Daytona 24 Hour Race, Etc

[karlt]

Now, I've already posted this in the General Discussion forum, but it's looking so thin here in Road Race land, I can't resist (please excuse the self-promotion... but still, I hope you'll agree the content of the post is kind of cool ;-)

The 24 Hour race at Daytona is fast approaching. I dare say that it looks like one of the best in recent memory, with a full compliment of Daytona Prototypes competing with some other vehicles that actually look like cars you can buy ;-) There are a bunch of cars scheduled to run in DP and GT class, all of which could take the overall win. You can check out the details at http://www.grand-am.com.

I'm really excited to tell you that I've arranged to drive a BMW Z3 Coupe in the Grand Am Cup 3-hour race, one of the support races for the 24-Hour. We practice and qualify Thursday, and race on Friday. The 24-hour starts at 1pm on Saturday. The Z3 is a really cool car, and I've included a photo of it, below. It's a car we never got in Canada (we only got the M Coupe, which had a bit more HP).

As far as I know, although there are a bunch of Canadians in the 24 hour and a few in GAC, I'm the only Canuck competing in a BMW! If Daytona goes well, I will be looking for co-drivers to share other rides with me throughout the season, so save your pennies! ;-)

I'll give you a full report when I get back from Daytona.

Karl Thomson
http://www.compass360.com/racing

.

[23Racer]

Karl, as someone lucky enough to have participated in a 24 hour race, a 12 hour race, a number of 6 - 8 hour races, all I can say is good luck and boy am I jealous. A 24 hour race, after the first round of driver changes, becomes quite a bit like wacking your head with a hammer painful at the moment but feels great afterwards. I am sure that this event will leave you with a lifetime of memories and I for one can hardly wait for the race report and the inevitable bench racing stories afterwards. Best of luck, you have a great car and the event is one of the top four endurance races you could run.

[23Racer]

Sorry Karl, should read the posts more carefully. Best of luck in the Grand Am Cup race. Still 3 hours at Daytona is still really cool. Trying to work out how I can run in the HSR event there this fall. Still looking forward to your stories on racing on the high banks. I have driven at Michigan and the banking is pretty funky at first. I was lucky enough to be running ina few ex-Winston Cup cars, I cant imagine running the banking in a Bimmer.

[karlt]

23: Thanks for the encouragement. After running a my first season of regionals last year, I wanted to move up to pro racing. Grand Am Cup seemed like a good step towards running in the Rolex series in the next few years. After all, the goal _IS_ to run the 24 Hours at Daytona ;-)

The Cup cars are about half way between the speeds I ran last year in my Rothmans 944 and what the 911GT3s run in SGS (Rolex's slowest class). Also, the costs are substantially lower in Cup -- we will need to find some sponsorship or a wealthy co-driver to step up to the Rolex!

In the meanwhile, if the Daytona event goes well, I'll run as many of the 10 Cup races as I can.

BTW, what would you run in the HSR event?

_k_

[23Racer]

Karl, HSR has a class for presently raced cars with todays rules. I think it is called Sports Touring or something like that. I will be bringing down my RX7 and doing the Daytona event and leaving it in Florida and going back for the Sebring event. Great way to spend the late fall. A close friend of mine is a business acquantance of Jack Lewis and has brought this opportunity to my attention.

Great way to run your car on some very famous tracks.

[23Racer]

So Karl how was it?

[rmicroys]

Karl and his team in car #36 (BMW Z3) finished in 40th overall, 21st in ST, 62 laps (down 8 laps from the race winning GS class Porsche 996)

Race notes are available here:

http://www.grandamerican.com/race_notes/notes58.html

The only notes involving car #36 include:

2:30 p.m. - GREEN FLAG - The No.91 Porsche leads the field. No. 94 does not make field. No. 66, No. 71, No. 36 and No. 39 jump the start, they are penalized with stop and go. No. 96 speeding on pit lane-drive thru penalty assessed.

Karl! I hope the race only improved from there!

[karlt]

Here's my full race report, which (I'll admit) is rather lengthy. Go get yourself a nice cup of coffee or a stiff scotch and have a read... I have to split it into a few parts because the BBS has a message limit.

_k_


----------------

Race Report: Grand Am Cup Daytona 250
January 30th, 2004

Not to get ahead of myself, but I finally took the checkered flag at Daytona! The goals for this weekend were pretty simple: to drive the BMW Z3 Coupe, learn it, and determine if it was worth buying. I also wanted to go through the Grand Am processes so that later in the year I'll be able to enter the car under my own team. And most importantly, I wanted to finish the race.

Finishing was paramount after my 2003 experience, when the Audi S4 I was to drive expired 2/3rds of a lap in with a blown turbo. This, coupled with a few other "arrive-and-drive" experiences led me to the decision to purchase my own car and run my own team. The BMW Z3 Coupe (a car we didn't get in Canada, which looks like an M Coupe but fitted with a 2.8L engine) seemed like a good, sorted platform to start with, and I worked out a deal with the car's current owner to run a few races with his team. By mid-season I'll take the car, hopefully having learned enough to field a competitive team. We certainly learned a lot at Daytona!

