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Mustang Back in Rolex GT for 2011!!
http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/artic...nd-am-rolex-gt
About time!! (Now if only FMC could put a ALMS GT2 Program together! :hmm:) Looking to build on an already impressive history of success with the Ford Mustang, TPN/Blackforest Motorsports will return to GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series competition as the team announced plans to campaign the Ford Mustang GT in the 2011 Rolex Series GT Class championship. The Rolex Series GT Class is widely expected to be the most competitive in series history, and the Ford Mustang GT will make an exciting new addition to the highly diverse category. The entry marks a return to Rolex Sports Car Series competition for TPN/Blackforest Motorsports, which is now solely owned by Tom Nastasi following the retirement of long time team leader Brian Nott in 2009. But the Deland, Florida-based organization will sport some familiar faces heading into 2011, as Brian’s son Christopher has been appointed to manage the program and continue building on the firms history of success. The organization has one of the most enviable records of racing the Ford Mustang in GRAND-AM competition, as the team brought Ford a debut race victory with the Ford Mustang FR500C in Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge competition at Daytona International Speedway in 2005 and then played a critical role in securing the Manufacturer Championship for Ford to close out the year. Blackforest went on to open the 2007 season by taking three wins in a row with the Ford Mustang. Before taking to the high banks of Daytona to kick off the full 2011 campaign in January, the GRAND-AM paddock will first see the Prep 2 machine in action during the Test Days at Virginia International Raceway, an appropriate setting for the debut given that Blackforest scored a season-ending win at the track to secure the 2005 Manufacturer Championship for Ford. With versions of the Ford Mustang racing in everything from the NASCAR Nationwide Series to NHRA competition, the new Ford Mustang GT machine represents a shared philosophy between Ford Racing and TPN/Blackforest Motorsports as the iconic pony car enters a new category of competition. “This project has been a long time in development, and I think that with the new Ford Mustang GT, we are on the same page with Ford Racing in terms of what the best package for the Rolex Series is,” offered Nastasi, who will share the driving duties with long-time Blackforest Motorsports co-driver Ian James. “The GT Class is very competitive, and continues to get even more so with the diversity of cars coming into the series. We are very excited to be back in GRAND-AM with Ford Racing and we think that we are going to have a very competitive package.” |
Woo hoo! A new GT team to root for... OUTTA our way Mazda.
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Good, this will make the Rolex Races even more of a must-watch spectacle for me :)
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Rolex GT cars can have tube frames, carbon fiber replica bodies that must resemble a production car (more or less), big engine setback, and about any suspension you can find from the aftermarket racecar-building shops. There actually may be a rule or two in Rolex GT, but I think they're chiefly safety equipment requirements of the Series, fuel tank capacity, yada yada yada. Unlike NASCAR, I think Rolex GT cars cannot be converted to RWD from FWD. Blackforest Motorsports previously campaigned a Rolex GT "Mustang" that they had built from a tube chassis originally built for a Rolex GT "Lexus" (with a proper tube chassis and a proper all-carbon-fiber just like every production Lexus) but re-skinned with a carbon fiber "Mustang" body.
This kinda stuff sucks, and you know it. Greg "Race the cars the manufacturers build and sell" Ates |
Is this an all-new car, or a re-skin of the old 50 car? Either way, it'll be cool to see a Mustang back in Rolex GT, especially if there's enough funding for a full season.
And Eights, yes they can make a FWD car RWD. Remember the Pontiac GXP-R. |
DanS.02GT: Thanks for that correction on the Rolex GT cars being allowed to convert FWD to RWD! The Xeroxing of NASCAR into the Rolex is thus complete.
The Rolex GT cars are such sham fabrications that I never paid any attention to them--every bit the phony crap NASCAR dishes out as "stock car" racing--and some tube-framed chassis with a carbon fiber "Mustang" replica body is not about to change my opinion of the Rolex GT even if these "Mustangs" win every podium position in every race next season. Putting frosting and sprinkles on a turd doesn't make it a cupcake, huh? The result may be pretty, but it is still a reeking POS, y' know? Greg "I have an extremely low tolerance for bullsh1t" Ates |
Originally Posted by Eights
(Post 5961839)
Greg "Race the cars the manufacturers build and sell" Ates
I'll still watch Rolex, though. I enjoy watching the DP cars and the GT cars. |
More Fords racing (and winning) is good news to me. Wish them well.
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At least the tube-frame Rolex GT cars look like real cars. Something that Nascar can't say. I'm hearing rumors that GA is looking hard at including FIA GT-3 cars in the GT class. Lots of interesting cars running in that series. Not sure if they would run along with the tubers or replace them.
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