I'm running in the 24 hrs of Daytona

Just a quick heads up to my NY buds. I'll be running in the 24 hrs of Daytona next weekend. A friend and I put together a team of four. We're driving a brand new 2007 Porsche 997 GT3 Cup car in the GT class. It is basically a lightened and gutted out Porsche GT3 with a roll cage, fuel cell, open exhaust and slick tires. It has about 420 hp, weighs about 2,600 lbs, and has a 6 speed sequential transmission. We hit about 172 mph on the banking. We have four drivers in our car, my friend and myself and two pros.

We'll run 1.5 hour stints, after which we'll come in to refuel, change tires and drivers. We're one of four cars being run by the Farnbacher/Loles team, they have won Daytona previously and also had the quickest car in the test (4 pros). We were about the 6th fastest team in GT out of about 40 cars. Not bad for a couple guys just doing it for fun.

If we can keep the car running and stay out of the pits other than our scheduled stops I think we'll be in the top 5-10. If we get lucky we could snag a podium.

Just to be bad ass we're putting a big Jolly Roger made out of reflective vinyl on the roof so it will be visible from the banking.



Tune in and cheer us on!



Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona
Class GT
Car Number 87
Colors Black/Red
Drivers Christian Zugel
John Burke
Gunnar Jeanette
Ryan Eversley

Start time 1:30pm, Saturday Jan 27th
Finish time 1:30pm, Sunday Jan 28th
TV coverage First hour and finish on Fox (Channel 5), 13 hours on Speed
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I screwed us up pretty good. Burned out the clutch & it took over an hour to replace it. Ran out of gas once too. None the less I’m pretty pleased with finishing 19th out of 40 with those screw ups. Overall it was an awesome experience. I was not sure how I would feel after 24 hours of racing around the clock. I thought it might start seeming more like work than fun, but it was quite the opposite, it was a blast! When I was not in the car I was standing on the pit wall watching our progress, although I did sneak in two hours of sleep in our motor home once.

While I was a little disappointed that we didn’t end up in the top 10 as I thought we might, a wise friend of mine told me I should be proud we finished at all. We have a mutual friend that has done nineteen 24 hour races and only finished one. It truly is a grueling test of drivers, teams and machinery.

The first few hours were racing as I have been accustomed to, in the daylight with a shiny car in perfect condition. Hours later as the sun started
setting, the temperature dropped and the headlights came on, I became aware that this was something truly different. The sight and sounds of racing at night are awesome. Headlights streaking by the pits with engines screaming. Boring into the night following my headlight beams at 172 mph on the 31 degree banking. The cabin filling up with bright white light as a faster Daytona Prototypes approach from behind, then darkening again as they scream by and I follow their red tail lights into the darkness. It started raining around 2:00am. That changed everything. Adding rain to a cold track really spiced it up, there were wrecks, debris, and safety vehicles with flashing lights everywhere. On top of the already poor visibility outside, the inside of our windshield started fogging so we cut off the end of a broom stick and safety wrapped some rags to the end of it so the driver could wipe off the inside of the windshield. During my night stint I was hit twice by the faster
DP’s but they were really just minor scrapes and didn’t do any major damage or require a stop. In the early morning as night sky got a shade lighter and you could tell dawn was just around the corner our car and team were still soldiering on. When it was light again you could really see the toll the night took. The cars that were still running were dirty, dented, and bandaged with duct tape. Many had entire sections of their body work gone, some were smoking. A DP was circulating with the entire rear section of it’s body gone yet still maintaining a reasonable pace. During my 9:00am stint I felt our car was down noticeably on power. Oil pressure and temperatures were fine and it was not smoking, it was just getting worn out. None the less I was still able to pass some other cars, they were tired as well. At 1:30 Sunday afternoon, twenty four hours after we started, as I was standing on the pit wall watching our tired, battered, dirty, duct taped car still racing on in the bright, warm sunshine I was overwhelmed with emotion and really proud of our team. It was an experience I will never forget.
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