The Rolex 24, What Happened, Segunda Parte

 

(If you want to catch video highlights of the first six hours, and more …)

Some leftover bits and pieces as the Rolex Sports Car Series transitions to sprint racin’.

ALTHOUGH NOT ENTIRELY INCORRECT, a widely disseminated media outlet’s claim that the 1986-1987 Rolex 24 races were the last time Porsche put together back-to-back wins fell significantly short of describing Porsche-power’s Rolex 24 winning record of back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to- . . . well, an 11-race string of consecutive victories by Porsche-power that, while having ended in 1987, actually began in 1977.

Even that 11-race victory string, though, tends to understate Porsche-power’s dominance of Daytona International Speedway’s annual endurance classic, in which the German manufacturer has won 22 of the event’s 48 races – in chassis ranging from March to GAACO (ask Michael Gue or Dave Klym) – since capturing its first overall win in 1968 with drivers Vic Elford, Jochen Neerspach, Jo Siffert, Rolf Stommelen and Hans Herrmann (Porsche 907/8).

However, to the other extreme, it may be disingenuous to ignore Porsche-powered cars as having claimed 40 percent of that time period’s average race field (those actually taking a green flag) during the 1977 through 1987 races. In those 11 races the percentage of competing Porsches ranged from a low of 21 (1987) to a high of 58 (1979); exceeding 50 percent of the competing car counts on four occasions (1978, 1979, 1980, 1981).

Nevertheless, the number of Porsches was market driven, in that the bulk of entrants individually and freely chose to race a Porsche, evidently due to aspects other car manufacturers left unmatched.

THE ROLEX SERIES’ 2010 GT CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS’ reconciliation will change as of the sprint portion’s first green flag inasmuch the Rolex 24 At Daytona’s second-place No. 71 Flying Lizards/TRG Porsche GT3 driving team presently aren’t scheduled to compete in the March 5-6 Grand Prix of Miami. Thus effectively in second place for the series’ 2010 GT championship are TRG’s Ted Ballou and Andy Lally (No. 66 AXA Porsche GT3), who are teaming for the rest of the season. Also benefitting from the one-spot upward bump, into an effective “third,” are Andrew Davis and Robin Liddell, drivers of the No. 57 Bryan Mark Financial Stevenson Motorsports Camaro.

A few days ago, while referring to the team’s fourth-place GT finish at Daytona, Davis said, “We came out better than ever before in the points and would’ve won the 2008 championship if we had come out of Daytona with a fourth place. While I really want a Rolex 24 watch on my wrist, I’d rather have the championship watch.”

A 40-SOMETHING CAR COUNT HAVING PREVIOUSLY OCCURRED FIVE TIMES (excluding the 1963, 1964 and 1965 fields) the 2010 Rolex 24’s “small” 44-car field (those which actually started) stirred some into frenzies of dire apocalyptic visions (Maya; 2012? You make the call!) but such field size might have actually been expected given the apparent correlation of Daytona 24 field sizes with Business Cycle Expansions and Contractions (National Bureau of Economic Research) in which is found a decreased field count occurring coincident to four of the five U.S. recessions since 1969.

Indeed, so drastic was the 1973-1975 recession (spurred by the “Arab Oil Embargo”) that the 1974 Daytona 24-hour race wasn’t even held. So, one supposes, the lowest-ever Rolex 24 car count would be “zero” (that being the race that never was) and such record will be hard to break - likely only to be equaled should humans ever get beyond the need to race for anything. And that ain’t gonna happen – at least not for Homo sapiens sapiens (yep, kinda like Boutrus Boutrus-Ghali), Cro-Magnon chapter, which arose from European early modern humans in the Late Pleistocene period and mostly today is tied to Haplogroup N, the mitochondrial DNA of whom is found among today’s Middle Eastern, Central Asian and North African aboriginal populations. Feel better, now?

And speaking of descendant haplogroups: spotted among those competing in the 1992 Rolex 24 (for reasons that later may or may not become apparent to, say, JJ O’Malley): U.S. Olympic Skiing twin brothers Steve and Phil Mahre; movie actor Robert “Bobby” Carradine (Revenge of the Nerds); Jim Pace (who two years later with Wayne Taylor and Scott Sharp would take overall Rolex 24 honors); Johnny O’Connell driving a Nissan 300ZX in his big-time Nissan-driving days; Derek Daly (Nissan R90C); Andy Pilgrim (Mazda RX-7); Wayne Taylor in a Tom Milner Spice SE90P; Chip Robinson, Arie Luyendyk, Geoff Brabham and Bob Earl in a Nissan R90C; Jack Baldwin, Paul Gentilozzi, Darin Brassfield, Irv Hoerr and John Wirth in Your Father’s Rocketsports Oldsmobile Cutlass (“Oldsmobile” was an actual automobile manufacturer, ask your father … of course); one-time NFL quarterback and eventual drag racer Dan Pastorini; the late Bob Wollek and Louis “You Can Call Me ‘John Winter’” Krages; HANS co-creator Jim Downing; Gianpiero “You Can Call Me Moe” Moretti, who drove with Henri Pescarolo, Frank Jelinski and Hans “In The Future Let’s Omit ‘Joachim’” Stuck; David Loring, Don “Tree-Hugger” Knowles and Chuck Kurtz in a “Leitzinger Racing Nissan 240SX, in which Butch Leitzinger and Bob Leitzinger wouldn’t get seat time because they drove a better-finishing Nissan 240SX (though Kurtz pulled double duties in both); Wally Dallenbach Jr., Dorsey Schroeder and Robby Gordon competed in one Roush Ford Mustang while Jim Stevens, Calvin Fish, Mark Martin (of today’s No. 05 Hendrick Motorsports team) were in another; Jimmy Vasser raced with Parker Johnstone in a Comptech Racing Spice SE91P Acura; All American Racers’ Rocky Moran, P.J. Jones and Mark Dismore in Toyota-Eagle MkIII; Hurley Haywood, Roland Ratzenberer, Vern Schuppan, Scot Brayton and Eje Elgh teamed in a Porsche 962C; Davy Jones, David Brabham, Scott Pruett and Scott Goodyear finished second overall in a TWR Jaguar XJR-12D.

OF FLEET FEET -- The lead-lap cars on Sunday morning (some 18-hours into the race) were turning speeds that would’ve put the cars roughly fifth and six on Saturday’s race grid.

Excluding those teams failing to at all post a Rolex 24 At Daytona qualifying time, of fleeter foot than qualifying were: No. 7 Starworks (1:43.207 vs. 1:43.322); No. 44 Magnus Racing (150.523 vs. 150.722); No. 40 Dempsey Racing (1:50.616 vs. 151.122); No. 23 Alex Job Racing (1:50.296 vs. 1:50.298); No. 14 Autometrics Motorsports (1:52.448 vs. 1:52.580); No. 18 TRG (1:56.892 vs. 1:58.932); No. 19 Black Flag Racing (1:55.327 vs. 1:57.357); No. 59 Brumos Racing (1:41.394 vs. 1:41.513); No. 21 Matt Connolly Motorsports (1:54.822 vs. 1:55.482).

The 2010 winning Rolex 24 team’s completed distance (755 laps/2,687.8 miles) is the third-highest on record over the 3.56-mile Daytona International Speedway road course, first employed in the 1985 race, and is only exceeded, overall, by the second-place 1990 (761/2,709.2) and first-place 1992 (762/2,712.7) Rolex 24 races in distance covered. Even though not actually recording the race’s fastest lap, No. 9 Action Express Porsche V8-Riley driver Mike Rockenfeller’s team-fast-lap of 1:41.722 still ranks as the eighth-quickest overall race lap turned on the 3.56-mile course. “Rocky’s” fast lap even bested that of Frank Jelinski’s 1990 race-best 1:41.794, set in (what’s evolved into “Audi Sport Team”) Joest Racing’s No. 0 Porsche 962C, during a race won by Davy Jones, Jan Lammers and Andy Wallace in the No. 61 TWR Jaguar XJR-12. The 3.56-mile Rolex 24 overall road course lap/distance kings are 1992’s Masahiro Hasemi, Kazuyoshi Hoshino and Toshio Suzuki (any one of which with whom this journalist would love to speak), who racked 762 laps in their No. 23 Nissan R91CP. Juan Fangio II and his Toyota Eagle MkIII scored the 1992 race’s fastest race lap with a 1:40.943. In the 2010 version, SunTrust No. 10 Dallara-Ford driver Max Angelelli did a 141.101 fast lap.

WALKING THROUGH THE PAST, SLIGHTLY -- Being an official, card-carrying AARP member (and being well beyond that organization’s minimum qualification age), this writer finds it kind of funky to every now and again revisit, among other things, past clothing fashions, The Constitution (and subsequent revisions) and, of course, long-ago racing (those who don’t understand why one “revisits,” will eventually; if nothing else but because a sage Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás once wove “forget,” “past,” “doomed” and “repeat” in the same philosophical thought).

Piqued while taking a look at the 1990 and 1992 races in a Rolex 24 rearview mirror, curiosity served to revisit SunTrust Racing head Wayne Taylor’s rendezvous with endurance-racing destiny, accomplished at the dawn of the “drop top” World Sports Car age when he, Scott Sharp and a Mississippi gentleman named Jim Pace won the 1996 Rolex 24. Rediscovered were this journalist’s reports from the race and its preceding “Open Test Days,” today renamed a slightly more melodic “Roar Before The 24.”

“DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Jan. 8) – International Motor Sports Association rookie Bill Auberlen closed Monday’s final round of the three-day IMSA Test Days as the latest to unofficially better Daytona International Speedway’s Exxon World SportsCar track record, posting a 126.09-mph (1:41.634) fast lap in his No. 30 Momo Ferrari 333SP as teams worked to prepare for the Feb. 3-4 Rolex 24 At Daytona. Immediately following Auberlen was a second-fast Wayne Taylor in the No. 4 Danka Oldsmobile R&S Mk 3 at 126.07 mph (1:41.651). Third was motorsports dean Gianpiero Moretti, who turned a 124.91 mph (1:42.597) in the same No. 30 Ferrari as Auberlen. In all, five drivers eclipsed the 3.56-mile road course’s WSC record of 124.034 mph (1:43.326), set last year by Italian Mauro Baldi during qualifying for the annual road-racing classic. Baldi was among those who bettered the record on Monday.”

Included weeks later in the 34^th Rolex 24 At Daytona race wrap:

“DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Feb. 4) -- Marking the first time in three tries that a World Sports Car scored an overall victory at the Rolex 24, American drivers Wayne Taylor, Scott Sharp and Jim Pace hustled their Doyle Racing No. 4 R&S Oldsmobile to a less-than-one-lap victory Sunday, completing 697 laps over Daytona International Speedway's 3.56-mile road course while averaging 103.324 mph. Close behind in second place was Italian Massimiliano ‘Max’ Angelelli . . . ”

Driving the final segment, Taylor kept one eye on his car’s rearview mirror as Formula One driver Papis, just six laps from the race’s checkered flag, established a race-lap record of 125.707 mph (1:41.951) as he and his Ferrari furiously made a mad charge in the closing laps of the race.”

“With two-and-a-half hours to go we had a four-lap cushion and Max Papis was lapping at six seconds a lap quicker than us,” Taylor said after the race. “We calculated that by the final lap he would be on the lead lap with us, which he was. Had a caution flag come out in the final half-hour he would have won. It was that close."

And today, Auberlen hardly looks a day older.

THE DIFFERENCE ONE PARTICULAR DAY MAKES -- Mike Rockenfeller, affectionately known to many as “Rocky,” has won at least four professional driving championships and a plethora of races between. As an Audi Sport Team Joest driver he won the 2008 ALMS LMP1 championship driving an Audi R10 TDI but it was nearly three years earlier in the 2006 Rolex 24 when observers got a taste of Rockenfeller’s capabilities while driving the jaw-dropping-quick Alex Job Racing No. 23 Shred-It/XM Satellite Porsche-Crawford.

For the team’s first Daytona Prototype competition Rockenfeller shared the driver’s seat with regular season co-driver Patrick Long and, on hand for the endurance classic, Lucas Luhr. The AJR crew would combine to set the fastest practice, qualifying and race laps, also tallying the race’s second best lead-lap total of 105 laps – Rockenfeller, Long and Luhr respectively compiling 70, 11 and 24 out-front laps.

After taking over for starter Luhr, Rockenfeller was in his first stint at the wheel and had spent 11 laps in the race lead when a ruptured half shaft seal sent the AJR car to the garage, costing the team seven laps during the race’s third hour and dropkicking it to 36^th – usually sufficient to relegate a team to merely putting in laps, if not altogether folding. On a mission, the three methodically climbed the scoring pylon; Rockenfeller retaking the lead on Lap 487. About an hour later with Long at the wheel and while the sole car on the lead lap, a second ruptured half-shaft seal again dropkicked the team squarely in the . . ., um, well, you know.

By that time adept in half-shaft replacement, AJR’s behind-the-scenes guys returned the No. 23 to the fray in fifth place but five laps in arrears to race-leader Casey Mears in the No. 02 Chip Ganassi Racing w/Felix (yes, even then, y José) Sabates Lexus-Riley.

Petal-to-metal with roughly five hours remaining, the drivers again relentlessly pushed AJR’s No. 23, all but literally flying their Porsche-Crawford DP03 rocket ship into third place and onto the race podium with barely six-minutes remaining in the race.

The late Bob Snodgrass – whose No. 58 Brumos Racing Red Bull Porsche-Fabcar fell to fourth place with six minutes remaining – after the race said, “This was one of the best Rolex 24 hours that I’ve ever witnessed!”

Though proud of his team’s never-say-die attitude, a wholly expended Rockenfeller on the other hand said, “For sure, we had the best car but I'm disappointed because I really, really wanted to win and I knew going into it we had a really good chance.”

Four years later, after he, Joao Barbosa, Terry Borcheller, Ryan Dalziel and their No. 9 Action Express Racing Porsche V8-Riley won the 2010 Rolex 24 at Daytona, a broadly smiling Rockenfeller said, “Honestly, before the race I didn’t think we’d have a chance at winning. I’m really, really happy to be holding this Rolex. You don’t know how happy I am to be holding this.”

OF THE FLAG-TO-FLAG LEADERS IN THE 2010 ROLEX 24, 13 of the race’s 15 Daytona Prototypes spent time at the field’s front. Scoring 10-or-more laps at the point were 14 drivers, among which Action Express’ Joao Barbosa (129), Mike Rockefeller (113) and Ryan Dalziel (73) would lead a combined 315 laps. Add teammate Terry Borcheller’s sole lead lap and the team combined for 316 laps at the point. Despite being ill (this year seemingly hitting more drivers than in recent memory) and though Borcheller nevertheless recorded 140 total laps at the wheel of the No. 9 Porsche V8-Riley, the driver still snared the “Fewest Laps Led” award.

Fighting for the GT-class lead and getting it were 36 drivers in 10 cars, swapping it a total of 27 times. The No. 57 Bryan Mark Financial Camaro’s Robin Liddell (143), Andrew Davis (72) and Jan Magnussen (2) would combine to lead the Rolex 24’s greatest number of single-car lead laps. With 64 laps, Johannes van Overbeek in the No. 67 TRG/Flying Lizards Porsche scored the third-highest number of laps led by an individual driver, while the No. 71 Buoniconti Foundation, University of Miami Porsche would compile the second-greatest number of total team laps at 146, nipping SpeedSource’s No. 70 Castrol Syntec Mazda’s 145 laps.

Not a single gentleman driver was found among the race-leading Daytona Prototype drivers . . . um, er, such not at all meant to imply the lap-leaders weren’t or can’t be “gentlemen,” of course – unless one asks fellow drivers, whose opinions vary quite widely, actually.

SONS OF THE SPEEDWAY – Being competitive sorts regardless of where they’re found, Brian “The Younger” Frisselle (No. 6 Mike Shank Racing Ford-Riley) and Burt “The Older” Frisselle (No. 61 AIM Autosport Ford-Riley) have garnished the attention of television producer/director Robert Sizemore – the man behind many of TV’s most successful reality series.

A pilot now underway after about eight months in the making, the two brothers in late-2009 became the object of Sizemore’s camera lenses and continued to be filmed through January’s Rolex 24 At Daytona. Scheduled are a few more scenes here and there through April, perhaps including a paddock near you.

AFTER DRIVING IN ONLY HIS SECOND ROLEX 24 AT DAYTONA, Jamie McMurray (2005 for Ganassi New Century; and in 2010 for Target/TELMEX), went on to win his and the relatively new Ganassi Earnhardt Racing’s first Daytona 500. At least a few Daytona 500 NASCAR Sprint Car Series drivers who also have competed in sportycars (more than half the 2010 field): Boris Said (Tom Milner among a cast of hundreds); Bobby Labonte (2005-2006 Doran, 2008 Spirit of Daytona, 2010 TRG); Bill Elliott (Roush Racing’s kick-butt IMSA GTO years); Sam Hornish Jr. (2007 Mike Shank); Robby Gordon (1990-1993 Jack Roush IMSA GTO, 2002 Rolex 24, 2003 Toyota Fabcar @ The Glen, 2004 Spirit of Daytona); John Andretti (1986-89 Porsche 962 Rolex 24, 1993 Rolex 24 TWR XJR-12); Paul Menard (2002-2003, 2005, 2010 Spirit of Daytona); Max Papis (1996-2010 Rolex 24, 2004 Rolex DP Champ); Scott Speed (2009 Brumos 250); Michael McDowell (2004-2008 DP); Greg Biffle (2005 Crown Royal Multimatic); Jeff Gordon (2008 SunTrust); Marcos Ambrose (2005 “Aussie Assault” Porsche GT3; 2009 Doran, Montreal); A.J. Allmendinger (2006-2010 Michael Shank Racing); Kyle Busch (2009 Waste Management); Juan Pablo Montoya (2007-2010 Ganassi TELMEX/Target); Kurt Busch (2005 Crown Royal Multimatic, 2008 Penske Toshiba); Tony Stewart (2004-2006 Howard Boss, Crawford); Kevin Harvick (Spirit of Daytona, 2002); Jimmie Johnson (2006 Howard Boss, 2007 Matthews-Riley, 2008-2010 GAINSCO); Dale Earnhardt Jr. (2001, 2004 Chevy, later flaming out); and, Mark Martin (during Roush Racing’s IMSA GTO; 2008 Southard DP, Iowa).

TANGLED WEB WEAVING has left some team members growing weary and wary of some motorsports journalists and photographers who supposedly display a propensity for continually badmouthing the Rolex Series and teams within it, “while pretending to be our best buddy,” as one unabashed but anonymous crewman said. Evidently choosing to take matters into his own mouth – “Punching ‘em would only be a bigger hassle,” he said – doublespeak and misinformation will be the only thing coming from he, additionally insisting others in the paddock “feel the same way.” The problem, of course, is that tangled webs tend to become problematic for everyone, not just the “bad guys.”

