No luck this time: the (usually) winning Ganassi team around former three-time Daytona victor Memo Rojas (below left)
New US racing rules mean that the open sportscars don’t stand a chance against the closed cars
and those who appreciate the finer things in life. These vehicles have a bedroom, a kitchen and a closet, and the dead animal is sacrificed to the gas barbecue rather than open flames. Here, the cuts of meat and the paunches of those grilling them tend to be larger than in the north. These are experienced campers. Most of them have flatscreens elegantly worked into the bodywork of their mobile homes. Territory is carefully marked out; awnings block the view of the track. It’s an idyllic holiday home set-up, with thundering eightcylinder engines as a backdrop. But the big money is over in the east. Not that there are any people THE RED BULLETIN
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here – they’re presumably off somewhere getting food – but they’ve left behind a full car park, neatly delineated. The largest is the Porsche car park. You can pick out your dream 911 by colour or model; every combination imaginable is here. The true connoisseurs come here in their 928s or maybe even an early 1600 Super. The plump Panameras and Cayennes, mere urchins in the eyes of true racers, have to park elsewhere. There are also plenty of Corvettes, Camaros and Mustangs, although they seem a little banal here in the heartland of American motorsport. The Rolex 24 has always had a touch of the European about it, reflected in the racegoers’ rides. Half past four in the morning is a good time to charge. While mechanics slumber in orthopaedically dubious positions, drivers wander absent-mindedly through the paddock with toothbrushes in their mouths and the last party die-hard out in the campsite has been silenced, out on the track it’s time to mount an attack. The major teams have old hands behind the wheel, who have gone through the night in double shifts, exchanging places with the super sprinters. Even if the track temperature means that there will be no record times, this is no time for taking prisoners. The Porsche junior Klaus Bachler, just 22 years old, steps out of his Porsche 911 after a flawless run. His team aren’t sending him off to bed, but to a debrief in the command bridge. Lads like him have a lot to learn. It’s nights like these which turn young hopefuls into true racing drivers.
he race gets dramatic once again shortly before the end. The pace car, often used in US racing to ratchet up the tension, comes out after a relatively minor crash and presses the field together. In three of the four classes, places are decided in the last of the 96 quarter-hours of the 24hour race, all of it broadcast live on TV. Spectators bite their nails as the battle comes down to the second-last bend. In the lowest class, GTD, there is metal-onmetal action in the fight for victory. Once the black-and-white chequered flag falls, the dam breaks, fans crowd around the drivers and grope at the cars. Confetti, music, tears and watches for the winners. Christian Fittipaldi, João Barbosa and, with the honour of taking the flag, Sébastien Bourdais, are the 2014 winners at Daytona, in a Corvette C5-R. At the press conference, Bourdais, who has raced in Formula One for Scuderia Toro Rosso, proudly displays his brand-new Rolex Daytona. “Daytona is one of those races you want to win once in your life,” he says. “Every day when I look at my wrist, I’ll remember this victory”. imsa.com
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