'Geeky Thoughts: Hour 0 - Here we go!

Hey, all, it's The Speedgeek here. It's that time of the year again, the time for Ron and Wedge to allow me into their place to put my feet up on the furniture and drink up all the Hennessey that they got on their shelf. That's right, it's time for Blogathon!

I'm here primarily for the 24 Hours of Daytona, though I may also check in a bit on the Roger Federer/Andy Murray Australian Open final, and I'll hopefully be here for the Blogger Roundtable and tonight's International Mario Kart Wii Festival (heretofore known in my posts as the IMKWF...well, if I manage to remember to mention it again). That's right, I've got my rental copy of Mario Kart Wii, and I've been plowing through the 50cc championships, so look out! You've all got a fight on your hands for 10th!

OK, just a couple of quick thoughts on the 24 Hours for now. I think that the Brumos team will be very hard pressed to repeat in the Daytona Prototype class, as they're down to one car and one car teams are not always the luckiest (see: Gainsco, 2009; Suntrust, 2009 and a couple of other years). At the same time, the Ganassi cars are running Dinan BMW engines this year following the withdrawl of Lexus from GrandAm competition, so there's a wild card in play in the event's dominant team's camp. The Gainsco team is dealing with a massively rebuilt car after Jimmie Johnson wrecked in the infield on Thursday avoiding a GT car, so this is not likely to be a cakewalk for them, either. The GT class is made up of 13 Porsches, seven Mazdas, a Ferrari, a couple of BMWs and a couple of assorted GM products (Corvettes, Camaros and Pontiacs).

So, who's going to win? Well, last year, I put the hex on Gainsco and said that Ganassi would hit trouble. I basically ignored the Brumos team in my pre-race post, which I've avoided this year, but I don't think it's going to be any of these teams. I'm going out on a limb and saying that Mike Shank Racing is going to win it this year with one of their cars. I'll go with the #6 car for the win. Last year's problems with the crank sensor wheels have been worked out, and they should be strong again. GT is wide open, but I'm feeling in a Mazda mood this year. With a gun to my head, I'd put my money on one of the Speedcource cars, the winning team from 2008. I'll take the #69 in this class. Everything's up for grabs, though, even with a low car count, since it's raining in Daytona and it looks like it'll be raining at least through part of the night. That always leads to a wild race. Well, unless they go red flag...

Signing off for now, before the green drops. One more thing: a huge thanks to Mrs. Speedgeek, who's indulging my blogging/chatting/Wii habit today, even though it's the 5-year anniversary of our meeting. To boot, she's suffering from a pretty bad cold and the loss of her voice, so here's hoping for a quick recovery for her. Maybe some Patrick Dempsey today will put her right.

All right, let's go!