A COMPETITION BULLETIN EVERYONE CAN LOVE (or, “There Goes The $4,000 Battery”) That Grand-Am would issue another 2010 Competition Bulletin (Technical Bulletin #2010-02) wasn’t unexpected.

The unexpected part, though, comes with the sanctioning body’s intent of saving teams some cash that, guaranteed, will simply be spent elsewhere even should Gary Nelson prove one can win a championship with “old equipment” (Nelson and team’s already done it in the just-past Rolex 24; more to come on what that’s all about, Alfie).

With lightweight lithium-based, 12-volt batteries (saving about 22-lb. per) becoming the rage – and, when used in typical quantities costs roughly $12 Really Large – the series’ powers-that-be have now banned ‘em; favoring (actually, specifying) for Daytona Prototype and GT applications battery technologies which are, essentially, commonly used lead-acid types. The cost differential? Roughly $11.7 Really Large, per typical application.

However, that the series’ would issue a tech bulletin that, with full implementation and allowing bygones to be bygones, will save teams money is one thing. But, then again, just trashed for some teams is roughly $12 Really Large when absent in the bulletin is a grandfather clause allowing the amortization of already purchased batteries.

Oh well, at least the series means well. (Still, to this day ringing in this nephew’s ears is my dear, late Uncle Gilbert exclaiming, “The road to Hell is paved with good intentions, boy!” whenever I sought refuge with a “But I didn’t mean to …”)

Pontifications on Technical Bulletin #2010-02, “15-5 In-Car Camera” will have to wait. However, in the meantime think two things: “Future” and “Everyone Gets Video Time,” K?

