This race “weekend” will be condensed into only one day with two practice sessions, qualifying and the race all happening on Thursday, June 29.  The lack of track time should have little effect on Liddell and Henzler who have a great deal of experience there, each having won the GT class in the Rolex 24 at Daytona, in 2004 and 2005 respectively.  They joined forces in 2006, finishing sixth at the Rolex 24 for Tafel Racing.

 “With four victories this season, we’ve shown that we can win with this car.   We just have to keep working hard and giving our best performance at every race.  It’s the little things that help or hurt us,” said team owner Jim Tafel of Alpharetta, Ga. as he was preparing to leave Mid-Ohio.

Tafel will be driving the 73 NEC Porsche GT3 Cup with Andrew Davis of Bogart, Ga. Their car was sidelined early in the race at Mid-Ohio with an oil leak, but both car and drivers will be ready to take on the challenges of the famed 3.56 mile Daytona International Speedway.  The pair, who have three top-ten finishes this season, raced together in 2005 and finished fourth in GT in the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

Rounding out the Tafel team will be Eric Lux of Amherst, NY and Ian James of Phoenix,  Ar. in the 74 Rembrandt Charms Porsche GT3 Cup, which finished ninth at Mid-Ohio.  Lux  won this season at Daytona in the Grand Am Cup race wile James, the 2004 P2 champion in ALMS, finished fifth.

In typical Florida style, afternoon thunderstorms are expected all week, but they don’t begin to compare to the devastation brought on by the storms at Mid-Ohio. Tafel escaped with only minimal damage to awnings and other equipment compared to the destruction suffered in large areas of the facility and surrounding community.