Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series drivers are getting back into their racing rhythm after successfully testing Pirelli’s P Zero Racing Slicks during a special two-day practice session at Florida’s Homestead-Miami Speedway.
For many of the teams, this was their first on-track foray since the season-opening Rolex 24 at Daytona in January. Twenty-two race teams took advantage of the Homestead track time as light rain fell each morning, giving way to sunshine and temperatures approaching 80 degrees in the afternoon.
“The Pirellis feel good and we have had no problems at all,” says No. 59 Brumos Porsche Riley driver Joao Barbosa, who finished third in the season-opening Rolex 24 with teammates JC France, Hurley Haywood and Terry Borcheller.
“Even at the higher temperatures down here at Homestead, they are running very consistent, very good,” Barbosa notes. “I did one stint for 20 laps straight and I was surprised I had no drop off at all. The Pirellis were good, and knowing the tires are not a problem allows us to focus on other things.”
Even though the test lap times were not recorded, Barbosa was unofficially among the top Daytona Prototype testers.
On the GT front, a newcomer to the series says he was impressed with his first experience in the Rolex Series and with the performance of the Pirelli Grand-Am-specification racing tires.
Three-time reigning South African V8 Supercar Champion Hennie Groenewald is looking to the Rolex Series for his next career move, and he tested the No. 30 Racer’s Edge Mazda RX-8 on the final day of the session after taking turns in both the Battery Tender/Matt Connolly Motorsports Pontiac GTO and Porsche GT-3.
“What obviously impressed me, and I assume it’s because these guys are running endurance racing, is how long the life of the Pirelli tire is,” says Groenewald, who turned the unofficial fastest GT lap of the test in the Mazda. “If you look at the age of the tires we were running on the Pontiac and the lap times we were turning, it was impressive. The tires we use back home are sprint tires and after three laps there’s not much use in testing them.”
Groenewald is hoping to have a ride for the July Daytona race and to also run in the full Rolex Series season next year.
“It was a lot of fun driving each car because they were so different,” Groenewald says. “I really enjoyed all three of them. We had the fastest lap of the test in the Mazda, but that was because I drove with a new set of tires. (Later in the event) both cars had old rubber, but I could still run quick laps on the Pirellis despite the number of laps on them.”
Next up on the racing schedule for Pirelli and the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series is the April 25 Bosch Engineering 250 at Virginia International Raceway. A May 2 race then occurs at the New Jersey Motorsports Park before traveling to Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca for the U.S. Sports Car Invitational on May 17. All three events will be televised live on the SPEED Channel.
For more information, visit www.us.pirelli.com.