Later,

DC

THE 2010 ROLEX 24 AT DAYTONA

HOW THEY FARED, By Car Number (not finish)
(And, hey, it’s been a busy month in Daytona)
Daytona Prototype
No. 01 TELMEX Chip Ganassi Racing w/ Félix (y José) Sabates BMW-Riley. Scott Pruett, Memo Rojas, Justin Wilson, Max Papis. Started 5^th, finished 2^nd/2^nd - 52.303-seconds behind winning car. The Old Guy (Pruett) remains young in more ways than one, pegging the team’s fast lap at a 1:41.606 on Lap 694, only five laps into a full fuel load and fewer than two hours from race end. This team came into the race having only two wildcards: everyone else; and, the team’s new BMW engine. Not even Wilson would qualify as a wildcard after his second-place 2006 finish in Michael Shank Racing’s No. 60 Lexus-Riley. This car’s neck-and-neck duel for the race win all but ended in the 22^nd hour on Lap 689 when leader Wilson climbed all over the brakes and headed onto pit road as the TELMEX car headed straight for the garage to diagnose an un-diagnosable hiccup experienced moments before while traversing the Moretti Chicane. Wilson heard “a pop” – “Give me a ping, Vasili; one ping only, please” – and made one of those split-second decisions that can go one of only two ways – hero or goat – but still must be made. However, “If you’re not on top it’s just not where you want to be,” insofar as the Ganassi organization is concerned, Pruett would later make clear.
No. 02 Target Chip Ganassi Racing w/Felix Sabates BMW-Riley. Drivers: Juan Pablo Montoya, Scott Dixon, Dario Franchitti, Jamie McMurray; finished 37^th overall, 15^th in class after starting fourth overall. New Zealand’s Dixon qualified at 1:41.147; with JPM nailing the team fast lap (1:42.530) claimed in Lap 181, about 71 laps before breaking with JPM again at the wheel on Lap 250 – thus, with a 33-position fall from starting fourth on the grid, the No. 02 earned the race’s “Bottom Of The Barrel” award. Taking the wheel of this car were Indianapolis 500 winners and another driver who two weeks later would take stock car racing’s biggest title, the Daytona 500. The Ganassi team was fairly tight-lipped about the reason for the No. 02’s “stroke”-after-midnight failure but one of the team’s upper-echelon types did offer a clearly bummed-out, terse “blown engine.” While but two words, the unspoken spoke volumes to No. 01’s Justin Wilson when you consider Ganassi had long been fond of saying “We had only one engine failure in all our years with Lexus.” Given the All-Star team, could it be yet another apocalyptic 2012 sign!? (You know, “they” say the Columbians and Mayans never did get along.)
No. 2 Uberwurk/Battery Tender Beyer Racing Chevrolet-Crawford. Drivers: Romeo Kapudija, Jared Beyer, Dane Cameron, Jan-Dirk Lueders (listed incorrectly in too many places as “Jan Diek Lueders”) and Cort Wagner. Cameron started 13th without a qualifying time or, for that matter, very much seat time, given the team’s absence from early January Rolex 24 testing. The car finished 34^th overall; 14^th in class, in the process completing 319 laps; 436 laps down to the DP race winner. A team comprised of two talented up-and-coming young racers; one seasoned and a couple of cagey veterans came into a race for which this year they’d not previously practiced and, all things considered, did decently when one considers the Crawford DP03 to be a racer’s DP (those only “genteel” aren’t really allowed; at least graciously so). Cameron led three laps (20-22), followed not too long after (Lap 26) with popped right-rear tire while he was hauling the mail through the tri-oval. Such would all but end any hope whatsoever of this team’s members doing little more than getting some serious seat time. Two-time Rolex GT champion (2001, 2003) Wagner recorded the field’s sole Crawford DP’s fastest lap (1:45.631) on Lap 165.
No. 6 Michael Shank Racing Ford-Riley; Sponsor “The Pit Stop on Norris Lake.” Driving: Michael Valiante, Brian Frisselle, Mark Patterson, A.J. Allmendinger. Valiante (1:41.110) started third; team finished 7th/7th overall/DP. Completed 707 laps; 48 behind first. Allmendinger scored the team’s fastest lap (1:41.695) on Lap 685 at 1:32 p.m. Sunday, then 22-laps later flamed-out of the race when internal engine pressure started pushing oil between the valve-cover-to-manifold gaskets. Allmendinger led 24 laps; Valiante, 17; and, Frisselle, 2. After Valiante took ill late Saturday-early Sunday morning, Frisselle pulled four stints out of five, producing one worn-out driver who like Valiante, earlier, soon thereafter visited the DIS medical center. The third-consecutive Rolex 24 in which “Lady Luck” didn’t smile on MSR, it held the race lead for a third-consecutive Rolex 24 and was the second race in the last three Rolex 24’s in which this car has held the lead after the sun arose Sunday morning. Three of the team’s four drivers led overall race laps: Allmendinger (24); Valiante (17); Frisselle (2).
No. 7 Starworks South African Air BMW-Riley with Bill Lester, Dion Von Moltke, Ian James and Mike Forest driving, but not Ryan Dalziel (who will partner with Forest for the Mar. 6 Grand Prix of Miami in a second team car, the No. 8 BMW-Riley). Team finished 27^th overall and 12^th in class after Von Moltke qualified (1:43.322) 12/12 in class/overall. James turned a faster race lap than that of the car’s qualifying run (1:43.207 vs. 1:43.322). Two eerily occurring accidents: in the race’s fifth hour and again with five-hours remaining (perhaps yet another 2012 apocalyptic sign?) – would cause team-owner Peter Baron’s two greatest headaches. Baron’s team at least can take some consolation from team regular Ryan Dalziel’s winning drive in the No. 9 Action Express Racing Porsche V8-Riley. The Scottish ace is set for a Starworks Motorsport ride for the remainder of the season. NOTE: Information used herein (for all cars, teams and drivers) was derived from a variety of sources, not the least of which was a line-by-line rundown of the Rolex 24 At Daytona's official Lap Charts. Bill Lester, bless his pea-pickin' heart, diplomatically communicated: "When the fact is that Ian actually qualified the car, not Dion. So in actuality, Ian bettered his own qualifying lap in the race resulting from a car made better during the race than what it was in q-trim." Given that Lester was there, we'll presume some sort of transponder issue is at the heart of the discrepancy; yours truly not at all doubting James' ability to beat himself.
No. 9 Action Express Racing Porsche V8-Riley. Race-winning drivers Joao “You Can Call Me Joe” Barbosa, Terry Borcheller, Mike Rockenfeller and Ryan Dalziel completed 755 laps - the third-quickest Rolex 24 race since the 3.56-mile track conversion for 1985 race. In an old car wearing Gen-1 bodywork, Rockenfeller claimed the team’s fastest lap of a 1:41.722 in Lap 581 after Barbosa qualified with a 1:41.603. Leading the team and race in lead laps, Barbosa tallied 129; Rockenfeller, 113; Dalziel, 73 and Borcheller, 01. The No. 9 team was just six laps shy of equaling the second-longest Rolex 24 distance covered by the 1990 Rolex 24 by winners Davy Jones, Jan Lammers and Andy Wallace (No. 61 TWR Jaguar XJR-12; fast race lap, Frank Jelinski/Porsche 962, 1:41.794 - look closely) and was seven-laps down to the 3.56-mile road course lap/distance kings, 1992 winners Masahiro Hasemi, Kazuyoshi “You Can Call Me Yo” Hoshino and Toshio Suzuki (No. 23 Nissan R91CP; fast race lap, Juan Fangio II/Toyota Eagle MkIII, 1:40.943). Interestingly, the 1990 and 1992 races respectively started 55 and 49 cars – both among the top-five “smaller-field” Rolex 24 races. A lot of good stories come out of the No. 9’s fielding Riley DP chassis No. 018, including a grueling race win using few new parts (six-year-old electronics among the “used parts”) and with drivers and “winning” pit crew who hit their marks - many of whom came from the 2009 Brumos No. 58 Rolex 24 winning team.
No. 10 SunTrust Ford Dallara, finished sixth from the race pole (1:41.101, Angelelli); driven by Wayne Taylor, Max Angelelli, Ricky Taylor and Pedro Lamy. The car completed 711 laps, 44 behind winner; Angelelli clocked the team’s and race’s best lap (1:41:101) at Lap 441 (7:15 a.m. Sunday) but was absolutely snakebit from the get-go, as indicated by the car’s radio antenna falling from the roof, dangling in front of Angelelli shortly after the race began Saturday. The only SunTrust driver to lead the race, Angelelli compiled 07 laps at the point. While Ricky Taylor settled in for a season-long haul with the team, father Wayne Taylor took all of four laps driving the car to Sunday’s checkered flag.
No. 55 Crown Royal/NPN Racing Level 5 Motorsports BMW-Riley DP; started 6^th, finished 23^rd overall and 9^th in DP. Scott Tucker, Emmanuel Collard, Christophe Bouchut and Sascha Massen. Completed 619 laps, 136 behind leader, scored its best lap on No. 488 at a 1:42.161 after qualifying at 1:41.463. How many cars can one, no, make that two drivers drive? Collard, who won the 2005 Rolex 24 with Wayne Taylor and Max Angelelli, took off some bodywork in the Moretti Chicane. Shortly after, or so the story goes, Bouchut was in the No. 55 when it “drilled” a lead-contending No. 75 Krohn Racing Ford-Lola. The BMW powerplant that still later flamed out and ended the car’s Rolex 24 later became representative of an owner evidently doing the same thing in one professional race series, heading for another in which he might actually win.
No. 59 Brumos Racing Porsche-Riley. David Donohue, Darren Law, Hurley Haywood, Butch Leitzinger and Raphael Matos. Defending Rolex 24 At Daytona driver Law qualified 7^th in DP/overall (1:41.513); finished 26^th/11^th overall/DP. So poorly gifted in his driving skills at age 61, in his first 2010 Rolex 24 shift Haywood set the race’s fast-lap at 1:43.844 (Lap 100). Matos would later eclipse it with the race’s overall second-quickest lap on Lap 379 (1:41.394) in the 13^th hour. In Hour 19, Haywood finished his professional driving career on Lap 580 by stepping from the Brumos car and handing it off to Matos. A little over two laps later an absolutely crestfallen Matos rolled straight into the garage, the Porsche trailing smoke. It, too, was finished. “It waited for you, Hurley,” longtime Brumos teammate (and Brumos Museum “curator”) Don Leatherwood said. Unsurprisingly the team would not repeat its 2009 Rolex 24 win, underscoring the difficulty of the accomplishment of those who had – including Brumos in the mid-to-late 1970’s – in repeating one of the world’s toughest motorsports’ events.
No. 60 Crown Royal XR Ford-Riley. Driving were Ozz Negri, John Pew, Burt Frisselle, Mark Wilkins. About the biggest team problem was its inability to co-exist with its front body clip. The team was so short of front clips by Sunday morning it turned to DP-constructor Riley’s parts truck for a carbon-black spare, on which a contrasting white “60” was taped - though it wouldn’t be mounted. It’s hard to look into the eyes of Ozz Negri when you know he knows that you know that he knows that you know, aw, heck . . . he didn’t win yet another Rolex 24 after coming so tantalizingly close in 2006. Between Negri, Shank and each of the team’s dedicated members one tends to wonder who in the paddock is more deserving of a 24 win. Clearly, the garage felt at least one of the two MSR teams would stand on top of the podium come 3:30 p.m. Sunday. Also as clearly, fate played a different hand yet again.
No. 75 Krohn Racing Ford-Lola. Drivers: Tracy Krohn, Nic Johnson, Ricardo Zonta, Colin Braun. Finishing fourth overall after starting ninth, it completed 735 laps to the winner’s 755, a difference of 20 laps – 15 to body damage and five to replace a transmission – which those at Krohn Racing tend to squarely lay at the feet of the No. 55 Crown Royal/ NPN Racing BMW-Riley and driver Christophe Bouchut, some 40-laps down at roughly the race’s halfway point. Just before the “punt” made on Jonsson in Lap 308 by an officially unidentified second DP, Zonta led the race for 30 laps (in what became a sixth-best count, overall) turning the car’s quickest lap on Lap 295 (1:42.814). The team was especially bummed because it had worked only to ready the Lola for the Rolex 24 and not a flashy qualification run – at which it did respectfully well with a 1:42.060, nonetheless. Out-of-the-ordinary pit stops for the team were out of the ordinary, having only one double-digit pit stop (24 min 57 sec; Lap 308; bodywork) and one nearly 10-min stop (9:26; Lap 602; gearbox), the latter being especially attributable to a car having been rear-ended (the gearbox input shaft was visibly bent). Eliminate just those two stops and this car might’ve won by about half-as-many laps as those by which it lost.
No. 77 McDonald’s Doran Racing Ford-Dallara. Memo Gidley, Brag Jaeger, Fabrizio Gollin, Derek Johnston. Finished 24^th/10^th overall/DP; started 11/11. Gidley qualified with a 1:42.606; turned the team’s fast lap (1:43.018) on lap 509 (12:26 p.m.) following a combined two-hours worth of gears work on the car occurring at 8:30 a.m. (36 min) and again at 9:18 a.m. (1 hr 30 min), but took the checkered flag after completing 612 laps (143 behind DP winner). Gidley led Laps 12-19 (8 laps) after having used his noggin to test lines through each turn during the race’s initial rain yellow. “I picked my spots before we went green, learning where I could press an attack as we traveled through each turn under caution,” Gidley said afterward. “It was nice to have done it again; it’s been awhile,” team-owner Kevin Doran said after a thinking Gidley (not to imply the driver doesn’t ever do otherwise ;-]) vaulted to the Rolex 24’s front. Johnston got the seat by virtue of winning the United Kingdom’s inaugural 2010 Sunoco Rolex 24 At Daytona Challenge.
No. 90 Menard’s Spirit of Daytona Porsche V8-Coyote. Drivers: Antonio Garcia, Buddy Rice, Darren Manning and Paul Menard. Qualified 10^th overall/class; finished 32/13. Rice scored the fastest of the team’s 346 laps (409 laps down to the race winner) with a 1:43.699 on Lap 266. Want a real kick in the teeth? Be the sole team that developed the winning Porsche V8 and not score that engine’s first race win. Four things took the car out: engine oil pump went sour (final blow); it’s too heavy (no, no more weight can be lost; others need to come up); it’s too heavy (it has no ballast to move; as did the winning No. 9 to differentiate itself from the No. 58); and, Kevin Buckler clearly demonstrated “the Pros from Dover,” for whatever reason, seem to be on a slightly steeper learning curve and different, wrong, mindset.
