Andy Lally and Ted Ballou started their 2010 attempt for a Grand Am Rolex Championship with a 3rd place finish in the 24 Hours of Daytona this past weekend.

Ted and Andy were teamed with Pat Flanagan, Kelly Collins and Wolf Henzler for the twice around the clock race that started Saturday at 3:30pm and continued through the night nonstop until 3:30pm Sunday afternoon. The team battled rain, heavy traffic, electrical problems and a broken header pipe on the exhaust for what was one of the most up and down events the team had been a part of in recent years. Fortunately the event ended on and "Up" note as the #66 AXA Financial TRG Porsche was able to bounce back with great teamwork from the crew and smart driving to step onto the podium in Daytona.

Ted Ballou and Andy Lally are teaming up for the season in the #66 and are the only drivers to finish on the GT podium at the Daytona 24 the last three years in a row. "This is a great start to the season for us" said Lally, "Any time you can end up on the podium after all the craziness a 24 hour race throws at a team you need to be thankful. There are so many close calls in these races and so many split second choices by both our fantastic crew and our drivers that any one bad decision could cost you the race. This is my 6th podium finish in the last 9 years at Daytona and I have been very fortunate to be paired with excellent drivers and great teams to get these opportunities."

Since the Grand Am Rolex Series started in 2000, there has been no other driver to stand on the podium at the Daytona 24 as many times as Lally has in both the GT and Daytona Prototype classes.

"It is an honor to work with such a great team and Im really looking forward to the full season with Ted Ballou, we get a long great and have won in the past together so Im looking forward to winning together in the future. Ted is getting stronger every time he steps into these cars and he is one of the best starters in the GT class, its hard to find a guy that is both fast and calm behind the wheel like he is. We both come here to win races and win Championships. I love this series and have such a good time here with this team. Kevin Buckler has put together a strong group that is very deep in knowledge, talent and experience and we will call on that through out the season to get us to the front. We have AXA financial on board with us this year and I want to say thank you to Brent Koch for getting behind us. He is as much a competitor as any of us and I can see the fire in his eyes when we start to do well and I know he wont except anything but 100% effort!

 The next stop for the Grand Am Rolex Series is Homestead Miami Speedway. You can watch the race live on SPEED Channel on March 6th at 5pm.