Waiting For the Clock to Come Around Again
No-one has ever called Daytona Prototypes attractive. But they have found their place in the world of Sports Car racing, even if they had to ban other cars to make it so. This morning a once white car, long since streaked with the dirt and grime of 24 hour racing, with the tricolour stripes of the Auto Express Racing team down the length of the chassis, barrelled around the the tri-oval stretch of Daytona Speedway. Sportscar veteran Joao Barbosa collected anothr major victory, young Ryan Dalziel had his first moment in a major spotlight, Mike Rockenfeller not yet 25 years of age completed the second leg of the endurance Triple Crown to go with his Le Mans win, and Terry Borchellar...
A veteran, a race winning veteran of the American Le Mans Series, racer of GT cars in Europe, had not had a win of any description in four years. It happens to every racing driver, to some sooner than others. The realisation that you are not now going to achieve anymore than you already have. That your career was now to help out teams with points, grab what could be grabbed, hope for luck and drag it out as long as you can before you have to get a real job. For Borchellar that point had come and gone. The Brumos team were going to be down-sizing from two cars to one for 2010. The funding was just not there. The father of one of the team's crewman decided, no. These guys needed jobs, needed a full season and Terry Johnson invested in the Brumos team, becoming the owner of the teams second car, now powered by a new Porsche V8 lifted from a Cayenne. Brochellar was asked to be one of the drivers to steer the car for the full season.
The race began in terrible conditions. The first ever torrential downpour to envolp the race at starting time. Teams struggled for handling, teams spun, teams crashed. As the long Floridian night, chilled by the nationwide cold-snap kept the track from drying. As the night faded into day the Brumos Porsche team had powered into the lead. Failures, breakages and accidents whittled the field down, both the good and the bad. 24 Hour racing shows you no respect. Ever present though was the Riley-BMW of Chip Ganassi Racing. But for a mistake by one of its drivers that saw it pit to investigate a mysterious problem that could not be found, the two cars would have been level pegging, but into the final hour the gap was not steady, but large enough that Scott Pruett was not gaining enough ground to seriously threaten. It was pressure, but Joao Barbosa knew all about that. The Portuguese driver brought the car home to win. Borchellar's last win, four years ago, had been here at Daytona. Now, not only did he have a full-time drive once more, but he was again, winner of the Rolex 24. And heading into Round 2 in a months time he will be leading the points score.
In the GTs there were just as emotional stories. Sylvain Tremlay, boss of the Mazda RX8 team Speed Source emerged from a fur-ball fight in the GT divsion that saw Chevrolets, Porsches and BMWs all lead, the lead his team from behind the wheel to victory. Tremblay's team had won twelve months ago, but just weeks afterwards, Tremblay had lost his wife in an accident with scars of it still fresh. Tremblay found he could barely speak.
Endurance motor racing captures so much of the human experience. Triumph and tragedy, joy and depression. Effort, skill, engineering, talent. Battling the weather, fine-tuning machinery, training the body for the physical stresses. The professionals and the amateurs. The thoroughbred prototypes, the road based GTs. The wisdom of experience, the exuberance of youth. And the challenge of the stadium itself. The wierd combination of the banked NASCAR tri-oval and the sharp corners and braking and acceleration of the infield road-course, a track today virtually unique, others exist but are not used.
And it is history too, here at Daytona Beach is one of the hallowed grounds for motorsport. Even disregarding the 40 years history of the speedway, home to the worlds biggest sedan motor race the Daytona 500 now just two weeks away, but the Beach itself has hosted speed trials and even land speed record attempts dating back over 80 years.
There have been so many stories here. The ghosts drift through stands images of sleek record breaking cars. the rough and tumble of NASCAR derbys, the curves of World Championship sports car racing.
Terry Borchellar is part of that story. Those stories are just part of the reason why I love long distance motor racing.
A veteran, a race winning veteran of the American Le Mans Series, racer of GT cars in Europe, had not had a win of any description in four years. It happens to every racing driver, to some sooner than others. The realisation that you are not now going to achieve anymore than you already have. That your career was now to help out teams with points, grab what could be grabbed, hope for luck and drag it out as long as you can before you have to get a real job. For Borchellar that point had come and gone. The Brumos team were going to be down-sizing from two cars to one for 2010. The funding was just not there. The father of one of the team's crewman decided, no. These guys needed jobs, needed a full season and Terry Johnson invested in the Brumos team, becoming the owner of the teams second car, now powered by a new Porsche V8 lifted from a Cayenne. Brochellar was asked to be one of the drivers to steer the car for the full season.
The race began in terrible conditions. The first ever torrential downpour to envolp the race at starting time. Teams struggled for handling, teams spun, teams crashed. As the long Floridian night, chilled by the nationwide cold-snap kept the track from drying. As the night faded into day the Brumos Porsche team had powered into the lead. Failures, breakages and accidents whittled the field down, both the good and the bad. 24 Hour racing shows you no respect. Ever present though was the Riley-BMW of Chip Ganassi Racing. But for a mistake by one of its drivers that saw it pit to investigate a mysterious problem that could not be found, the two cars would have been level pegging, but into the final hour the gap was not steady, but large enough that Scott Pruett was not gaining enough ground to seriously threaten. It was pressure, but Joao Barbosa knew all about that. The Portuguese driver brought the car home to win. Borchellar's last win, four years ago, had been here at Daytona. Now, not only did he have a full-time drive once more, but he was again, winner of the Rolex 24. And heading into Round 2 in a months time he will be leading the points score.
In the GTs there were just as emotional stories. Sylvain Tremlay, boss of the Mazda RX8 team Speed Source emerged from a fur-ball fight in the GT divsion that saw Chevrolets, Porsches and BMWs all lead, the lead his team from behind the wheel to victory. Tremblay's team had won twelve months ago, but just weeks afterwards, Tremblay had lost his wife in an accident with scars of it still fresh. Tremblay found he could barely speak.
Endurance motor racing captures so much of the human experience. Triumph and tragedy, joy and depression. Effort, skill, engineering, talent. Battling the weather, fine-tuning machinery, training the body for the physical stresses. The professionals and the amateurs. The thoroughbred prototypes, the road based GTs. The wisdom of experience, the exuberance of youth. And the challenge of the stadium itself. The wierd combination of the banked NASCAR tri-oval and the sharp corners and braking and acceleration of the infield road-course, a track today virtually unique, others exist but are not used.
And it is history too, here at Daytona Beach is one of the hallowed grounds for motorsport. Even disregarding the 40 years history of the speedway, home to the worlds biggest sedan motor race the Daytona 500 now just two weeks away, but the Beach itself has hosted speed trials and even land speed record attempts dating back over 80 years.
There have been so many stories here. The ghosts drift through stands images of sleek record breaking cars. the rough and tumble of NASCAR derbys, the curves of World Championship sports car racing.
Terry Borchellar is part of that story. Those stories are just part of the reason why I love long distance motor racing.