DAYTONA. Indianapolis celebrated the 100th THE ROLEX 24 AT. 50 Years of Endurance Racing:

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1 50 Years of Endurance Racing: THE ROLEX 24 AT DAYTONA BY KARL SEYFERT The race cars have gotten faster and the technology an order of magnitude more advanced, but after half a century of the Rolex 24 at Daytona, two things haven t changed: Today s drivers are just as tough and the race is as grueling as ever. Take it from us. Photo: Kevin Bobbitt Indianapolis celebrated the 100th anniversary of the 500 last year. This year it was time for Daytona to mark the 50th anniversary of the Rolex 24 at Daytona, and MOTOR was lucky enough to attend the event. While this year s race featured just two classes, the inaugural 1962 version (called the Daytona Continental) had 10, with Dan Gurney s Lotus-Climax 19B taking the overall win. The other nine classes were won by two Ferraris, three Porsches, a Jaguar, an Alfa-Romeo, a Chevrolet Corvette and Jim Hall s Chaparral. Fifty cars lined up for the start of that race, with several other well-known names such as Phil Hill, Stirling Moss, Jim Clark, Innes Ireland, Jo Bonnier, Briggs Cunningham, Roger Penske, A.J. Foyt and Fireball Roberts Jr. also in the field. Gurney s engine threw a rod while he held a substantial lead near the end of the race. He made the canny decision to park the car at the top of front straight s banking, just short of the start/finish line. When he received the signal from the flagman indicating that the three-hour race was about to end, he employed gravity to allow the crippled car to coast across the finish line for the win. Gurney s son Alex competed this year and was the sentimental favorite to win the race. The race was lengthened to 2000 kilometers two years after the 1962 event. Although we re marking its 50th anniversary, the race wasn t extended to the full 24 hours until the 1966 event. Fierce battles among Ford, Ferrari, Porsche and the Chevrolet-powered Chaparrals characterized the latter part of the first 10 years of the race. Many of the same manufacturers, plus several others, competed in this year s golden anniversary race. The 24-hour race utilizes nearly all of Daytona s iconic 2.5-mile tri-oval, already very familiar to NASCAR fans. A sharp left turn near the end of the front straight transfers the cars to an infield road course before the banking, where they must negotiate several turns before returning to the banking. A bus stop chicane in the second half of the back straight further slows the cars before the Turn 12 banking and completes the modifications to the basic tri-oval design. The added road course curves and chicane extend the lap distance to 3.81 miles. While the 24 Hours of LeMans is held near the summer solstice, the winter date of the Daytona endurance race means a larger percentage of the race is run at night. The track s lighting system is reduced from its maximum output to force the drivers to rely on their headlights. Each driver must be able to make hundreds of laps around the track without mistakes, under constantly changing conditions daylight or darkness, heat or cold and clean or dirty track conditions, as well as a mix of nearly 60 different cars of vastly different speed capabilities. Although this is an endurance race, it probably would be impossible for one driver to complete the entire 24 hours without assistance. In practice, each car has several different drivers (most use four). This helps to mitigate driver fatigue, but makes for some interesting 26 March 2012

2 Illustration: Creative Commons & Harold A. Perry Bus Stop International Horseshoe The Daytona tri-oval is reconfigured for the 24-hour race, with an infield road course and chicane section added. This slows the overall speed of the cars considerably and greatly increases the complexity of the course. The infield section features several additional viewing areas for fans challenges on the track. Teams may substitute drivers at their discretion, so competitors often are not certain who they re interacting with out on the track. Different drivers negotiate the track in slightly different ways, so it may take several laps to determine how to negotiate a pass on any of the other cars on the track. About the time a driver becomes comfortable with the other driv - ers in his vicinity, driver changes may take place and the whole process begins again. Throw a darkened track, a growing accumulation of rubber debris on 5 7 the track and vastly faster prototypes into the mix and things can get very interesting for the drivers (and race fans). Contest Winner Last year, MOTOR partnered with LIQUI MOLY to conduct the LIQUI MOLY Pit Crew Sweepstakes. One MOTOR reader was selected at random to attend this year s Rolex 24 at Daytona. As we announced in our December 2011 issue, Rod Reisdorf, owner of Mr. Best Wrench in Grand Island, NY, was selected to join the LIQUI MOLYsponsored pit crew in Daytona. Rod is an avid race fan and participant, with memberships in the SCCA, BMWCCA and Corvettes of Buffalo car clubs. He autocrosses an 83 Camaro and takes to the Watkins Glen and Mosport circuits for high-performance track driv - ing events. He also has been a part owner of a late-model stock car that was campaigned at local short tracks, so he has lots of hands-on racecar experience. He arrived in Daytona eager to help the LIQUI MOLY pit crew any way he could. March

