The 50th Rolex 24 at Daytona
DAYTONA BEACH, FL – 01-12-24. Team Seattle starts their 16th year of fund raising for Seattle Children’s Hospital at the historic Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona. This year’s 50th running of the race sees an almost record number of GT entries and Team Seattle will be participating with the goal to not only finish strong but also raise as much money for the hospital.
Car No.41's amazing new livery
For the 3rd year running the team will partner with Dempsey Racing in a Mazda RX8 GT car. This year’s race promises to be one of the most competitive and exciting ever and the Dempsey Racing package is tipped to be a dark horse for a good finish based upon the growing strength of the team and their 3rd place podium in 2011.
Driving this year in car No.41 will be Team Seattle founder Don Kitch Jr, returning Dempsey Racing drivers Ian James and Scott Maxwell and for the first time running the 24, Dan Rogers and Rick Johnson.
As with all previous efforts, the goal remains to raise valuable funds for the Team Seattle Guild, which benefits the Cardiac Care Unit at Seattle Children’s Hospital. Since partnering with Dempsey, the team has raised well over $1M dollars and in the 16 years has now topped $5M. The premise remains simple: get a car to a 24-hour race and use it as a catalyst to raise money. Philanthropic efforts have ranged from pledge donations per lap, to photographs of donors (or their loved ones) appearing on the car.
Last year, the team introduced the “Buy a Heart. Save a Life” campaign that in its first running raised $70,000. This year, the team returns with a similar idea but a revised ‘heart’ to commemorate the 50th year of the Seattle Space Needle as well as the 50th running of the race. Donors have, once again, embraced the idea and while the total amount will remain secret until the race, really made a significant contribution.
To keep up to date and interact with Team Seattle, there are a series of options available to fans both at the track and online. The following are ways of tracking Car No.41s progress throughout the weekend:
AT THE TRACK
- Come and visit Dempsey Racing and meet the driver team for car 41
- Buy a heart at the track and we’ll have you sign and stick it on the car
- Buy Team Seattle merchandise at the garage or make a donation
- Timing and scoring will be available on mobile devices from m.grand-am.com
- Visit the team during the autograph session and get a signed hero card
ONLINE
- We’ll post photographs, videos and daily recaps on Facebook
- We will be tweeting so follow us @teamseattle
- Grand-Am will have live timing and scoring throughout the race
- Speed TV are covering all 24 hours (between online and TV)
If you haven’t done so already, you can “Buy a Heart. Save a Life” until Friday night where we’ll stick the final hearts to the car. Even if you don’t want to buy a heart, any donation will be most welcomed.
As the team gets the final preparations taken care it goes without saying that a big THANK YOU must be extended to each and every supporter who makes such a huge difference to our campaign.
