This is the Statt Mann Baby. It's time to Scatt a little bit.

I’m not one of those who’ll automatically cheer for the underdog. Some of my biggest favorites are the biggest dogs in the kennel.

But this weekend I’m smiling because Michael Shank who’s chosen to keep his team in OUR home town in Central Ohio won the Rolex 24 at Daytona. You don’t win one of these races without luck and Shank’s team had its share. But they won and I’m happy for it.

In the Rolex GT category, Magnus Racing is another underdog who closed the deal at the Rolex 24. John Potter who owns the team has a great sense of humor so it was funny to see him at a loss for words when they stuck a microphone in his face in Victory Lane Sunday afternoon.

But maybe the largest underdog of the weekend is a little known driver from New Hampshire who won the American Super Production rally championship last year and started his defense this year with a 15 minute win at the Sno*Drift Rally Saturday in Michigan.

Travis Hanson and his father/co-driver Terry Hanson might be the most consistently unassuming competitors in all of racing. Travis told me Friday that he was starting the rally with a bad engine and he’d go as far as he could.

One of the guys he beat was a former champion from Belgium.

I love it when the underdog becomes the top dog in the yard.

Peace.