Going the Distance

The 44th 24 Hours of Daytona began with 73 champions and a field of 66 cars, but in the end only 37 would survive. Chip Ganassi's Lexus Riley and TPC Racing's Porsche GT3 Cup emerged victorious, but not without significant struggle. After a record breaking 734 laps and 2,613 miles the top three Daytona prototypes finished within several laps of one another. Throughout the night teams struggled with mechanical issues and damage inflicted during the close quarters racing of Daytona's infield road course. Inevitably some of the faster cars fell by the wayside, but amongst the top 3, nearly 423 laps were led overall.

As I've often said before, endurance racing is a peculiar beast. In a way it's one part marathon, one part sprint race and on another level it's a battle of wit and strategy. In an interview after his car gave up the ghost, IRL champion Paul Tracy summed it up by saying something along the lines of "..you can't drive this race like a sprint race. After this I'm going back to open wheel where you can drive like it's a sprint". Another guy stated simple "this isn't like the Daytona 500, there's still a long way to go. There are like two more Daytona 500s to go". All of this sums up the "big picture" mentality that's required to win the 24. On the one hand you've got to drive like hell, go as fast as you can and not wreck. On the other you have to take care of the car and make sure it's lasts 24 hours.

In many racing series, some fans deride the governing bodies saying that they manage the outcome. Some people think that the powers that be somehow grant extra concessions to teams to make sure they win. While that may or may not be true of some series, in endurance racing such a thought is absurd. In spite of the best-laid plans, or the best equipment, often time things happen that would make it impossible to manage the outcome. Sometimes it's a busted CV joint, or a broken throttle linkage, and other times it's simple an unavoidable accident that takes a car out of contention. In some ways there is also an element of luck involved that not even the Las Vegas gaming commission could manage. It's just racing, and it can be a hard thing to swallow when your team is winning, but that's life.

It's what keeps sports car fans coming back, whether it's 24 at Daytona, Spa or Le Mans. And I think that's what draws drivers and teams from all other forms of racing to these events.