Each year a small group of us look forward to the Daytona 24 hour
race. It is a race like no other this side of the pond, and the atmosphere
is quite different from anything put on by the NASCAR crowd. It is
that atmosphere that makes the race weekend so enjoyable. It is an
entertainment value that is hard to beat, four days of racing, a room on
the beach, and nightly entertainment all for under $400 a person including
transportation, accommodations, suppress race tickets and meals.
It's always an adventure. You never know who you'll meet, what you'll
be driving or where you'll stay. All that is guaranteed is a good
time.
Three of us (Rick Foster, Brendan Purse and I) flew into Jacksonville from BWI about noon Thursday before the race about noon. Next off to the car rental to upgrade to a luxury class ride (for all of $8 more a day per person!), and by 2:30 we were in Daytona, at the Checker's across from the track, in our Sedan de Ville, eating burgers with the windows rolled down, in mid-seventies weather, listening to the prototypes lap the track just across the street. Shortly thereafter we popped across the street to the track and picked up our Super-Pass credentials, which allowed entry everywhere except onto the hot pits. Next mission: Find a room.
Part of the adventure of Daytona is shopping for accommodations.
Daytona Beach is relatively empty, and most innkeepers are happy to have
the business. Forget trying to book in advance, it lacks bargaining
power. We cruised the strip for a few minutes, limiting our inquiries
to beach front hotels that looked decent, and after a few inquiries had
a room for four at the Aruba for under $20 a night per person. Ocean side
pool, and with a little effort you could actually see the Ocean from the
window! The room was clean, it had cable with Speedvision, a working
AC, 'fridge and the help spoke English, what more could you ask for!
Now to get our bearings, check out night practice, see who qualified where,
and well, take a nap! A bit later (maybe 10 o'clock) Rick and I felt
a bit restless so we took about a four mile walk on the beach. Temperature
was in the seventies and the sky was pitch black, save the sprinkling of
stars and a set of search lights.
Next we head for the pits. Wow. Now Daytona is an animal all it's own. The rule in the pits is that you can go ANYWHERE that isn't roped off as long as you are not in anyone's way. Only a small percentage of the pits are roped off, mostly the people performing major surgery or the American teams. The spectators are very respectful, again, nothing like the NASCAR crowd. I walk along and almost bump into Boris Said. Very tall. There's Max Pappas at arms length in a golf cart.
We stop by Racer's Group and
Kevin Buckler asks me if I am ever going to send him that chili I promised
him. (Yesterday he e-mailed me his Fed-Ex number with a request for some
Chili along with some Pulled Pork from the last Non-Exec meeting).
I had fed-ex'd him some last year along with some parts that needed to
be exchanged. He writes Lydia a note saying he wishes she could be
there (we spent the better part of a week with him a few years back in
Sonoma when I set up his web site) and we let him get back to the business
of managing his million dollar effort. He has three Porsche factory drivers
with him in the number sixty-six 911 GT3-RS, and two more cars, including
one piloted by Larry Schumacher, who has been racing and winning with various
911s for the last decade.
The rest of the day is spent watching the Motorola Cup then going back through the pits looking at all the crews prep for the race. Here you can walk INTO the pit. Last year I actually rolled under a car with the mechanic to take pictures! He didn't mind, just smiled and kept going! Around noon we grabbed some lunch, my cell phone rang, and it was Joel Wahlsten. He drove in from Mississippi via Orlando, where he had been vacationing with Christie and the girls, to spend the weekend with us. Now we were four. We went to check out the variety of GT3Rs in the pits, like FORTY of them!
On the way back to the room we pop into Biker's Depot. Ohmagod. Very cool bikes!
Ya know, what trip would be complete without some heart-clogging collesterol-raising Denny's-dining. The waitress/stormtrooper stopped me at the door with my 34oz. cup of coffee, so I was forced to order two Grand-Slam breakfasts. Keeping my svelte figure is always a priority, and I didn;t want to run out of energy before we got to the track and dug into the grocery bag full or such healthful favorites as Cheetoz and Fritos Super-Scoopers, all to be washed down witrh some nice Schaefer beer..
The morning of the race was a zoo, but that's to be expected.
