Alex Roy retires from rallying, campaigning team in Grand Am Rolex series
In a move that's sure to surprise almost no one, Alex Roy – head of Team Polizei, multi-rally champion, author of The Driver and the man responsible for crossing the continent in 31:04 – has officially retired from road rallies. Roy, who hasn't participated in one of the ego-fueled events since his record-setting run, has tried to raise awareness about the inherently unsafe nature of the "sport" over the last few years, Now, he's taking the next step to prove that the time, effort and capital necessary to participate in the world of rallying would be put to better use on the track.Roy plans to race and campaign a team in the 2009 Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series, along with veteran Ferrari Challenge driver Henri Richard and Rene Villenueve as driver/team captain. Team Polizei is partnering with TRG, the 2008 Grand Am winners, to run at Laguna Seca on May 17, all the way through to the series' finale at the 24 Hours of Daytona.
In addition to bringing professional drivers and the street/tuner/rally world together, Roy is working on a new interactive track-side model that will combine live, streaming, high-definition video from the team's Porsche 911 race car, GPS/GPX tracking and a crew of volunteers/fans to work on video editing, web-content delivery and mapping to the masses.
Naturally, Team Polizei plans to be competitive, but Alex admits that they're in it to do more than win – the team wants to revolutionize the way motorsports coverage is delivered. Plan on reports from the pits at Laguna Seca for the team's first outing, followed by more from Watkins Glen on June 6.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Dan 7:38PM (4/16/2009)
Hope he didn't retire from finishing the movie.
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aaron 8:03PM (4/16/2009)
Yeah, we've heard nothing on the movie in several months and no one wants to ask as they are afraid to be jumped by whoever is running his sites. Very defensive people over there. They need to come out and say it's part economy, part legal problem, part small group of people actually working on the movie. I could be wrong but I WANT TO HEAR AN UPDATE.
Anyway, huge fan of Alex Roy and I'm excited that he's a part of something that I can understand, because the stuff between his real rallying and up until now (not including the movie) are kind of "who gives a crap". I mean that with all due respect and does not question Mr. Roy at all.
Bob Jacobson 7:49PM (4/16/2009)
the 24 hours is the season opener not finale. Cmon boys.
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greyhounds 8:50PM (4/16/2009)
There actually selling the Porsche that won this race at the Paul Miller Porsche that they have near me. They want a little more than $329,000 for it.
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cory 9:29PM (4/16/2009)
First off, congratulations to Alex and his team for this endeavor, to see something like this come to fruition is amazing. I plan on being there for the first race!
As for the film (www.32hours7minutes.com) Aaron, you're right, we haven't been good about keeping people in the loop for the past 6 months and I apologize for that. Being the director, I tend to get tunnel vision and focus solely on the film and neglect our public appearance. So, consider this our first announcement (not even on my own site!) since we went silent. We are about 2 months away from a finished movie. A lot has transpired since our last web post last fall...the entire project moved from NY to LA, we screened it many times over for feedback and a new editorial team was established to complete the film. (The economy didn't help!) I am so excited about the status of the movie; I really wish I could reveal more. But if you have more questions, please don't feel like we will be defensive, it's only me now who's 'manning the phones' and I welcome your questions and comments. Which reminds me, I better start writing our next post...Thank you for your patience and continued interest (and faith!) in the project.
- Cory
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aaron 2:17AM (4/17/2009)
Ah, thank you sir. I knew ya'll read Autoblog.
zamafir 9:29PM (4/16/2009)
awesome news!
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Seminole 9:58PM (4/16/2009)
Alex Roy is a really classy guy (Anyone who met him at 4ngiefest last year would vouch for that). I wish him the best of luck in the Rolex series.
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farbengas 10:59PM (4/16/2009)
"But if you have more questions, please don't feel like we will be defensive, it's only me now who's 'manning the phones' and I welcome your questions and comments."
having had my comments deleted and the comments turned off/locked, its a little ironic to hear that. i've been following this for so long and cobbling together what little snippets i can find out of excitement, curiosity, and yes a dash of frustration at how little info there is...its a little hard to feel welcomed to ask or comment on anything. i understand wanting to work on something and keep hush about it, keep it secret or whatever, but it is not a secret, there is video footage, a facebook page, a website etc etc...its been a bad user experience, a bad customer service experience, because when you advertise something out, like it or not you are then in the customer service business.
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Brian 11:13PM (4/16/2009)
"Roy, who hasn't participated in one of the ego-fueled events since his record-setting run, has tried to raise awareness about the inherently unsafe nature of the "sport" over the last few years"
Didnt Autoblog do a ride-along with him to pebble beach a year ago? That took what twenty-somthing hours?
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Damon Lavrinc 12:18AM (4/17/2009)
Brian,
Yeah, we did. But it wasn't a rally. We took a more leisurely 40+ hours to make the trip from NY to Monterey. Think of it more as a fact-finding mission.
kc 12:23AM (4/17/2009)
I like your updates. They are just good to read. Intrigue. What will be around the corner next. Always something to surprise.
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Flo 5:33AM (4/17/2009)
Didn't he participate in the Gumball after is NY-LA run?!
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cory 8:58PM (4/17/2009)
You're right, our silence in the last 6 months has not been good. This was in no way intentional and I am very sorry.
And the comments disappearing must have looked horrible, but that was just an over zealous programmer (a very dear friend of mine) who was concerned that I didn't know what was going on with my site (I didn't!). He told me he froze the comments and instructed me to re-post and respond. I dropped the ball. The comments are not deleted and I promise they will go back up, and I will address each one.
I hope I haven't lost you for good farbengas. -Cory
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ashleyvandyke 12:28AM (4/18/2009)
Congrats and good luck Alex.
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Jonny Jones 4:01PM (4/18/2009)
For those who are lacking info on the status of 32:07 then all you need to do is message Corey on Facebook. I did this and received a very friendly reply! They're still working hard on it and is due for release soon. She admitted she had not been updating the site/blog very much but I guess there's only so many hours in a day!
Great news about the switch to the track! Now I understand all the test videos Alex has been posting on his YouTube account! Good luck Mr. Roy!
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