Rolex 24 Hour Update..1

Daytona Beach, Saturday Morning

The Crawford team are ready to go racing.  Hopefully twenty-four hours ahead and the Crawford SSC2K is about to be wheeled out on to the grid to start in third place. Lead driver Jan Lammers will take the start and the Crawford team plan is to set a conservative pace in the early stages.

After the hot weather of qualifying and practice , a cold front has blown in and the race will start under cold grey skies.

The Crawford team has decided to single stint the drivers until later in the race. Lammers is expected to make his first pit stop around 54 mins into the race when he will hand over to Johnny Mowlem. Tony Stewart will drive the car third.

Winston Cup star Stewart will, of course be racing a sports car for the first time. Its all very different to his opening race of 2002. Making a guest appearance in a Midget car, he won the Chile Bowl, one of the biggest events on the Midget race calendar two weeks ago. Again it underlines Stewart’s status as one of motor sport’s greatest all rounders.

Mowlem also makes his first Prototype start, graduating from a highly successful career in GT racing with Porsches. Nevertheless he surprised onlookers yesterday when he posted the fastest time in the final practice session.

Regular bulletins will be posted on this site throughout the race