Daytona Beach, FL: As Round Nine of the 2010 season brings the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16 to New Jersey Motorsports Park, Spirit of Daytona shifts their focus from the well-known territory of their home track at Daytona to a newer and much less familiar course. While the Rolex Series nears the end of what has been the busiest stretch of this season, the Spirit of Daytona team has been hard at work preparing for what could be one of the more challenging tracks they will visit this season.
2010 has been a year of firsts for the entire Spirit of Daytona team, and for Buddy Rice and Antonio Garcia, it has been particularly meaningful. Now in the midst of his first season as a fulltime Rolex Series driver, Buddy Rice has made his competition debut in several tracks visited by the series this year. New Jersey Motorsports Park is next on that list as Rice gets his first look at Thunderbolt Raceway this weekend.
Antonio Garcia, then competing with Cheever Racing, joined the rest of the Rolex Series for the inaugural competition at New Jersey in 2008. No one was sure exactly what to expect, but it proved to be a weekend few will forget. The rate of attrition was high, and Garcia was one of the earliest victims. An incident with a GT car sent him spinning in the opening lap in a race he remembers only too well. “I can say that I have raced at New Jersey before, but unfortunately, I only was able to run one lap,” he said. The damage sustained in that incident was severe and forced the car to retire. Garcia didn’t consider the weekend a total loss, however, going on to add, “Although that was the end of the race that day for us, I was still able to get some experience with the track from running in the pre-race practice sessions.”
The Spirit of Daytona team competed in both New Jersey events, at that time still campaigning their #09 Coyote. Guy Cosmo drove in each of those races, joined in 2008 by Marc-Antoine Camirand and in 2009 by Scott Russell. Both years saw the Spirit of Daytona #09 end the race with an 11th place finish. But much has changed since that opening round for the Spirit of Daytona team and for the track.
The staff at NJMP has made numerous upgrades to make their course safer for drivers as well as more enjoyable for fans. Heading into this third year of Rolex Series competition, the learning curve for the series and its teams continues. Although this will mark the first NJMP competition for the new #90 Spirit of Daytona Porsche V-8 Coyote, it is apparent that the team thrives on new challenges. Enjoying one of their strongest seasons in recent years, they are now just six points shy of a coveted top five spot in Rolex Series team championship standings. Having already earned their first DP podium this season, Spirit of Daytona is definitely ready to take the next step - scoring their first DP win.
The New Jersey Motorsports Park 250 presented by Crown Royal will take place on Sunday, July 18th, on NJMP Thunderbolt Raceway in Millville, NJ. The race is set to begin at 1:00 PM ET with live coverage on SPEED TV.
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