3 THE ROLEX 24 AT DAYTONA When Rod Reisdorf and I arrived in the LIQUI MOLY Team Engstler/Mitchum Motorsports garage area (left photo), the entire front bodywork, the wheels and some of the rear bodywork still needed to be reinstalled. The team was completing some last-minute adjustments and seemed relatively unconcerned about the amount of time that remained before the start of the race. At right, Rod works on the Porsche s rear bumper cover prior to the race, with a backup ready close by. LIQUI MOLY is the chief sponsor of Team Engstler in Germany. Team Engstler, headed by team owner and driver Franz Engstler, competes with a BMW in the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC), and the original plan was for the team to bring its car to the States to compete at Daytona. However, the Team Engstler car in its WTCC configuration did not meet the GT class requirements for Daytona, and would have had to undergo significant modifications to comply. The decision was made to join forces with an American team and enter a Porsche 911 GT3 instead. LIQUI MOLY had previously sponsored a Porsche 935 Turbo to an overall win of the 1980 Daytona 24-hour race, so the switch from BMW to Porsche was interpreted as a good omen rather than a setback. LIQUI MOLY and Team Engstler partnered with Mitchum Motorsports for the Rolex 24 at Daytona effort. Mitchum was already a competitor in the Grand American Road Racing Association (Grand-Am) series and team principal Chris Mitchum brings experience from both sides of the pit wall as a former professional driver, coach, crew chief, team manager and consultant for a number of top teams over the past 15 years. Franz Engstler was partnered in the LIQUI MOLY Team Engstler/Mit - chum Motorsports Porsche GT3 with experienced sports car drivers David Murry and Gunter Schaldach, and young phenom Jade Buford. Unlike Engstler, all three had previous experience in the Daytona 24-hour race. The Cars Just two classes competed in the 2012 race Daytona Prototype (DP) and GT. The DP class was dominated by cars manufactured by chassis builder Riley. These included Ford Rileys and BMW The team kept a stockpile of key replacement parts in the garage area, several of which were needed during the course of the race. Radiator assemblies are visible in the foreground and a complete set of front bodywork sits on the ground near team owner Chris Mitchum. Rileys. One Ford Dallara and one Ford Lola also were entered in the DP class. Daytona Prototypes have competed at Daytona since Grand American Road Racing Association, the organizing body, decided at that time that it was necessary to lower the overall cost of competition (and possibly the speed) in the top class. To do this, DP cars were restricted to closed-cockpit chassis constructed with tube frames, instead of higher cost composites. To further restrict costs, the series regulated which companies could provide chassis and which manufacturers could provide engines. Engines had to be based on road-legal production units from a major manufacturer. At the same time, major manufacturers were not allowed to run Daytona Prototype teams. Many sports car racing fans have expressed disdain for the too-similar appearance of the DP cars that resulted from these rule changes. Only a limited number of manufacturers are allowed to pro vide chassis for the class and one chassis manufacturer (Riley) has dominated, with teams selecting different engine suppliers. From the outside, it s difficult for a race fan to tell the Photos: Karl Seyfert 28 March 2012

4 THE ROLEX 24 AT DAYTONA difference between a Ford Riley and a BMW Riley, for example. The only exterior cues are paint schemes and decals. A keen ear might be able to detect a difference in the sounds of the engines. Perhaps in response to fan criticism, rule changes were made prior to this year s race. These changes allowed chassis manufacturers to incorporate design cues with links to production cars. The first new DP car to take advantage of these rule changes is the Corvette DP, which made its debut at this year s race. The initiative started a couple of years back when Jim France [Grand American Road Racing Association founder] came to Detroit, said GM Racing Director Mark Kent. He met with our leadership and pulled out a photo of the Hendrick Corvette GTP car from the 1980s and expressed an interest in moving the look of the Daytona Prototype class more toward a classic prototype look. He asked if Chevrolet had an interest in supporting that initiative, and we were immediately excited by the opportunity. So although the Corvette DP is a purpose-built, midengine race car, its sheet metal carries at least a passing resemblance to a current production Corvette. Perhaps Chevrolet hopes the new car will allow it to take advantage of the old win on Sunday, sell on Monday marketing strategy. The Corvettes experienced problems during the race, with one suffering an engine failure during the very early going. The best Corvette DP finisher was fifth overall for the #14 of Darren Law, David Donohue and Christian Fittipaldi. David Donohue, a Daytona winner in 2009, is the son of Mark Donohue, who was perhaps one of auto racing s greatest all-around drivers. The senior Donohue also won at Daytona in 1969, in a Lola T70-Chevrolet. The GT class was dominated by Porsches, with the 911 GT3 model making up about half of the entries in that class. Also contending in GT were an assortment of Ferrari 458s, Ford Mustangs, Chevy Camaros, Mazda RX-8s, BMW M3s, Audi R8s and even a Dodge Viper. Although these are certainly serious race The Corvette DP made its debut at Daytona this year. Its bodywork was designed to evoke the production model