January 29-31, 2010

The ROLEX 24 at Daytona is clearly one of the world's premier sporting events. Drivers from around the world and from many of the top racing series converge in Daytona, the birthplace of American racing, at the end of every January. When you look around at all the top drivers preparing for the ROLEX 24, your first assumption is that the prize money must be very substantial for this race; however that is not the case. What is substantial is the pride of just being part of this global racing institution and all that it represents. And while this race may not have many fans sitting in the massive Daytona grandstands, it has a massive global television audience estimated at around 250 million race fans in the USA and around the world. This very special annual event also marks the start of another season of exciting motorsports in the NASCAR, IndyCar, Grand-Am and F1 racing series.

Next the INTERUSH graphic design team took the red Ferrari and transformed it into the most amazing-looking race car we have ever seen. Once it was at Daytona, heads turned every time the INTERUSH Ferrari drove through the garage to the pits and out onto the track.

It was Interush Racings' Roger Yasukawa that first introduced INTERUSH to Sigalsport and Gene Sigal, the team's owner. They were putting together a team of four drivers for the grueling 24 hour race that would test the endurance and performance of both driver and machine. "I am excited to be back racing in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series," announced Gene Sigal. "We are racing a Ferrari F430 in this year's Rolex 24 and are excited to have some great sponsors backing our GT effort. INTERUSH is our primary sponsor and our four drivers include IndyCar Driver Roger Yasukawa, plus Rusty West, Fred Poordad and myself (Gene Sigal). I am confident we are going to do well, since the crew has prepared a good car under crew chief Guiseppe di Gennaro and engineer Brian Ma. I am anxious to get racing." In only five seasons, Sigal has taken his team from the club racing level to the highest level of international endurance racing. Gene Sigal is highly respected as an accomplished racecar driver as he had previously won the 2007 Grand Prix of Miami.

As the team's primary sponsor, Interush was in control of the race cars graphics and was able to add many of Interush's associated brands and collaborative marketing partners to the race car. This included our own INTERUSH, IRIS, PHYTTER and MySpeedwayRacer.com logos. In addition we used this to announce our new relationships with iRacing.com Motorsport Simulations and with Google Apps who were featured right on the front hood joined to INTERUSH by the Ferrari logo. Also present on the race car and in support of the team was the prestigious Ferrari Club of America.

INTERUSH was also excited that our race car had the number 08, which typically indicates good fortune, because with racing, you can never have too much good luck on your side! Originally we expected this was going to be the only Ferrari in the event, but fortunately for us, a second Ferrari was added as a late entry.

The big challenge as it turned out, was for the Ferrari engineers to make the Ferrari a more 'normal' sports car as required by the rules designed to create a level playing field for all competitors. The problem was the Ferrari was just too good and certain changes had to be made to bring it down to the level of the other sports cars.

The Ferrari F430 has a single hub lock that holds the wheels securely in place. However all other entries have a 5 stud/bolts configuration to hold each wheel on. So that the Ferrari would not have an unfair advantage when it came into the pit for tire change, the factory's single hub wheel assembly had to be replaced with a custom-milled wheel with the NASCAR standard of 5 stud/bolts on all 4 wheels.

In addition, the Grand-Am rules the required the Ferrari to change its' 6 piston front braking system to a 4 piston brake caliper. These two major changes to the car created a complication to the wheel hub systems and suspension uprights where the team needed to design and manufacture suitable parts in a very short amount of time.

Once the car was ready, Roger Yasukawa took the Ferrari out on to the track. There he discovered that at the speed of 200km/hr and higher, along with the stress from the high banking turns at the Daytona International Speedway, the wheels would vibrate severely to the point where it was not safe to drive the car at these high speeds. The team's engineers determined that it was the design of the wheel hub spacer that was manufactured by the team that was probably causing the issue on all 4 corners of the car when it exceeded 200km/hr.

The team quickly tried to find a solution to fix the problem by fabricating new parts but without any track time before the race, and not knowing whether it would be fixed or not, the team was regrettably forced to do the only thing they could. This was to respectfully withdraw from the race to protect the safety of the team drivers, the race car, as well as all other competitor in the race.

