Photo by John Thawley Guy Cosmo and Spirit of Daytona Racing pulled out all the stops at Homestead Miami Speedway for the GAINSCO Grand Prix. This phase in the teams development of the #09 Porsche-powered Coyote Daytona Prototype would be summed up in one word. Aggressive. After Cosmo’s stellar qualifying run that saw the team positioned 6th on the grid, a decision was made to let the Porsche power out and make a run for the front.
While the Coyote is a derivative of the Fabcar, the oldest Daytona Prototype chassis running in the Series, the Porsche power more than made up for the disadvantage the team finds themselves with. As newer packages come on line, and still others compete with thousands of hours of development time, Spirit of Daytona continued to show they have what it takes to run at the front.
And run at the front they did. After the first caution Cosmo had the car up in second place. And pushing the car to its limits, he was able battle his way into a competitive top-5 position. But a late race spin as he was working his way to 4th resulted in an off-track excursion costing him valuable track time. After turning the car over to Marc Camirand, the team finished 13th on the day.
“This had to be one of the best races I’ve had in Grand-Am,” noted a disappointed Cosmo. “Taking a completely undeveloped car and mixing it up with the best of the series was incredible. Unfortunately, I was working so hard to keep that car with the lead group towards the end of my stint, I had one little slip and the car got away from me.”
“Our car was very good on the brakes compared to the other’s in the field,” continued Cosmo. However we experimented with our gearing to reduce wheel-spin on corner exit, and it wound up making us a bit slow off the corners. So naturally I was trying take full advantage of our braking capability to gain me some distance on entry to compensate for where we were losing on exit.”
But Cosmo’s teammates were behind his efforts one hundred percent.
“Before I strapped into that car,” said Cosmo, laughing, “I was told to do anything in my power to get that car towards the front and drive it absolutely on the ragged edge ‘till the wheels fell off. So that’s what I did. The only problem with doing that is sometimes you fall off - I guess I just asked a little too much in that last braking zone, got some rear brake lock-up and the car got away from me as I was entering turn 8.”
“I know that Guy is disappointed with what happened, but I’m not mad because we want these guys to be pushing and he was doing just that,” said Flis. “We just didn’t have our brake bias set like we should and it caught him out. This really isn’t even a track where we’d expect to be that quick because this car makes a lot of downforce so this layout doesn’t really let the car shine like it can, so to be quick here gets us pretty excited about getting to the Glen and to Barber and places like that.”
“I’m really proud of what we saw out there from this car today,” said Spirit of Daytona team owner Troy Flis. “We raced our way into the top five—it wasn’t a fluke pit stop situation or anything so we’re really excited to have that kind of pace in this car’s first ever sprint race. We feel like there is more we can do still and everyone on this team is really excited about that.”
Cosmo and the Spirit of Daytona #09 Porsche/Coyote are scheduled to run:
Rolex 24 ~ January 26 - 27, 2008
Homestead ~ March 29 - 29, 2008
Watkins Glen 6hr. ~ June 7 - 7, 2008
Mid-Ohio ~ June 20 - 22, 2008
Daytona 250 ~ July 3 - 3, 2008
Barber Motorsports Park ~ July 20 - 20, 2008
Montreal ~ August 1 - 1, 2008
Watkins 200 ~ August 8 - 8, 2008
Guy Cosmo’s extensive background with open-wheel formula cars and sports prototypes has earned him a reputation as one of the most successful and versatile young racing drivers in North America. The 2005 American Le Mans Series Rookie of the Year ranks among the top-level road racers in the world. He has earned overall racing titles and major successes in many disciplines including karting, Formula Ford, Formula 2000, Star Mazda, Toyota Atlantic, Grand American and American Le Mans. You can learn more about Guy Cosmo at www.guycosmo.com.
The Grand American Road Racing Association, which operates and sanctions the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16 and the Grand-Am KONI Challenge Series, is the premier road racing organization in North America. The 15-race 2008 Rolex Series and the 11-race KONI Challenge Series calendars deliver professional sports car racing to key markets throughout North America in addition to being televised in the United States and Canada on SPEED and distributed globally through ESPN International. Learn more about Grand-Am at www.grand-am.com.
