2007 Daytona 24hrs

[Speedworx]

Great race!

Great to see Ganassi take a 2nd win in a row.

Le Mans will have to go some to match this race.

[strider]

Originally Posted by HORNDAWG

Oh and that non-driving Scott Pruett. No talent or experience there.

L.P.

I deserved that one! The JPM comment was really for Knowlesy's benefit as I reckon he is known as his biggest fan on this forum.

No disrespect to Scott was intended. He was probably the backbone of the team and his drive in the last session of the race was textbook stuff.

[Knowlesy]

Absolutely. JPM and particularly Duran needed a guy like Scott around the team. It worked a treat.

[Davhut]

That was a damned great show! We had, well I really didn't count, but maybe 8-10 hours of coverage here in the States and it was awesome. All the ingredients of a long distance race: weather, traffic, time, and Ganassi's team ( and the others with Max "The Axe" and Manning), fighting wheel to wheel with 3 hours to go was wonderful. Good job, especially Pruett.

[Matt]

15 hours of coverage here in the states.

[chunterer]

Well I missed any feeds that I could've got hold of anyway! Drat.

Any ideas on when it might be shown on world motorsports or anything like that?

Congrats to the 'racers racer' though. From what i've read JPM proved once again during this race, that in a series that allows you to race other people and overtake other cars he is pretty peerless!

Good win for Pruett and young Duran too!

[chocmonster7]

Sorry if this info has already been posted:-

UK Channel - Five
Programme - Rolex Grand American Daytona 24hrs
Time - 05:10 - 06:00
When - Thursday 8th February

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by chocmonster7

Sorry if this info has already been posted:-

UK Channel - Five
Programme - Rolex Grand American Daytona 24hrs
Time - 05:10 - 06:00
When - Thursday 8th February

Thankyou!

Date and time now safely stored in all my calendars!!

[Truckosaurus]

Also:

British Eurosport, 11th February 22h30-23h30

[Steve Tarrant]

Hi All

Now surfaced from recovering sleep after observing 22 of the 24 hours here at Daytona!!!!

This was a great race with THREE cars within 8 seconds after 23 hours of racing - when have you ever heard of so many cars still in contention after that long????? I've done Le Mans several times and this race was up there with the classics.

Someone asked if the red flag period affected the outcome - the answer has to be yes, in that car 11 and possibly others were set up with higher downforce anticipating a lengthy period of slower wet running, but with the race losing 90 mins through the barrier beng replaced, their anticipation of the conditions wasn't rewarded. But you can't live with what if's!!!! Car 10 had to live with no clutch after hour 4, yet were still in contention until the last 2 hours, so were another hard luck story. And no doubt there were others too.

For my part, being there at the top of the grandstand alongside race control was a special experience, and I know I am happy to travel across the pond in Jan 2008 for the next event at Daytona.

I now have over 1000 pictures to edit through to recall the event. I'll let you know when I have uploaded them for viewing.

Cheers all

"Legless!"


Steve

[gsmith2424]

After being at the track at 8 am on Saturday morning till the end of the race I have got quite a few observations and opinions about the race and new rules implemented. First off the race was great and hopefully should be this good next year.

Now for the bad stuff. Right as the track started turning dark race control started issueing warning for drivers flashing their lights at other cars to let them know they were coming. I have always thought that this was the way to let slower cars know that you are coming up on them. Second, the red flag that happened during the middle of the night could have been avoided if the timing line would have been at start/finish instead of being at pit exit.

This is one thing I really am mixed on though is this new restart/wave by procedure for this year. This new procedure is really what produced the close finish in all of the classes as the 10 and many other teams in both classes used this to their advantage to make up laps at each caution. The good thing about it was that it did keep the classes apart at each restart.

[cmk]

Originally Posted by chunterer

Congrats to the 'racers racer' though. From what i've read JPM proved once again during this race, that in a series that allows you to race other people and overtake other cars he is pretty peerless!

Good win for Pruett and young Duran too!

I think you'd find there were many drivers out there who performed equally as well as JPM, or better. Pruett, Mags, Max the Axe, Wolf Henzler, Dirk Werner, just to name a few.

While Montoya is a real talent, I can only say I'm glad he's not going to do sportscars full time at this stage so I can be saved some of the flagellation at his feet that seems to go on wherever he races. May he enjoy his time in stockcars...

[Start_16]

Originally Posted by gsmith2424

Second, the red flag that happened during the middle of the night could have been avoided if the timing line would have been at start/finish instead of being at pit exit.

The timing line is at the start/finish line. The red flag dealt with heavy equipment blocking the track to repair a guard rail that was taken out by a GT Porsche.

[Steve Tarrant]

Originally Posted by Start_16

The timing line is at the start/finish line. The red flag dealt with heavy equipment blocking the track to repair a guard rail that was taken out by a GT Porsche.