When the team decided to withdraw from the event, INTERUSH was offered space for most of the company's logos and partner logos on the #52 sister Ferrari entry. So while the design was lost, INTERUSH, iRacing and Google Apps still managed to be prominently displayed on another beautiful Ferrari, this time in silver color.

Roger Yasukawa and Gene Sigal were also invited to join the #52 race team, however by now it was already beyond the time limit for the team to make any driver changes for the race as the rule states that team is required to submit the forms 5 hours after the qualifying session has ended.

Saturday afternoon arrived and it was a cool gray day. A few hours before the 3:30 pm start time, it started to drizzle, then it started to rain, then it started to pour! Regardless, the race cars set-up in their starting grid with drivers in place, under the cover or umbrellas and tarps to try to keep the cockpit areas as dry as possible. Then at 3:25 came the driver instructions, "Gentlemen, start your engines!"

The tarps were pulled off, the wipers started wiping and the engines roared to life. The cars took a few slow laps around the track behind the pace car to get the feel of the wet surfaces and start to warm-up the tires, then the race began.

For the next few hours every team was on high alert as the racecars tore down the straight-aways and dove into the turns and corners despite the unfathomable conditions. In the first few hours there were numerous cars that slid out of control into some of the safe grassy or paved areas, and then a few not so lucky that came to a halt against a guard rail or a tire wall.

As the sunlight faded about 6 cars were already out of the 24-hour race. Then as fate would have it, the #52 Interush Ferrari spun-out entering a horseshoe turn and slid the front end into a tire wall. After a few seconds the Ferrari sprang back to life, back-up and got back onto the track, with its' front end hanging off the frame. The car carefully made its way around the track and was led back to the garage area where the teams' engineers were able to inspect the damage.

The remaining front cowling was removed, the frame was hammered back to position and the corner of the radiator was ground down to reshape. The #08 red Ferrari was taken out of its resting position in the Sigalsport transport vehicle and the front-end was removed.

It took about two hours for the team to get the new front end back on the #52 Ferrari and get it back onto the track, despite having lost so many laps to the other remaining competitors. This is an endurance race, and anything can happen.

For the next 3 hours the Ferrari held its own. The rain had stopped, but the track was still damp and the cool night air was making the track very slick. More cars spun out of control. More cars bumped one another. And more cars crashed requiring repair, either in the pit area, or in the garage area, or they were simply unable to be repaired.

It was at about 3 am in the morning that the silver Ferrari took its last lap and spun out of control, slamming the rear end into a wall. After about 400 miles (640 km) of high-speed racing, this time the car was too far gone and repairs could not be made to return it to the demands of the final 16 hours of racing.

By morning light, about half of the original 44 cars were no longer running. But the pace of the remaining racecars was still at a very high speed. Teams changed their tires about every hour, and changed their drivers about every 2 hours.

In the end it was a Porsche powered Daytona Prototype #9 Action Express Racing from Germany that had registered 755 laps in the incredible 24 hour endurance race, by drivers Ryan Dalziel, Terry Borcheller, Mike Rockenfeller and Joao Barbosa.In the GT class, the Castrol Mazda RX-8 #70 SpeedSource driven by Sylvain Tremblay, Nick Ham, David Haskell, and Jonathan Bomarito received the honors.
The cars, the crews, the drivers and the media reporting on all the action were all exhausted but jubilant as the winning team crossed under the checkered flag and then turned into Victory Lane where the media swarmed all over the victors. They were presented their ROLEX Daytona special edition watches, which they would proudly wear every day for the rest of their lives.

They were the champions of one of the worlds' most prestigious and demanding races and everyone at the track or the hundreds of millions of worldwide viewers could only imagine what it would be like to win the ROLEX 24 at Daytona.

At this time, Interush Racing and Sigalsport are both contemplating the future, but there is no doubt that INTERUSH, iRacing, and Google became a stronger force together, through this exciting race and one of the worlds' greatest events in 2010.

IRVINE, California USA. (Feb 4, 2010)