Corvette, and it looks like they ve done a pretty good job. Rules were changed prior to this season to promote this type of thing, but to keep costs under control, the body panels must be designed to fit on any of three chassis currently permitted under DP regulations. cars, with fuel cells, full roll cages and air jack systems, they re more closely related to the street cars they re derived from than the purpose-built DP cars. On paper, it would seem that such a diverse group of GT cars would result in some rather lopsided competition, but this did not prove to be the case. While cars with a displacement advantage appeared to do well on the highspeed, banked sections of the course, the smaller, lighter cars fared better on the tighter turns of the infield road course section of the track. Some have stated that the track layout favors the Porsches, which might explain why so many teams opted to enter cars from that manufacturer. Porsche s many years of participation at Daytona, as well as the company s long involvement and support of auto racing certainly contributed as well. Daytona Prototypes are much faster than the GT-class cars, and can pass them at will at just about any point on the track, which makes for some interesting racing. The GT drivers must do their best to stay out of the way of the much faster prototypes and avoid unpredictable maneuvers while prototypes are in the area. The prototypes have clear headlight lenses, while GT cars have colored lenses. This helps the drivers identify slower or faster cars on the track during the long night driving portion of the race. It was not unusual to see prototype drivers begin frantically flashing their head- Race fans are allowed to mingle with the cars and drivers just prior to the start of the 24-hour race. Gates in the grandstand fencing are opened, allowing free access to the track surface and pit road. The asphalt where some fans grabbed a temporary seat would soon be several degrees hotter. 30 March 2012

5 THE ROLEX 24 AT DAYTONA lights when they were attempting to pass a slower GT car. Track workers also wave a blue flag to signal a slower car that a faster (usually prototype) car is approaching. The unspoken message is clear: Get out of the way! Race Day Rod Reisdorf and I arrived in the garage area early on Saturday morning and found the LIQUI MOLY Team Engstler/Mitchum Motorsports team already hard at work on the #20 Porsche. The car was raised high off the ground on its air jack extensions, all four wheels were removed and the entire front and rear sections of the car (hood, fenders and front and rear bumper covers) had been removed. With about seven hours to go before the start of the race, much work remained to be done. The car had sustained damage to the left rear during a practice session. The team spent the second practice session repairing the damage to the body and suspension, leaving precious little time to prepare for Friday s qualifying session. The strategy after the accident was to get the car qualified as well as possible, then attempt to improve its position during the long race. The car would start the race from the 33rd position on the grid. The organization in the Mitchum Motorsports garage area was impressive. Tools and equipment were arranged in an orderly fashion and all team members had assigned tasks. The clock was ticking, but no one seemed rushed or harried. Preparation for the race is much like running a shop. The team owner or manager must make sure everything runs smoothly. Each team member must know what s expected of him and what to do when things change due to accidents or mechanical problems. Everyone must remain calm under pressure. When we arrived, Mitchum Motorsports team owner Chris Mitchum stopped long enough to assign Rod to work on the car s rear bumper cover. The primary cover had been slightly damaged during the accident. Rod s job was to clean its surface, while a backup cover was prepared for possible use in the race. Many spare parts were arrayed in the The four LIQUI MOLY team drivers line up for a photo in front of the car with Pit Crew Sweepstakes winner Rod Reisdorf (far right). Drivers (from left) are Jade Buford, David Murry, Franz Engstler and Gunter Schaldach. garage area, ready to be installed in the event of mechanical failure or crash damage. The rear-engine Porsche features radiators behind the front bumper cover, so spares of those assemblies, along with a complete set of front bodywork, were arranged on the floor or on stands. No one expects to have an accident on the track, but in such a long race, provisions must be made to repair the car and get it back out there if damage occurs. The team reinstalled all of the bodywork and the wheels, then lowered the car to the ground. All of the cars in both the DP and GT classes use integrated jacking systems, so no floor jacks are required. A set of extensions allowed the team to increase the height of the car s three air jacks, bringing the car to a more comfortable working height and allowing undercar access. Compressed nitrogen in large cylinders is used for the jacking system as well as the team s air tools. Lugging the large nitrogen cylinders around the garage and pit areas might seem cumbersome, but it means the team can count on a reliable source of compressed gas, without needing electricity to run a compressor. Nitrogen is also used to fill the tires, as the dry nitrogen s response to changes in tire temperature is more predictable than ordinary compressed air. A final check of the car s alignment was made with a set of fixtures attached to the front and rear of the car, com- The LIQUI MOLY Team Engstler/Mitchum Motorsports Porsche GT3 leads two other GT cars (another Porsche and a Mazda RX-8) around the International Horseshoe in the early going. The Mazdas were particularly entertaining to watch during the night racing, with flames shooting out of their rotary engine exhaust systems during downshifts and deceleration at the entry to Turn 1. Photo: Kevin Bobbitt 32 March 2012

