Action Express Racing Pre-Daytona Report

No. 5

When the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar defending champion Mustang Sampling Chevrolet Corvette Daytona Prototype unloads for the 54th annual Rolex 24 at Daytona, eyes will be turned to the pursuit of history that the four drivers are chasing.  In fact, the Mustang Sampling Corvette DP has 16 Rolex Daytona Cosmograph watches with its four pilots; the goal, making it 20 signature timepieces at the end of 24 hours. 

This year, Scott Pruett will join his long-time competitors Christian Fittipaldi and Joao Barbosa in his pursuit of a record breaking sixth overall victory in the Rolex 24. Pruett currently holds the record for the most victories in the Rolex 24 at Daytona with 10 (class and overall), having scored victories (1987, 1988, 1992, 1993, 2002, 2007, 2008, 2011, 2013). Defending series champion Joao Barbosa has three (2003, 2010, 2014), Christian Fittipaldi has two (2004, 2014) and endurance co-driver Filipe Albuquerque has one (2013).

The quartet will be the winningest group to ever start the prestigious Rolex 24 at Daytona with their 16 victories, the previous mark was 11 victories and occurred twice, once in 1980 with Hurley Haywood and Peter Gregg, and most recently in 2001 with Haywood, Bob Wollek and Dorsey Schroeder.

When asked how important it was to help Scott Pruett get his sixth overall victory in the Rolex 24, Joao Barbosa said: "Of course we want to help Scott break the record for most overall victories, that would mean Christian, Filipe and I would also win the race. The Rolex 24 is our biggest race of the season and one of the biggest races in the world so we want nothing more than to drive our Mustang Sampling Corvette DP into victory lane at the end of the race."

Barbosa was part of Action Express Racing's debut in 2010 at the Rolex 24, a race that saw the team score a victory in what would be a career defining moment for the Portuguese driver, and one that would be one of his most cherished racing memories.

"Action Express Racing was a new team, and we were racing with a Porsche V8," said Barbosa. "Against all odds we had a great race and we won; it was an amazing feeling. Then in 2014 we were able to win in our Corvette DP and that was another great moment for the team as we finished first and third. Hopefully this year we can finish first and second as a team, that would be the only thing we could do that would be bigger."

Team manager Gary Nelson has experienced the highs and the lows of competing in North Americas most demanding race; however, having four drivers who have been victorious in the Rolex 24 gives him even more confidence than ever in the two-time and defending championship winning team as they chase history in this year's event.

"Every driver in our Mustang Sampling Corvette DP has won this race before," said Nelson. "Having won the Rolex 24 doesn't make it easier to win, but it does mean that these four drivers know how to prepare and they know what to expect throughout the event.

"We were really pleased with the communication level between all of our drivers, crew and engineers during the Roar Before the 24, they all have great chemistry together and they all believe in our 'Expect to Win' attitude"

When the 54th annual Rolex 24 gets underway, the new IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar era will officially begin, marking the end of the TUDOR era. Christian Fittipaldi hopes to begin the new era like he, Barbosa and Action Express Racing began the previous one, by winning the twice-around-the-clock endurance event.

"We've had a great run the last two years," said Fittipaldi. "We've been fortunate enough to win the biggest endurance race in North America with the Rolex 24 in 2014. We also won the oldest endurance race in North America, the Twelve Hours of Sebring last year. All told, our Mustang Sampling Corvette DP ran all but one lap of competition in the past two years and that's something we're hoping to carry on into this new era of sports car racing."

No. 31

With the 2016 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship set to begin Saturday on the high banks of Daytona International Speedway, Dane Cameron and Eric Curran are feeling right at home in the confines of the red and white Whelen Engineering Chevrolet Corvette Daytona Prototype.

For the two drivers, the 2015 season marked new beginnings. Both drivers had to adjust to their new team at Action Express Racing, and for Cameron, the move to the Whelen Corvette DP marked his return to the prototype class after a dominant season winning the GTD title in 2014. Although the season didn't get off to the start the two drivers desired, the chemistry of the No. 31 Whelen team had propelled the duo to championship contention by the mid-point of the season.

After storming to victory in the Chevrolet Sports Car Classic on Detroit's Belle Isle park at the end of May, Cameron and Curran began to silence doubters who viewed them as underdogs. The two drivers and their crew were demonstrating team manager Gary Nelson's "Expect to Win" motto.  

"Dane and Eric were both accomplished racers when they came to our team," said Nelson. "We were confident from the first day that they were going to compete for wins and championships. The way they competed throughout 2015 supported our belief with two wins and being in championship contention throughout the final race."

The expansion to two full-time entries for Action Express Racing in 2015 also supported the team's development strategy. Within the walls of the team's Denver, North Carolina headquarters, team members are hired at entry-level positions and mentored by some of racing's most accomplished and veteran personnel. Chad Gordon's promotion to Crew Chief of the Whelen Corvette DP was a perfect illustration of that development process. 

Gordon, a graduate of the NASCAR Technical Institute demonstrated from his first day at Action Express Racing that he had the "Expect to Win" mindset and approached every situation giving maximum effort. For Nelson, it was an easy decision to tab Gordon to lead the newly formed Whelen crew.

"Chad was one of those young people who had a passion to learn everything that he could when he walked into the shop," said Nelson. "He leads by example and he'll never ask his guys to do anything that he wouldn't personally do. Chad has gone from the entry level role to crew chief and now he's mentoring other team members who hopefully will aspire to follow the same path."

The development process geared to training and retaining the best possible crew members has provided Dane Cameron with great anticipation for the 2016 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season.

"This is the first year of my professional racing career where everything has been the same as it was the year before," said Cameron. "I've got the same race team, the same engineer, same crew chief and largely the same crew as last year. As a racecar driver you strive to find that cohesiveness and consistency from year to year, particularly with a 10-race championship. Last year we had a learning curve and getting to know each other, I feel like this year, we're entering the season primed to compete for wins and the championship. I've got tremendous confidence in the car that Chad and the guys put together and I'm looking forward to having Simon Dowson calling the race again from the engineering stand."

Cameron's two overall wins in the Whelen Engineering Corvette DP last season, combined with his class win at Lime Rock Park with Turner Motorsports propelled him to being the winningest driver in IMSA competition (2014-2015) with seven total victories.

The only noticeable change with the No. 31 Whelen Engineering team will be the addition of Simon Pagenaud for Daytona and Road Atlanta, Scott Pruett for Sebring and Sunoco Whelen Challenge winner Jonny Adam for Daytona. However, all three endurance drivers have spent time testing with Action Express Racing, and Cameron and Pagenaud previously competed in the Rolex 24 as co-drivers with Team Sahlen's in 2013.

"Overall we've got a ton of confidence coming into 2016 with our Whelen Engineering Corvette," said Eric Curran. "Dane and I learned a lot about each other and where we can compromise with the car to be the best for both of us and we've got some phenomenal guys joining us for the endurance events this year. The consistency that we had through the second half of 2015, the two wins, all of those things really give you confidence entering a new season. Hopefully we can start the year out with a win in the Rolex 24 and then carry the momentum through the rest of the season and win a championship for everyone at Whelen Engineering who really make this possible, not to mention our guys on the 31 team."