Rolex 24 – Thursday Morning
And They’re Off…
© Gary Horrocks Under cloudy/overcast /foggy conditions, the first session for the Rolex 24 at Daytona kicked off. Not good enough for surfing, but a nice change from the freezing temperatures back home. Well, sort of kicked off. In the first 25 minutes, there were two black flags, which made it a difficult session to really get a rhythm going. Peter Baron of Samax summed it up well by saying, “yeah, we had lots of breaks in the session – I think it was for kids crossing the track.” About the line up for this team and who he was able to bring in for this race, Peter said, “hey, the word is out that I’m a fun guy to be around!” Among those driving for Samax is Tomas Enge, but he was not to be found. “I think he’s sleeping. He likes to sleep.” Tomas has arrived from New Zealand, and the A1GP event. Allan McNish, part of the driving strength in the #7 Samax Riley Pontiac indicated through sign language that the car has improved. Rather than lots of hand movement, he reduced his movement, indicating that grip has improved. McNish was at the top of the list of times in the first half hour, and only one car went any faster. Quite a few of the teams concentrated on bedding in brakes, so the times may not be truly indicative. That said, Darren Law in the #58 Brumos Riley Pontiac was fastest (1:42.175). “It’s all good out there. We’re running the old body work on the Riley. It’s tried and true. So far there doesn’t appear to be much difference between the new and the old. Eventually the new will be faster, but for now, we’re sticking with what we have. The new Pirelli tires are very good. They’re a bit skittish coming out of the pits (when cold) but very good otherwise. Improved all the way around.” Scott Maxwell is not driving a Ford this weekend. Well Ford by name anyway. He is in the Hypersports Mazda for this race. “It’s quite different than driving a Mustang. It’s fun, but different from what I’m used to. It really handles well, but the power difference (torque) is quite significant. You just gotta keep it in the powerband.” Scott is partnered this weekend with TV star Patrick Dempsey, a situation that he is used to, as he partnered with Jason Priestley in the late ‘90s. “I’m not sure what it is. I guess I’m non-threatening.” There may be something to that, but how about it being that besides being a good driver, you’re a good person too? Both Robin Liddell and Gunnar Jeannette were hanging about after the session was over, the two driving together in the #57 Stevenson Pontiac, which was second fastest in the GT class – behind the #67 TRG Porsche. One of what is it, 20+ 997s Actually, TRG has seven entered, but only six made it on timing and scoring. The #64 was slowed and had track time limited by a bad gearbox. For Kevin Buckler, it must be like herding kittens… Recently, Grand-Am announced that the Pontiacs would be allowed to run 40 lbs lighter that they were previously. Neither could really feel the difference, as 40 pounds is not really that much on a 2800 pound car, but obviously they’ve got something going to be that quick that early. Anthony Lazzaro, Ralf Kelleners and David Murry are driving for the Autometrics Porsche team for this race. Lazzaro is preaching patience to his fellow drivers. “I’m trying to show them where to be checking the mirrors and things like that. What to expect in the race.” Ralf indicated that the car “was quite good at the test. We came out of it with a few things to work on and we got quite a few of those things taken care of this morning.” David stressed the importance of getting the car to a comfortable state for the race. “Ultimately, you want a car that is so comfortable that you can fall asleep at the wheel. We’re not there yet, but we have a good car and we could race with it as it is.” That’s it for now. It’s going to be a full day here. More practice, qualifying and then night practice… | 
