American Factory Ace to Race at Daytona with Brumos in Rolex 24, CTSCC for Fall-LineThe motorsports world may be waiting for the "36 Hours of Florida" to return in 2014, but Bryan Sellers has no plans to hang around talking about it. Always ahead of the curve in preparation, the Braselton, Ga.-resident plans to run his own "Florida 36" and, in fact, plans to go a few hours further by opening his season with the 26-hours and 30-minutes of Daytona International Speedway (DIS), January 25-27. Sellers returns to the wheel of the No. 46 Trim-Tex Drywall Products/Fall-Line BMW M3 with Fall-Line Motorsports at the celebrated Daytona Beach, Fla.-facility for the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge's (CTSCC) GRAND-AM 200 on January 25. He immediately follows that with his debut in the legendary No. 59 Brumos Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup in the 51st Annual Rolex 24 At Daytona Rolex Sports Car Series event, January 26-27. The Team Falken Tire factory driver then travels to central Florida's Sebring International Raceway (SIR) for multiple days of testing at the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón "Winter Test", February 7-8. In all, it will be a good dress rehearsal for when the GRAND-AM and ALMS merge next season.The merger - known in the sport as "The Future" - will see the '14 season open with the Rolex 24 At Daytona followed by the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring. This will reintroduce the once infamous back-to-back endurance races into the "36 Hours of Florida". Prior to that, there is a lot of work to do. Sellers opens his 2013 season officially with the two-hour and 30-minute CTSCC race for Fall-Line with co-driver Mark Boden (Winnetka, Ill.). The pair earned three GS-class podium-finishes for the Buffalo Grove, Ill.-based operation in 2012 including a third-place at Daytona. The BMW was solid in testing during "The Road Before the Rolex 24", January 4-6 but much work remains to get the V8-powered sedan back to the same result it had last January. The combined GS/ST class race takes the green flag at 1:45 p.m. (Eastern) on Friday, January 25.Sellers will then turn his full-attention to winning his first Rolex 24 At Daytona. The 3.56-mile, 12-turn speedway road course has been good to the former open-wheel racing champion in the past with a third in GT class as lead driver for The Racers Group (TRG) in 2007 and a second in 2011 with Paul Miller Racing. However, the top-step of the podium at Daytona has eluded him. 2013 could prove to be the perfect combination however as Sellers joins the most celebrated team in Daytona sports car racing history; Brumos Racing.
The now mythical white Porsche with the red and blue stripes bearing the No. 59 won the GT class pole position and finished third here last season. Under the guidance of now-retired driving icon Hurley Haywood, the Jacksonville, Fla.-team brings 2011 GRAND-AM GT Champions Andrew Davis (USA) and Leh Keen (USA) together with Sellers for the twice-around-the-clock event. Also in the driver rotation will be Porsche factory driver Marc Lieb (Germany) who will be making his third Rolex 24 start for Brumos.Leaving Daytona, Sellers travels to the third leg of his tour with the ALMS test in the No. 17 Team Falken Tire Porsche 911 GT3 RSR. The multi-day test will give the team and Falken time to prepare for the 61st Annual Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring on March 16. Sellers will share the Porsche with Wolf Henzler (Germany) with whom he has driven to three ALMS GT class wins. A third driver will be announced at a later date.