No. 95 Crown Royal/NPN Racing BMW-Riley. Drivers: Scott Tucker, Christophe Bouchut, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Lucas Luhr, Richard Westbrook. Started 14^th, finished third overall; four laps behind second-place, after starting absent of a qualifying time. Hunter-Reay scored team’s fast lap (1:42.161, Lap 568). Also known as Level 5 Motorsports, the team’s dedication to excellence fell short of the mark due a recalcitrant seatbelt, of all things. “It’s not the end of the world” but “to have something as trivial as that happening is frustrating,” Westbrook said after being the stuckee and the car falling from the lead lap as a result. One wonders how much he would’ve been bummed had the car been seriously alight. Hunter-Reay, up for two days by race end, with Westbrook cited the car’s inability to carry speed on the straight as the car’s biggest deficiency. While Hunter-Reay cited the team’s lack of addressing aerodynamic adjustments, Westbrook instead cited “horsepower” – something not cited by any of the four other BMW-engined teams. Being a Frenchman having already claimed a Rolex 24 (1995), Bouchut didn’t really feel a need of again demonstrating his superiority over Americans, anyway.
No. 99 GAINSCO Auto Insurance Chevrolet-Riley. Driving were Alex Gurney, Jon Fogarty, Jimmie Johnson and Jimmy Vasser who as a team started dead last among the DPs but, more or less rallied to finish eighth in class and 21st overall in the wake of a Thursday morning crash that pretty well set the team’s tone – if not the biggest drama – of the race weekend. Following Johnson’s 150.8 mph racing-surface departure, a subsequent chassis-repair thrash lasted well beyond Thursday afternoon’s qualifying (about 4 a.m. Friday, actually, and putting ‘em at field’s rear for race start), Johnson followed up with a race-day Lap 106 “stuck throttle” and yielded the team’s first couple of lost laps to the race leaders. Still more laps were lost when a gearbox gave out on Lap 388 with (who else?) Johnson at the wheel. Gurney cut the team’s quickest lap (1:42.584, Lap 365) while Johnson, for the sake or comparison, recorded the team’s third-fastest (1:42.778, Lap 432). Fogarty drove only two of his intended three driving shifts before the GAINSCO Auto insurance team packed it in following Lap 630 after the engine’s oil pump gave up (thus the engine, too) with (who else?) Vasser at the wheel (got ya). It’d be nice to see Johnson get mad, practice like crazy for the 2011 Rolex 24 and make a true go of it. However, with a first child at this time next year expected to be tugging parental hearts (if not pants) don’t expect it. Still, this seems one race Johnson can’t win – and he probably knows it; just like Tony Stewart.
Grand Touring
Once told by Enzo Ferrari that he couldn’t use “GTO,” Big Bill France said, “Go tell that to Pontiac.”
No. 07 Texas Heart Institute/Fisk Electric/Goldstone Ranch/Team MBR driven by Paul Edwards, Davy Jones, John McCutchen and Scott Russell. Finished 37/23 overall/GT after starting 19/4 overall/GT. Completed 201 laps, 506/554 laps down to GT/overall winners. Fast lap (1:51.217; Lap 199) scored by (who else?) Edwards during a seven-lap run that ended just before 1 a.m. Starting on the GT-class’ second row was about as good as it was going to get for the car, which was adversely impacted just after 7 p.m. Saturday (race-leader Lap 98) when an axle broke during Russell’s first-stint out lap. Edwards, 2008 Rolex GT driving champion, will team with Russell - dubbed “Mr. Daytona” after being the first of only two motorcycle racers to claim at least five Daytona 200 motorcycle titles – for the remainder of the 2010 season under owner Leighton Reese’s Banner Racing LRPG name.
No. 08 Interush Sigalsport Ferrari F430. Drivers: Gene Sigal, Rusty Wheat, Fred Poordad, Roger Yasukawa. The reality is this car was a non-starter, its silver color being brighter than its prospect for spending more time on the track than in the garage under repair – before even seeing the Rolex 24, for which it failed to even qualify. It’s something owners of similarly expensive or similarly capable sportycars happily point out as being de rigueur for the make. Oh well, it’s nonetheless nice to have seen Sigal back in the paddock as an owner. Insofar as “Poordad,” this scribe has been there; done that; and, indeed, am that (sorry Fred, just couldn’t resist; not like you haven’t heard that one before, eh?).
No. 14 Racing 4 Research-Children’s Tumor Foundation Autometrics Motorsports. Drivers: Seth Thomas, Daniel Graeff, Ron Yarab Jr. and Glen Gatlin. Finished 25^th/15^th after starting 44^th/29^th overall/GT. Finished 96 laps behind GT winner. Thomas’ fastest race lap (1:52.448) on Lap 445 bettered his own qualifying time (1:52.580). About four things went wrong in this effort: a one-hour and three 25 to 30-minute pit stops; the longest stop occurring immediately following Thomas’ fast lap and next-lap crash into a Turn 3 (East Horseshoe) tire barrier. But one thing went really right. Formerly allied with Farnbacher Loles, The Children’s Tumor Foundation was all but actually on the way to its fourth Rolex 24 at Daytona – having high expectations and already settled travel plans for CTF kids and families from across the U.S. – when Greg Loles was arrested. Out of the blue, CTF contacted Autometrics, whose Gordon Friedman said, "I was on board before the phone call was over. Seeing these kids here, having the time of their lives and knowing that we've helped raise funds on their behalf has made this one of the great racing experiences of my career." And probably a great way to put life into perspective.
No. 18 Guardian Angel Motorsports TRG Porsche GT. Drivers: Bruce Ledoux III, Dave Quinlan, Tom Sheehan, Bob Doyle, Dan Watkins. Finished 31 overall after starting 43; finished 19^th in GT after starting 28^th. Down 321 laps to GT winners at race end, were almost as many laps in arrears as completed in race (386). The team’s best race time (1:56.893, Ledoux, Lap 380) would actually better the team’s qualifying time (1:58.932, Watkins) by more than two seconds. Amateur drivers all, the five came from New England to raise $100k (after hitting the $70k mark in the team’s 2008 debut) for New England children charitable groups. If not on the track, the amateur group certainly found some stiff competition in the fundraising paddock given this year’s record turnout of racing-for-dollars teams. Indeed, after only one year of “retirement,” The King of Racing-and-Giving, Don Kitch (No. 41), revived his comparatively successful effort (actually, over $3.4 million since inception), on this go raising about $400,000 for Seattle Children’s Hospital.
No. 19 Mitra/MCM/Black Flag Racing Corvette. Driving: Sean Breslin, Sean Paul Breslin, Diego Romanini, Ricardo Romagnoli and Jason Vinkemulder. Finished 35^th/21 after starting 42/27 overall and in GT, respectively. Completed 316 laps; 439/391 laps behind overall/GT winner. Sean Paul Breslin was the team’s Fast Guy, first qualifying with a 1:57.357 but besting it in the race by two seconds with a fast lap (1:55.327) on Lap 182. The No. 19 Corvette GT was among at least five cars which danced into Turn 3 (East Horseshoe) but from which it did not shortly afterward emerge. Towed in for repairs, later on-track incidents ranged from blowing the chicane to overnight contacts with various barriers. A host of problems eventually overwhelmed the team, which altogether exited the race shortly before 11:40 a.m. Sunday.
No. 20 OFI Asset Management /Bischoff & Scheck Service/AVAR Towage/Voskamp Group/North Sea Petroleum Matt Connolly Motorsports Porsche GT3. Drivers: Oskar Slingerland, Jos Menten, Markus Palttala and Christophe LaPierre finished 36^th/22^nd overall/GT; qualified at 34^th/19^th. Completed 276 laps, 479/431 laps behind overall and GT winners. Fastest lap (1:53.920) was set by Finland’s Palttala on Lap 199 after Menten qualified with a 1:52.235. By Hour 9 the No. 20 had pretty well just marched upward on the scoreboard, reaching 22^nd/11^th overall/GT before succumbing to the effects of several off-track excursions and (likely) resultant mechanical woes just after 5 a.m. Sunday.
No. 21 ROFINCO/P1Groupe.com/AIS Media/A2Zracegear.com/Pacific Teaze Matt Connolly Motorsports Pontiac GTO.R. Gabrio Rosa, Spencer Trenery, Thomas Steuer and Jim Briody finished 39/24 overall/GT after starting 41/26 overall/GT; completed 153 laps, 602 laps behind leader. Fastest team lap (1:54.822) set by Steuer on Lap 107 but not before the team started backpedaling in the race’s third hour. After a nearly 3-hour break between roughly 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. Saturday after Steuer’s first shift, Jim Briody climbed in and within four laps started the clock on another five-some-odd-hour pit stop (of about 17-hours, total in the pits), after which Briody would drive No. 21 back out of the pits, too. No word as to whether Briody “camped” in the driver’s seat – though his tenacity already proven after having scored 26 Rolex 24 starts. Putting its head down to the bitter end, the No. 21 took the checkered flag while passing over the start-finish line.
No. 22 Bullet Racing Porsche GT3. Drivers Ross Bentley, Sean McIntosh, Daryl O’Young and Kees Nierop finished 20^th/13^th; started 31^st/16^th overall/GT after completing 632 laps; 75-laps down to GT winner. O’Young scored the qualifying lap (1:51.199) while the team’s fastest race lap (1:52.582) on Lap 354 was claimed by McIntosh. Running as high as fifth-place in GT, frontal and radiator damage combined to twice take the car from the track for than 2 ½-hours in repairs. The Vancouver-based team raised contributions totaling close to $160k for BC (British Columbia) Children's Hospital - the province's only full-service acute care hospital that serves the one million children living in BC and the Yukon (a land area roughly the size of a combined Ohio, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and West Virginia).
No. 23 Alex Job Racing’s Foametix, Battery Tender, Uberwurx, “The Chicago Boys” Porsche GT3. Drivers Claudio Burtin, Jack Baldwin, Mitch Pagerey, Martin Ragginger and Dominik Farnbacher. Completed 656 laps; 51 laps behind the GT race winner. Finished 12/19 (class/GT) after qualifying 21/36 (GT/overall). Out of Alex Job ’s shop in once-beautiful Tavares, Fla. - its proximity to Daytona International Speedway proving handy following a Thursday practice miscue that caused heavy enough damage to necessitate a two-hour roundtrip drive to AJR’s shop for a fix. Ragginger’s qualifying time (1:50.298) was nipped in-race by Farnbacher’s fastest lap (1:50.296) on Lap 564. Baldwin, who’s worked somewhere around his 30^th Rolex 24, still cut some darn decent laps, putting down a personal best lap of 1:53.145 at 3:02 a.m. Sunday (about eight hours after he’d normally go to bed and about one-hour before normally arising. Not bad, Jack).
No. 30 Cobalt Friction/IDEMITSU/3Dimensional.com Racer’s Edge Mazda RX-8. Drivers: Jordan Taylor, Todd Lamb, Glenn Bocchino, Jade Buford and John Edwards. After putting the red Mazda on the GT’s outside pole (1:49.371), the “other” Taylor kid ran at the front of the GT class (2 laps) before turning the car over to Lamb on Lap 40, who on Lap 69 turned what would be the car’s fastest (1:55.409) but final lap after its invincible Mazda rotary engine became vincible (if there’s an “invincible,” there should be an opposite and equal “vincible.”)
No. 32 Corsa Car Care BMW M6 Finished 10^th in class, drivers Rob Finlay, Max Hyatt, Jeff Westphal, Thomas Merrill. The team just couldn’t catch a break. Two garage visits and a few pit-box repairs very early in the race right away set up the team’s fight with an unbeatable foe: a too-large time deficit way too soon. Setting fast lap for the car (150.491) and sixth-quickest for the race in GT, Merrill did it on Lap 626 - some 31 laps before the race ended for the team. “. . . a case of the would haves, should haves and could haves,” team owner Bobby Oregel said.
No. 40 Patrick Dempsey Racing Mazda RX-8. Patrick Dempsey, Joe Foster, Charles Espenlaub and Scotty “Beam Me Up” Maxwell, who teams with Forster in a Multimatic Mustang Boss 302R for Continental Tires Sports Car Series events. Completed 683 laps, 72 laps behind the race’s overall winner, after starting 30^th and finishing 13^th overall; qualified 15^th and finished sixth in class. After the last couple of Rolex 24s where race-ending, sometimes self-inflicted trouble hung over the group, Dempsey Racing (the team) was able to finish the Rolex 24 despite, for some odd reason, Dempsey’s (the human) propensity to combine racing and rain. You be the judge: mere coincidence or Mayan 2012 apocalypse puzzle piece? The team was one of a handful that went faster during the race than qualifying, though not by much (150.616 vs. 151.122). The really neat part: Dempsey is credited with team’s fastest race lap on Lap 569. Now that truly is apocalyptic stuff.
No. 41 Dempsey Racing/Team Seattle Mazda RX-8. Drivers: James Gue, Leh Keen, Don Kitch Jr., Dave Lacey. Qualified ninth in GT class, 24^th overall; finished 22^nd overall, 14^th in GT, 135 laps behind overall leader. Despite stumbling a bit the team still raised $400k for the pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Unit at Seattle Children’s Hospital. Keen qualified with a 1:49.971, set fast lap (1:50.299; Lap 436) and was at the wheel for the team’s largest hiccup just after 8 p.m.; variously described hassles (radiator, alternator) and in the repair of such pretty well ate up the better part of two hours but proved to be the team’s only major gremlins. Still, given the looming GT-class championship battle it’s going to now be an uphill, season-long climb of which Gue and defending GT champ Keen are capable - but during which no other serious errors should be committed.
No. 42 Team Sahlen Mazda RX-8 driven by Joe Sahlen, Will Nonnamaker, Wayne Nonnamaker, Joe Nonnamaker. Qualified 40^th and 25^th overall/GT; finished 44/29 overall/GT. Sponsored by theracesite.com, the car was retired after, well, 22 laps (728 laps in arrears to the overall race winner), and gave the car the sole distinction of pulling a double – the last car in class and overall. Nevertheless, the Team Sahlen gang would cheer on . . .
