24 hours is a long time to do anything let alone drive a 175mph race car around one of the worlds most famous race tracks. The practice sessions went smoothly as I jumped back and forth between the koni challenge car and the Rolex car. I knew we weren’t going to have the fastest car due to the fact that we were racing the best of the best in the world. My teammate John Mayes qualified the car 35th out of the 40 or so GT cars. Starting at the back of the field on the start, John just played it safe and actually picked up some spots due to other competitors crashing. John went smooth up until spinning while trying to pass another competitor in the bus stop which resulted in a damaged front bumper and radiators. The crew worked hard, at what would be a familiar repair, and got the car back out within about 20 laps. Out of the running of the race ( but still with over 21 hours of racing to go) we just cycled through our driver line up so that every one got their seat team. I got in the car around 4:30pm on saturday afternoon and drove until about 5:30. During that time I set a lap time of 1:53.6 which would be the fastest lap for all the drivers in the car. I was then done up until my 3:30 - 5:30 AM stint. So I went back to the hotel to TRY to sleep. I called down to the hotel lobby for a wake up call of 1:45 AM ( the lady thought I was nuts) Upon arriving to the track at 2:30 AM I found that our car and been back in the garage AGAIN for the same damage yet with another of my teammates. The conditions when I got in the car are the worst conditions you can race in. Not only was this the first time that I raced under the stars, but also the track was cold and wet. I started my 2 hour stint on rain tires, yet knew they would not last long because the track was drying up. I then opted to come in to get slicks. The next 5 - 7 laps were extremely tough, fighting the car and trying to get heat in the tires. The temperature was in the mid 40s with still some drizzle in the air which only made it even harder to get heat in the tires. Every corner I would approach would be the same…. Hit the brakes and the rears would lock up ( no Anti-lock brakes on this car) then once I finally got the car slowed down I would turn in for the corner. The car would just wash out all the way to the edge of the road and just did not want to turn. Then went I would go to pick up the gas to exit the corner the rears would just rev up like they were on ice. However, after a couple of laps the heat got in the tires and every lap the car felt better and better. Just as the sun was rising I came in to the pits to turn it over to one of my teammates. At this point my job was done for the weekend, and I could sit back and watch. Although, our car may have not had the best of success TRG cars overall did. The 66,67,62 TRG cars finished 2nd,3rd, and 4th in the GT class standings. This was a great experience for me and look forward to going back and doing it again.

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