ERIC CURRAN RACING

Following a productive 2011 racing season in the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car series and Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge series, veteran racer Eric Curran looks forward to the 2012 season’s first green flags.

GRAND-AM’s season begins with two races Jan. 27-29 at Daytona International Speedway, featuring the 50^th running of the Rolex 24 At Daytona – America’s longest major auto race since 1966.

In the Rolex 24, Curran, of Deerfield, Mass., will race the #75 Stevenson Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro GT.R in the GT class with teammates Matt Bell, Al Carter and Hugh Plumb.

All GRAND-AM race weekends are double-duty for Eric. The day before the Rolex 24, he will begin the Continental Tire season in one of the CKS Autosport Chevrolet Camaro GS.R cars.  His co-driver for his season with the CKS team is again Canada’s Ashley McCalmont.

Once the Rolex 24 At Daytona is in the record books, Eric will settle into the cockpit of the fire engine red Whelen Chevrolet Corvette C6 for a third season of contesting the Rolex GT class races.

Curran hopes to capitalize on the best parts of his 2011 seasons with both teams, and look for a strong 2012 season.

On the final lap of the Rolex GT at Road America, Wis., last June 25, Curran brought the event’s large crowd and its nationwide SPEED TV audience alive when he took the GT class lead halfway through the final lap and held it to the checkered flag to win the team’s first Rolex race.

The half-second victory margin won the race for Curran, for his substitute co-driver John Heinricy, and especially for Ted Marsh, owner of the team sponsored by Sonny Whelen, and for Buddy Fey, the team’s lead engineer.

Curran missed the Watkins Glen and Montreal races due to a torn left Achilles suffered in a racing mishap, but returned for the season finale.

Curran has raced Teddy Marsh-built Corvettes and other Chevrolet-based race cars for Teddy and for Sonny Whelen since 2007 in Grand Am Rolex, World Challenge GT, and NASCAR road course and oval track events.

“I’m really excited about all the changes GRAND-AM has made to the 2012 schedule,” Curran said.

“The one that excites me most is racing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. I've never raced there before and I’m excited to drive a new track at a world-famous venue” The Rolex Sports Car Series race on July 27-29 is combined with a very popular NASCAR Sprint Cup weekend.

Indy’s infield road course is GRAND-AM’s first venture to the world-famous “Brickyard.”

The traditional Memorial Day race weekend at Connecticut’s Lime Rock Park has been

promoted to the role of championships-deciding venue, with a season-ending date of Sept. 28.

"Lime Rock is always a big weekend for me, Sonny, Teddy, and Whelen Engineering,” Curran said. “We are all New Englanders, so we draw a big crowd for that race. And not to mention this is the track that I basically grew up at. And, I won the Continental Tire races there in 2006 and ’08.”

The upcoming Rolex 24 At Daytona, the opening pitch of every GRAND-AM Racing season, will be Curran’s fifth start in the world-famous race.  His best finish was a third place in class driving a Chevrolet Camaro.