2015 Rolex 24 Preview: P class - MotorSportsTalk

We’re taking a class-by-class look this week at the field for the 2015 Rolex 24 at Daytona, one class per day through Thursday. We’ll start off with the Prototype class.

2014 RECAP

WINNERS: No. 5 Action Express Racing Corvette DP, Joao Barbosa, Christian Fittipaldi, Sebastien Bourdais

PODIUM: No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette DP, Jordan Taylor, Ricky Taylor, Max Angelelli, Wayne Taylor, No. 9 Action Express Racing Corvette DP, Burt Frisselle, Brian Frisselle, John Martin, Fabien Giroix

POLE: No. 99 GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing Corvette DP, Alex Gurney

2015 FORECAST

ROAR RECAP: Parity by design was the name of the game, with any of Chip Ganassi Racing’s Riley-Fords, the Action Express and Wayne Taylor Corvette DPs and occasionally the No. 60 Michael Shank Racing Ligier JS P2 Honda topping the timesheets. Bottom line, no team wanted to show too much during the Roar and risk a major Adjustment of Performance tweak. Fortunately, none came.

RACE OUTLOOK: The big surprises of the Roar were the competitiveness of Shank’s new Ligier and the DeltaWing coupe, which as expected, starred in straight-line speed. Either car upsetting the nine DPs entered would still be a surprise, but a top-five if not podium finish is possible if either car was to have a trouble-free race.

WIN CONTENDERS: Armed with the same lineup and no major changes year-on-year, Action Express’ No. 5 figures to have a great shot to repeat. WTR, too, is hungry after consecutive years finishing runner-up. But the CGR pair of Riley-Fords might be suited to return to win contention after a rare off year in 2014, as the Ford EcoBoost V6 turbo is further developed, and Joey Hand represents an upgrade over Memo Rojas in the No. 01 car. I’m tempted to include the No. 90 VisitFlorida.com Racing Corvette DP here as well, but the car hasn’t really stood out thus far.

PODIUM SPOILERS: Shank’s Ligier is the standout of the second tier here, and the No. 31 Whelen-backed Corvette DP that features 2014 GT Daytona class champion Dane Cameron could be poised to spring a surprise as well. Krohn Racing too has three very capable drivers in Ligier JS P2 chassis developers Olivier Pla and Alex Brundle, along with Nic Jonsson, Tracy Krohn’s longtime right-hand man. Krohn finished fourth at Sebring last year in GTLM and a top-five here is possible.

THE REST OF THE RUNNERS: The remaining eight cars in class should be shooting for either top-five finishes or, more to the point, finishes overall. That includes the pair of debuting Tequila Patron ESM HPD ARX-04bs, the DeltaWing, the Starworks Motorsport Riley-Dinan BMW, Mazda SKYACTIV-D prototypes and RG and Highway to Help DPs. Starworks, in this group of eight, has the highest ceiling with a go-for-broke driver lineup and could well surprise, while the others seek to avoid trouble.

CLASS ENTRY LIST (16 cars)

0 Memo Rojas, Katherine Legge, Gabby Chaves, Andy Meyrick, DeltaWing Racing Cars with Claro/Tracfone DeltaWing DWC13 coupe
1 Scott Sharp, Ryan Dalziel, David Heinemeier Hansson, Tequila Patron ESM HPD ARX-04b
2 Johannes van Overbeek, Ed Brown, Jon Fogarty, Tequila Patron ESM HPD ARX-04
5 Joao Barbosa, Christian Fittipaldi, Sebastien Bourdais, Action Express Racing Corvette DP
7 Rubens Barrichello, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Brendon Hartley, Tor Graves, Scott Mayer, Starworks Motorsport Riley-Dinan BMW
10 Jordan Taylor, Ricky Taylor, Max Angelelli, Wayne Taylor Racing with Konica Minolta Corvette DP
31 Dane Cameron, Eric Curran, Max Papis, Phil Keen, Action Express Racing (Whelen) Corvette DP
50 Dorsey Schroeder, Jim Pace, David Henton, Byron DeFoor, Fifty Plus Racing/Highway to Help (Doran) Riley-BMW
57 Tracy Krohn, Nic Jonsson, Alex Brundle, Olivier Pla, Krohn Racing Ligier JS P2 Judd
60 Ozz Negri, John Pew, AJ Allmendinger, Matt McMurry, Michael Shank Racing with Curb/Agajanian Ligier JS P2 Honda
66 Robert Gewirtz, Shane Lewis, Mark Kvamme, David Cheng, RG Racing Riley-BMW
70 Jonathan Bomarito, Tristan Nunez, James Hinchcliffe, Sylvain Tremblay, SpeedSource Mazda SKYACTIV-D
90 Richard Westbrook, Michael Valiante, Mike Rockenfeller, VisitFlorida.com Racing Corvette DP
01 Scott Pruett, Joey Hand, Charlie Kimball, Sage Karam, Ford EcoBoost Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Riley-Ford
02 Scott Dixon, Tony Kanaan, Jamie McMurray, Kyle Larson, Ford EcoBoost Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Riley-Ford
07 Joel Miller, Tom Long, Ben Devlin, Sylvain Tremblay, SpeedSource Mazda SKYACTIV-D