I have never seen Brendan angry, but him leaniong on the horn an narrowly
missijng a predestrian was quite an eye-opener. We finally found a spot
in Nascar 4 just in time to see a herd of
917s go by. Wahoo! They were maybe fifty feet away.
On our way to the hairpin, we saw one of the best outfitted campsites I
have ever seen. Huge stereo, TV, Playstation2 and Speedvision. Could
it be complete without carpeting and a faux-leather couch? Keg of beer
is just out of sight inside the pop-up trailer.
Since the banking is steep you actually look at the tops of the cars. More in the pits, then it's time to go out on the Grid. With a full Super Pass you can walk out on the grid just before the race. All the drivers are mulling about and the cars are in starting lineup. You can stick you heads in the cars and see the drivers and the scantily clad spotter girls and it's 100% eye candy! Last year I got bumped into by Dale Earnhard. This year I stood next to the Speedvision camera guy as he interviewed Boris Said. Pre - Race on the grid cannot be beat!
Just before 1pm it's time for "Gentlemen, start your engines!". We watched the first few hours of the race from the hairpin, also known as the most likely place to spin. Luckily I had invested heavily in hearing protection! The race is a long long LONG grind, but there are all sorts of things to do. We left the track around 5, grabbed an early dinner, then watched some of the race on Speedvision to get caught up on the standings. We had been out until after am the previous morning so we settled down for a well needed nap.
About 8 pm we went back to the track and watched the action from
the top of the stands near the entrance to the infield. You can literally
see the entire track from there. Flames shooting and brake rotors
glowing, there is something special about night racing. Then I got
a all from Chuck Pirelli of Potomac Region and we headed over to his Winnie
parked nose in against the fence where the racers enter the banking.
He was staying there with Dean Drewyer, Nando and Sandy VanDein. The view
from the roof was nice, as was that from the cabin where the GinTonics
were being served Watkins Glen Style and we drank a toast to Lydia.
Here's Rick in his "Most Favorite Posision"
Later that night came the annual Go-Kart Race. About two dozen
of us converged on GO Kart City, near Daytona, at Midnight. We had
made arrangements with the owners to rent the entire track, which normally
closes at 11 pm. For thirty dollars we each got an hour of uninterrupted
seat time. Minor rubbing was allowed and there seemed to be many
versions of "The Line" though getting a fender in and taking the corner
seemed to work out pretty well. After that we went on to other diversions
best not discussed here.
Dawn updates
After getting in a bit past four AM, sleep was not a problem.
Getting up at 7 am was. We ended up catching Speedvision coverage
until about 9:30 then headed off to the track to see the remainder of the
race. We decided to park outside the track and headed for the stands
far above the entrance to the infield.
Closing minutes
The number 38 car fielded by Champion Motorsports was a porsche
powered prototype (dsay that three times fast!) on a reilly and scott chassis.
Driven by ANdy Wallace and Hurley Haywood in SRP, it went into the race
as a contender but didn't even start for two laps into the race and waas
constantly in the pits for the first several hours. It did, however, aquit
itself by gettign on the pace and runnign consistant laps and by the twenty-first
hour it was ahead of the fifty place Rocketsports Racing Jaguar GTS car.
With just under an hour to go it pitted and fell into fifth just behind
the Jag.
With about 20 minutes to go the Jag pitted for tires and Gas and the Champion was back to fourth, where it finished!
Victory for Buckler, at last
I have been involved with The Racer's Group to one extent or another
since 1999, when I did their live webcast from the pits. This year
Kevin brought a million dollar budget, three cars, three factory drivers,
and a pit crew a couple of dozen deep to the race. Starting in fortieth
overall and third in GT class, the 66 car with Kevin at the helm managerd
to inch its way up into Seventh overall and first in class cotesting a
field of approximately thirty 911 GT3Rs throughthe 24 hours. All
three cars finished well, and crossed the finish line together. Kevin
is now the owner of a Rolex Daytona and has proven his operation to be
truly world class! Of the seventy-four starters, just oevr half (43)
were running by the end of the race. Congrats to Kevin and the entire Racer's
Group team!
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Copyright 2002, Dr. Steven J. Timmins, I.G.Inc.