Teams in the Grand-Am Rolex Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16 have stayed active in their month layoff following the Rolex 24. Here are some recent series news makers ahead of Round 2 at Homestead-Miami Speedway on March 6:
• Following the news earlier this week that Atlantic Series champion John Edwards was joining former Atlantic star Johnathan Bomarito at Speedsource's Mazda RX-8GT team, Stevenson Motorsports announced today that veteran sports car racer Jan Magnussen will be joining the team to co-drive its No. 97 Stevenson Motorsports / Lala Motorsports / BryanMark Financial / VinSolutions 2010 Chevrolet Camaro GT.R with Gunter Schaldach for the balance of the 2010 race schedule.
“We had such a great experience with Jan in the No. 57 car at the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona. When he said he wanted to do more races with us, it made sense to put him in the No. 97 car for the rest of the season. Simply stated, when one of the best sports car drivers in the world wants to join your team, you find a place for him!”
Magnussen has raced with the Corvette Racing squad in the ALMS the last few seasons, taking the GT1 championship in 2008. He has raced in both the GT and the Daytona Prototype classes in Grand-Am, with wins coming several times over the last few years. The Dane will run the entire series with the Stevenson team, with the exception of the VIR race and both Watkins Glen rounds. Johnson feels the addition of Magnussen will move the pieces of the championship puzzle closer together in this, the first season the team is running the brand-new Pratt & Miller built Camaro.
“With Jan on board, I am even more excited about this season and hopefully we now have our best one-two shot at delivering a Rolex GT Championship to the Stevensons.”
In addition to providing in-depth coverage of all of the Rolex Sports Car Series events, SPEEDTV.com will also stream a live qualifying show for seven of the remaining 11 races, beginning with the Grand Prix of Miami at Homestead.
Qualifying at Homestead-Miami Speedway begins at 3:45 p.m. ET on Friday, March 5. SPEEDTV.com will begin coverage at 3:40 p.m., and run through the 15-minute sessions for both the Daytona Prototype and GT classes. The qualifying show will also be accessible through a link on Grand-am.com. Calling the action will be SPEED's broadcast team, with Leigh Diffey, Calvin Fish and Dorsey Schroeder in the booth, joined by Brian Till and Chris Neville on pit road. The SPEED team will also call the action for Saturday's Grand Prix of Miami broadcast, beginning at 5 p.m. ET.
• As part of the buildup to the Grand Prix of Miami, PRS Guitars and Grand-Am are launching a partnership at Guitar Center in Miami. PRS will have the Grand-Am trophy guitar and the Dempsey Racing/Chip Foose/Mazda/Pirelli promotion guitar on display. Grand-Am and Homestead-Miami Speedway will have a Daytona Prototype racecar as well as other Grand-Am interactive experiences.
PRS staff will be at Guitar Center's Hallandale store on Saturday, Feb. 27 from 12 p.m.-6 p.m. to demonstrate electric guitars, amps and acoustics. Guitar Center will have a strong assortment of PRS products in the store. Legendary rocker Pat Travers will be on-site to meet fans and sign autographs. Fans can bring a PRS guitar and have artist relations tech Len Johnson set your guitar up at no charge. Also in attendance from PRS will be Larry Urie (National Sales Manager), Mike Clark (Amplifier Business Manager), Shawn Nuthall (Customer/PTC Manager) and Jack Higginbotham (President).