Spirit of Daytona set for sixth on the grid at Homestead
Best-ever qualifying for Lozano-Brothers-prepared Porsche-FABCAR
Homestead, Fla. (28 March 2008) – Spirit of Daytona Racing set a new high in the development program for the Porsche-powered FABCAR by scoring sixth in qualifying for the GAINSCO Grand Prix on Friday as Guy Cosmo set a fast lap time of 1:14.043-seconds at Homestead Miami Speedway. The third row start marks the best qualifying result in the short history of the Porsche-powered FABCAR Daytona Prototype package, which is set for a third outing in Rolex Sports Car Series competition on Saturday afternoon.
The package first saw competition in the 2007 Rolex Sports Car Series season finale at Miller Motorsports Park, taking the checkered flag after completing nine hours of racing. The package then took on the ultimate test--and passed--scoring a top ten finish in January’s Rolex 24 At Daytona. Spirit of Daytona Racing continues to develop the entry, which is fighting a Rolex Series field full of Daytona Prototype combinations that boast thousands of race miles heading into Saturday’s two hour and forty-five minute race.
“We’ve shown that this car is reliable in the first two races its run, and now we just need to keep building the speed into it,” said team owner Troy Flis “We were hoping for a top ten, so we’re obviously happy to qualify sixth today. Guy did a great job and he really got up on the wheel. We’ve been focused on our race package, so hopefully things go well again tomorrow. It’s still early days with this car, but today is a good day for sure.”
Cosmo will start the race behind the wheel of the Spirit of Daytona machine before turning the car over to Marc Camirand.
“There was so little grip out there that I have to admit I didn’t really think we were going to be that quick, but I just tried to get as much as I could from what the conditions would let me, and it’s great to end the session up where we did,” said Cosmo, who was greeted by a wide scope of well-wishers with congratulations after the session. “We still have a long ways to go with the car, but to look at who we are ahead of on the grid, I think the Spirit of Daytona Racing guys should be pretty proud today. I think the race is going to be tough, but hopefully we can keep this pace again tomorrow.”
Saturday’s two-hour and forty-five minute race will take the green flag at 3:00 PM ET. Speed Channel will broadcast the event on a tape-delayed basis starting at 6:00 PM ET.
Check into www.guycosmo.com, www.spiritofdaytona.com and www.grand-am.com for updates.
###
Sunday Group Management/SoD
Hello everyone!
To continue my lengthy, yet hopefully interesting, story about who I am, where I came from and how I came to be a part of Grand-Am competition, I figured I'd... well, just... continue my story!
So, I left off last week's journal describing how I had just won the 2002 Star Mazda North American Championship and had absolutely no opportunity in front of me to advance in open-wheel racing (click here to read last weeks story). So on New Year's Day, 2003, I packed my bags, loaded up my tiny little Toyota MR2 with all of my driving gear, my rollerblades and as many clothes as I could fit and drove down to Daytona to hang out at the January test days. Obviously my goal was to introduce myself to teams, owners, crew members, drivers and anybody I could shake hands with. I wanted to race the Rolex 24 At Daytona!
I drove non-stop from New York to Daytona to arrive outside of the speedway, in the grass where everyone was parked waiting to get inside. I hadn't slept for 24 hours, which I look back now and realize was good practice for the race - coincidentally - and passed out in my car for a little while. I distinctly remember waking up, getting out of the "Mister Two" for a stretch and bumping into a guy that couldn't stop talking about his love for Porsche's and his excitement to race in GT. His name was Mark Greenberg, and I'll never forget meeting him because every time I see Mark he jokes around about how he caught me sleeping in my car like a canned sardine waiting to get into the speedway. As you could imagine, I asked Mark if he needed another teammate! Although he didn't need one at the time, the speedway opened the gates and I was on my way to meet and greet.
The scene inside once the teams unloaded was pretty interesting. First, Daytona International Speedway is impressive on it's own, and just walking around the place gives you a special feeling. Then, seeing all of these teams in the garages with these wild GT cars and prototypes, with tons of crewmembers scurrying around, was almost overwhelming. The whole experience was considerably different than the paddock of the open-wheel development series that I was used to. But it was cool, and I wanted to be a part of it!