Not true for the 24 hours, it's located at the white building after turn 1 and in the same area as the barrier work. Believe this is to stop cars overshooting turn 1 and then continuing on the banking without doing the infield loop. It also allows the manual lapscorers to see the cars at a slower speed, alongside the electronic system.

But the red flag was for the barrier replacement work (over 100 metres of barrier was replaced), not because the timing equipment was knocked out as was suggested..

[Start_16]

Originally Posted by Steve Tarrant

Not true for the 24 hours, it's located at the white building after turn 1 and in the same area as the barrier work. Believe this is to stop cars overshooting turn 1 and then continuing on the banking without doing the infield loop. It also allows the manual lapscorers to see the cars at a slower speed, alongside the electronic system.

But the red flag was for the barrier replacement work (over 100 metres of barrier was replaced), not because the timing equipment was knocked out as was suggested..

I didn't say there wasn't a timing line past the start-finish line either.

Thanks for repeating the rest of my post. I guess you're "righter" than I am.

[The359]

I was at the 24 Hours for the third time this year, full 4-day ticket with garage access. Lots of great sights and sounds in both the Koni and Rolex races.

I'm currently uploading photos from the event if anyone wants to look.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v646/The359/Daytona/

[Steve Tarrant]

Originally Posted by Start_16

I didn't say there wasn't a timing line past the start-finish line either.

Thanks for repeating the rest of my post. I guess you're "righter" than I am.

Sorry if it came over like that, it wasn't intended as such. Just wanted to correct info on where the timing line was, and re-affirm what you'd said about the red flag was for barrier maintainance, not because the timing kit had been broken as someone else previously suggested.

I spent 22 of the 24 hours in race control, so know these are the facts (the other 2 hours was on a sofa at the back of race control getting a bit of shuteye!).

Just a case of sharing the info with fellow race fans.

[thebear]

Originally Posted by Steve Tarrant

But the red flag was for the barrier replacement work (over 100 metres of barrier was replaced), not because the timing equipment was knocked out as was suggested..

It was decided by the officials that it would take less time to repair the guardrail and be safer for all concerned with NO cars on the track which at that point is possibly the narrowest section.

[chunterer]

For those of you who like me set the old video recorders (or sky plus) to record the CH 5 highlights in the UK you will of course have witnessed
a/ boxing and b/ A1GP in the slot instead!

A ticker at the bottom of the screen explained that they had technical difficulties and the covergae will be shown at 02.05 on Sunday morning (11th)instead?

[chocmonster7]

Thank you so much for posting this Chunterer! I'd promised to video it for a friend who is out of the UK at the moment and forgotten all about it! He'll be back by then so can do it himself.

[Nick49]

Hello

Yes thanks for posting that TV info, now all I have to do is remember to put a dvd in this time!! Old age you know.

Nick

[Knowlesy]

Had a watch of the Eurosport coverage last night. Obviously, 45 minutes of coverage will miss a lot from an intense 24 hour chase!

I'm getting 14 hours worth of coverage soon, so that should be better!

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by Knowlesy

Had a watch of the Eurosport coverage last night. Obviously, 45 minutes of coverage will miss a lot from an intense 24 hour chase!

I'm getting 14 hours worth of coverage soon, so that should be better!

Yeah i plumped for Eurosport's instead of the 5 coverage and managed to suffer Cartlon Kirby without too much alarm, but of course the CH5 coverage probably would have kept the American feed which would have been better. Anyone see that at all. It'll be interesting to note how the two channels compared!

14 hours of coverage knowlesy!! Crikey!!

Eurosport managed not to show any of Magnusson's latter agression or JPM's ace manouvre that i heard about but hey as you say it's not easy shoehorning a whole day into one hour!!

[Steve Tarrant]

Originally Posted by chunterer

Eurosport managed not to show any of Magnusson's latter agression or JPM's ace manouvre that i heard about but hey as you say it's not easy shoehorning a whole day into one hour!!

I recorded both programmes. The film footage was the same in both cases, except Eurosport bizarrely blanked the Rolex name from the championship badge in the corner of the screen. Didn't think selling watches was quite the same as cigarette branding?????

Anyway, the main difference was that Channel 5 had the TV commentary from the 4 Speed TV persons present at trackside, whereas Eurosport chose to dub their own commentary over the top, from someone who wasn't there and therefore didn't know what had gone on other than having read a script.

Yes, it is a shame that more of the 24 hours of racing couldn't be fitted in when the programme was only 45 mins long, but I at least have the memories of being there. If you wish to see a few of the 1800 pictures I was able to shoot during my time there, click onto http://motorsport-marshal.spaces.live.com and take a look at the photo album there.

Steve