9 minute read
Rolex 24 at Daytona
Rolex 24 at Daytona
WordsBy:JamesBBeavanIII;Photosby:KenWilmers
On January 26th Ken Wilmers, Ron Farb and myself took a flight out of BWI on Southwest flying to Orlando. I happened to sit between fellow PCA Chesapeake members Rick MacInnes and Dan ONeill who were also going to Florida for the Rolex 24 at Daytona. We got to Orlando in about 2 hours and then drove our rental car 70-minutes to Ron’s mothers house just outside Daytona Beach. Tickets for the 4-day pass were only $132 which includes a Rolex 24 hat.
The next morning (Friday the 27th) we arrived at the track before 9AM so we could take in a full day of events. We stopped outside the gates and took some photos of the 963 prototype they had on display in a Porsche area and wondered about the VIP shuttle service (all high-end versions of each Porsche model, rumor is the service is over $1000!). Then we took the tram from the front to the infield fan area where all the motorhomes, car corrals, vendors, pits and car brand displays were at.
We stopped by each car brand display and signed up for whatever freebies they were giving out. A Toyota GR bag to put your giveaways in, Ford shirt & koozie, Cadillac shirt, Hyundai shirt, Chevy shirt, Michelin hat, Acura hat. Now we’ll probably get lots of emails and postcards from those brands…there was no display for VAG at all, but at least Ron picked out a Cadillac to replace his Audi with!_!
PCA Car Corral
We stopped by the PCA tent, not much happening on Thursday, but grabbed a few free sodas. Beside the PCA tent was the Porsche car corral for members attending to park their car and of course there was some interesting cars in the lot to check out, including a Guards Red GT4RS and a Macan with a rooftop tent. Walking around the campers or just riding the trams would show many more Porsche’s parked around the infield area, including a 356 that looked like it was being lived out of.
https://www.pca.org/events/pca-hospitality-tent-at-the-rolex-24
Friday was part 2 of the MazdaCup which also raced the prior day, its fun watching the same brand of screaming little cars fly around the track like that. The BMW 4-hour endurance race ran in middle of the day, and we watched some of that from various locations in the fan zone. None of us really follow racing or knew any of the drivers…but Ken was still excited to attend an autograph session while we walked around taking pictures.
Pit Garage 963 move
Later they opened up pit row to the fans and had all the drivers lined up with all the cars. You could walk the entire pit area, take pictures, walk out into the grass where the huge Daytona is painted and go onto the track itself. We were amazed at how steep the banked section of the track was. Back in the fan zone Porsche had an entire section displaying various race cars from their history as well as many oth- er brands. We walked past and observed some of the race team garages and got to meet Patrick Long, who’s pretty much the only driver any of us knew. Later in the day the teams competing in the 24 hours race had a couple hour practice session and we left around this time as it had gotten dark and cold.
963 in Pit Garage
autograph session
autograph session
Saturday the 28th we again arrived around 9AM and after browsing some vendors went to the PCA Tent as there were a few scheduled events there. First was the Bill Patterson live painting and then auction of said painting, which including the limited prints and some hot pit passes brought in $11K for charity. Next three Porsche drivers came out to talk and do some Q&A, surprisingly they didn’t sound very confident that their car was a winner…which by Sunday proved to be true. A technician from Mobil 1 did a Q&A session followed by someone from Michelin, those in attendance had a lot of questions. The PCA tent itself is pretty good size and had around 40 chairs and tables, with 2 good size monitors to display the races on, I imagine on cold/ wet/windy days this is a nice getaway location.
PCA Tent Painting Auction
The weather on race day was Sunny and warm, reaching the upper 60-degree range. Prior to the start of the 24 hour race, they again let us fans onto pit row, which also allowed us to cross from the infield to the stadium.
Patrick Long
Once inside the big stadium we went to far end where the cars enter and exit the infield from the main Nascar track. This is where the great majority of fans in the stadium went to watch the race be it the 1st or 4th level. Seating is open and plentiful, so you can move to wherever you want to watch as often as you like.
