Veteran motorsports boss Tony Dowe is set to launch a Ferrari 430 GT assault on next year’s Rolex 24 at Daytona – aiming to take the Ferrari marque back to victory lane in Grand-Am Rolex Series competition for the first time since 2004.

The man who led the Kidlington-based TWR Jaguar squad to overall victory in the 24 Hour classic in 1988 and 1990 and a class win in 1992, Dowe has assembled a top-line international driver line-up for the January race for his Aten Motorsports squad featuring German Dominik Farnbacher, Brit Rob Bell and Danish driver Allan Simonsen.

All three have achieved great success aboard the Ferrari 430 in the past and the trio have a successful driving history together as teammates.

The Ferrari 430 GT has never won in Rolex Series competition – a fact Dowe, Farnbacher, Bell and Simonsen are looking to erase in January at Daytona. The last Rolex Series victories for the Prancing Horse marque were in 2002 when the Ferrari of Washington-entered Ferrari 360 GT won five races en route to the series championship.

Ferrari however does have a strong winning heritage at Daytona. Pedro Rodríguez won a three-hour sportscar event at Daytona in 1963 and teamed up with Phil Hill to win a 2000-mile enduro the following year.

Ferrari’s first 24 Hour victory came in 1967 with Lorenzo Bandini and Chris Amon while legends Marino Andretti and Jacky Ickx won a six-hour event in 1972.

Ferrari’s last overall win came in 1998 with Mauro Baldi, Arie Luyendyk, Gianpiero Moretti and Didier Theys winning aboard a 333SP.

At the Rolex 24 at Daytona, the Aten Motorsports squad will face stiff opposition – doing battle against the 2010 championship-winning Mazda RX8s and additional entries from Porsche, BMW, the Chevrolet Camaro and Corvette plus a new Lamborghini.

Dowe’s distinguished career began in the UK, working as a mechanic in Formula 1 for the Ensign, Brabham and Wolf teams before heading to the US in 1980 as chief mechanic for Patrick Tambay’s championship winning CanAM car entered by Carl Haas.

After working for Jim Hall’s Chaparral outfit in Indycars, Dowe was appointed as team manager for the newly formed Newman-Haas Indycar outfit in 1982 – eventually winning the title in 1984.

He was charged with establishing the Tom Walkinshaw Racing Jaguar US-base in late 1987 and began a remarkable run of success including three Daytona victories, 16 IMSA GTP wins and success at the 1990 24 Hours of Le Mans running the car of Martin Brundle, John Nielsen and Price Cobb.

Further stints followed in Formula 1 with the TWR group at Ligier and Arrows before returning stateside to run successful programs for Panoz, Dick Barbour and Tafel Racing – all based in Atlanta. He also took a class win at Daytona in 2003 running the Team Seattle SRP2 cars to 1st and 2nd in class.

The 2011 Rolex 24 at Daytona will be staged from January 27-30.