Camaros Mustangs and Challengers

[Steve Chryssos]

I'm here at Daytona. It's pretty cool to see Camaros, Mustangs, and Challengers run side by side in practice and qualifying. Tomorrow they will officially battle together for first time in more than 25 years.

The Series: The Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge.
The Event: The Fresh From Florida 200.
The Class: Grand Sport (GS)



Start time is 1:45 PM and the race should last about two and a half hours if you can sneak out of work.

That's pretty big news--especially if you're a fan of pony cars and the old Trans Am Series.

[ls6monte]

Sweet! That Camaro looks awesome!

[Restomod]

HA They are ALL awesome!!! If we could only repace NASCRAP with this!!!!!!!!

[Ron S]

That looks so cool, this is one series I would travel to see. Its about time they started racing some real stock bodied American cars again. Whats up with the little (ricer looking) tires on the Challenger? Ron

[Steve Chryssos]

The tires, amazingly are spec Continental 275/35-18's. But the wheel arches on the Camaros and Challengers are designed to accomodate 20" wheels, so the tire to wheel arch gap is huge with the race tires--especially on the Camaros. I assume the gap causes an aero disadvantage.

The cars are amazingly stock. As they should be. The upper level class call GT allows for extensive mods. And even those cars respect the stock shape.

...Off to the track!

[Bryce]

That is awesome!! thanks for sharing.

[JEFFTATE]

Thanks for posting Steve-O !
I wish I was there.
I've always wanted to attend the 24hrs of Daytona .
I'm going to see this series at Barber Motorsports Park in April .

[Steve1968LS2]

Wish I was there too..

Did you snap any cool shots?

This is like the golden age of cool cars all over again

[Van B]

I was just looking on cable. Is it going to be televised anywhere?

[Neil B]

That looks so cool, this is one series I would travel to see. Its about time they started racing some real stock bodied American cars again. Whats up with the little (ricer looking) tires on the Challenger? Ron

They've been doing this for years. First it was IMSA, then Motorola Cup, then Grand-Am Cup, then Koni Challenge. Having the 3 majors represented is cool, but there simply hasn't been any mainstream interest in this series. I raced Motorola Cup back in 1999 and 2000 in a Mustang Cobra R, several Pontiac Firebirds, and BMW. For what it is, this is an incredibly expensive series to race in and (at least back then) there simply wasn't enough interest from sponsors to justify the expense. I hope that changes, because this is a really neat series from a competitor's perspective.

[JEFFTATE]

I was just looking on cable. Is it going to be televised anywhere?

The Continental Tire Sportscar Challenge race at Daytona ( on Friday ) will be recorded and televised on SPEED on Feb 13th at 7:00 pm.

http://www.grand-am.com/schedule/ind...es=k&cat_id=91

The Rolex 24hr race on Saturday at 3:00 will be televised live .

[Damn True]

Top 5:

BMW M3
BMW M3
Porsche 997
Ford Boss 302R
Camaro GSR

[moreHP]

I love that and wish I could get to see it. Thats real racing to me. I am just not a huge fan of the go straight turn left and repeat all afternoon crowd.

[Scott Parkhurst]

I will definitely check this out on TV! Thanks SPEED!!

[79-TA]

This race will air on the Speed Channel on February 13, 2010 at 7 PM eastern time. Set your DVR's!

http://www.grand-am.com/schedule/ind...es=k&cat_id=91

^ Jeff Tate already said all of this, but there it is again in case anyone scrolled over it.

The Koni Challenge series has been good for a long time and the addition of the Challenger and Camaro just make it all that much sweeter. I had just gotten used to calling it the Koni Challenge series and now I have to get Continental Tires Sports Car Challenge set in my mind. The ST class is actually pretty good to watch too.