Del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Furl
Google
Reddit
Stumbleupon
Y! MyWebAuto Racing
Doran team solid in 'rebuilding year'
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
In what looked to be a rebuilding year for the Lebanon-based Doran Racing team in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series, things went pretty well this season.
The Rolex Series ended last weekend, Sept. 25, but not before the two Doran team cars earned a combined 10 top-10 finishes in the Daytona Prototype division's 14-race season.
The team's primary car, the No. 77 Feeds the Need/Doran Racing Kodak EasyShare DORAN JE4 Ford (try getting all THAT on a T-shirt!), primarily driven by racing veteran Memo Gidley and Cincinnati's Brad Jaeger, had a season-best fifth-place finish at Watkins Glen with a sixth at the second Daytona race, two sevenths at Mexico City and Sonoma and a 10th at the second trip to The Glen. Gidley and Jaeger finished 14th in the 30-car Daytona Prototype division standings.
The team's second car, piloted by Swiss flyer Gabriele Gardel and Italy's Fabrizio Gollin, had a season-best fifth-place finish at Barber Motorsports Parkway in Birmingham, Ala. They finished seventh at Mid-Ohio, eighth in Virginia, and had a pair of ninth-place finishes at Mexico City and Montreal. The Doran car No. 47 placed 17th in the final Daytona Prototype standings.
Not bad for a team running with the previously unproven Dallara chassis-Ford motor combination all season. Doran Racing was the official Dallara spare part distributor and repair center for the Daytona Prototypes division in 2008.
Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates teammates Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas claimed the Rolex season championship among the 30-some Daytona Prototype competitors.
The Dallara chassis finished with the second most points in the series.
Gidley is already anxious for January and the 2009 season opening Daytona 24-hour race.
"I saw how we went from a car that was not really competitive to a car that was among the fastest on the track every time I drove it and that has been satisfying," Gidley said. "Now that we have a year of working with this new car and aero package, our goal next season will be more consistency, to be fast right off the truck every time."
Jaeger sounds set to return to Doran Racing for 2009 as well.
"This was a rebuilding year for the Doran team with new cars and mechanics, and while we had difficulties, we were also very competitive at virtually every race," he said. "We'll be working hard in the off season to make the team a true front-runner in 2009."
The first off-season test session for the Grand-Am Rolex Series teams is scheduled for Oct. 27-29 at Daytona International Raceway.
Got a racing story? Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2851 or jbombatch@coxohio.com.
