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The 50th anniversary of the Rolex 24 at Daytona took place from January 26th to 29th, 2012 at Daytona International Speedway, located in Daytona Beach, Florida. Daytona International Speedway, along with Indianapolis, is known as the Home of American motorsport. The 3.56-mile track includes a high-speed oval section and a twisty infield. The oval features steep banking that reaches a maximum of 31 degrees. The circuit’s other famous race, NASCAR’s Daytona 500, uses the oval section exclusively.
Well-known as an ultra high-speed event, the Daytona 24 Hours started in 1962 as the Daytona 3-hour race. 1970 was the year the IMSA series began, and in recent years, the Daytona 24 has been the season-opening event on the Grand Am road racing calendar.
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Mazda launched its rotary engine in the Daytona 24-hour race in order to improve awareness of its sports performance in the U.S. market, and has since gone on to score hundreds of good results in the race. In 1975, a Mazda RX-3 equipped with the 12A rotary engine, won the GTU class. From that point on, Knight Sports and Mazda Auto Tokyo took up the challenge of Daytona. Mazda’s corporate headquarters in Hiroshima chose the 1979 Daytona 24-hours as the place to introduce their brand new RX-7 to racing.
The company sent three Mazda factory race drivers, Yoshimi Katayama, Yojiro Terada, and Takashi Yorino to Daytona, the trio winning on their debut. Furthermore, the Mazda RX-7 went on to win eleven times in a row in the GTU class from 1982.
Since 2006, 3-rotor-engined Mazda RX-8 GTs have been entered at Daytona, with the SpeedSource Mazda RX-8 GT winning its class in 2008 and 2010.
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In 2012, a total of seven Mazda RX-8 GTs were entered in the race, aiming for a 24th class win for Mazda. The RX-8 GT racecar developer SpeedSource, headquartered in Coral Springs, FL, headed the RX-8 entries. Actor racer Patrick Dempsey led Dempsey Racing with a pair of Mazda RX-8s, while Team Sahlen had three examples on track. One of the most famous families in all of motorsport, the Andretti family’s John Andretti and his son enter were in another RX-8 GT.
The official practice session took place on Thursday morning, with qualifying in the afternoon. Teams set up their cars in practice, fixing their places on the starting grid in qualifying. However, the starting grid is not that important in this event as the race distance is so long.
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The weather during the Daytona 24-hour race week was warm, standing between 20 and 25 degrees Celsius during qualifying on Thursday.
The weather forecast for Friday, when the two official practice sessions were scheduled, had rain from the morning due to a front passing through the region, though the weekend was warm and sunny. For this reason, Thursday’s practice sessions became very important. Teams had to set up their cars well enough the race on Thursday. Every team participated in the Roar Before The Rolex 24, the three official practice days in January. Most of the cars had therefore already reached a basic set-up on components such as suspension, aerodynamics and so on.
However, set-up adjustments, such as tyres and fuel strategies related to ambient and track surface temperatures, had to be made in practice just before the race, Those factors affected when pit stops would be made time during the race.
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The Daytona 24 Hours started at 15:30 on Saturday, January 28th. Spectators were able to get close to the drivers and teams during the autograph session and Pit Walk that took place before the start. The U.S. impresses with the importance it places on fans’ enjoyment, and all the teams and drivers give their time to those attending the race, letting enthusiasts take picture after picture with their heroes, never showing any displeasure despite being top drivers.
On the starting grid, just before the race start, all the crew members from every team crew lined up beside their racecar, putting their right hands on their chests while listening to the soloist singing the national anthem, The Star Spangled Banner. After that, the drivers fired up their engines to the command, “Start your engines,” announced on this occasion by Scottish F1 legend Sir Jackie Stewart.
After two laps behind the Safety Car, the green flag was waved from the ROLEX tower, signaling the start of the race. The event got off to a very clean start, with no incidents at the infamous 1st turn.
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However, inside the SpeedSource pit, each member of the crew beamed, praising the hard work of their teammates with hugs, never showing any signs of disappointment or frustration.
John Doonan, Director of Motorsports at Mazda North American Operations, commented: “SpeedSource raced perfectly. Completing 722 laps was 15 more than when the car won in 2010 with 707 in the books. The drivers had no mistakes, no accidents, and no trouble. They also managed the tyres and kept the fuel strategy on schedule. It is almost a miracle that the #70 had no contact with any of its rivals. The RX-8 came back in almost exactly the same shape it went out in 24 hours before.”
All members of the team finished their jobs perfectly, bringing them a feeling of true accomplishment, one that’s even better than victory.
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Two DP-class cars fought side-by-side on the final lap. The spectators, totaling the highest number in the event's history, gazed at the thrilling spectacle. As a result, Porsche GT3 entries dominated the podium in this year's race. With this result, the balance of performance regulations in the GT class will possibly be revised.
We will never forget the pure smiles on the crew members' faces after the checkered flag fell. While they may have been defeated and lost the race, they all did a perfect job - and so can be proud of their mammoth achievement.
#70 SpeedSource RX-8
722 laps or 2570 miles
18,772 gear changes
10,140,000 engine revolutions
34 pit stops for 578 gallons of fuel and 104 new tyres
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