(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 34th 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 36th – 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
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