No. 43 Team Sahlen Mazda RX-8. Drivers Joe Sahlen, Will Nonnamaker, Wayne Nonnamaker, Joe Nonnamaker. Sponsored by theracesite.com, it finished 14^th overall, seventh in GT, after starting 29^th/14^th overall/GT. Picking up the RX-8 from SpeedSource’s used-car lot, the “Meatheads” completed 682 laps and at 14^th overall finished less than one-second out of a “Lucky 13.” Fast lap (1:52.621) was recorded just five laps from the finish by Wayne Nonnamaker. These guys haven’t before finished as high on the Rolex 24 scoreboard and pit-box bystanders were left thinking the No. 43 won the race when it took the checkered flag, given the whoopin’ and hollerin’. One of the paddock’s more popular race achievements, “justice” surely would fall short should this team not become the principal Mazda “little guy” flag-bearer because it speaks volumes about what can be achieved with “The Right Stuff” – now not just found in Sahlen’s food products.
No. 44 Magnus Racing Porsche GT3, drivers John Potter, Craig Stanton, Jeroen Bleekemolen and Richard Leitz (150.523 vs. 150.722) finished 12^th overall and 5^th in GT after starting 37^th/22^th overall/GT, thus winning the Rolex 24 At Daytona’s “Most Improved” award by improving 25 spots overall, 17 places in GT. Leitz scored the team’s fast lap (1:50.523 on No. 526). After completing 683 laps the team finished fewer than 30-seconds behind GT’s 4^th-place car - a not-too-shabby start for one of the newest full-season teams on the Rolex Series’ GT block, especially given its race start. Stanton is about the second oldest-looking 21-year-old on pit road and who possesses an ability to mash gas and turn efficiently. Yet, a partially unseated rear window will generally ruin anyone’s day, netting Stanton and the Porsche a meatball flag on (race-leader’s) Lap 25 for repairs but without which the team would’ve certainly finished at least one position higher during an otherwise stellar effort.
No. 46 Autohaus Motorsports/ZMG Construction/Rincent BTP/Forge Captial Partners Autohaus Pontiac GAXP.R. Drivers: Shane Lewis, Richard Zahn, Romain Iannetta, Peter Collins. Finished 40/25 overall/GT; Qualified 33/18. Scored 125 laps - 582/630 down to GT/DP winners, respectively. Lewis qualified with a 151.816 whereas Iannetta scored the team’s (fast Lap 1:54.466) on Lap 97. From race start the No. 46 started leapfrogging up the hourly GT charts to 25^th place by the fourth-hour charts but from whence it started retreating after Zahn impacted the Turn 5 (West Horseshoe) barricades on (race-leader) Lap 135.
No. 48 Marquis Jet/Dietz & Watson Meats/Grand Prix Racewear/JSI/IPC/TOTAL/Wheel Enhancement Miller Barrett Racing Porsche GT3. Drivers: Bryce Miller, Peter Ludwig and Kevin Roush. Qualified a race-ready 13^th in class (28^th overall) but finished 18^th in class and 30^th overall when it finished 296 laps down to the GT winner, compiling only 411. Yours truly says “only” because this team has been preparing for the 2010 Rolex 24 since last season; tweaking the team’s “internals” and readying itself. The really bad news about a race is that others are involved. Sometimes they’re really good “others” while other times the wrong guy gets in the way. It can be difficult to differentiate which, if nothing but from the disappointment that arises in the wake of something going awry that is completely out of the team’s hands. Such was the case when Miller captured a trifecta of sorts: qualifying at 1:50.662; nailing down his team’s fast lap of 1:51.284 on Lap 211; and, capturing an off-course, well, off-pit-exit Daytona Prototype, the cold tires of which being unable to contain that which the left side of the No. 48 would. "This is just a heart-breaking experience because the team was set to finish the race,” Miller noted afterward, adding that his pit crew had already capably overcome a plethora of early race gremlins.
No 52. Wilton Partners/XlawX/Bizrate.com/P1Groupe.com/Dorsal Friends/Ecotech Roofing/Stoll Law WilMar Racing Ferrari F430. (Whew3!) Entry form drivers: Bob Michaelian, Jim Michaelian, Jay Wilton, Filippo Marchino and Giuseppe Castellano. Showing up to drive the No. 52 were Max Schmidt, Castellano and Bob Michaelian, though Jim Michaelian was seen lurking about. Completed 112 laps; 595 laps behind the GT winner. Bob Michaelian set the team’s fastest lap of 1:55.373 shortly after midnight on Lap 64. That would be the car’s 64^th lap; not the race’s. Between bodywork being peeled from the car and whatever else plagued the team, it spent more time in the garage than on the track, retiring about 30-min. before the race’s 12-hour mark. Such would unleash Jim Michaelian on an unsuspecting DIS media center, though his efforts at staying awake through the wee hours would prove to be excellent entertainment . . . silently so, of course.
No. 57 Bryan Mark Financial/Vin Solutions Camaro GT.R. The Stevenson Motorsports’ drivers - Robin Liddell, Andrew Davis and Jan Magnussen - finished 11^th overall, fourth in class after starting 27^th/12^th overall/class. The team didn’t win yet still dominated the race, recording the most GT lead laps (217; 71-more than any other GT leader) with drivers Liddell (143 laps) and Davis (72 laps) also individually leading more race laps than any other GT driver – Liddell spending more time at the front of the GT class than did the DP leader (Barbosa/129) in front of that car class. Suffering from CC (cracked coccyx) and all, Magnussen nevertheless posted the team’s quickest lap time (1:50.540) in Lap 638. Davis and Liddell and the Stevenson Motorsports team – though understandably bummed by their late-race transmission failure – enter the rest of the 2010 Rolex 24 better positioned for a season-long GT championship run than in any previous season.
No. 63 Team Polizei/Remington/Future/Electronics/Freescale/Semiconductors/M3LRacing TRG Porsche GT (whew!) of Henri Richard, Zak Brown, Rene Villeneuve, Mark Thomas and Richard Dean might believe cross-country racing a tad easier after completing just 335 laps (1193 miles) of the GT race-winner’s 707 (2517 miles). Dean captured fast team lap with a 1:52.171 (Lap 248) but only after Richard earlier claimed the distinction of causing (well, officially, the blame for) the 2010 Rolex 24’s first car crash-causing yellow after skating from a still-wet West Horseshoe (Turn 5) and into a guardrail stall that brought out the yellow on (race leader’s) Lap 19. Repaired nearly two hours later and rejoining the fray (for the sake of seat time, one supposes) the team was dead last. Despite more stops (even of the hour kind) the team would soldier on to a far-better-than-last 33^rd place overall (20^th in class) by race end, after starting 38/23 overall/class.
No. 64 Siemens Gigaset JLowe Racing Porsche GT3. Driving were Jim Lowe, Jim Pace, Tim Sugden, Eric Lux and James Walker. Started 25^th and 40^th in class and overall; actually finished worse with a 29/44. Sugden copped the team’s lowest lap time at 1:54.559 on Lap 87; 13 laps before “kaput.” Born at TRG before moving to Farnbacher Loles and now an independent effort, the No. 64 was on jackstands and looking fairly prim at the rear of its hauler after completing all of 100 laps; a bunch (607) behind the GT winner. The car did the ol’ in-and-out as a result of yet another blown Porsche motor. (Though hardly having a scorebook, the 2010 Rolex 24 seems to have had more sour Porsche powertrains than at any time in recent memory). Owner/driver Lowe and his No. 1, Pace (1996 overall Rolex 24 winner), didn’t even get seat time.
No. 66 AXA TRG Porsche GT3, driven by Ted Ballou, Kelly Collins, Patrick Flanagan, Wolf Henzler and Andy Lally. Finishing third in GT, 10th overall, it started 5^th and 20th in class/overall, respectively. The team’s flagship “66” number, Henzler led 28 laps and Lally led one while the team completed 691 total laps, trailing the GT winner by 12. Henzler pulled the team’s fastest lap (1:50.225) late-Saturday evening on Lap 532.Though Flanagan for the most part before the race looked like a worried man with a worried mind, he needn’t have been inasmuch as he was in the The Racers Group’s top-finishing car arising from a fleet of five Rolex 24 competitors. AXA signed for the 2010 season run, pairing Ballou and Lally.
No. 67 Flying Lizards TRG Porsche GT3, drivers Jörg Bergmeister, Patrick Long, Seth Neiman and Johannes van Overbeek finished ninth overall, second-in-class after qualifying 22^nd/seventh overall/GT. Bergmeister (who with Long and some other guys won the 2009 Rolex 24 GT-class title) turned the team’s fastest lap (1:49.975) on Lap 680 of the car’s 703 total laps, 52/04 laps in arrears to the race/class winner. Compiling the race’s fourth-best race overall lead-lap count (112), van Overbeek led 64; Bergmeister led 42 and Long led 6. Winners of the race’s “Strange Bedfellows” award, the two Porsche GT powerhouses combined to take on the Rolex 24. The No. 67 sparred primarily with the No. 71 TRG Porsche GT3 and the Stevenson Camaros but twice fell from the scoreboard’s top when a broken shock spring and a recalcitrant throttle linkage started the car’s downhill slide from the top GT spot.
No. 69 FXDD SpeedSource Mazda RX-8. Drivers Emil Assentato, Jeff Segal, Nick Longhi, Anthony Lazzaro finished 28 overall and 16^th in GT. Segal qualified (1:49.282) first in GT, led GT-class race’s first 6 laps of the team’s 488-lap total; 219 laps behind No. 70 sister car, GT-class winner. A SuperSegal also scored the team’s fast lap of 1:50.989 on Lap 214. Perhaps most famously remembered for barrel-rolling down NASCAR Turn-3 banking in 2008, SpeedSource’s sister car would kiss the tire barrier during the race’s first quarter (that’s six hours – longer than two “standard” sprint races) and then with Lazzaro at the wheel Sunday morning (8:28 a.m.) blow an engine (wait, a second Mazda rotary blowing? Surely a Mayan apocalypse type-of-thing).
No. 70 Castrol Syntec SpeedSource Mazda RX-8. Drivers: David Haskell, Sylvain Tremblay; Nick Ham, Jonathan Bomarito. Finished 8^th overall; first in GT after starting 3^rd in class; 18^th overall. Completed 707 laps, finished 48 behind overall race winner; fastest lap was pegged by Bomarito on lap 546 (1:49.462). The No. 70 led 145 total laps, of which Ham compiled the greater (58), followed by Tremblay (51) and Bomarito (36), who brought the car to the checkered flag. In one of the few recent times Haskell took orders from any race engineer (Bill Riley), the No. 70 at one point was as many as seven laps down to the GT leader – time mostly lost earlier in the race due to an unspecified “vibration” fix. Strange but true: No. 40 Mazda RX-8 also had race-pausing vibration issue (another 2012 Mayan apocalyptic prophecy?) This Sunrise, Fla.-based SpeedSource race team is part of Mazda’s “ladder” system which Bomarito is climbing and, as of race end, Ham no longer is climbing – whether a desired leap or otherwise. The resultant PR blowup probably wasn’t expected, but that’s the deal with minefields. However, one thinks Tremblay will be able to power through this relatively minor matter when all things in life, especially his, are considered.
No. 71 Buoniconti Fund/University of Miami TRG Porsche GT3 with drivers Tim George Jr., Spencer Pumpelly, Timo Bernhard, Romain Dumas and Bobby Labonte. Qualified by Pumpelly (1:50.271) and starting 11th in GT the team ran 146 laps up front before fading to finish 16th overall, 9^th in GT after turning 675 total laps - 32 laps down to eventual GT winner. Each of the team’s drivers contributed to the race’s second-highest lead lap total of 146 (Bernhard led 53 laps; Labonte 33; Pumpelly 27; Dumas 23; George Jr. 09). The team’s quickest lap belonged to Dumas’ on Lap 392 at a 1:50.519. Weeks before the race TRG owner Kevin Buckler said, “If anything bizarre can go wrong and will go wrong it’ll happen in the Rolex 24.” Prophetic words, those, because the race-leading No. 71 with Labonte at the wheel surrendered the GT lead by running out of gas. The car’s dashboard being unfamiliar to Labonte, he inherited an already activated reserve fuel switch that left the driver with no clue the fuel was exhausted until gone. Still more incredulous: neither Bernhard nor Dumas were penalized for jumping a race restart (the surest proof yet of the 2012 Mayan apocalypse being at hand).
No. 88 Orbit Racing Porsche GT3, qualified 6^th/finished 17th in GT and 29^th/21^st overall. Five drivers Lance Willsey, Tom Papadopoulos, John Baker, Johnny Mowlem and Guy Cosmo fought for driving time in the Elixis/Autosport Design car as much they did the competition. Completing 444 laps, 263 in arrears to GT winner; fastest lap occurred on Lap 250 at 151.284 in the hands of Mowlem. Virtually owning the race’s 20-22 overall (GT top-10/11) spot through much of the competition Baker managed to complete all of four laps before the Orbit car trailed the plume of an engine oil-fire and retired on Lap 445 at 7:35 a.m. Sunday.
No. 94 Turner Motorsport BMW M6. Drivers: Bill Auberlen, Paul Dalla Lana, Boris Said and Joey Hand. Completed 675 laps (-32 to GT-class winner), finishing 15^th overall/eighth in class after starting 25/10 overall/class. Auberlen scored the team’s fastest lap (1:50.760) on Lap 622 (1:43 p.m. Sunday) and led four GT-class laps, while longtime BMW teammate Hand led six laps. In a kind-of-strange turn of events, the heat from the BMW M6 had a greater effect upon its drivers than the rest of the GT field, who after the December and January tests were all but certain the new Turner Motorsport car was going to be the hottest Rolex 24 GT car at the race. An East Horseshoe (Turn 3) clip of Auberlen’s nose by another car and an inadequately insulated floorboard and/or accelerator pedal caused a case of driver hot foot which tended toward drivers being reluctant to keep their feet in it.
No. 97 Stevenson Auto/LaLa Racing Camaro GT.R Driving were Gunter Schaldach, Mike Borkowski, Matt Bell and Brady Refenning. The Camaro finished 17^th and 10^th (overall/GT) after qualifying 35/20. In its debut Rolex Series GT-class outing the No. 97 compiled 661 laps (46-down to GT winner), with the team’s fast lap coming in at 1:53.351 (Bell) on Lap 346 after Borkowski threw down a 1:52.321 while qualifying (damn tight there, Bork) who’ll be teaming with Schaldach for the season’s remainder. Named the SPEED GT Rookie of the Year, Schaldach is the team principal and, no, “LaLa” doesn’t at all refer to some faraway land Bork’s been known to visit (or was that the Playboy Mansion? Then again, mere mortals don’t pass through those portals, either). “LaLa” is Schaldach’s daughter’s name, and she got it after Gunter took Holiday (or something like that). Schaldach generally is a fairly quiet fellow but apparently uses a decent stick (as in “shifter,” Bork). Nevertheless, Schaldach isn’t your everyday “sportsman” driver, not when he can lap inside of 7/10 of either fast guy.
We got us a real GT driving championship fight on our hands, boys and girls!
Later,
DC