After walking around for a few hours and 'mingling', I bumped into my very good friend and former teammate from Star Mazda, Josh Rehm. Josh was his usual, chipper self, telling stories, cracking wise comments and keeping the atmosphere light, as he did so well, but it was Josh that introduced me to Darius "Dag" Grala - the man himself. Grala was fielding a Daytona Prototype for the category's inaugural season, with John Shapiro at the helm of the team, Cegwa Sport.
Of course there was no convincing Darius to give me a few laps in the Daytona Prototype during practice, but it was certainly a great introduction. I went on to meet a lot of the other teams and staff of Grand-Am, and left with a pretty positive feeling; however no sign of finding a ride for Daytona.
Once the test was over I headed for West Palm Beach to teach at a racing school for a few days when my phone rang. "Hello Darius Grala!" It turns out that Josh had pulled yet another one of his incredible maneuvers... (if any of you knew Josh Rehm you know exactly what I mean - Josh was one of the biggest characters and probably the craziest person I ever met - more stories later). Josh's maneuver was convincing Darius that he needed to have me as part of his team for the 24 and support two open-wheel racing champions in their pursuit of sports car racing stardom - like Josh and myself. Well, Dag agreed! I was on for the 24!!
What a lineup, and what an experience! Darius Grala, Oswaldo Negri, Josh Rehm and Guy Cosmo to drive the Cegwa Sport Toyota Fabcar for the inaugural Rolex 24 for Daytona Prototype. SWEET!! By that time I had hardly driven anything with more than 180hp or weighed more than 1200lbs, and I had never driven at Daytona either! Well, the race weekend rolled around and I can tell you that my first session in the car was one of the most terrifying experiences of my life! 500hp, a big, bulky car, really loud, high-banks of Daytona, bumpy high banks that is, and doing 180mph next to a solid concrete wall with paint stripes all over it. This was a new experience! Did I mention that the first race weekend of the Daytona Prototypes ever running meant that the cars were...well, brand new, undeveloped, and not yet quite driver-friendly? Here I got to see the prowess of Oz Negri and his experience and ability to develop and setup a car, and he did a great job. As did all of us, I have to say - Josh, Dag and I were all on pace and comfortable enough in the car that we were ready to race.
One quote sums it all up: "Not a single blade of grass." Those were the famous words of Darius Grala, in reference to what we weren't allowed to touch with Dag's car. Not even a single blade of grass! Needless to say Dag brainwashed all of us. If we even had thoughts in our heads of trying to go fast during the race, that he would personally kill us. This race was meant for finishing, and this was an undeveloped car that was very likely to break. At least not for 16 hours, before it caught on fire and ended our race. (We officially finished fourth in the Daytona Prototype category.) However, the whole weekend was one of the greatest experiences of my life, and I was now a Grand-Am Daytona Prototype Driver.
The experience was invaluable. I was one of very few drivers to now have any experience in a Daytona Prototype, which meant I was invited to test with Dag and the gang to help develop the car in preparation for the other races they were planning to attend. However, what really happened was the following. Josh Rehm decided that it was in his best interest to finish college before diving into sports car racing fulltime, and Josh convinced Dag to have me drive in place of Josh for the remainder of Dag's racing plans that year. Josh's friendship and belief in my ability was evidence enough that Dag agreed.
Unbelievable! It's extremely rare in racing that you'd have a friend that would actually give you a drive instead of steal one from you. Josh was a very giving person. Years later he gave my cats fleas! Not only did he give my cats fleas, my whole apartment became infested with fleas (THAT is a very long story for another time) and I had Josh to thank for that too! Josh also exposed me to a whole new vocabulary that many of us call Rehm-esque or Rehm-ism's.
I'm sorry for the tangent, but I'm telling all of you this because Josh's life was tragically ended in a car accident a few years ago and he was very special to a lot of us in the paddock - and will always remain special. So Josh, if you're reading, we all say hello, we miss you, and I literally owe it all to you, buddy!