Follow @TonyDiZinno

Vicki Golden has earned a career worthy of a thousand stories and 805 Beer tells at least one of them, as “Inverted Perspective” premiered March 30 on the company’s website and YouTube channel.

Golden did more to break the glass ceiling in SuperMotocross than she ever thought possible. She knows this because riders have never felt the need to explain any of her accomplishments with the disclaimer, “for a girl”.

At this point in Golden’s career, she’s been the first woman to finish top 10 in AMA Arenacross Lites, the first woman to qualify in the Fast 40 in Monster Energy AMA Supercross and the first woman to compete in freestyle Moto X competition, earning a bronze medal by doing so.

Her love for moto came from childhood while she watched her dad and brother ride. By seven she was on her bike and making waves throughout Southern California.

Golden, 30, is still madly in love with the sport and has no plans on moving away but her career is already one to talk about. 805 Beer’s film series wanted to do exactly that.

“I’m taken aback by it all,” Golden told NBC Sports about the documentary. “It’s just crazy to see your story, it’s one thing to live your life and battle everything that comes about but it’s another to just sit there and talk about it.”

805 approached Golden about the feature by asking, “Do you even realize that what you do, and your story is special?”

Golden took the question as a blank canvas to map out the highs and lows of her career and life.

Women in SuperMotocross: Jordan Jarvis knows how tough it is

The title “Inverted Perspective” came from a brainstorming session with Dominick Russo and it highlights Golden’s outlook on the sport of SuperMotocross and her life in general.

“My whole life, my whole career was thinking differently and looking at things that shouldn’t be done and aren’t there, while being able to make a place for myself, where no one thought there should be a place,” Golden said. “It’s inspiring someone to think in different ways. It sums up my life.”

*Vicki Golden is not “fast for a girl”; she’s just fast. – 805 Beer*

While Golden is no stranger to the spotlight, this was the first time she’s been fully involved with the storytelling and creation of a feature about herself.

“It’s not like a full new experience,” Golden said. “Obviously, you get your standard questions about your upbringing and accomplishments, but I’ve never really put into perspective things that happened in my past with my dad and putting that to light. Also, certain other things that maybe got overlooked in previous interviews or films. I wanted to touch on these and Dom wanted to create a story. It’s just cool to see it come to light, it’s a nearly impossible thing to tell somebody’s life story in 40 minutes.”

Golden’s father was left paralyzed after an ATV accident, robbing him the opportunity to ride again. This happened a few months before the father-daughter duo was set to compete in the Loretta Lynn’s Amateur Nationals when Vicki was 12. While she might have been unable to grasp the severity at the time, it’s something she carries with her. Golden continues to ride in his honor.

Years later, an accident in 2018 nearly sidelined the then 25-year-old Vicki when a freestyle accident almost resulted in the amputation of her lower leg.

Women in SuperMotocross Ashley Fiolek is building community

Golden 805 Beer — *Vicki Golden has ridden a variety of disciplines in SuperMotocross, which gives her a unique perspective. – 805 Beer*

“Inverted Perspective” highlights her father’s diligence in helping Vicki continue with her career and the kindness and strength he carried while fighting his own battle.

“My dad was the entire reason that I started riding in the first place,” Golden said. “So, to honor his memory and to honor what we went through and how hard he pushed to keep our dream alive and keep everything going – in that sense then, it was really special to be able to honor him and talk about him.”

The 40-minute feature was filmed entirely in black and white, a stark contrast from the oversaturated world of motocross where the brighter the suit the easier it is for fans to find their rider and follow him in the race. By filming in monochrome Russo and Golden had the chance to focus on the race and track from a different perspective.

“It was cool to be able to film it differently,” Golden said. “It created a challenge in the sense of what was going to be more visually impactful for the film.

“I couldn’t be here without the companies that back me but at the same time, it’s not like the logos or colors disappeared, it’s just different lights shed on different spots. It’s just a cool way to do it and to take color away and still be impactful. When you think of black and white, you think of old school, the OG way of doing things.”

Read more about SuperMotocross