24 Hours. That is approximately 1,000 tires more than Goodyear takes to a typical Winston Cup weekend. The tires will come in 13 sizes to fit the wide variety of racing machinery.

Goodyear will be represented in all four classes: Sports Racer for two-seat open-cockpit chassis from Reynard, Ferrari, Riley & Scott, Kudzu and Cadillac and a trio of Grand Touring (GT) categories for production-based cars GTO (Grand Touring Over), GTU (Grand Touring Under) and the V8-powered AGT (American GT) class. Cars are placed in the various GT categories based on a sliding scale of horsepower versus weight.

In the Sports Racer class, Goodyear Eagles are the tires of choice for defending Daytona winner Dyson Racing and the driving team of 1999 USRRC champion Elliot Forbes-Robinson, Rob Dyson, James Weaver and Max Papis. The team tested its new Reynard chassis at Daytona but has opted to race the proven Riley & Scott chassis that won the 1999 race.

The Goodyear-shod GM Goodwrench Chevrolet Corvettes from Pratt & Miller competing in the GTO class posted the fastest class times in recent testing. The team will field two cars at Daytona, one for Justin Bell, Ron Fellows and Chris Kneifel; the second for Kelly Collins, Franck Freon and Andy Pilgrim.

After extensive testing in 1999, the Goodyear Eagles on the Corvettes for 2000 will include new compounds and constructions, along with the famous yellow lettering seen on Eagles competing in NASCAR racing.

RECOMMENDED COLD PRESSURE:
Left front and rear 28 psi
Right front and rear 30 psi

ESTIMATED PIT STOPS: Approximately every 28 laps for Sports Racer, 26 laps for GTO, based on fuel capacity. Race length is 24 hours; starting at 1 p.m. Saturday.

Text Provided by Goodyear

Editors Note: To view hundreds of hot racing photos and art, visit The Racing Photo Museum and the Visions of Speed Art Gallery.