ROLEX 24, AFTER IT ALL

 

TO BE OR NOT TO BE …

… Associated with a win, that is, such becoming Porsche’s $64 question as the Action Express Racing No. 9 Porsche V-8 freight-trained toward its improbable Rolex 24 At Daytona win.

Aware its venerable flat-six engine has been pushed as far as likely can be, Porsche has been working on a successor engine and for which (at least, as of roughly two seasons ago) it had anointed the Panamera’s new V-8 engine configuration and not its SUV Cayenne V-8 iteration – the latter being upon which the Action Express Racing’s engine is based.

Meanwhile, for darn near every minute of the Cayenne V-8’s Daytona Prototype life Porsche had undertaken a strategy taken straight from the Sgt. Shultz School of Cognition: “I know nothing; nothing!”

(Indeed, talk arising over the last six months or so that that both the Cayenne and Panamera are all but dead come the end of their respective product runs, one wonders if Porsche has plans for a power plant that will fill future racing and domestic engine bays for as long as has the flat-six.)

As the No. 9 Action Express Racing Riley-Cayenne-8 drew ever closer to its Rolex 24 win some in the DIS media center started speculating about Porsche’s prospective PR position, given the company’s past hands-off approach on the Cayenne DP engine project.

Garage lore had Texas-based engine developer Lozano Brothers Porting (Ben Lozano pictured at left with AER owner Bob Johnson, far left) at one point scrounging Cayenne junkyard engine carcasses, along with other principal parts, after Porsche unilaterally shut off the little ol’ company's access to new Porsche-dealer parts.

Worse still, Porsche later supposedly also told LBP it couldn’t even scavenge junkyards. Of course, this being the Good Ol’ USofA and, particularly, having done messed with a bunch of Texans, Porsche’s supposed "blocking" effort was about as successful as the Hindenburg’s most recent Lakehurst landing.

Yet, given its almost assuredly unbeatable historical race-win record, it wasn’t probable Porsche would turn its back on any “Porsche” win, especially at such a historic racing venue – the company’s first endurance win actually coming in the 1968 Rolex 24 (Porsche 907/8; 673 laps 2,564.13 miles; Vic Elford, Jochen Neerspach, Jo Siffert, Rolf Stommelen, Hans Herrmann – despite Elford’s drivers’ meeting tale of only two drivers back in the day).

