With its lineup announced Thursday for the 2015 Rolex 24 at Daytona, Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates is doing something to break from tradition: entrusting faith in two of its young drivers in its No. 01 Riley-Ford.
It’s also taking a leap of faith by not having a member of one of Scotland’s most famous racing families in one of its cars for the first time in eight years, since 2007.
Two of the eight drivers have been swapped from 2014 to 2015. The first is Joey Hand replacing Memo Rojas for the full season, which by most accounts will be a good upgrade for the team.
Rojas had peaked, and departs after an mistake-filled 2014 season. Meanwhile Hand’s newfound availability restores the 35-year-old with a team that he’s already raced for on a handful of occasions.
Hand, who is 19 years younger than the seemingly ageless Scott Pruett – who like his family’s vineyards only gets better with age – provides CGR a roadmap for the future, depending on its future rumored but not officially announced endeavors.
But the intriguing change to me came with the swap of Charlie Kimball for Marino Franchitti, with Kimball and projected fourth full-season Ganassi Verizon IndyCar Series driver Sage Karam now set to line up alongside in Pruett and Hand in the No. 01.
In recent years, Ganassi has always given one young driver a shot in the No. 01 – Kimball, Karam and Graham Rahal have had the opportunity for a stint or two, usually during the overnight “graveyard” shifts – but the main task was simply keeping the car in one piece and handing it back to some combination of Pruett, Rojas, Hand and/or Juan Pablo Montoya to bring it home the remaining eight to 12 hours.
But in 2015 Ganassi takes a departure from that approach. Kimball has a Rolex watch already and Karam has potential in spades, but both are still vastly inexperienced at the Rolex with only a single start apiece.
Ganassi has to feel that the potential offered from these two – as well as establishing a chance at connecting them to work together as teammates for the first time in an official capacity – offers more upside than does a Franchitti, who represents a dependable, fast, and more established option.
Dario was in one of CGR’s entries from 2008 through 2013, with Marino taking up residence a year ago. Marino was key to Ganassi’s Sebring-winning success. Now, neither one of them will be in a car.
How the young guns fare in their first go together will be very important to watch. Rather than filling simply a two or three-hour block, figure these two will be driving anywhere from four to potentially eight hours in the car combined.
They also have to remember the No. 01 car is CGR’s designated championship contender. Any points loss incurred at Daytona will be a tough one to overcome for the balance of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship season.’
But those goals will be clearly identified and outlined, and honestly neither should have a problem taking them in.
Kimball is an IndyCar race winner, Karam an Indy Lights champion and either has the opportunity to make a name for themselves from a sports car perspective – as Hand did in 2011, for instance – with a good run next January.
Overall though, this speaks highly of where Kimball and Karam rank within the CGR organization at the moment. They could have been assigned to the single-race entered No. 02 – the “all-star” car of Scott Dixon, Tony Kanaan, Jamie McMurray and Kyle Larson – but instead have been tasked with adding to the success the No. 01 has achieved at Daytona.
It’s a great opportunity for Kimball and Karam, and one I hope they seize with both hands.
As the SuperMotocross season heads outdoors, the NBC Power Rankings change significantly with results from the Motocross opener at Fox Raceway in Pala, California. The Power Rankings assign a numeric value to each individual moto (90 points maximum) as well as the overall standings (100 points) and averages that number over the past 45 days. Included in the Power Rankings are results from the final five Supercross rounds, which fit into that 45-day timeframe.Dylan Ferrandis finished on the podium in his first race back after experience a concussion in Supercross Round 4 at Houston. – Align Media
It didn’t take long for Jett Lawrence to rocket to the top of the SuperMotocross rankings – only about 74 minutes in fact. Lawrence dominated his first moto and beat his teammate Chase Sexton, the 2023 Monster Energy Supercross champion, to the line by 10 seconds. He had to fight a little harder for the second moto win as Sexton stalked him throughout the race and ended up less than a second behind.
Beginning this week, we have added the SuperMotocross points’ ranking beside the rider’s name and in one fell swoop, Lawrence went from being unranked in the 450 class to 26th. To qualify for the inaugural SuperMotocross’ guaranteed 20 positions that automatically make the gate for the three-race championship series, Lawrence needs to be inside the top 20 in combined Supercross and Motocross points. The bubble is currently held by Justin Starling and Lawrence needs to make up 44 points to overtake him.
Sexton’s second-place finish in the overall standings at Fox Raceway marked his ninth consecutive top-five finish. After the race, Sexton compared the battle he had with Lawrence to the one he experienced with Eli Tomac in last year’s Pro Motocross championship. These two riders had a significant advantage over the field in Pala, but there is still a lot of racing to be completed.
