Daytona is Roaring: 

The Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona

Unlike any other racing event in North America, The Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona is by far the most interesting. As we sit around waiting for the Super Bowl next weekend, flip the channel to the Rolex 24 and watch four different classes of cars all going around the track at the same time for close quarter racing the whole race. Don’t believe me, look at the finishing times from last year. The Prototype class, which is the fastest class in the field, had a second and a half gap between first and second. The GTLM class winner won by less than a half a second and the GTD class was just over seven seconds between first and second. Remember that this is after 24 hours of racing. As most owners bring three or four drivers together to make up a team, watching drivers adjust from day to night and back to daytime is impressive. Also impressive, the pit crews, who will change brakes throughout the race and fix anything you could imagine that could happen to a car, all while trying to keep their car in front. There are plenty of famous world known drivers in this years field to hit the high banked corners, the long straightaways, and the low speed turns of the Daytona road course, which is guaranteed to see a lot of action and some heartbreak.

PROTOYPE CLASS

Scott Pruett has left his long time race home of Chip Ganassi Racing and has not won since 2013. Pruett is tied with Hurley Haywood for most overall wins at 5 and has moved to the #5 Action Express Racing Corvette, who was the 2015 runner-ups and the 2014 winners. Pruett is joining other veteran drivers Christian Fittipaldi, and Joao Barbosa as well as team newcomer Filipe Albuquerque.

Scott Dixon is looking for overall win number 3 with the defending race winning #02 Ganassi Racing Ford. The #02 Ford is this years all-star car for Ganassi, with Dixon teaming up with Tony Kannan, Jamie McMurray, and Kyle Larson. All four drivers are back from last years winning team. If we look at history though, Ganassi has not won back to back since winning 3 in a row in 06, 07, and 08.  

Michael Shank Racing has been off since the big win in 2012, where AJ Allmendinger rallied back the #60 car with an unbelievable last stint to pull off a big upset at the time. Since 2012 the #60 car has not been around to contend for the win at the end of the race. Last year they ended up 35 laps back of the leader, but three out of the four drivers from that 2012 team are back in the car this year looking for another win.  

The big question with the Prototype class in 2016 is how far has the DeltaWing Racing team improved since last year. The trike looking race car is by far the most unique in the field and got a lot of hype last year only to drop out of the race an hour and twenty-two minutes in, finishing dead last.

Another team to keep your eye on this year is the third place car from last year, the #10 Corvette for Wayne Taylor Racing. Bringing back all three drivers who finished third last year, Wayne Taylor Racing has been inching his way to an overall win for years.  

Predicting a winner in the Prototype class is crazy considering after 24 hours last year the top three ended up a minute and seven seconds from each other. However, with a record six owner wins in this event, it is hard to go against the Ganassi teams, but win number six for Pruett will finally come.

PROTOTYPE CLASS PREDICTION: #5 Action Express Racing Corvette

PROTOTYPE CHALLENGE CLASS

The Prototype Challenge Class is the smallest class in the field and could be the easiest to pick. The class is the only class last year that didn’t provide us with last lap racing to see who was going to win, due to a late race problem with the #54 Core Autosport Car. The #54 car, like every year, is by far the favorite again. Why not, they win the series championship year after year and usually wins this class in the Rolex 24. The main reason for this year though, Jon Bennett, Mark Wilkins, and Colin Braun are back in the car this year and they had the fastest times in the field during the Roar before the 24 test weeks ago. Throw Prototype superstar Martin Plowman on the team and you have a favorite.

PROTOTYPE CHALLENGE CLASS PREDICTION: #54 Core Autosport Chevy

GT Le Mans (GTLM) Class

            The GTLM class has 11 cars this year and making a big entrance to the class is the Chip Ganassi Racing Team.  With two cars entered in the field, Ganassi has brought in big names like Joey Hand and Sebastien Bourdais, who are both previous overall winners, in the #66 car. Ryan Briscoe, who won this class in the #3 Corvette Racing car last year, switches to the Ganassi Ford and heads up the #67 car.

            This class is expected to be the most competitive as last years winners won by less than a second. With Ferrari, BMW, Porsche, Chevrolet, and Ford all battling it out for the class win, it could be the most interesting class in the field and defiantly the favorite to come down to the wire.

To say there is a clear cut favorite would be a crazy thing to say. As in the Prototype class, this class has several teams with the ability to pull out the win. Throw in the fact that they have to make it 24 hours to get the win, and it is hard not to go with the resources that Chip Ganassi Racing has, even though this is his first time running this class. Although Briscoe won the class last year, the experience of Hand and Bourdais will come in handy during this event.

GTLM PREDICTION: #66 Chip Ganassi Racing Ford

GT Daytona (GTD) Class

            The GTD Class is the biggest class by far with 22 different entries and with a seven second difference from first to second last year, another very competitive race is expected. Last year we saw the Riley Motorsports Dodge Viper and Porsche of Alex Job Racing battle the whole race. Stevenson Motorsports and Magnus Racing have moved to the new Audi R8 LMS GT3. Stevenson Motorsports will field two teams, #6 and #9, with the new Audi and will be interesting to watch. Andy Lally, who has won 4 times in this class and has found a home with the #44 car, will anchor the Magnus Racing Audi.  Aston Martin is also coming back in 2016 with two cars from two different teams.