6 Photo: Kevin Bobbitt The GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing Corvette DP negotiates the International Horseshoe. Much was expected of the striking new Corvette prototypes and many hoped that co-driver Alex Gurney and the rest of his team (or another Corvette DP team) could deliver a win. Although the car exhibited great potential, early problems hampered its chances and the team had to settle for a 33rd. Next year? bined with fishing line running between them. The apparatus looked slightly less sophisticated than a wheel alignment machine one might find in a wellequipped shop but, once again, the setup offers the advantage of portability. The team also travels with a portable scale platform. Placing the car on the platform allows the team to measure the precise amount of weight that s distributed on each of the car s wheels. The final alignment check confirmed that the repairs to the left rear had been successful, and the car was pronounced ready for the race. The time had passed quickly. It was now less than two hours before the start of the race, and race stewards started to arrive in the garage area with instructions to the teams to begin forming up and pushing their cars into position along pit road. At the last minute, someone noticed that with the car at its normal ride height, the bodywork at the left rear looked dangerously close to the tire, perhaps due to the prior damage. The car was returned to the garage, lifted on the jacks, the wheel removed and some emergency surgery performed on the rear bumper cover with an air grinder. When the steward returned for a second time, the car was really ready to go. Daytona is a very big place and perhaps nowhere is its size more evident than when standing on pit lane facing the main grandstand. The grandstands are several stories high and stretch the entire length of Daytona s main straight. The stands were mostly empty that day, revealing the checkerboard pattern on the seats that s normally covered by fans during the other winter race held each year at the famous track. The diversity of racing machinery was impressive as well. Most of the teams had already pushed their cars into position, so the stewards directed the #20 team to its spot in the preliminary starting grid. Immediately to our left was a Corvette DP, which looked quite serious. In front was another Porsche and behind a Mazda. Many of the team members and drivers are well-acquainted with each other and exchanged greetings and well-wishes as they stood near their cars. Attendance for the race was approximately 75,000. Although this is a fraction of the crowd that attends the Daytona Chris Mitchum (facing camera) confers with Franz Engstler prior to a driver change. Team Engstler crew member Andreas Klinger joins the conversation, perhaps to assist with any English-to-German translation issues. 500, it was considered quite strong for the 50th anniversary of the 24-hour race. A tradition at this race allows fans with the inclination to do so to take one last walk around the cars and mingle with the teams before the start of the race. Ladders placed at the bottom of the main grandstand allowed fans to climb down onto the track, then walk across it to the pit lane and walk amongst the cars. It was quite a sight to see fans actually sitting on Daytona s fabled main straight, which is banked even at the start/finish line. As 3:30 approached, race officials began signaling the crowd that it was time to clear the pit lane and begin the race. Race fans were herded off the track and Rod and I headed for the team s pit area. There were 58 cars qualified for the race and the Mitchum Motorsports pit was located near the end of Daytona s long pit lane, quite a distance from the team s garage area. After the race began, work in the pits fell into a familiar routine. Fuel consumption and fuel cell size dictated fuel stops at approximately 45-minute intervals. Caution periods extended these intervals, of course. Tires were normally changed every other fuel stop. Fuel was dispensed from an overhead refueling rig, using gravity only. The overhead rig held only enough fuel for about two refuelings, and had to be refilled from a wheeled gas truck. The gas truck in turn had to be refilled at intervals as well, which meant periodic trips to the track s main gas station for more racing fuel. All team members displayed admirable discipline and the ability to quickly complete the same tasks without making mistakes. Continental is the tire sponsor for the race and provides all of the tires used by all of the teams. With tires being changed by the Mitchum team approximately every hour and a half and at similar intervals by other teams, Continental must have brought hundreds, if not thousands, of tires to the event. Although there was no shortage of fresh rubber, each team has a limited number of wheel sets to work with in the pit area. This meant the crew also had to periodically shuttle sets of worn wheel/tire combinations to the Continental garage to swap them for fresh sets. Once they March

