Story by Rodger HawleyEvery year the challenge of racing for 24 Hours straight around the 3.56 mile road circuit in Daytona Beach Florida is just too much fun to miss. For the last 15 years I have been lucky enough to be a part of this great race. For the last couple of years I have found myself saying that this might be my last time – this year was totally different. Even before this years race was finished I was starting to plan what next year might hold in store. But I am jumping ahead of our fantastic, yet not quite what we wanted 24 Hour race from this year.

We ended up getting a lot more TV coverage than we expected when the car caught fire and became a high light of the race footage that was run often as a recap of the race during the live telecast. Ironically, this year before the race I had decided that most people to do not even recognize our car during the TV segments so I had a 3 foot long by 18 inch tall ORBIT logo on both quarter panels in yellow on a dark blue background that jumped off the car. So when the TV cameras zoomed in on the car as it burst into a spectacular 20 foot flame the ORBIT logo was right were I wanted it, but not in the situation I was hoping for. Good news is that the driver was unhurt and was able to drive to the pit lane entrance where fire crews were stationed which limited the damage- actually the car was barely damaged by the fire but the flames burned through some fuel lines and some engine wiring which meant we had to retire the car after 16 hours of racing.

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.  - British sportscar ace, Johnny Mowlem has inked a deal to race with the Orbit Racing Team in the 2010 Rolex 24 at Daytona. It's a case of winners reuniting, as Mowlem won the GT class of the famed endurance race in 2004 at the wheel of an Orbit entry.

The team will be in Daytona for this weekend's Roar Before the Rolex 24 testing.

"This is a tremendous opportunity to win the race again," Mowlem said, with a broad smile. "We've been successful together before and I know from first-hand experience Orbit's level of preparation. (Orbit team owner) Rodger Hawley and I have always kept in touch and he spoke to me as early as September last year saying that he may have something for us to go and win another Rolex! Now the deal's just been put together and I'm very pleased."

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photo by John Thawley In what Guy Cosmo described as "the toughest race I've ever driven," the Orbit Racing No. 47 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car came home a winner for the American Le Mans Challenge class at the Monterey Sports Car Championships presented by Patron at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Starting from the pole, Cosmo's third consecutive on the season, he and John Baker were originally second before the Velox Racing Porsche of Shane Lewis and Mitch Pagerey was excluded in post-race technical inspections. Gruppe Orange’s Nick Parker and Don Pickering were second, Richard Rodriquez and Galen Bieker placed third for P7 Racing.

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Frankly, I’m amazed that we took the green flag to start the race in Montreal considering the events leading up to it.  While the skies and the forecast threatened rain we felt conditions would stay dry at least for the start of the race.  I had just finished scuffing the tires for my co-driver, Ryan Dalziel, and was exiting the pit lane with my own new set of tires that I was to start the race with.  On my way to the grid position I spun the tires to warm them up as I exited the first corner.  As soon as the tires began to find some grip on the slippery pavement I heard a loud crack from the rear of our BMW Riley Daytona Prototype. I quickly discovered that I had a box full of neutrals, meaning that I could rev-up the engine in all the gears but the car would not move.  I had completely lost drive in the car.

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