            As the GT Class is fun to watch with all the different manufactures, Audi, Lamborghini, Porsche, Dodge, Ferrari, BMW, and Ashton Martin, the competition should be just as good as it was last year. It should be a fight with the Vipers and Porsches again this year for the class win. The uncertain is the new Audi, but the disappointment of many problems last year should have the #44 car hungry for a win. Lally will be joined by team owner John Potter and Rene Rast, who were the drivers that won the GTD class in 2012.  

GTD CLASS PREDICTION: #44 Magnus Racing Audi

The Rolex 24 starts at 2pm Saturday January 30^th and is being broadcasted throughout the entire race. Fox Sports 1 and Fox Sports 2 will carry the majority of the daytime hours. The nighttime, from 10pm to 7am, will be available on the IMSA website. The website will also have the radio broadcast of the whole event.  

MAYDAY JAY JAY

Twitter @MayDayJJSports

"The Great One"

Wayne Gretzky Turns 55 Years Old

On January 26, 2016 it is easy to look at sports and think history. The Golden State warriors are off to a 40 and 4 start, chasing Jordan’s Bulls 72 win season.  The sheriff, Peyton Manning is headed to his fourth Super Bowl and maybe his final game of his record breaking career. On the other side of Super Bowl 50 is Cam Newton, who has looked like a Steve Young on steroids this season. For kids these days, sports are better than ever. Even tennis is being highlighted on sports channels, every interview from your favorite player can be seen on the Internet, and independent reporters with their cell phone cameras cover everything else. Even college conferences have their own TV channels. What else can you ask for in today’s sporting world? Nothing. Well, maybe nothing because the only major sport that is not up to par with the others in America is Hockey. Hockey is struggling, it does not get the attention of other sports. Any other day of the year Hockey can take the back seat in my car, but not today.  Today is the 55^th birthday of the GREAT ONE, Wayne Gretzky.

To kids and a lot of other sports fans in 2016, Jordan is the greatest to ever play basketball, everyone has an opinion on quarterbacks, and baseball has even bounced back to become a standard on household televisions. Hockey has continued to fall down the charts and it is a shame because one of the most dominant athletes to ever play any sport is almost forgotten by this generation.  By dominant, I would compare Gretzky as “better” at his sport than Jordan was at basketball. Gretzky has 40 regular season records, 15 playoff records, and 6 all-star records. The most impressive thing that can be said is that Gretzky has more assists (1,963) than the person in second place on the all time points list (Messier, 1,887 points and assists combined). Scoring his 50th goal just after turning 19 years old, Gretzky is the only player to ever reach 2,000 career points (894 goals and 1,963 assists) and he had over 3,000 career points (1,016 goals and 2,223 assists) if you include the playoffs.

As you can imagine, the trophy case in Gretzky’s house is full, with 9 MVP awards that came within a 10-year period (8 in a row), 2 Finals MVPs, and 4 Stanley Cup wins.  With 50 hat tricks in his career, the records can be typed out until you get tired of typing. The Great One was just that indeed, "GREAT" and maybe one of the greatest athletes in any sport to ever play any game. He dominated his game like nobody has ever done and there is a good possibility that nobody ever will. As some of his records will fall with the new rules that come and go in Hockey, the points record will never be broken.

If you are not familiar with Wayne Gretzky, I challenge every child, adult, male, or female that has a love for any sport to YouTube or Google "The Great One." Find out for yourself that the most dominant athlete to ever play on this earth is one of the most forgot about athletes of all time.  If there is anytime that Hockey should be a lead story in sports, out of respect for Wayne Gretzky, it should be January 26, every year.

MAYDAY JAY JAY

Twitter @MayDayJJSports

Aaron Rodgers: 

Numbers might be down but greatness is soaring

Although it is playoff time in the NFL and we seem to continue to see the same quarterbacks leading their teams to the post season, I am starting to wonder why Aaron Rodgers is underrated when it comes to great quarterbacks to ever play the game. When it comes to legends in the NFL right now, of course the sheriff, Peyton Manning comes to mind, although his playoff woes have stuck with him throughout his career. Tom Brady is another one and rightfully so, he has plugged in skill players his whole career and continued to win at a high rate. However, Rodgers is doing something this year that can only be considered as “greatness.” Willing his team to win with most of his weapons off the field or just not showing up to play. Randall Cobb is one of his only targets back from last year that is still suiting up, James Jones was brought back to fill a void, but as everyone knows nobody wins vs. age. The run game has been nowhere to be found in the majority of the games. The offensive line is bad to put it nicely and somehow, someway Rodgers still led his team to a ten win season with 31 touchdowns and quarterback rating of 92.

In years past Rodgers has had good defenses, explosive receivers, and a run game, but he is doing exactly what Tom Brady has done in years past. They can be compared in the way that they both have slot receivers to get the ball too, but the real difference is that when things get rough, Brady tosses the ball to Gronk and Gronk rumbles over some people. When watching Rodgers, it is obvious that most of his throws gets his receivers open, as they cannot create space on their own. While doing this under tremendous pressure, being sacked 46 times this season (2^nd most in the NFL), the numbers of years past are not there but the winning ways continue.

Although the Packers have created a tough draw if they wish to make a run to the Super Bowl this year, the year that Rodgers has had should be ranked as one of the most impressive in his career. The will to win and the drive to continue on course must have been put to a test this year, but Rodgers has succeeded with flying colors. Even if the post season comes up as a disappointment to the Packers organization this year, everyone involved has to look at Rodgers in a different way and getting Jordie Nelson back next season might allow the balance to come back.  

MAYDAY JAY JAY

Twitter @MayDayJJSports