Rolex 24 Saturday notebook

FAREWELLS AND HELLOS

A lot has changed since the season ended in October at Petit Le Mans. As you prepare for two days of Rolex 24 at Daytona action, here's a look at some of the big full-season moves, farewells and hellos heading into IMSA's championship opener.

MOVERS:

• PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports has transitioned from PC to Prototype
• JDC-Church Motorsports has transitioned from PC to Prototype
• Michael Shank Racing has transitioned from Prototype to GT Daytona with Acura
• Alex Job Racing has switched German GT Daytona brands from Porsche to Audi
• WeatherTech Racing has moved from Alex Job Racing and Porsche to Riley Motorsports and Mercedes-AMG
• Viper Exchange and owner Ben Keating to the same Riley Motorsports/Mercedes-AMG effort
• CORE autosport has transitioned from PC to GTD with Porsche
• Visit Florida Racing transitioned out of the GM Racing family into a privateer Prototype program

WELCOME TO:

• Tequila Patron ESM and its Nissan Onroak DPis after two years in the WEC
• 3GT Racing and Lexus with the new RC F GTD program
• Mercedes-AMG and its GT3-based fleet of customer and semi-works GTD cars
• Porsche's mid-engine 911 RSR GTLM factory cars
• Acura's NSX GT3 in GTD
• Kevin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor to the Porsche GT Team racing program
• Buddy Rice on his return to full-time racing in PC with BAR1 Motorsports
• SunEnergy 1 Racing Mercedes-AMG GTD program

FAREWELL TO:

• Magnus Racing, its wins, its personality and its unforgettable PR and marketing campaigns
• Daytona Prototypes
• The term "proto-turtles" in relation to DPs.
• 2015-spec P2s
• Team Seattle/Heart of Racing after a few successful years with Alex Job Racing
• Earl Bamber and Nick Tandy from the Porsche GT Team to Porsche's 919 Hybrid WEC P1 effort

GRIDDING CHANGE WON'T PENALIZE DRAGONSPEED

IMSA changed its gridding procedure for 2017. Instead of two separate grids for the start – one for Prototype and PC, with a second grid for GTLM and GTD taking the green flag after being gapped behind the Prototype cars – all 55 starters for the Rolex 24 will take a green flag in one pack.

SIX YEARS LATER, CHRISTODOULOU RETURNS TO ROLEX 24

Adam Christodoulou (pictured) makes his return to the Rolex 24 after a six-year absence. Now driving the No. 33 Riley Motorsports Mercedes AMG GT3, the British driver joins Ben Keating, Jeroen Bleekemolen and Dominik Farnbacher in his new role as AMG factory driver.

Christodoulou finished sixth in the 2010 Rolex Series GT points despite missing the Rolex 24, co-driving a Mazda RX-8 with John Edwards. The pair team to win at Lime Rock Park in additions to seconds at Mid-Ohio and New Jersey. He then finished sixth in GT in the 2011 Rolex 24, joining Edwards, Jonathan Bomarito and Sylvain Tremblay in a Mazda RX-8. But that was his last start in the states.

"I've been hiding in Europe," Christodoulou said. "I'm looking to improve on my sixth-place finish here – I've got unfinished business at Daytona. After that race, I went back to Europe. I had an opportunity to do one race over there, and it just snowballed after that. Last year I signed a contract with AMG, and it's been great. I won the Nurburgring 24 Hours with AMG last year. Everything just fell together perfectly. We managed to take the lead on the last lap and won by six seconds – which is mind-blowing that it can be that close after 24 hours! Now I have the opportunity to repeat it here. It's going to be a tough one, but we're going to come out full guns blazing and see where we end up."

41 YEARS LATER, CHILDRESS IMPRESSED WITH GROWTH OF ROLEX 24

Back in 1976, selected NASCAR Cup Series cars competed in the Grand International class of the 24 Hours of Daytona. Recent NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee Richard Childress was among that group, finishing second in the class in the No. 48 Banjo's Performance Chevrolet Laguna.