The resultant, post-Rolex 24 Porsche PR headline: “Porsche Power Succeeds at the Rolex 24 at Daytona.”

ROBERT FRANKLIN LEITZINGER

One of racing’s best drivers may become a “gentleman farmer” now that the 2010 Rolex 24 at Daytona is history and the Rolex Series heads for its sprint-race calendar, starting with the March 5-6 Grand Prix of Miami at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Having the misfortune of being the odd-man-out on a another series’ team that is evolving from one generation’s ownership to the next, “Butch” Leitzinger (far right, with father Robert Leitzinger, near left) at 40 (nearly 41!) may well be largely finished with a professional racing career after a one-off Rolex 24 ride in the No. 59 Brumos Racing Porsche-Riley team (with team regulars David Donohue, Darren Law and fellow Rolex 24 part-timer, Raphael Matos) - a career that saw him capture three Rolex 24 at Daytona races (1994, 1997, 1999) and a couple or three driving championships, among many other worthy racing accolades.

While in Daytona, Leitzinger said he’d long ago learned through a series of relatively short-lived but well-paying factory rides that good seats don’t last forever.

Going far beyond finding the perfect apex, however, Leitzinger’s talent also shines in his ability to quickly and affably warm to others – whether fellow race car drivers, fans or pain-in-the-rear motorsports journalists.

SPLITTING HEADACHE COSTS

Given the grass-mowing jobs seen During SPEEDtv’s Rolex 24 coverage one wonders just how many splitters “split” during the weekend’s Rolex 24 at Daytona – costing between $13,000 and $15,000 each, depending on manufacturer.

The splitter's cost - which some in the garages say they can independently manufacture for half that amount (some even say “30-percent,” but “that’s racing,” too) - is an example of what can happen when "markets" are limited – for whatever reason.

Easily understood are both sides of the equation Grand-Am seeks to attain because on the one hand there's a desire to control costs by correspondingly controlling part designs.

Then, there’s the want, if not the certainty of making those parts available by awarding a semi-exclusive franchise. But the few who are allowed to build those parts aren’t much worried about market-place competition and thus charge what some characterize as “hamburger diets on tenderloin prices.”

Overall weight still seems to be of the greater concern on the minds of many team managers and owners as each try somehow to bring cars down to minimum weights (2,225-2,275 lb., “depending”).

One team spent $4,000 each on three, count ‘em three 12-volt batteries of the kind most everyone else buys for around $100. Why? They weigh far less.

Another owner spent close to $20,000 ridding his car of 10 lb. You read it correctly; ten big ones! And people think the “alli” weight loss product pricey.

According to most in the garage (not including Rolex Series officials) the anti-spend answer lies in raising overall DP weight to 2,400 to 2,500 lb.; achieving such through the use of ballast.

HAVING AND HAVING NOT

At roughly the 17-hour mark many DPs started getting expected but unacceptable brake performance which required brake maintenance; most changing brake pads and very few changing the rotor and brake pads, a la the Chip Ganassi team.

Amazingly simplistic things, those quick-disconnect brake line couplings.

JUST SICK

Though plastic in the radiator intake (driving engine heat up and, eventually, leading to failure) and flat tires worked Sunday morning to rob Michael Shank Racing of yet another “sure-thing win” in the Rolex 24 At Daytona, Shank’s No. 6 Ford-Riley was already working uphill and against all odds well before the Rolex 24’s final hours when driver Michael Valiante fell ill sometime during or around his midnight-hour shift.

So lacking color that Valiante looked like a ghost wrapped in a mover’s quilt as he walked toward Shank's pits and another turn at the No. 6’s wheel - not long after the Sunday sun arose and an exhausted Brian Frisselle (right) collapsed in the Shank pits. 

Though not at the same time, both visited the Daytona International Speedway infield care center and, after licking the wounds of another biting 24 loss, will soldier on come the early March Homestead-Miami Speedway race.

HITTING A WALL

Even the best of drivers seem to forget the necessity of remembering the Laws of Physics while bringing a race car’s tires up to speed (and heat).

In an uncharacteristic move, Dion Von Moltke evidently underestimated the grip of his tires and his No. 7 Starworks BMW-Riley created a bit of mayhem, if not animosity on several fronts when his car skated from Daytona International Speedway’s pit-exit lane, across a grass strip barely worth a mower’s gasoline, glanced off a tire non-barrier – at the same time pushing a couple of stacks into the DIS 3.56-mile road course first-turn apex – and finally coming to rest with a timely but race-ending assist from the Miller-Barrett No. 48 Marquis Jet Porsche GT3.

If anyone believes Von Moltke to be on the short end of a race-driving skill set, SunTrust No. 10 driver Pedro Lamy (left) earlier was a little deeper in the pit-exit lane turn when he, too, skated but was successfully contained by the tires,  instead only rearranging his Dallara’s bodywork as he continued on – the long way around – to a much earlier-than-expected pit stop to fix that rearrangement.

(Look for an announcement shortly from Starworks on Von Moltke teaming with Bill Lester for the remainder of 2010.)

HEATING UP

Though failing to directly address the above “exit” strategy earlier in the Rolex 24 race weekend, Proto-Auto’s Jeff Hazel likely would nonetheless add exit-lane-skate accident prevention to a list of positives he says racers would realize should Grand-Am rethink and rescind its multi-year ban on tire heaters, principally undertaken with “cost savings” in mind.

Hazel’s principal point was that a preheated tire is far more likely from the outset to carry and maintain recommended tire-maker atmospheric pressure levels whereas teams now must mostly guess the levels at which to first pressurize a tire, keeping in mind that a heated tire’s internal pressure will change 15-percent or more when a variety of influences – among which are track surfaces to air humidity – act upon a tire’s self-contained atmosphere.

Yes, yes, Pirelli is supposed to “dry” the tire-pressurizing air while properly pressurizing the tire, and more, but the atmosphere’s dynamics can be considerably changed with just one tire tech’s preference of more (or less) “goop” (a highly technical term used by most to describe a substance used to help bind tire to wheel rim).

“From a safety as well as a monetary standpoint, pre-heated tires are advisable,” Hazel said in perfect English (the Queen’s version that is).

According to Hazel a variety of methods can be employed in pre-heating a tire – from relatively costly individual tire wraps to enclosed, multi-set cabinets into which hot air is introduced.

“A tire’s life is greatly extended when uniformly heated before being stressed, making it less subject to dangerous ruptures.”

Not to mention possibly keeping two cars – one being an entirely innocent bystander, as in Miller-Barrett Racing’s case - from wrecking out of a race.

From what some have learned, a few heated “tire cabinets” cost considerably less than one splitter – or one No. 7 BMW-Riley and one No. 48 Porsche GT3.

HAYWOOD GONE

Well, not entirely – Hurley H Haywood (left) still will race in “non-professional” events like HSR.

It was an emotional moment for just about everyone except Haywood during the 2010 Rolex 24’s At Daytona’s 19th hour as the five-time Rolex 24 winner stepped out of the No. 59 for the last time at the venerable 24-hour race.

"I think I got more emotional when I got in the car the first time, knowing it'd be my last," he said (you need to think on it; re-read it a couple of times, it'll sink in)(I think).

Done, over the wall and wiping his brow Sunday morning, tens of cameras were among a crush of crew, friends, business associates, TV producers, media types and hangers-on who gathered ‘round Haywood under Brumos’ suddenly too-small pit road tent.

One camera-guy type fumed indignantly when the team’s pit crew, using words like “excuse me, sir” and “pardon me, please” attempted to part the human waters while performing usual, needed post-pit stop duties in their own pit.

Then again, lunch wasn't far from being served over in the media center and with a top spot in line awaiting the camera guy was soon departed.

DRILLING IT

Tracy Krohn's W&T Offshore is in the business of drilling for petroleum so it's likely team members should be somewhat familiar with the term.

"We got drilled by (Christophe) Bouchut - who was 40-laps down - in the West Horseshoe,” exclaimed Jeff Hazel after the incident, which he pinned squarely on the 1995 Rolex 24 winner, driving the No. 55 Crown Royal Supercar Life BMW-Riley. (How Bouchut did all this and finished third, too, in still another car, I've yet to figure.)

Nevertheless, the Ford-Lola team was at the top of the boards, driver Ricardo Zonta having led a total of 30 laps when the car came in for some gas, tires and servicing on Lap 300.

Rear-ended on Lap 308 following driver Nic Jönsson’s return to the track, the No, 75 Ford-Lola lost about 15 laps replacing damaged bodywork and later dropped more time when the crew had to swap out an entire set of gears, the input shaft of which was noticeably bent.

SHORTS

Lozano Brothers Porting’s work on the Porsche-Cayenne V-8 finally paid off – even if not for the No. 90 Spirit of Daytona, which has worked longest of any team to give competitive life to the engine.

The Porsche Cayenne LBP engine has been on the Grand-Am “watch list” for a while, so don’t be surprised when it gets whacked.

Finally, Patterson Said The "L" Word. Actually, Mark Patterson (at center-right, A.J. Allmendinger, near left) wrote it: "…my last Daytona 24 Hour Rolex race," he wrote in his race diary, which evidently now goes on hiatus.

He will be missed.

SPEEDtv’s one-hour historical Rolex 24 pre-race perspective was named "the best I've ever seen" by Grand-Am's Mark Raffauf, who was instrumental in prototype racing during the 1980's-1990's.

Darn, he's getting old.

Later,

DC