With friends Ian McQuillan and Robert Lavigne along for the trip, I arrived early Wednesday morning (4am!) at Pearson Airport. By noon we were in Daytona picking up our credentials and soon had met up with car owner Matt Connolly and his crew. They'd already got the cars out of the trailer and were starting to prep them. At first blush, the silver and red Z3 looked a little more tired than it did in some of the photos, but it ran well and looked ready to race. During the drive to tech I noticed that the steering lock was sticking, and Ian spent much of the afternoon working on solving that.

After a quick Waffle House breakfast on Thursday morning, we were at the track and getting the steering lock resolved. While Ian was busy under the dash, Robert and I did a track walk of the infield with Matt. The track surface is very granular and well-worn. Up close you'd think it would provide a lot of grip, but the opposite is true, because the spec Hoosiers never get to build up a really good contact patch. This means you're always modulating the throttle and brakes to maximize grip. The banking, on the other hand, is foot-to-the-floor.

Co-driver Neal Heffron and his wife Susan came just in time for our first practice session. Unlike me, Neal has a fair bit of experience in Grand Am Cup, and actually ran a Z3 with Matt for a season in 2002. He's also driven his car in the Ferrari Challenge, and has been at Daytona a bunch of times. So, I was hoping to learn from him.

Neal went out first, the idea being to split our two practice sessions evenly. There's not a lot of track time before the race, with our sessions being limited to 30 minutes Thursday morning and 40 minutes in the early afternoon. Later in the afternoon we get 15 minutes of qualifying. Then nothing until the race itself Friday afternoon. This is because there's so much going on at Daytona. Atther venues we will get a lot more track time (especially at Homestead in March where we are the feature race), but at Daytona the real show is the 24 Hour Rolex race, with a bunch of historic HSR races thrown in for good measure.

Unfortunately, in the first few laps, Neal ran over some on-track debris. When he pulled into the pits, Ian noticed the car didn't sound quite right, and pointed it out to Matt. While I was getting belted up, Matt checked the engine bay and then sent me out. Our radios weren't charged, so I didn't know that he'd tried to re-seat the radiator. I took the car on to the track, and tentatively took my first full lap at Daytona. The infield was unbelievably slippery, and the banking flat-out fast. Over the next few laps, I learned a bit about the track, but was well off the pace, turning laps in the 2:25 range (in qualifying, the fastest ST-class car ran a 2:14). But that's my style; I would rather build up to speed and feel comfortable than try to run on the ragged edge the first time out.

On my fifth lap, just after the second infield hairpin, the temperature gauge went from normal to super-hot. It happened so quickly, in the course of a corner or two, and the engine started to sound off. As I didn't have radio contact, I slowly drove the car around the apron of the banking, trying to cool the engine. But back in the pits it was clear the damage had already been done: the radiator had fallen back off its mounts and had been punctured by one of the serpentine-belt pulleys, losing all of its water in short order, the resulting heat destroying the engine. I was pretty sure that, once again, I would not be racing at Daytona.

But Matt got on the phone and quickly found a spare long block at a wrecking yard in Orlando. They'd stay open for us if we left right away. Two hours later, we arrived back at the track with a nice, low-mile 2.8L from a Z3 roadster stuffed into the back seat of our rented Taurus. Matt's crew had already taken the engine out of the Coupe, and we just managed to get the new block out of the Ford before the garages were closed for the night.

Of course, with all this drama, Neal and I had missed not only second practice, but qualifying too, which meant we'd have to start from the back of the pack. If we managed to start at all. Ian, Rob and I met up with Neal and Susan at a nice Italian restaurant and shared stories of racing, business and New York. It was a nice end to a rather trying day.

Early Friday morning found Ian under the car, working with Matt's crew to re-assemble the Z3. They did it with an hour to spare, despite the starter motor not working. So we had to push-start the car, but against the odds we made the grid for the 3-hour race!

Neal drove first, and made a banzai start from the back, passing four cars before the first corner. Unfortunately, he passed two of them before the start/finish line, which is a no-no in Grand Am Cup. He was called in on the next lap for a drive-through penalty. Then he went out and got in a groove, turning a 2:18.30 before having a little off-track excursion somewhere on the infield. Aside from that minor incident, Neal drove consistently and managed to pass a number of cars.

At the mid-way point there was a yellow at just the right time. Perfect! As we were sharing the refuelling rig with Matt's car, the plan was to have Neal stay out for a few laps while the other car was in the pits. To our surprise, though, Neal came in right away, with the car running on fumes. Matt wasn't pleased. Regardless, I jumped in and they tried to start the car -- remember, the starter didn't work so I needed a push-start. But the team hadn't put fuel in the car, and there really was nothing left in the tank. Nobody but Neal or our radio-man Bert knew the car was out of gas, and they weren't able to convey that to Matt. So after being pushed halfway down the pit lane in a futile effort to start the car, Matt had me pushed behind the wall to wait. So now, I wasn't pleased.

