Friday, January 25, 2019

Rolex 24hr. At Daytona Begins - Ep. 1 - The Torque Show

The Torque Show live broadcast via streaming at Motor Trend and The Torque Show Facebook page was announced at The Petersen Automobile Museum in Los Angeles. The announcement included a meet and greet with the show hosts Justin Bell, Tommy Kendall, and Mazda Prototype driver Jonathan Bomarito. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2019) 

Rolex 24hr. At Daytona Begins - Ep. 1 - The Torque Show

This year will mark the 50th Anniversary season for the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) . The season begins with the 57th Rolex 24 At Daytona this weekend at Daytona International Speedway, Florida.

Cobbled along with this grand beginning of a new season will be the intorduction of a new video show production titled The Torque Show (not "The Talk Show" as it kinda' sounds when Justin Bell, with his British accent, announces it) featuring former drivers turned broadcast talkshow and on-track race commentary stars, Justin Bell and Tommy Kendall. Before traveling to cover the events happening in the paddock at Daytona, Justin and Tommy, joined by Mazda Ladder standout driver and previous (2010) Rolex 24 At Daytona class winner Jonathan Bomarito, held a meet and greet announcement at the Petersen Automobile Museum Thurs. Jan. 17th, 2019..

In the tuning sessions most of the teams participate in before holding the Rolex 24 At Daytona - Roar Before the Rolex 24 -  Jonathan ended Saturday, Jan. 5th, 2019, atop the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship time charts by the slimmest of margins, posting a best lap of 1 minute, 34.533 seconds in the No. 55 Mazda Team Joest RT24-P Daytona Prototype international (DPi). Bomarito’s time, which came under the bright lights of the 3.56-mile circuit Saturday night, was just one-thousandth of a second quicker than Renger van der Zande’s lap of 1:34.534 in the No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R from the afternoon session.

Both laps were well under the current WeatherTech Championship track record of 1:36.083 set last year in Rolex 24 qualifying by van der Zande.
(ht: IMSA Wire Service)


This excerpted and edited from The Torque Show -

Where Winners Hang

Before there were lifestyle bloggers, there were real lifestyles lived by real people.  Of all the lifestyles lived, none perhaps was richer than the pinnacle of professional sports car racing: brave drivers, exotic machinery, danger, beautiful women, money, and drama. 

This is not hyperbole. Everyone wanted to be a rock star, the rock stars wanted to be movie stars and the biggest movie stars want to be race car drivers; Steve McQueen, Paul Newman and Patrick Dempsey, to name a few. Nothing compared to real heroes testing themselves against their own fears, their competitors and fate, driving real fire-breathing experimental race cars, putting real lives on the line, immersed in the sexiest, most glamorous world you could imagine. That was IMSA then and that is IMSA today as it celebrates its 50th anniversary. 



In IMSA, like every other gathering, there is the one group that is having the most fun, the fun table, so to speak. It’s where the larger than life personalities gravitate to and with them everyone’s eyes and attention. It’s where the best stories are told, the most laughter is heard, and the best times are had. Back in the day, it was perhaps Gianpiero Moretti’s transporter where he made his signature pasta for the titans of industry and the assortment of interesting, smart and beautiful people that congregated there. 

Today, in the IMSA paddock, it is with Justin Bell and Tommy Kendall on The Torque Show set. Nothing against lifestyle bloggers, but they capture a lifestyle in one or two dimensions and usually just a veneer that represents the lifestyle. 

The Torque Show is going to bring this world in all of its three dimensional richness to fans around the world. It is where everyone will naturally gather to hear their heroes share stories of the big wins, wild moments, heartbreaks, and some of the stuff not fit for television. We will break down the action, take part in some good-natured ribbing, mediate some disputes, and do a little bit of celebrating too. Coming to an IMSA race near you. 

Will you join us? 


DURATION: 52:32

Beyond The Torque Show, found live at Motor Trend and posted to Youtube, the television schedule for the IMSA Prototype Challenge was announced earlier Saturday. As part of IMSA’s new agreement with the NBC Sports Group, all IMSA Prototype Challenge races will be shown on NBCSN throughout the season beginning with the Daytona broadcast on Jan. 26 at 2 p.m. ET. or catch the realtime Timing & Scoring at https://scoring.imsa.com/

... notes from The EDJE




TAGS: The Torque Show, Motor Trend, 57th Rolex 24 At Daytona, 50th IMSA Season, Tommy Kendall, Justin Bell, Jonathan Bomarito, Mazda Prototype, Track Record, The EDJE

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