The following is the first of a weekly Driver Blog written by Guy for the Grand-Am.com website. Check in each Friday for an updated blog!
Hello Grand-Am Readers!
My name is Guy Cosmo, and this is the first of my weekly blogs exclusively for Grand-Am.com. I'd first like mention that as many of you may already know, our fellow friend and competitor Jason Workman is still fighting for his life after a critical accident he had just a few weeks ago - and I hope all of you that are reading will take a few moments to keep Jason in your thoughts and prayers. We all look forward to see his smiling face at the track soon again, and behind the wheel of a car like he loves so much.
Back to blogging, I figured I'd treat this introductory blog as an opportunity to give a little insight as to who I am, where I'm from, and how I came to be a part of Grand-Am racing. So, as Austin Powers would say, "Allow myself to introduce...myself..."
To start, you'll find me throughout the season behind the wheel of the No. 09 Spirit of Daytona Porsche/Fabcar Daytona Prototype, more officially known as the Lozano Brothers-prepared Porsche-based V-8/Fabcar. Joining me behind the wheel for the season is Marc-Antoine Camirand, who I grew up racing against in go-karts - but that's a fun story we'll save for later.
About me? Well, it all started when I was 11 years old. I grew up on Long Island, New York (and yes, I'm proud of it!). My father, Guy (the original), had started his own engineering and machinery business and was putting a lot of time and effort into the company. Of course, being home with my sister and I, my mother told my father he needed to find a hobby to spend more time with me. Although she's probably regretted it every day since, my father picked RACING! Oh yeah! What 11-year-old kid wouldn't want to go racing? It was an obvious choice, as my father had raced on an amateur level for a few years when I was young and we always watched raced together on the weekends and worked on the various cars he had in the garage.
I was an extremely shy, scrawny, skinny little guy when I was young, and the first time I drove a go-kart I was terrified of it! Fortunately that didn't last too long (thank God I got over that!!). I quickly took to it like a fish in water - you couldn't get me out of that kart until it ran out of gas. Then, as soon as Dad dumped a few gallons back in, I was off before he could get the gas cap back on! It then morphed into a family affair. Although my mother was terrified of her 'sonny boy' getting hurt, both her and my sister were supportive of my driving. Then my father's two brothers - Uncle Nick and Uncle Tony - as well as my father's shop foreman, Rick, all got just a little involved with us; they all got karts of their own! Well, Uncle Nick was always more of the voice of reason and stayed on the sidelines, but Dad, Uncle Tony, Rick and myself would bang wheels (and sometimes helmets) all day long.
I'm sure you're wondering why I'm going into so much detail about this, and I guess the answer is that those first few years I began driving, working on my karts, interacting with new people at the track and sharing such a close relationship with my family were the truly formative years of my life and turned me into who I am today. Well, that, and everything else that happened in my life since those days of course - but that was the start. Racing for fun with family and friends, traveling on the weekends to new places and seeing the country - it was incredible for me and taught me a lot at a very young age.
To speed the story up, we quickly began racing first locally, then regionally, then nationally, then internationally. We reached the point where I was invited to compete in the World Championships of Karting in 1995 in Valence, France. After seven years of kart racing I had won a wide number of races, a few championships and trekked halfway around the globe to race at the absolute highest level of kart racing on the planet. Where to next? Formula cars!
The process from this point on was fairly common for a lot of kids in my situation. Our families were able to support us through the beginning ranks of the ladder system in this country within our financial means, and then we run out of money and try to find ways to get in race cars without having to pay for it. In my scenario, we had to do this as affordably as possible, so we did everything ourselves.
I was one of very few (young) drivers at the track working on the car, driving the truck and trailer, prepping all my equipment before and after races. My father taught me that if I didn't put the effort in myself, no one else was going to! From there we ventured into Formula Ford in SCCA, then a few years in Formula Continental and the USF2000 Pro Series, where we won championships each year for our respective classes.
I then stumbled across a Scandinavian Formula 2000 series and managed live in Denmark for a year competing overseas (where I first met Jason Workman, and he and I shared an apartment in Denmark that year), where I finished second in the championship. Then came back to the U.S. for a limited (and stretched attempt) in the Toyota Atlantic series, but simply couldn't afford to run more than a handful of races. Without huge financial backing we decided to step down from Atlantic to the Star Mazda Championship - which turned out to be a great opportunity for me. I won a number of races and went on to win the championship that year, in 2002.