After Matt got in his car, I was pushed back out and they put a little gas in the Z3 and sent me out. This was all under yellow, so despite the fact that I sat in the pits for 13 (!) minutes, we were only three extra laps down. Alas, they brought me in for a complete fill on the next lap, under green, which put us another lap down. In all, a totally botched pit stop.

Regardless, I was racing at Daytona, and keen to make the most of it. Over the next few laps, I became more comfortable with the track, the traffic and the Z3. Even though it was fitted with reasonably new Hoosiers, it was very slick through the infield, with steering corrections required though the exit of both hairpins to counteract the slippy back end. I did start to attack the banking, and using the brakes later and later at the end of the front straight and into the chicane on the back. The Z3's brakes are simply amazing, allowing you to carry a lot of momentum towards the corner and scubbing off speed at the last moment. I got down to low 2:19's, but never was able to get into the 18's. Most of that is a comfort issue: as I know the car better, I'll be able to know its limits. The braking, especially, is very different from the Porsche 944 I drove last year. I'm going to have to use the ABS to best advantage, but am confident that I'll be able to take a couple of seconds off and get into the 2:16's with the Z3 next year, which will make it a very competitive car -- at a high-horsepower track that doesn't suit it as well as some other venues (like Phoenix and Tremblant).

[karlt]

...
In fact, we took a look at the data at the end of the race, and if not for the disastrous pit stop, we would have finished somewhere between 9th and 11th, which would have been in the money and competitive with Matt's new 330i. This underscores an important point, that Grand Am Cup is endurance racing, and in a 3-hour race mistakes are more damaging than being a few seconds off the fastest lap. The co-driver differential also highlights this, as one driver may be very quick, but the second driver may be substantially slower. For example, the new Mazda RX-8s turned laps in the 2:14 range, but I was able to pass two of them during the second stint.

And so, after 35 laps, I drove under the checkered flag on the banking at Daytona. Our #36 BMW Z3 finished 21st in class, and 40th overall out of a 60 car field -- decidedly mid-pack! That said, I finished just behind my friend (and last year's GS1-class champion) Bobby Julian, and just in front of Don Istook (driving the GS-class Audi that he and I piloted last year at Mosport). As I've said, in endurance racing, lots can happen before the finish!

Despite it being a rather challenging weekend, I consider it a success on a number of counts. Firstly, we finished the race, breaking the Daytona curse from last year. We learned a lot about the car (Ian, in particular got a much closer look at the underside than he expected!), and found there's still a lot of merit in the Z3 platform. We learned some of the ins-and-outs of Grand Am and are well on our way to being able to field the car on our own. And we met some great people.

So, some thank-yous: Matt "putting in a new engine is ALWAYS the right thing to do" Connolly put a lot of effort into getting us to the grid. Neal Heffron drove well and I hope that he'll join me for a few more races this season, as his schedule allows. Robert Lavigne helped get the paperwork to Grand Am as needed, and his infectious enthusiasm was steadfast; he never seemed to doubt that we'd start the race. And most importantly to Ian McQuillan, who missed all of the HSR races (that he so wanted to see) while fixing the steering lock and installing the engine. We would not have finished the race without your tireless effort. Thank you.

I should also note our sponsors: Compass360 Design and Advertising (http://www.compass360.com), Boxer Autosport (if you think I'm impressed with Ian trackside, you should hear what his clients -- who drive everything from 996 Twin Turbos to vintage 914s, Audis and BMWs -- have to say!), my long-time friend Jack Chahenian at downtown Toronto's finest Porsche performance shop, Gtek Automotive (http://www.gtekauto.com), and the folks at PURE Telecommunications. If you use minicomputers, you might want to check out Neal's company, ELI, that deals in used high-end computer equipment (http://www.eli.com). To all, thank you for helping to make it possible for us to race at the pro level.

Finally, you might want to watch the race, as it was a nail-biter, especially up at the front. Bobby and Don's cars were battling it out for nearly the whole race before both suffered mechanical glitches. Asthe #36 car started from the back and were mid-pack in ST-class for much of the race I'm not sure if you'll see us (unless we're being passed by a front-runner). Still, you could do worse than tune in to SPEED Channel this Saturday, February 7th at 4pm. I'll be taping it!

The next Grand Am Cup race is Homestead/Miami at the end of March, and then Phoenix in mid-April. If I can find co-drivers for those events, I will be there. GAC is great racing, and I'm looking forward to racing the series for all of 2004.

Karl Thomson
2004 Grand Am Cup Competitor
http://www.compass360.com/racing

.

[rmicroys]

Wow... that's quite the experience Karl. Congrats! To finish First, First one must Finish! I'm sure things will get better from here! It certainly sounds like a good time. At least we can live vicariously through you!