Rolex 24: Pictures and Thoughts

I was fortunate enough to be in Daytona this year for the Rolex 24.  Okay, “fortunate” is probably the wrong word.  It’s not like I was wandering around the country and accidently found myself in Daytona Beach during a race weekend.  Anyway, a week after the end of the race, anyone who cares about the actual results has either seen the race, read about what happened, or most realistically, both.  That means I won’t bore you with a bunch a race analysis.  Besides, that just means I end up plagiarizing a bunch of stuff from RACER anyway.

Of course, just because I don’t have a lot of race analysis to share, doesn’t mean I don’t have opinions (and pictures to post, because everyone loves pictures).  First, if you like sports car racing, you owe it to yourself to go to this race.  A four day ticket, including garage access cost me $90.  I was at the track for about 40 hours over the course of four days.  If there is a better ratio of hours per racing/dollar, I’m not aware of it.

The garage access in particular was one of the highlights for the trip to me.  I’ve been to professional motor races before, but this was the first time I was able to wander around the garage and look at the teams while they’re working.  Being close enough to the cars to touch them really was a thrill for me.  You also get a chance to appreciate the small details on the cars that you don’t normally see when they’re flashing by at 200 MPH.  Like this little flourish on the Starworks Daytona Prototype.



The other major difference between the Rolex 24 and the shorter oval races I’ve been to (besides being approximately 21 hours longer) is that you never know what’s around the next corner.  Literally, I walked around a corner on my way from the east to west horseshoe grandstands and saw this…

Turns out one of the prototype challenge cars was having a bad day and was being pulled out of the escape road near the west horseshoe.  In fact, this guy was having a really bad day, because the position light says he was in second when his car decided to start leaking fluid like a poorly house trained puppy. 

And as I was standing there enjoying someone else’s missery, this guy pulled up…

Good old Delta Wing.  I think everyone knew the Delta Wing was going to break down, because let’s be honest, that’s what the Delta Wing does, but I wasn't expecting them to be done before dinner.  The transmission had different ideas.

I don’t want turn this post into “How I Spent my January Vacation,” which is what’s going to happen if I keep typing, so I’ll end it here, but I do want to close with the idea that if you’re a race fan, you really should do everything you can to watch a race at the track.  I’ve talked to people at work who’ve said that they would love to see a race in person, but they never go.  Going to see a race is an experience you can’t get just by watching the race on TV.  Even if the race itself isn't that great, I've never regretted going.

 I’ll send this post off with some more of my favorite pictures I took at the race and can’t squeeze in anywhere else, but like too much not to share.  Let me know if you guys like the racing pictures.  I have a bunch more I can share.

The infamous Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette DP.

Krohn Racing Ligier/Judd P2 car.  I was really excited to see a P2 car take pole this year, and not really surprised to see only one P2 car still running at the end of the race.

Everyone loves cars with Martini Rossi liveries right?  Bonus points for being on an open cockpit car.

If we're going to show off pictures of Martini liveries, it's only fair to give the Gulf livery fans equal air time.

Corvette C7R, going through NASCAR 1 and 2, side by side with one of the Chip Ganassi DP cars.  Images like this are why I love sportscar racing at Daytona.