7 THE ROLEX 24 AT DAYTONA were back at the pits, crew members worked on the fresh tires to make sure their pressures were properly set, as dictated by the team engineer. Even when things are going smoothly, there s plenty of work to keep the team busy. While one group keeps the team supplied with fuel and fresh tires, the over-the-wall team members prepare for and execute the frequent pit stops. During the stops, only a specified number of team members are allowed over the wall and must be wearing protective clothing. Those who are in direct contact with the fuel wear fireproof hoods, goggles and helmets to protect them in the event of Circle #21 Circle #22 Circle #23 Circle #24 an accidental fire. During driver changes, a team member assists the drivers as they exit and enter the car, and makes certain that all safety equipment is properly secured before the car leaves the pits. During several pit stops, the team called upon Rod to operate the dead man s handle that turns the refueling rig s fuel supply on and off during refueling. He was positioned inside the pit wall, so a fire suit was not required. He also assisted the team with fuel and tire duties, making frequent trips to the garage area on the team s pit vehicle. He lasted several hours longer than this reporter, finally retiring to the team hotel in the wee hours of the morning. Speaking after the race, Rod stated that You can watch a race on television or seated in the stands across from the pits, but you haven t truly experienced a great race like Daytona until you ve had the opportunity to work in the pits with the team. Things look very different from that side of the wall. The team s strategy seemed to be working and they had moved up several positions in the standings. In such a long race, establishing a consistently quick but sustainable pace is perhaps more important than posting a few fast laps. The car and drivers continued to perform well, but several hours after darkness fell, the car made contact with another car on the track. Damage to the front of the car was severe enough to necessitate a return to the garage area for repairs. Once in the bay, the front bodywork was replaced, along with the radiator assemblies mentioned earlier. The spare parts that no one had hoped they d need proved essential to allow the car to continue. Damage repaired, the car returned to the night racing. Several cars had already retired at this point, but there was still plenty of traffic spread over the 3.81-mile course. Adversity struck once again when the car developed a transmission problem. The Porsche is equipped with a transmission that s shifted sequentially, so it lacks the familiar gated pattern used to select a gear on a conventional manual transmission. If the driver wants to shift up a gear, he pulls the shift lever back once. Downshifts are accomplished by pushing the lever forward. One forward 34 March 2012

8 push, one gear downshift. Two pushes and the transmission executes two downshifts. As might be expected, a certain amount of electronic control is incorporated into this system. Back in the garage area, the decision was made to replace the transmission, as inspection had revealed a crack in the case. Once again, it was either fortunate that the team had a replacement transmission available when they needed it, or unfortunate that they needed it in the first place. It s all a matter of perspective. The car returned to action with the new transmission, but the shifting problems continued. Some team members speculated that the original problem may have been with the electronic controls rather than the transmission itself. In any case, the system was having difficulty determining which gear had been selected, which made it extremely difficult to select the proper gear for the various sections of the track. After soldiering on for some time, the decision was made to retire the car early Sunday morning. At the conclusion of the race, the LIQUI MOLY Team Engstler/Mitchum Motorsports Porsche was placed 47th with 416 laps. Not the outcome anyone had hoped for, but a valiant effort nonetheless. There were still several hours of racing left for those teams that remained in the running. In DP, several teams still appeared to have a shot at the overall win, although the Ford-powered Rileys seemed to enjoy a slight horsepower advantage. After some late-race jousting on the front straight with Allan McNish in the second place #8 Starworks Motorsport Ford Riley, A.J. Allmendinger brought home the victory in the #60 Ford Riley for Michael Shank Racing. Allmendinger and his co-drivers John Pew, Oswaldo Negri Jr. and Justin Wilson had completed 761 laps in 24 hours. There were only 13 caution periods for a total of 64 laps, and the winning car averaged mph and traveled the second-farthest distance in the history of the 24-hour race. Ford-powered Rileys took the top three spots, with Michael Shank Racing cars capturing first and third. This was the team s first DP win at Daytona, which has long been dominated by better-known teams like Chip Ganassi Racing s two-car BMW Riley team. The Ganassi team had to settle for fourth and sixth this year. The GT class-winning Magnus Racing Porsche GT3 of John Potter, Andy Lally, Richard Lietz and Rene Rast completed 727 laps at an average speed of mph. Porsches swept the podium in GT (11th through 13th overall), with the best finish by a non-porsche GT car being a Camaro in fourth (14th overall). It remains to be seen whether LIQUI MOLY will return to sponsor another attempt at Circle #25 This article can be found online at March