What did all of this mean? Well, unfortunately, in racing, absolutely nothing. All those years racing and finding success in open-wheel development series and after winning championships, there was absolutely no opportunity for me to advance in open-wheel racing without huge financial backing. So, on New Years Day 2003, I packed my bags, filled my car and headed to Daytona. I was going to walk through the Grand-Am paddock at the January Test Days and find me a ride for the Rolex 24 At Daytona and pursue Sports Car racing as the next step of my career.
"Daytona, Grand-Am - here I come!"
To be continued...
Photo by John Thawley Daytona Beach, Fla. The Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16 46th running of the Rolex 24 At Daytona was held January 25-27 at Daytona International Speedway. When the checker flag fell after 24 grueling hours and over 2,300 miles of intense competition it was the No. 09 Spirit of Daytona FABCAR /Porsche leading the way for Porsche-powered Daytona Prototypes, finishing 10th in class.
The new No. 09 Spirit of Daytona car made its racing debut at the 2007 season-ending event at Miller Motorsports Park last September. The team also participated in the Pirelli tire test at Daytona back in November. Guy Cosmo shared the driving duties with his regular co-driver, Marc-Antoine Camirand, while the two were joined for the Rolex 24 at Daytona by Rolex veteran Michael McDowell.
"I’ve been saying all along that this car keeps improving each time we go out,” said an exhausted Cosmo. “Developing a new chassis and motor program at the same time is a huge undertaking, so we’re extremely realistic with our objectives and goals. Coming in to the race I was optimistic of finishing and felt we had a top-10 car, so I’m really pleased with our result.”
“This is a great foot forward for this program and to take a top-ten result with a package that’s basically brand-new shows that there is a tremendous amount of potential here,” said team owner Troy Flis. “I’m really proud of the effort that the entire Spirit of Daytona crew put in just to be ready for the weekend, and I know we leaned pretty hard on this driver line up with just three guys in the car. But fortunately we had the right three guys in there, and were able to keep everything moving forward all race long. We learned a ton, and now we’re just anxious to put that info to use the next time we get the chance to.”
The Rolex 24 at Daytona is a 24-hour endurance race that takes on a much different complexion than any other race. It requires a very patient approach and cool-headed management of your equipment. Cosmo, his co-drivers and the entire Spirit of Daytona team stayed committed and met the challenge.
“This motor overheated twice during the weekend and frankly just one of those would have knocked any other motor down for the count,” said Cosmo. “But once they cleared out the rads and got the fluids sorted out, it just went back on track and kept pounding out the solid laps right to the finish. I’m amazed. That’s the kind of stout reliability that’s crucial if you want to finish this race. It’s great to get to the finish-I’ve never done that before and it’s been a long day and night, but it feels fantastic! I'm so proud of this team and driver line up. We all persevered and out-lasted some very strong competition.”
Cosmo and the Spirit of Daytona #09 Porsche/Fabcar are scheduled to run:
Rolex 24 ~ January 26 - 27, 2008
Homestead ~ March 29 - 29, 2008
Watkins Glen 6hr. ~ June 7 - 7, 2008
Daytona 250 ~ July 3 - 3, 2008
Barber Motorsports Park ~ July 20 - 20, 2008
Montreal ~ August 1 - 1, 2008
Watkins 200 ~ August 8 - 8, 2008
Guy Cosmo's extensive background with open-wheel formula cars and sports prototypes has earned him a reputation as one of the most successful and versatile young racing drivers in North America. The 2005 American Le Mans Series Rookie of the Year ranks among the top-level road racers in the world. He has earned overall racing titles and major successes in many disciplines including karting, Formula Ford, Formula 2000, Star Mazda, Toyota Atlantic, Grand American and American Le Mans. You can learn more about Guy Cosmo at www.guycosmo.com.
