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Daytona

Rolex

04/02/2001

Race Morning

Setting The Scene

© Malcolm Cracknell

As A. Wallace explained to me yesterday, if you’re not ready for this race by the end of the first week of January, you’re never going to be ready. How that leaves the teams who only arrived for Friday remains to be seen – although an entry from Broadfoot Racing appears to be in the field comfortably. Mark Montgomery – after all his problems – seems to have just about made it, so the non qualifiers look to be the two small Mazdas, the Dreamcarsonline.com Porsche (#64), the crashed Haberthur #03 911 GT2, the crashed Free Spirit Porsche (#13) and the slow Jacobs Motorsport Lola SRP.

The #75 Gunnar GT3RS might have been in the field, bearing in mind that the second Pilbeam went out in Second Qualifying to gather data only, but Pilbean NA didn’t withdraw it from the race so the Gunnar car cannot start. Bizarre, but as Joe Policastro crashed #75 in the free session before Second Q and shortened the chassis on the right side, Kevin Jeannette seems content not to have to put the car into the race. Ron Zitza has found a drive in the Broadfoot Porsche.

For now, you’ll have to accept that a final driver line up hasn’t been produced, nor a final grid either. Hopefully we’ll know what’s going on later this morning.

It’s been two days of changeable weather so far, plus changing Qualifying arrangements (both periods used for the whole entry – or at least those who chose to go out in the wet on Thursday, plus those who weren’t changing engines yesterday. The teams you’d expect to look set for the race are set for the race. For a number of teams, it’s still a thrash on race morning. Or a case of worrying whether their preparations have been enough, whether their drivers have had enough laps. There are many who have had little time in their mounts.

The Champion team are more prepared than most. Their line up smacks of talent and the car seems set to achieve, the question is can that combination help mark the end of the frustration Dorsey Schroeder has felt for the Lola-Porsche? Restrictor limitatons and cooling issues were some of the primary bugaboos that kept the car out of the front last year. But changes have been made and Schroeder seems to have found a reason for optimism.

“We have been going pretty well this weekend. We tested 17 days here so we know the right set up on the car. There was no need to risk the car by running in the rain. They only qualified the first two cars so, we can’t be a top qualifier, but we did fairly well. Last night we gave Sascha Maassen a go at it. He has had only 10 laps in the car but he ran well.

“They gave us a bigger restrictor so that’s made a little more power for us. We are all optimistic.”

Cirtek Motorsports Porsche #65 driver, Robert Orcutt thinks his team will demonstrate a measure of perseverance so important to an endurance contest. “I think we are doing well. We are just chipping away. I think we are going to be one of those cars that stays on the track and people will just get tired of seeing it!”

The #50 Aasco-Boduck Alta Vista Porsche GT3R has Andy Hadjucky, Bob Oniglia and a very pleased Craig Stanton behind the wheel tomorrow. “I have always wanted to run with these folks. This is a seasoned team with years of experience. The guys all work well together. They have a great program and we are in it for the long term. We are going to run the Grand Am all year and then maybe we will look for more next year.

“There are three of us running the race instead of four, so I expect to do quite a lot of the driving. And that is good because, I want to be one of the fittest drivers in America. I train very hard. I race mountain bikes and I compete in the ECO Challenge.

“The ECO challenge involves covering hundreds of miles of swimming, Kayaking, mountain climbing and more. We have a team of four and we travel the distance over up to 3 days time. You have to stay close together and protect the weak link. You have to keep moving forward in a group. You help the weakest member keep up so all survive.

“The idea is to work together and work to win as a team. The analogy is appropriate to what we do on a race team. Except that, when I sit in the car for 14 hours, it is like taking a rest compared to what I have to endure in the ECO challenge!”

So the 24 hour race is relatively easy then? Let’s emphasise that the Porsche GT race looks like a monumental crash and bash fest ahead. Stay out of trouble for the first 20 hours at least, you lot.

Tactics in the early going, David Warnock (’99 GT2 winner)? “Hopefully we’ll have more power than them (guess who ‘they’ are) but I should be able to make up some places. I'm amazed how they stick on our tail though. The main thing is to stay out of trouble. Then we’ll try and keep the car in one piece and go round and round. A repeat of ’99 would be nice.” One watch on each wrist then?

If the phone lines ever start to cooperate here, we'll have a page ready for live text commentary of the race, starting at 13.00 EST. There will be a button to click for you to refresh. The target is to update the text every 15 minutes or so.