After missing 13 rounds to a concussion, Dylan Ferrandis told NBC Sports that he was not going to do anything risky in the season opener at Fox Raceway. If he dialed back his effort at all, one would be hard-pressed to notice. He finished third in both motos and was third in the overall standings. Ferrandis began the weekend just outside the top 20 in combined SuperMotocross points and climbed to 19th. In the next few weeks, he will get a little more breathing room over the cutline and then challenge for wins.
Adam Cianciarulo’s three-race streak of top-five finishes ended with a sixth-place overall at Fox Raceway, but that was enough to advance him one position in the NBC SuperMotocross Power Rankings and land him eighth in the combined points standings. His individual motos were moderate, but Cianciarulo is still battling the effects of injury and a nagging loss of strength in his wrist.
Aaron Plessinger returned from injury in the Supercross season finale to finish second at Salt Lake City. He added another top-five to his season total and now has six of those in the 13 rounds he’s made. With Ken Roczen and Eli Tomac not currently racing in Motocross, Plessinger has an opportunity to rise to the third seeding in short order.
A bad start to Moto 1 at Fox Raceway was not enough to deter Hunter Lawrence. Neither was the fact that he was riding with sore ribs after experiencing a practice crash earlier in the week. He was a distant 10th to start the first race and for most of the 30 minutes, it seemed he would finish off the podium. Lawrence did not win the 250 East Supercross championship by giving in to hopelessness or pain, however.
Lawrence picked off one rider and then another until he found the battle for the top five in front of him at the halfway point. Once the field started to lap riders, Lawrence used the opportunity to continue forward through the grid. He passed third-place Jo Shimoda with two laps remaining and challenged Maximus Vohland for second on the final trip around Fox Raceway, but had to settle for the final spot on the podium. Lawrence dominated Moto 2 and claimed the overall victory in Pala.
Justin Cooper made his first start of the season at Fox Raceway and earned enough NBC Power Average points to climb to second. Partly this was due to consistently strong runs in both motos and a 5-4 that gave him the fifth position overall, but he is also not weighed down with moderate Supercross results. It will take a week or two to see where his strength lands him on the grid.
In only his third Pro Motocross National, Haiden Deegan scored a second-place finish in the overall standings. – Align Media
RJ Hampshire may feel he has something to prove after finishing second to Jett Lawrence in the 250 SX West division. He certainly rode like that was the case in Moto 1 and easily outpaced the field on his way to victory lane. In Moto 2, he crashed twice on Lap 1 and dropped back to 39th. It took half of the race to get inside the top 20 and salvage points. By the end of the race, he was 11th and while that was enough to get him on the overall podium, it cost him points in the NBC SuperMotocross Power Rankings.
Haiden Deegan surprised the field in Houston in his 250 Supercross debut by finishing fifth. At the time, he said his strong result was because there were no expectations. He echoed that statement after the Motocross season opener. His second-place finish in the overall standings was enough to project him five positions up the SuperMotocross Rankings. In 11 rounds in the combined series, Deegan has earned seven top-fives and a worst finish of eighth.
Jo Shimoda did not make his first Supercross race of 2023 until late in the season. He finished fourth on the hybrid track of Atlanta, which had some similar elements to Fox Raceway. His fourth-place finish in Moto 1 of the Motocross opener made it seem likely he would score an overall podium, but a sixth in the second race cost him points in the NBC Power Rankings in a field that promises to be extremely tight.
250 Rankings
This
Week
Driver (SMX rank)
Power
Avg.
Last
Week
Diff.
1.
Hunter Lawrence (1)
89.56
2
1
2.
Justin Cooper (42)
84.67
NA
3.
RJ Hampshire (3)
83.67
3
0
3.
Haiden Deegan (4)
83.67
8
5
5.
Jo Shimoda (16)
82.33
7
2
6.
Guillem Farres (46)
79.33
NA
7.
Levi Kitchen (6)
79.11
5
-2
8.
Max Anstie (5)
77.83
12
4
9.
Max Vohland (8)
77.50
14
5
10.
Enzo Lopes (10)
76.00
11
1
11.
Mitchell Oldenburg (13)
74.25
16
5
12.
Carson Mumford (19)
71.22
17
5
13.
Jordon Smith (7)
70.56
9
-4
14.
Ryder DiFrancesco (48)
70.33
NA
15.
Chris Blose (12)
67.00
13
-2
16.
Chance Hymas (27)
66.00
19
3
17.
Tom Vialle (9)
65.78
18
1
18.
Jett Reynolds (55)
63.33
NA
19.
Michael Mosiman (28)
62.33
20
1
20.
Garrett Marchbanks (64)
59.00
NA
* The NBC Power Rankings assign 100 points to a Main event winner in Supercross and overall winner in Motocross. It awards 90 points for each Moto, Heat and Triple Crown win. The points decrement by a percentage equal to the number of riders in the field until the last place rider in each event receives five points. The Power Ranking is the average of these percentage points over the past 45 days.
