Porsche Club Wash & Shine and Festivals of Speed Gallery

A quick post for all to enjoy, here's some pictures of the fabulous sights in downtown St. Petersburg, FL on Sunday, March 8th.  First we start with the Porsche Club of America's Wash & Shine Car show at Spa Beach Park in beautiful St. Petersburg. The setting could not have been more beautiful.   Paradise!

                                Special Thanks To Bert Smith Porsche For Sponsoring This Benefit
                                                            For All Children's Hospital

 

 

And across the way in Vinoy Park, the prestigious Festivals of Speed.  Here is the eye popping Porsche 919 that will compete at LeMans. This is only the second appearance of this car in the US and that's why I wanted to photograph every angle of Porsche's most talked about race car in decades.

 

The Porsche 919

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank You Bert Smith Porsche For Your Participation

 

Get Ready For Sebring!

March is here and the iconic 12 Hours of Sebring is just two weeks away.  Sebring holds many fond memories for fans across the spectrum, including former President Jimmy Carter.  If you have not been to Sebring you should add it to your bucket list.   Here's a taste of what I'm talking about:

Former President Jimmy Carter on Sebring:

Jimmy Carter Talks About Sebring

                                                             GET READY TO RACE

Daytona Rising- Race Is About to Begin!

The story of Daytona includes a lot more than racing. It is a symbol of American strength and engineering.  From the cars on the track that serve as R&D for the car manufacturers to the track and its facilities, Daytona is symbolic of what America stands for.  Less than a month ago I was there photographing some of the best sports cars from manufacturers around the world for the Rolex 24 Hours and at the end of 24 hours of racing, the three American manufacturers stood at the top of the heap.  Manufacturers that a lot of us grew up with- Chevrolet, Ford and Dodge shone brightly on the winner's podium.

The big story is the new Daytona Rising- like one of the seven wonders of the world, the grandstand is almost a mile long, high enough to see the Atlantic Ocean, contains about 1% of all the steel produced in the US last year and the design takes into account the curvature of the earth- about 7 inches from end to end! 


Click Here to See Live Webcam



Next-  I'll take you behind the scenes ( View of more than the race track) from my visit last month. From dawn to dusk, this is a beautiful arena.  Like the Colosseum was to the Romans, Daytona International Speedway is an American monument.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hope you enjoyed the pictures!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gallery of Winners- Daytona

The start of the 2015 sports car racing season at Daytona January 23- 25 did not disappoint. Here's a summary of the winners of the 53rd Rolex 24 and the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge.    If you want to watch the 24 Hour race, I have attached a link to the IMSA website where you can hear the sounds and see all the action!
Replay- 24 Hours of Daytona


And The Winners Are:

Rolex 24 Hour


                                                                    Prototype Class


Ford EcoBoost



 

GTD Class

#93 Dodge Viper SRT GT- 3R


Prototype Challenge Class

Core Autosport  #54 ORCA

 GTLM Class

#3 Corvette C7.R



And for the Continental tire Sports Car Challenge:



Grandsport Class

#13 Rum Bum Porsche

And Street Tuner Class

#17 RSI Porsche

More stories from the 24 Rolex 24 Hour Rolex weekend to come including  the complete story of the 60th Anniversary Porsche Club Coupe at the Porsche Corral!


BONUS PHOTO, VIDEO & STORY:

Seen at the Rolex 24 Hour in the Porsche Corral

Click Below To See More!

See The Reaction to the GTS Club Coupe
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Daytona Rolex 24 Hour - Ford Wins! Shades of Big Things To Come?

Ford vs Chevy in another classic battle in the Tudor United Sports Car Championship. This time Ford and Chip Ganassi w/ Felix Sabates team beat the ever popular #10 Konica Minolta Corvette of Wayne Taylor Racing.

There is so much to cover, I will be doing so over the next few posts as I sort through my hundreds of photos that document the year's first race and an outstanding 3 days that I was there witness it.

  Ford is showing strength in the first round of the series and I suggest you mark this event as a precursor of bigger things to come.  Not that the Rolex 24 Hour at Daytona is a minor league event, just the opposite. It is our super bowl of sports car racing in America.   However, looming on the horizon is the shadow of the biggest sports car race in the world- the 24 hours of Le Mans.  Is it a coincidence that the latest issue (February 2nd, 2015) of Autoweek is featuring a story about the Ford GT and an article about Henry Ford III and an unofficial bean spilling mention that Ford Motor Co. will field a factory backed two car team in 2016, working with Ganassi Racing that will include a run at Le Mans?  Very Interesting

Back to Daytona-  here's some nice pictures to start with and a link to the IMSA coverage of the race.

Chip Ganassi Racing-  Drivers Scott Dixon, Tony Kanaan, Kyle Larson & Jamie McMurray
Ford EcoBoost Prototype
 

Click Here For Story:
A Ford Victory


From Down in the Fan Zone to Up in the Nose Bleed Zone, watch for my next post.

Saturday Morning At Sunrise - Fan Zone


 



Beautiful New Grandstand Seating- Oxygen Anyone?

Zed 4 Getting Ready To Roar and other BMW Pics

I have not paid tribute to BMW's in my post very often- I am a huge fan of the old  BMW2002 (I owned  a 1970 version) and the engineering is fine but I fell in love with all things Porsche after selling my BMW and never looked back, so it is with some apologizes that I bring you this post, Bimmer fans.


I will give BMW credit - they have one tough, scrappy racer in the Turner Motorsport Z4 shown in the attached video.  I can't wait to photograph this car at Daytona in a few days.  And it sounds as good as it looks!  Turn up the volume!  Click on the link below- think racing!

BMW Z4 GTD

Turner Motorsport

 

 

Chasing A Ferrari


Here's A Fine Example For The Street:

Compliments of du Pont Registry's Cars & Coffee January 17th:

 

 

See you BMW fans at Daytona this weekend.  
 

 

 

 

 

Getting Ready For The Rolex 24 Hour At Daytona

Ah, racing season is finally here. The Roar before the 24 is right around the corner and I am checking out the camping gear this weekend for the trip to Daytona later this month.  Here's a little history to set the stage for this awesome race.   I am also attaching some photos I took in 2014 of a fine example of a Ford GT40 at du Pont Registry's  Cars & Coffee in St. Petersburg, Fl. Check out this link and go back in time:


RETRO RACING HISTORY

And Check Out IMSA's  Tudor Championship New Commercial:

Let's Go!

 

See you at Daytona!