Daytona 24 Hours 2006

The Daytona 24 Hours historically kicks off the start of the sports car racing season and, as I usually do, I drove up there on Saturday to both watch the start of the race and to re-unite a legendary Porsche 962 with its 1985 IMSA Camel GT Trophy.

The story on the Trophy first: Wayne Jackson owns 962.HR1, one of the two Al Holbert’s "Lowenbrau"-sponsored cars (the other being 962.103) that won the IMSA Camel GT Trophy in 1985, ’86 and ’87. I have known Wayne for years and he is an enthusiastic (and good) driver of racecars, plus also being one of the most genuine racing enthusiasts one could ever meet.

Out of the blue, (or should it be the web?), I received an email one morning from one of Holbert’s ex-mechanics, still living in Pennsylvania, near to the Holbert dealership. He still had one of the five gold plated Camel Trophies that were awarded to the team in 1985 and wished to sell it, preferably to the owner of a Holbert 962. I contacted Wayne and the deal was swiftly accomplished, part of the agreement being that I would take photos of the Trophy back with the car at Daytona.

So it was that I arrived in Daytona on Saturday morning to take my usual look at the start of the 24 Hours, only to find that the traffic in the right hand lane, that headed for the infield parking, was stacked back some two miles! I have to admit that I don’t have the greatest amount of patience in the World and also to the fact that I’ve got used to entering most of the World’s circuits and so I took to the second lane, drove down to the head of the queue and then, professing ignorance of the line, turned sharp right into the line to buy infield tickets. Apologies to those I inconvenienced but there was a race about to start!

Once parked ("dumped" at the first available spot would be a better description), I extracted the Trophy from the trunk, called Wayne, and he happily brought his golf cart to the car, so that we could take the Trophy, a very heavy object, straight to where the Lowenbrau-sponsored 962 was parked on display amongst other Daytona 24 Hour winners, such as the Porsche 935J of Joest, Stommelen and Merl that won in 1980 and the Ferrari F333SP of Moretti. On the way, we met up with Kevin’s crew, Kevin Jeannette and racecar driver son Gunnar. All proudly posed with the Trophy and car (see photos at end of article) and then we went to the grid where the cars racing in the 24 Hours were lined up allowing press and public a last walk through before the start.

The grid was packed with people and I was struck at how happy everyone seemed. Of course, for the first stint drivers and the crews, adrenaline was running high! I chatted with Duncan Dayton and Rick Knoop, who were driving the Essex Racing Team entry. Rick said that it was twenty years since he’d raced at Daytona and: "That was in one of Jim’s (Busby) 962s. You don’t get the shove in the back that you got from a 962, but we’re reaching 184 mph coming into the Tri-oval, so it’s not THAT slow." For those who are interested in such things, I compared lap times "then and now". The fastest Daytona Prototype was lapping at the same pace as an Acura powered Spice Camel Lights car from 1990.

Some seventy-seven cars took the start this year with almost half being Daytona Prototypes. I still hate the looks of them, with their portly cabins but at least, judging by the crowds, it’s bring people into Daytona, which has to be good for everyone, including the participants, the vendors and the public. Then the grid was cleared, the National Anthem sung, prayers intoned over the P.A. and the magic words, "Gentlemen, start your engines!"

I walked back to the first hairpin (the Horseshoe) and watched the cars go by on the two pace laps, then the first few laps as the pack thundered by, jostling for position in the early laps. Everyone seemed to make it, although at least one Daytona Prototype was smoking heavily by the second lap and I walked back to my car and drove home to watch the rest of the race on the TV

It seemed to have been a good race, the Lexus-powered car of Chip Ganassi winning outright with its three drivers, Dan Wheldon of England (Indy 500 winner), Casey Mears (Rick’s son) and Scott Dixon of New Zealand. For Porsche in GT, the winners were Michael Levitas, Randy Pobst, Ian Baas and Spencer Pumpelly. The Porsche-powered Crawford of the Alex Job Racing team seemed to be the fastest on the day, but had numerous driveshaft problems (perhaps caused by running the shafts at too much of a negative angle?), which relegated them to third place. The Brumos Porsches suffered also, the #59 car finishing but well down, whilst the Red Bull-sponsored # 58 car looked all set for second place until thirteen minutes before the end, when it had a puncture. As usual, a Porsche 911 won the GT Class but was challenged hard by the new Pontiac GTR.

So a good start to the Sportscar racing year. In ALMS, we have the new Porsche LMP2 and the renewing battle between the Corvettes and Aston Martins to look forward to at Sebring, which I shall also attend and report on.