The off-season is over; it is now time to race.
The Rolex 24 at Daytona, which many consider to be the toughest 24-hour race on the planet, is about to take place.
The field is set, the BoP has been finalized and in the next 24 hours many of the questions about the 2016 IMSA season will be answered.
Will Ford make a triumphant return to GT racing with a win at Daytona?
Will Ganassi once again take the overall victory for Ford with their prototype?
Will the Deltawing, which was fastest in the last practice session, compete for the whole race and possibly win or take a podium? Will its new gearbox be the answer they were looking for?
Will a young driver (Kenton Koch) who we have followed closely over his career enjoy victory in his first Rolex 24?
The rains that plagued Daytona earlier in the week have gone away. The weather is picture perfect, the crowds are huge and the anticipation is great.
Regardless of who eventually wins the Rolex 24, the next 24 hours will be filled with drama, excitement, agony and ecstasy. Such is racing, such is the Rolex 24.
Favorites will fall by the wayside; dark horses will rise to the occasion. Drivers will engage in epic battles on the track, just as crews will wage epic battles in the pits to keep their cars in the race.
They call it endurance racing for a reason. It is tough, very tough, to survive 24 hours of flat out racing, let alone win. But in about 24 hours, we will know who survived, and who won. For some, just finishing will be a victory. For others, anything but winning will be a failure. That is racing, that is competition, that is the Rolex 24 at Daytona.
To all the teams and drivers who have worked so hard to get to this point, we say congratulations – you have made the grade. You are going to race in the toughest 24-hour race on the planet. Once the clock makes a couple of more laps around the dial, we will know who won each class, or who lost. We will know who made mistakes and who overcame adversity. We will know who was lucky and who wasn’t.
It’s time to race.
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