963 and 911 in turn
Pit Lane race start
At 2pm the race started on time after clearing all the fans from pit lane. It was a bit louder than expected, so we were glad Ron brought a fresh bag of ear plugs. We also noticed it was a bit windy up in the stands versus the infield pit area. After about 3.5 hours we headed across the street for dinner at Hooters where Ken had the worst wings of his life but the thighs weren’t bad!_! We got back to the stadium a bit after 7 and continued watching the races and taking some pictures along the way. We decided to stay until after 10pm to see the promised Fireworks display. As the temperature dropped we couldn’t wait for the Fireworks to blow us away so we could head home. Wow, it lasted all of 5-minutes easily the most disappointing professional Fireworks show of all-time.
Sunday the 29th brought on the last 5 hours of the race by the time we arrived, again around 9AM. We took the West gate tram this time to the infield, it’s really amazing how many cars, RV’s and people camping in tents are in the stadium infield area. They even have an amusements area; Ron enjoyed a ride on the tall Ferris wheel per Manny’s recommendation. We went to the PCA tent as usual and were pleasantly surprised to receive some hot breakfast sandwiches. After which we took the tram back to the stadium to watch from up high.
963 #6
911 & 963 turning in
By this time, it was obvious that none of the Porsche’s had much chance of winning their class, but we cheered them on to at least finish the race, which is no easy task in a 24-hour race. For some reason I thought 1 car died after only a lap, but looks like the worst finish was just 44 laps completed, while the winning Acura finished 783 laps as did the 2nd place Acura and 3rd & 4th place Cadillac’s. The Porsche 963 #7 completed 749 laps good for 14th place overall, while the #6 stopped at 700 laps after numerous battery issues. The #9 911GT3R finished 25th with 728 laps completed. In all, 16 of the 61 cars that started the race failed to finish it. We stayed to watch the ceremony for the winners, though from the stadium you couldn’t see that well what was going on way across in the pit area.
963 #7
One of the things besides the 24-hour format that makes this race fun to watch is that there are 5 different race classes on the track simultaneously. There are 3 Prototype Classes with GTP at the top and 2 Grand Tour Classes with GT Pro at the top. When the prototype cars leave a corner towards any straight section they just pull right past the GT class cars. When leaving the infield section and going around the circle it wasn’t unusual to see a GTP car pass 3-5 GT cars, sometimes bobbing and weaving around them. It was also with their headlights and taillights is a pretty cool sight.
963 #7
963 #6
As non-racing but car fans we had a great time at the Rolex 24 hours of Daytona and would highly recommend it, maybe next year we’ll check out the 12 hours of Sebring. It didn’t hurt that we had dry sunny weather the entire weekend, it got warm enough Sunday to lose the jacket for just a tshirt as the wind also had died down. The fact that you have access to the entire track, stadium and
963 #6 crossing checkered flag
infield with one inexpensive ticket is pretty amazing. There is so much to see at this event and it’s easy to walk around and view the race from wherever you like or hit up the vendor area, which was full of the typical wearables plus various size model cars and artwork. They announced that there was record attendance for the 2023 Rolex 24, they didn’t say what the attendance was, but I would guess around 30-35K fans with the majority watching from the infield’s numerous vantage points.
963's at night
Porsche at Night
You can view the official results here.
Final 2023 Rolex 24 at Daytona results, points, stats - NBC Sports
https://motorsports.nbcsports.com/2023/01/29/final-2023-rolex-24-at-daytona-results-stats-package/
963 on infield turn
963's Pitted
Ken took over 2500 photos and the best 78 are visible here. https://nis.nikonimagespace.com/html/guest/en/index.html?g=z520hXF3sZY_vZXbc7QJPVL2mRPjv14kDYuIyIxXkEdAJ_e1tJhd9p3jarzMAl477M8umKJUc7E6YSK6Brps4A&r=0#grid
