The GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series returns to the Brumos Porsche 250 event after a pulsating close at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Race Course. The Michael Shank Racing team will pair the Canadian racer Michael Valiante with co-driver Mark Patterson in round eight of the competition that features many world class drivers.

Michael Valiante started his Rolex Sports Car Series career in 2005 when he made four successful Rolex Series Daytona Prototype starts leading to one fifth place finish at the Watkins Glen event. In 2006 he made 14 starts in the Rolex Sports Car Series. However, he was able to convert only two of these starts into decent finishes; fifth place positions at Homestead-Miami Speedway and Crown Royal 200 at The Glen. Year 2007 was marginally better as it featured a second placed finish in the Rolex Series Daytona Prototype competition at Iowa Speedway along with seven other top 10 finishes in the racing calendar.

The year 2008 saw the team making a spectacular comeback after the team’s racing equipment was destroyed while in transit to the tournament venue. The team put the incident behind to finish third at the Watkins Glen Event. Later, Michael Valiante combined with Max Angelelli, to form a potent combination; finishing the season with one victory, three podium finishes and six top-10 finishes.

In 2009 Michael Valiante joined Michael Shank Racing to post two podium finishes at the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series. The team ended in the seventh position in overall team standing.

The Rolex Sports Car Series originated in the year 2000 after the rolling back of the United States Road Racing Association. The main attraction of the series is the endurance class events at Rolex 24 at Daytona and the Watkins Glen event. The racing series originally featured Sports Racing Prototypes and GT class vehicles. Later, the SRT was phased out because it was felt that it made the tournament difficult to manage. The Daytona Prototype was included in its place.

The main objective of the tournament was to usher an era of competitive racing.  In order to do so the organizers choose to control the racing environment with a string of rules and regulations that kept a tight leash on technological developments. These rules and regulation put all the competitors on an equal footing greatly increasing the quality of the races and drawing more crowds as a result.

The Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No.16 begins with the Rolex 24 at Daytona and concludes on September 11 at Miller Motorsports Park. The series also features races at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Barber Motorsports Park, Virginia International Raceway, Lime Rock Park, Watkins Glen Event, Mid-Ohio Sports Race Course, Daytona International Speedway, New Jersey Motorsports Park, Watkins Glen Short, Circuit Giles Vileneuve and Miller Motorsports Park.

Tags: Brumos Porsche 250, Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series, Michael Shank Racing, Mid-Ohio Sports Car Race Course, rolex, Rolex 24 At Daytona

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 26th, 2010 at 2:14 pm and is filed under Rolex Culture, Rolex Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.