2008 Fabcar Spirit of Daytona Prototype

Since inception, the mission of Spirit of Daytona has been to create a high profile and professional race car team and an automotive facility to assist the ultimate car enthusiast with their hot rod, street tuner or racecar. The team has recently announced a joint partnership between 2000 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Champion, Bobby Labonte for their Daytona Prototype Program in the Rolex Grand American Series.
Spirit of Daytona was founded in 1987 when Troy Flis and his brother began competing in club-racing events with their Volkswagen. Troy's love for turning cars into speeding, streamlined racing machines soon became a small business and after numerous wins on the club-racing circuit he turned professional in 1999 with the beginning of the Grand American Rolex Series. Spirit of Daytona has grown tremendously since Troy's club-racing days and now encompasses a Daytona Prototype effort, a fleet of three Pontiac GTOs which compete in the Grand-Am Cup Series, an 8,000 square foot preparation and race shop facility, a staff of eight full-time employees and five part-time employees.

Source - Spirit of Daytona Racing

Treacherous Conditions Catch Spirit of Daytona Racing Out at Mid-Ohio

Spirit of Daytona Racing's ambition to keep the at-track development of the V8 Porsche-Coyote program moving forward came to a disappointing halt during Saturday's EMCO Gears Classic presented by Key Bank at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course for round seven of the Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16.

A massive Ohio thunderstorm descended on Mid-Ohio seven laps into the Grand-Am Rolex Series EMCO Gears Classic, coming with a vengeance on the Daytona Prototype and GT class field.

The track was instantly doused with heavy rain shower and stout winds that made conditions for all the Grand-Am drivers a challenge. Despite the tough conditions, Guy Cosmo had the No. 09 Coyote in competitive form once again, running firmly in the lead pack. Únfortunately, the team was not able to convert the strong race pace into another race finish after Cosmo was forced into a spin as he passed for position. The day was done as the V8 Porsche Coyote made contact with the wall.

Cosmo emerged from the incident without injuries, save for some deep frustration.

'Everything's okay, just a bit of headache,' said Cosmo after the incident. 'It was really challenging out there, and I'm disappointed because I enjoy driving in the rain. We were in a good spot and I think the strategy that Spirit of Daytona had in place for our driver change to get Mark (Camirand) into the car would have played out perfectly. Únfortunately though, we didn't get the chance. I'm sorry for the team but I was going around another Daytona Prototype, and I must have got just an inch of wheel on that track sealant, and from there, there was nothing I could do and the car just took off once it hit the grass.'

The rain cloud-induced incident did come with a silver lining, as Spirit of Daytona will get the chance to test in more predictable and repeatable conditions on Monday at the 2.258-mile circuit as part of a Rolex Series test day. The team will soak up all the new data possible in preparation for a home race in nearly two weeks at Daytona International Speedway for the Brumos 250 under the lights on July 3rd.

Source - Spirit of Daytona Racing

Spirit of Daytona Launches new Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series Daytona Prototype Entry

Porsche-based V-8 Fabcar ready for competition debut at Miller Motorsports Park

The 2007 season of the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Special Reserve may be coming to an end, but this weekend's SunChaser 1000k finale will mark the beginning of the newest entry and era in Daytona Prototype competition.

Spirit of Daytona officials announced today that the Florida-based team will contest the September 15th endurance race at Miller Motorsports Park near Salt Lake City with a Fabcar chassis fitted with a new Lozano Brothers-prepared, Porsche-based 5.0-liter V-8 engine.

Guy Cosmo, Marc-Antoine Camirand and Doug Goad will share the driving duties in the 1000k event in which the team is looking to learn as much as possible in preparation for a full season effort in 2008. Next year's calendar will commence with the 46th annual running of the Rolex 24 At Daytona in late January.

'We are very excited to bring the Fabcar chassis together with the Porsche-based V-8 engine,' said Spirit of Daytona co-owner Troy Flis. 'After three successful tests, we are confident that as we continue our development this new package will show well against the tough competition in the Rolex Series.'

The team is actively working to establish a commercial partnership for the 2008 season, but the project already has a firm foundation with the technical partnerships in place to move the entry forward.

The Fabcar chassis (No. 002) was among the first Daytona Prototypes to hit the track when the category debuted in 2003 and was driven to three wins – including the Sahlen's Six Hours of the Glen – as the No. 58 Red Bull/Brumos Porsche entry. Now updated to the latest Fabcar bodywork designs, the Spirit of Daytona Porsche-based V-8 Fabcar represents both the past success and the state-of-the-art future of the competitive Daytona Prototype category.

This year saw the transfer of the Daytona Prototype competition franchise from Fabcar to the Cheever Group, which has made significant progress with the updated chassis in races for the majority of this season.

'When we first got the Fabcar, we had a lot of learning to do and I think we've shown in the recent races that there has been a great improvement,' Cheever §äid. 'The Porsche-based V-8 motor looks to be strong and it's nice to have another 5.0-liter motor to work with. It is very cool to be doing initial testing with a new powerplant, and having this third engine in the Fabcar to compare to is a big deal for us.'

Cheever has also been impressed with Spirit of Daytona Racing in testing.

'This is a great team to be working with and we have established a good relationship,' Cheever continued. 'Of course, two heads are better than one and we are really excited about the potential not only for this package, but also the doubling of data that we can achieve.'

While the Fabcar Daytona Prototype License is now held by Cheever Group, Fabcar founder and president Dave Klym is still an active and very interested participant in the process.



The engine package is new to the Grand-Am Rolex Series ranks and is also likely to create significant interest.

'We are going into the Miller weekend very open minded, as it is early in this program,' said Lozano Brothers Porting's Ben Lozano. 'But we think this motor has the potential to do well and we can't wait to see what it can do. There is no better place to test than in actual competition, and we are looking forward to that out at Miller. Having a long distance event to finish the season is perfect for us because we want to be as ready as possible for the Rolex 24 next January.'

The team has called on some familiar faces for the driving and testing duties, with team co-owner Goad being joined by Camirand and Cosmo for the Útah event weekend.

'I'm very excited about the debut of this 5.0-liter Daytona Prototype combination with Spirit of Daytona,' Cosmo §äid. 'This new motor has all the potential to run at the front of the pack. The revised Fabcar chassis has been a pleasure to drive as well, and is a great improvement from the original Fabcar chassis I drove in 2003. Dave Klym was the first to build a Daytona Prototype and I'm looking forward to getting his chassis back on the podium like we did together a number of times in '03.'

'For me personally, this program is very exciting. I really enjoy development programs and this chassis/engine combination adds to the list of Daytona Prototype experience I've got, because I've driven just about everything out there, and now I'm one up on the rest of the field,' Cosmo continued. 'Working with Troy and Michelle Flis and the Spirit of Daytona crew was a pleasure last season for the limited schedule we ran with Bobby Labonte, and I'm glad to be back with such a nice group of people. Troy has assembled a strong and talented group of people to work on this Porsche-based V-8 Fabcar combination and I'm looking to show what it's capable of doing.'

The SunChaser 1000k will air live on SPEED in two segments on Saturday, September 15. The first part begins at 1 p.m. ET while the second segment starts at 5:30 p.m. ET and will go to the race's finish.

Source - Spirit of Daytona Racing