The Grand American Road Racing Association, which operates and sanctions the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16 and the Grand-Am KONI Challenge Series, is the premier road racing organization in North America. The 15-race 2008 Rolex Series and the 11-race KONI Challenge Series calendars deliver professional sports car racing to key markets throughout North America in addition to being televised in the United States and Canada on SPEED and distributed globally through ESPN International. Learn more about Grand-Am at www.grand-am.com.
Photo by John ThawleyDaytona Beach, Fla. The 2008 Rolex Sports Car Series season gets underway this week with the 64th running of the famed Rolex 24 at Daytona. Guy Cosmo is back in the No. 09 Spirit of Daytona FABCAR chassis fitted with a new Lozano Brothers-prepared Porsche-based 5.0-liter V-8 engine, His goal for the week? Build.
The new No. 09 Spirit of Daytona car made its racing debut at the season-ending event at Miller Motorsports Park last September. Using that race as a real-world test of wheel-to-wheel competition to prepare for the 2008 season and the Rolex 24, Guy and the team continue their growth.
“Developing a new chassis and motor program at the same time is a huge undertaking,” noted Cosmo. “We’re being extremely realistic with our objectives and goals. And, not only for this race, but also looking at the big picture. We look at those teams that have succeeded in this series and we respect that their success didn’t come overnight or easy. Spirit of Daytona is prepared to do the hard work.”
In addition to Cosmo, the team has signed Rolex Sports Car Series regular Marc-Antoine Camirand. Camirand and Cosmo promise to be a force to be reckoned with as both drivers participated in the team's 2007 outing at Miller and their most recent test for the Rolex 24. The team also participated in the Pirelli tire test at Daytona back in November. They are joined for the Rolex 24 at Daytona by Rolex veteran Michael McDowell.
"The car keeps improving \and a lot of improvements were made at the January test and the Pirelli tire test in November," said Cosmo. “Those two tests provided a lot of data to use as a baseline for this race,”
“That said,” added Cosmo, “our expectations are real. Our strategy for the 24 is to simply run a solid pace, work within the cars limits and be there at the end. A 24-hour endurance race takes on a much different complexion than any other form or racing. It requires a very patient approach and cool-headed management of your equipment. A top-10 finish is a very reachable goal for us, but more importantly, 24 hours of hard racing data will help improve the new car and build the program. But, I'm confident the Fabcar chassis is capable of running at the front of this very competitive field. The Lozano Brother's Porsche-based V8 motor is rock-solid and has great potential. Certainly it's as reliable as they come and we keep gaining more and more power.”
“Lastly,” Cosmo asserted, “the Spirit of Daytona team is here with the right attitude. They’re prepared to work hard to reach their goals. You can’t ask for more than that."
Cosmo and the Spirit of Daytona #09 Porsche/Fabcar are scheduled to run:
- Rolex 24 ~ January 26 - 27, 2008
- Homestead ~ March 29 - 29, 2008
- Watkins Glen 6hr. ~ June 7 - 7, 2008
- Daytona 250 ~ July 3 - 3, 2008
- Barber Motorsports Park ~ July 20 - 20, 2008
- Montreal ~ August 1 - 1, 2008
- Watkins 200 ~ August 8 - 8, 2008
The Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16 46th running of the Rolex 24 At Daytona runs January 25-27 at Daytona International Speedway.
Guy Cosmo's extensive background with open-wheel formula cars and sports prototypes has earned him a reputation as one of the most successful and versatile young racing drivers in North America. The 2005 American Le Mans Series Rookie of the Year ranks among the top-level road racers in the world. He has earned overall racing titles and major successes in many disciplines including karting, Formula Ford, Formula 2000, Star Mazda, Toyota Atlantic, Grand American and American Le Mans. You can learn more about Guy Cosmo at www.guycosmo.com.
The Grand American Road Racing Association, which operates and sanctions the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16 and the Grand-Am KONI Challenge Series, is the premier road racing organization in North America. The 15-race 2008 Rolex Series and the 11-race KONI Challenge Series calendars deliver professional sports car racing to key markets throughout North America in addition to being televised in the United States and Canada on SPEED and distributed globally through ESPN International. Learn more about Grand-Am at www.grand-am.com.
