SEBRING, Fla. – The first 24 hour race at Sebring Int’l Raceway went very well for a lot of teams.
It was an awesome sight to witness 15 of the 17 cars in our class taking the checkered flag after 24 hours of hard running against the brutal and unforgiving beast of a track. By some miracle, one of those 15 teams happened to be ours.
We were many laps down, but we still finished the race.
It all started on Friday, Oct. 29 with practice and qualifying day. We got there that morning, my dad and I, but our trailer and accompanying race car was nowhere to be found in the paddock amongst the 50 or so teams that were gearing up for their 24-hour race.
When we got registered, we were able to link up with the car owners and meet most of the drivers I was going to share the seat with for the race. We had originally planned for three co-drivers, but that number had been expanded to seven drivers that were going to get in the car.
We were informed by Edward, the team leader and one of the car owners, that the trailer was on its way to the track as we speak and should be there in time for practice. He explained that there were some delays with getting the car prepared, but we were actually going to have two cars to practice with, that way each driver could get more practice time.
That plan lasted for approximately 30 minutes when we got word from Edward that the trailer taking the car to the track got into some sort of accident. Apparently, while going through a construction zone, one of the workers told their guy pulling the trailer that he was clear to go. However, he didn’t realize there was a big tree branch that the trailer wasn’t able to clear.
The tree branch crumpled the front top right of the trailer, pinning some tools, breaking some spare parts and helmets, and warping the trailer in a way that the car lift stopped working. This was about the worst case scenario, because now they were going to have to figure out a way to get a 2000+ pound car out of a trailer that they can’t move.
After a couple of hours of trying to solve the problem, the guys somehow managed to get the car out and on the ground by themselves. By the time that was all done, it was well past the end of practice and qualifying, so not an ideal way to start the weekend.
I wasn’t too worried about not having seat time beforehand to learn the car and refresh myself with the track, which I’d driven before on iRacing as well as in 2020 with the Lucas Oil Formula Car Race Series.
However, during lunch and dinner conversations I learned I was probably the most experienced driver on our team. I volunteered to start the race despite having no sports car experience and not turning a lap in the car during practice, but due to my past experience at the track everyone agreed I should start.
When we got to the track Saturday the trailer and car, a BMW m240i, were finally there. It was a bit of a rush to get fitted in the car and prepare for the race. It was then I found out the car we would be racing was actually supposed to be the backup car, but due to a problem in the primary car we would be racing the backup instead.
By the time the car was ready and I got fitted in, the entire grid had left pit lane and begun taking their warmup laps. I was trying to find my way to pit lane when one of the workers informed us the transponder didn’t register when I crossed the start-finish line.
I still went on track hoping it was just a glitch, but during the second pace lap it didn’t register again so I had to come back to the pits to fix it. So while everybody else took the green flag to start the 24-hour race, I was pitting to put in a new transponder.
The race had just begun and we were already behind. However, I could still get plenty of seat time, so there was still a positive to be found in the situation.
Once I finally got on track I got 11 laps into what should have been my first hour and 15 minute stint. The car felt down on power and eventually I realized the car’s traction control was on. The team was able to advise me on how to turn it off, which was a huge help.
The rest of the time I spent getting comfortable in the car and getting up to speed. It was going well until something in the right-rear suspension failed. I nursed the car back to the pits, where the crew sent me to the paddock so they could fix the car.
I decided that once the car was fixed I would let someone else jump in the car. We considered calling it quits right there given all the problems we’d had up to that point, but we resolved to finish the race and get as much seat time and experience as we could.
Eventually the sun set and it was my turn to get back in the car for a full stint and luckily no parts broke this time. I learned the ins and outs of the car during this stint as I tested the limits of the car. I eventually set my fastest lap one lap before the end of my time in the car. It was also the fastest lap turned by anyone on our team by about four seconds.
The biggest downside of the experience was the fact that our car wasn’t just uncompetitive from a results perspective, it was also uncompetitive from a pace perspective. We were the slowest GTO car in our class, slow enough to warrant being classified as a GP1 car. This was mainly due to straight line speed as I was able to keep up with even the quickest cars through the corners.
My final stint was extended by about 40 minutes as we were nearing the end of the race. Due to mechanical concerns with the car, I was forced to take it easy in the acceleration zones because the combination of weight transfer and engine torque could’ve caused the rear axle to fail. I could still run hard in the brake zones and in the entry to mid-corner phase, but had to take it easy from the mid-corner out.
This left me running lap times back in the 1:33 range or so. Once my stint was over, I passed the car off to one of my teammates, who would bring the car home, taking the checkered flag to complete the first 24-hour race at Sebring.
It was an honor and privilege to take part in the first 24-hour race at Sebring, and I look forward to racing there in the future. I gained a lot of valuable experience from the whole endeavor despite all of the setbacks and can’t wait to race in future WRL races next year as I think it’s one of the highest value, most developmentally beneficial racing series.