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Daytona

Rolex

04/02/2001

Afterwards

First Look Back

One function of this short piece is to let readers know that there is life after the Rolex 24; not life as we know it, but life of sorts, with normality awaited with interest. No sleep on Saturday night, no sleep on the plane on Monday night – the Editor is hurting.

Wednesday will see the site fully back into action. Did we do a good job covering the race? By all means use the ‘Contact’ link on the front page and have your say. New systems don’t necessarily go well with an entry of 79 cars, with another few taking to the track in P & Q. Many readers will be aware that the Daytona line-up is a moving, rolling list, the final driver list appearing late on Saturday morning.

Then there’s the little matter of trying to keep up with what 79 cars and 300 odd drivers are doing for 24 hours. That wasn’t helped by the teams in the pits having a far better service of live information than the journos. To have used the GA ‘Live’ website material would suggest that there was no need to be present – but you’d need another body just to monitor that.
The latest lap time is an important item of information when trying to track a race, and we didn’t have that. You try tracking what is happening to one car out of 79. If you spot a change, you’ve then got to find out why. Well done those teams with PR representatives present. Your function is even more important at this event.

Some of you out there have a very unusual concept of what is going on in the media center. To the reader who wanted to see a shot of their partner working on one car out of 79, well…..I’m sorry, we’ve got more important duties than that. To the reader who thought that our race commentary dropped off after the Dyson #16 retired, you’re right. It did. But by then it was survival – for cars and teams, and journalists. To the reader who expected TotalMotorSport to post the Privilege Championship regulations, polite words fail me. I can only think of two. To the GM representatives who realised the error of their ways, well done. To Andrew Cotton and Kerry Morse too, of course. That little incident seems to have drawn a greater response than any other throughout the five days we were at the track.

No, we didn’t cover many cars in the detail we would have liked. Give us time and we’ll do so. Every team has a story to tell, so tell it. Let us know what happened to you. If it’s interesting, we’ll give it space and photographic coverage. To the teams who carried our stickers – THANK YOU. May they have brought you good fortune.

The PK Sport #60 tale is a good one – one of many, I’m sure. We’ll have that posted later in the week, and many others too, I hope. Just let us know what happened to your team. Sincere thanks to Andy Hartwell, Lyndon Fox and Brian Mitchell for helping to tell just some of the stories during a frantic week.

To the people I was supposed to meet and didn’t, please accept the fact that I wanted to. “It’s Daytona” was a common phrase heard throughout the week. It’s a race like no other. Well done Ron Fellows / Chris Kneifel / Franck Freon / Johnny O'Connell. Well done all the class winners, well done all of you who made it home at 1 pm on Sunday. Well done all of you who played a part in creating another unusual 24 Hours at Daytona. Not a classic, but every 24 hour race is a festival for the lunatics who love, and participate in, this kind of racing. I’m going back to bed.

Malcolm Cracknell