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Colorful Pre-Race Ceremonies Lead Into Rolex 24 At Daytona

Wayne Taylor Racing No. 10 pushed to its third-place starting spot. [Joe Jennings Photo]

Wayne Taylor Racing No. 10 pushed to its third-place starting spot. [Joe Jennings Photo]

By Joe Jennings

DAYTONA BEACH – With a capacity crowd on hand, the fans jamming their way into the Daytona International Speedway were treated to colorful pre-race ceremonies. Numerous activities were run, including a parade of pristine vintage racing machines and the always popular autograph session.

In the latter activity, some 200 drivers participated with Jeff Gordon, the Porsche teams and the Verizon IndyCar Series stars reaping the lion’s share of attention.

Next came the Fan Walk and the roll-out of the GTLM, GTD and PC classes of cars with driver introductions following that.

With the count-down underway, the fans pressed against the ropes to witness the roll-out of the Prototype. Led by a marching band, the P class followed them with each driver’s national flag flying high over the car with the cars being pushed by the crews with the drivers walking in front of or behind the car.

Introduction of other dignitaries followed with brief comments made.

Lastly, the drivers climbed into their machines while awaiting Grand Marshal Dario Franchitti’s command to start the engines.

Even though the weather was unseasonably cool and overcast, the large crowd enjoyed the opportunity to see the drivers and cars up-close, and they lined the fences awaiting the start of the long race.

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