DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - Pirelli returns to Daytona International Speedway Thursday to race under the lights in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16 Brumos Porsche 250. The July 3rd race will be broadcast live on SPEED at 8 p.m.

This will be Pirelli's second foray onto Daytona's legendary road course this season as official tire manufacturer for the Grand Am Rolex Series. Pirelli made a successful series debut in the season-opening Rolex 24 at Daytona where new qualifying records were set in both the Daytona Prototype and GT classes. Competitors were impressed by the endurance and durability of both the P Zero dry weather slick and rain tires during the 24 hour race.

"The Pirelli tires were excellent for the Rolex 24, not only for my qualifying run, but also in the race," said 2008 Rolex 24 pole winner and Daytona Prototype track record holder Oswaldo Negri Jr. "The increase in grip and mid-corner stability just made the Daytona Prototypes that much more fun to drive, and made the racing better too."

Negri will once again be behind the wheel of the No. 60 Michael Shank Racing Ford Riley he shares with co-driver Mark Patterson, who will handle the qualifying duties this time around at Daytona.

"The first few laps on these Pirellis are like a gift," Patterson said. "Obviously, Oswaldo put them to excellent use in qualifying for the Rolex 24 pole and it will be up to me to get the best possible qualifying run that I can on Thursday. Talk about pressure; and I don't mean tire pressure! The conditions will be very different for the Brumos Porsche 250 from what we experienced in January at the Rolex 24 because of the qualifying session in the heat of the day and the race taking place under the lights. No matter what the temperatures or potential rainstorms are like, we know the Pirellis will give us excellent grip throughout."

Central Florida has experienced rain every day over the last week. Current forecasts call for a 50% chance of showers Thursday afternoon and evening. The 50/50 odds for inclement weather should not bother most Rolex Series competitors as Pirelli rain tires were met with rave reviews when teams twice called on them during heavy periods of rain during the Rolex 24. Pirelli's racing rain tires also proved up to the task in the wet and wild EMCO Gears Classic presented by KeyBank at Mid-Ohio two weeks ago.

"We have really been able to adapt well to the new Pirellis," said Memo Rojas, who was part of the winning Rolex 24 team with regular co-driver Scott Pruett and all-star additions Juan Pablo Montoya and Dario Franchitti in the No. 01 TELMEX/Chip Ganassi Racing Lexus Riley. "We should be able to adapt accordingly if it rains again this weekend."

On the GT front, Sylvain Tremblay's No. 70 SpeedSource Castrol Mazda RX-8 won both the pole and the race at the Rolex 24. Tremblay set a new record to win the pole and then co-drove to victory with Nick Ham, David Haskell and Raphael Matos.

"We had such great success with the Pirellis at Daytona, we can only hope for more of the same," Tremblay said. "Since then, we have made great strides with the setup we are using with the tires and we are almost to the point of using them for a double stint. The weather this weekend will help us make that decision."

This Thursday's Brumos Porsche 250 at Daytona is the kickoff event of a full holiday weekend of racing at Daytona that sees the Grand-Am Rolex Series share the card with NASCAR's Nationwide and Sprint Cup Series.

Pirelli Tire North America designs, develops, manufactures and markets tires for passenger vehicles, motorcycles and race cars for original equipment and replacement markets. Located in Rome, Georgia, Pirelli's Modular Integrated Robotized System (MIRS) employs state-of-the-art technology to manufacture tires for both export and domestic markets. For more information please visit www.us.pirelli.com.