"I finished second with James Hylton, and we had a great time," Childress said. "Just the two of us drove the whole race. The Wood Brothers won it [with David & Larry Pearson and Gary & Jim Bowsher]."

Today, Childress is at the Rolex 24 with his grandsons, NASCAR drivers Austin and Ty Dillon (above), with ECR providing engines for the three Cadillac DPis competing in the event. Formerly his company provided engines for the Corvette Daytona Prototypes.

"The technology is way, way beyond anything any of us would ever imagined back then," Childress said. "And the safety, too. That's two of the big things."

It's the first Rolex 24 for the Dillon brothers. "This is really awesome," said Austin, who drives the legendary No. 3 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. "It's a lot different atmosphere from our garage, and I'm enjoying it. It's cool. It would be great to someday run in this event. It would be awesome to drive with my brother and a couple of other guys."

CHANGE OF STRATEGISTS FOR WAYNE TAYLOR

Wayne Taylor's Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi will have a new race engineer for the Rolex 24. Adam Banet – who normally fills that role – got an emergency call from his home in Indianapolis on Thursday, and rushed to be with his expectant wife. Andrea delivered their son Thomas Odell 10 minutes before Banet arrived.

In his stead, Dave Wagener will sit atop to box working with team technical director and lead engineer Brian Pillar. Wagener works with WTR's Prestige Performance team in the Lamborghini Trofeo.

TEAM USA REPRESENTS AT THE ROLEX 24

Jeremy Shaw gathered an impressive group of past and present winners of his Team USA Scholarship prior to today's Rolex 24 drivers meeting (pictured, courtesy of Jeremy Shaw). The depth of talent to come through his open-wheel scholarship is simply staggering. and has gone on to win the Indy 500, IndyCar championships, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and countless other accolades since its inception in 1990.

EFR LOOKS BACK AT ROLEX 24 VICTORY 20 YEARS AGO

Twenty years ago, Rob Dyson decided to run a backup car in the Rolex 24. He got together with fellow racer John Schneider, who brought along his friend Elliott Forbes-Robinson.

"John always wanted to drive a prototype car in the 24 hours, and we ended up winning," said Forbes-Robinson, a current IMSA official. "In all aspects, it was a great week."

John Paul Jr. started out the backup No. 20 car set to be co-driven by Dyson, Schneider and EFR, with Paul also listed in the team's lead No. 16 car with Butch Leitzinger, James Weaver and Andy Wallace.

The backup car was virtually unnoticed in the record 101-car entry – which featured 19 World SportsCar prototypes. At 9 a.m., Dyson's No. 16 was leading the race when it went out with engine failure. That sent Weaver and Wallace back to the hotel while Leitzinger stayed behind to help the No. 20 car. When Wallace and Weaver drove into the track the following morning, they saw the No. 20 atop the scoring pylon – so they also took turns in the lead car as well.

"We wound up having seven guys in the car during that race," EFR recalled. "After all the years I had been here, to finally get the win – and it was Rob Dyson's first win as well – was incredibly exciting."

It proved to be a career-extending victory for EFR.

"Because of what happened, I was the only guy who got points in the car – and was leading the championship," he explained. "So Rob kept me in the car because we got the first pick of pit stalls, which was important. So I ended up racing for several more years after that."

EFR's later credits included winning the 1999 Rolex 24 for Dyson; sharing the inaugural ALMS championship in 1999 with Leitzinger; and finishing second in a Crawford Daytona Prototype in the 2005 Rolex 24 with Leitzinger and future seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson.

ANOTHER FAREWELL SALUTE

George Breuer, the man behind the last 31 years of Porsche GT engines, has announced he is retiring. This will be his final event.

Every Porsche will carry a special decal (above) in the Rolex 24. This is a significant retirement for Porsche Motorsport as Breuer oversaw the Merger engine project that powered Porsche street and race GT cars for the last 18 years and did the same for the current generation engine, which has its official race debut today. In other words, every Porsche GT race win since 1998 has come as a result of Breuer's work.