Daytona 24 Hours

Arthur McDonald · **Joined:** Fri Aug 29, 2003 1:54 am **Posts:** 2052

To tie together a couple of stories that many of you have probably heard, two THSCC alumni will be involved in the upcoming Rolex 24 at Daytona weekend. http://www.grandamerican.com/

Mark O'Dell is slated to co-drive a Mazda RX-8 in the Grand-Am Cup race on Friday Jan 27 (the day before the 24 hour race).
http://www.markodellracing.com/GA_main.html

Jean Wilkins, who has been scheduling director at VIR since it opened, joined the staff of Howard-Boss Motorsports this month. http://www.howardbossmotorsports.com/

Autoweek http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a ... SPORTSNEWS reports that Howard-Boss will field two Daytona Prototypes in the Rolex 24. Based on that article, the drivers list might be:
Car 1: Rusty Wallace, Danica Patrick, Alan McNish and Boris Said
Car 2: Andy Wallace, Butch Leitzinger, Tony Stewart
Elliot Forbes-Robinson is also listed on the Howard-Boss website as a driver for 2006.

Oh sure, you could watch it on Speed, but the 4-day grandstand/infield/paddock pass in only $80. http://www.daytonaintlspeedway.com/news ... aytona.jsp

Art

BretLuter · **Posted:** Thu Jan 19, 2006 11:37 pm

If you've never been to this race, you need to go.

Art's right, get the 4 day "superpass" ticket. If you're deaf (or want to be deaf), or plan to be REALLY drunk, you can sleep in the infield in your car or a tent or on the ground. If you want cheap decent hotel rooms, head towards the beach, those hotels are open and looking for guests. We stayed in an older but clean and cheap beachfront hotel 2 years ago for ~$35 per night.

Don't bother with the grandstands, the action is much better in the infield, especially in the wee hours. You are bound to see folks thrashing on cars at all hours trying to get them repaired and back into the race. You are also likely to see some pretty well-known racers just walking around- it really helps to know what they look like. We saw the likes of Max Papis, Boris Said, Hans Stuck, etc- we even caught a glimpse of Paul Newman- but he is so well known that he has a following wherever he goes.

Bret.

markodell · **Joined:** Wed Jul 27, 2005 6:19 pm **Posts:** 65

I'm bugging Danny to put his Rig (which has a small crew quarters) in the infield RV parking for the 24 hour race. If it ends up there, we'll have a nice "base of operations" for everybody. He said he faxed in the paperwork, but he hasn't heard back.

Arthur McDonald · **Joined:** Fri Aug 29, 2003 1:54 am **Posts:** 2052

Although the infield is generally more interesting, I like watching the start from the grandstand in front of the first turn. Since they've added a tunnel under Nascar 1, it should be much easier to get back to the infield than it used to be. I also like going up high in the grandstands at night and watching the entire course. Bundle up for that.

The rest of the time, yep, roam the perimeter of the infield course to watch the racing and the drunk fans. Watch the frenzy in the garages when a car is brought in for repair at 2 AM. Shop the numerous vendor tents for collectibles, artwork, posters, books and clothing in the infield, and visit the car club corrals and vintage race car displays.

Since it's the only race around anywhere in the northern hemisphere, a lot of famous car people just show up. One year I met David E Davis and bought his book. The next year I happened upon a lightly attended book signing, and being in a hurry to do something forgettable, passed it by. It was Phil Hill. I've gotten in Paul Newman's way when he was trying to get to his Porsche GT-1 on the grid. (He was very polite.) We (mostly Dishman) talked race strategy with Dorsey Schroeder in the Hooters restuarant the night before the race in 1994, while we all gawked at Dorsey's two dates. I met Hurley Haywood, Hans Stuck and Danny Sullivan. I cheered Peter Krause as he drove a 900cc Abarth flat out around the track in the vintage race car parade on race morning.

Unfortunately, the infield parking/camping arrangements are much more regimented than 10 or 15 years ago. The prime camping spots along the infield course are reserved, instead of first-come-first-served on race morning. During my first trip, in 1992, a bunch of THSCCers commandeered Karl Kauffman's rental convertible so that president Kurt Spitzner could lead us on a 1 AM search for AMC products in the infield. Later we made a beer run and successfully caught a Rolls Royce Corniche convertible owner with his windows down at a stoplight, and cleverly asked for his Grey Poupon. I guess if Ryan was along this year, we would go hunting busted DSMs and CRXs, while exchanging "Git-R-Dones" with the campers.

markodell · **Joined:** Wed Jul 27, 2005 6:19 pm **Posts:** 65

The website has been updated with a new adventure, "Roebling Test Day". Would love to stay and chat, but I have much work still to do before we leave for Daytona...

http://www.grandamadventure.com/GA_main.html

Hope to see you folks there!

Mark

markodell · **Joined:** Wed Jul 27, 2005 6:19 pm **Posts:** 65

Well, qualifying today was pretty disappointing. We are somewhere mid-pack. It was a 15 minute qualifying session.

All I'm going to say right now is that at the end of qualifying, my right rear tire was determined to have 7lbs of air, and my left front was down about 14 lbs from normal operating. I could barely keep the car on track, but I was so stubborn I stayed out there until the bitter end!

Boy will I have stories to tell. But you're going to have to wait a few days before I get a chance to write it all up....

