Daytona Rolex 04/02/2001   Comer Racing An AGT Tale   ©Andrew S. Hartwell The AGT class has 8 contenders vying for top honors here in Daytona. The field isn’t quite the size of GT, where a gaggle of Porsches look to show their behinds to the new Mosler and the BMWs. But what this group lacks in number it makes up for in heart. And one story that brings the heart of racing – its people – to the fore is the story of the Gwen Racing Camaro. Gwen Davin has been in the sport for 20 years. She has pulled together a band of volunteers to field their entry in this race. Mark Montgomery (below) is one of the drivers looking to stay ahead of the 8-pack in the #23 Camaro. He offered this tale of loss and fulfillment for this thrown-together, but that wasn’t the plan, team. “Our weekend has been wonderful in a lot of ways and it has been tragic in a lot of ways. The car came down from Jim Comer’s shop in North Carolina but, through a mistake on our part, we didn’t have a crew!” But Mark Montgomery wasn’t going to miss his next chance to bring home the gold. And so Gwen Davin went to work to make a small miracle happen. “The guys you see working on the car are all local Daytona people who stopped what they were doing to come here and help us. We got together last night and got the car onto the track for the first time. These are all volunteers. I had never driven the car and they never saw the car before. We must have 20 people here with us now. “We had a few niggling problems but these guys have been thrashing and bashing to get this thing together and I think we are really going to do well. I’ve been in the Rolex enough times to know that qualifying isn’t that important so, if we can just get in the field I think we will have a real good chance.” “The thing that is so heartwarming is my friends here who have come to rescue us. I have been racing for so long that...Gwen and I just picked up the phone and these guys dropped what they were doing, left work, and came to help. And there are more guys coming! We have friends coming in from Virginia too! And Jim Comer has just been wonderful. He ran this car last year in Grand Am. He has a new car (#18 Corvette) and he has been so impressed with this group of friends that I think he is just going to leave the car with us.” Gwen Davin adds: “We just have a wonderful group of people! We are just very lucky! I am so proud of everything they have done.” Stories like this one make the “Grand” in Grand American somewhat…‘grander’, don’t they? Copyright ©2000-©2023 TotalMotorSport