Mark

steve remchak · **Posted:** Fri Jan 27, 2006 10:19 pm

i am thrilled that SpeedVision carries this race. as a former resident of daytona beach, south daytona and port orange i miss the coming of spring in the motorsport mecca of the southeast. i have been up here since '93 so the conditioned kick in the pants about this time of year doesn't affect me quite like it used to. i remember the Lowenbrau porsche and the awesome Jags. i remember the year nissan walked away with the race and how the rules changed the next year.

i remember some things and unfortunately not all things because i too was among the drunken throng in the infield a time ot two. one of the best places to hang out in the infield was at the end of the infield section of the track at the point where it returned to the nascar track. this was a serious braking zone followed by extreme acceleration and this spot was in the middle. it was a kick to watch the cars spewing fire and then hear them tear past you in the opposite direction. nothing like it at 3AM. and then as dawn breaks the realization that you have to be at work in about 6 hours. the mid shift on a sunday, man that sucked. those were the days. i still miss it even though i am "all growed up" now.

ehh i am droning on, good fortunes to all ya'll fortunate enough to attend this spectacle.

markodell · **Joined:** Wed Jul 27, 2005 6:19 pm **Posts:** 65

Quick update:

Because I qualified poorly, I had fun passing lots of cars, but the car broke (we think overheating fuel pump) before the mid-point. We had a 30 minute pitstop (between getting the car back to the garage, and figuring out what to do), and then continued the race with Danny at the wheel. We developed a fluid leak - not major (we don't think), but it was hitting the exhaust, and made us look like a traveling smokescreen. We did finish the race.

I have lots of writing to do, and some great video to post.

Expect an update soon.

Mark

markodell · **Joined:** Wed Jul 27, 2005 6:19 pm **Posts:** 65

Daytona Race Update has now been posted. I'm going to bed!

http://www.markodellracing.com/GA_main.html

Brad Mackey · **Posted:** Wed Feb 01, 2006 6:15 pm

Ab-so-lute-ly Awsome, Mark.

What an experience!

Richard Casto · **Posted:** Wed Feb 01, 2006 6:38 pm

Mark,

It has been fun to read about your adventure. I don't have much knowledge as to the "behind the scenes" of this level of racing. When you watch it on TV, other than the proverbial “2 cent” part breaking and the inevitable racing incidents, it all looks so smooth. So I can't say if your experience is the norm, but it looks to have been a pretty rough and frustrating road so far. I guess that is the difference between real life and TV! Hopefully things will get smoother later in the season. :thumbsup:

Regardless it looks like tons of fun and would switch places with you in a second! Good luck and keep letting us know when you have additional updates!!

Richard

Bernie Baake · **Posted:** Wed Feb 01, 2006 10:08 pm

Mark.
Terrific Read absolutly terrific. Its a rarity to get this kind of perspective into racing. I've followed it since this thread started, and will continue as long you keep posting your experiences. Good work and GOOD LUCK you've earned it.
Bernie

markodell · **Joined:** Wed Jul 27, 2005 6:19 pm **Posts:** 65

Richard Casto wrote:

Mark,

It has been fun to read about your adventure. I don't have much knowledge as to the "behind the scenes" of this level of racing. When you watch it on TV, other than the proverbial “2 cent” part breaking and the inevitable racing incidents, it all looks so smooth. So I can't say if your experience is the norm, but it looks to have been a pretty rough and frustrating road so far. I guess that is the difference between real life and TV! Hopefully things will get smoother later in the season. :thumbsup:

Regardless it looks like tons of fun and would switch places with you in a second! Good luck and keep letting us know when you have additional updates!!

Richard

Yeah, right now I think a lot of the reliability issues are due to the car being practically "brand new" and un-sorted. As the season progresses, hopefully the car will improve as we fix its weaknesses. We really have to figure out this fuel pickup/starvation issue before we get any further. Not to mention, the body needs a little banging out! And our fuel mileage is abysmal, so we need to get the car back on the dyno, and figure out where it is running so rich. We have really good top end, but it seems sluggish down low - I suspect that is where we are burning too much fuel. During the full course caution, I was alarmed at how much gas we were still burning.

The handling is not quite where it needs to be, but its close. I certainly have a lot of work to do in learning how to drive it the car. You can see in the videos that under pressure I keep blowing my final "heel-and-toe" downshifts into some of the turns, so the car gets unnecessarily squirrelly (sigh). I think we need to add some extenders to the gas pedal, because its an awfully long reach from the brake. Plus the seat is still too far back, so I'm stretching for the pedals. All little things, that once fixed will help once they are addressed.

I'm encouraged by the fact that the Huffmaker driven SpeedSource RX-8 that I "traded a little paint with" and passed a couple of times in the videos, ended up finishing 11th. So maybe if we can get our act together we can at least crack the top 10. I think that would be a good next goal for us, then we can work on doing better.

Mark

markodell · **Joined:** Wed Jul 27, 2005 6:19 pm **Posts:** 65

I had a few folks approach me after the Daytona Race with some great pictures they took (like Art MacDonald for example). So I decided to create a photo gallery on the website to post some of those. Art took some FANTASTIC photos, including a pic or two of Danica for those of you that are fans of hers.

I've also created a Team News Blog - its a long time between events, and even though I plan to write a story or two when we go testing, I wanted a way to keep folks up to date on things. I don't know much about blogging so we'll see how that works out. Actually, Danny wrote some very eloquent observations about the Daytona Race that I posted there.

Any suggestions on how to do this stuff are welcome, as I'm not much of a webmaster.

http://www.grandamadventure.com/fansite/

Thanks for your help and support,

Mark

Pete Guthrie · **Posted:** Wed Feb 15, 2006 7:27 am

i am looking forward to the audi r10 diesel wsc car to win sebring and certainly lemans where audi has won in the past.. 5.5 litre twin turbo diesel v12, 611 hp and 800 ft lbs torque, that will certainly get it done, if she does not eat a gearbox or two first..

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