Porsche at Daytona 2011

Porsche motorsport has earned quite a reputation for winning at the famed Daytona Motor Speedway.  The Rolex 24 at Daytona has been won overall by a Porsche an astounding 22 times.  The Porsche badge has been in victory lane at Daytona more than any other marque.  The 2011 running of the event has proven that Porsche is still aiming for victories, and certainly has the equipment and driver talent to do so.

The general consensus among racing fans is that Seth Neiman has built the Flying Lizard team to do one thing, and do it well. Win.  One of Porsche’s premier customer efforts, The Lizards have a legendary reputation for their ever present fastidiousness, focused personnel, and determined preparation. In the lead up to the Daytona 24 hour they treated it no differently, and even as a one-off, rookie effort, they proved to be the class of the field.

On the Thursday before the race, Joerg delicately placed the Porsche powered Riley at the top of the time sheets.  With a flying lap that easily eclipsed the previously held Daytona Prototype lap record at the track, Joerg commented that he didn’t take a single breath for the full one minute and 40 second lap.

                On race day, it looked like the Lizards had gotten their setup perfect yet again.  At three-thirty in the afternoon on Saturday, the green flag fell on the start of the 24 hour enduro.  Shortly thereafter, Bergmeister led the field, followed by 17 other Daytona Prototypes, and driving away as though he were still qualifying.  Stretching out an enormous gap over his first stint, everything was going according to plan.  They proved to be the quickest of the field, consistently lapping in the low 1 minute 40s, while most teams circulated the track in about 1 minute and 43 seconds.  The red and silver 45 managed to grab the fastest lap of the race with a 1 minute 40.417 second pace.  Joerg set the blisteringly quick time during one of his stints and, in race trim, was only three tenths of a second slower than his pole position winning lap, proving that the team had the package to beat. 

            Due to unfortunate circumstances, the Flying Lizard Porsche lost out in the end to Chip Ganassi’s team, who ended the race in first and second position.  Not of their own doing, the Lizard team was caught up in a two separate incidents within the first three hours that permanently affected their finishing position.  During an early restart, the field was bunched up and, caught unaware, Scott Tucker in the Level 5 Motorsport BMW Riley drove the front left corner into and through the right rear bodywork of the Lizard car.  In a second incident, the No. 81 GT class Ferrari fielded by DragonSpeed Motorsports spun into the path of oncoming cars, before rolling backward off the track.  Seth Neiman navigated the Lizard car off track to avoid contact with the Ferrari, and as he was easing his way back toward the racing surface, he struck a short mound of dirt head on with the front of the car.  The carbon composite splitter fitted to the front of the Riley chassis dug into the dirt.  Once back on the track, Seth found himself at a loss for downforce and grip as the splitter and the front undertray had separated from the chassis and the assembly was dragging on the ground.  Effecting repairs to the car to regain its race worthiness lost the team a total of 35 minutes in the garage, and 19 laps to the leaders.  What could, and should, have been a race for the overall win, was cut short twenty two hours in, when damage dealt in the first incident caused an oil line to burst. 

            Similarly, in the GT class, Porsche’s 911 GT3 Cup had the field covered, and qualified on pole with an additional 5 Porsches in the next 6 positions.  The pole time of 1 minute 48 seconds, again a track record, was earned by The Racer’s Group’s ever quick Andy Lally.  Misfortune was soon announced for Porsche as the pole time was disallowed due to technical infraction, citing that the rear wing was mounted one millimeter too far back on the chassis, and the car was relegated to the back of the grid.  Luckily, Porsche also had the second fastest time with Dominik Farnbacher, in another of TRG’s five entered cars, starting in the first slot.

            Porsche had a full 14 cars in the race, and made up nearly half of the 32 car GT field.  The deck may have been stacked in Porsche’s favor, but there was still 24 hours of race to run, and run it they did.  The quickest of TRG’s cars, driven by Andy Lally, Spencer Pumpelly, Wolf Henzler, NASCAR driver Brendan Gaughan, and Steve Bertheau, made its way from the back of the field to the front in 22 hours, and held the lead for the final two hours, winning by five laps from the Steve Miller racing Porsche GT3 Cup, making the Rolex a one-two finish for Porsche.

            TRG’s weekend was not without issue, however.  Just over 7 hours had passed when the No. 67 car developed an issue with clutch engagement, before completely losing the clutch altogether.  A decision was made that the car would go behind the wall to the garage for repairs, and the team went to work preparing tools, parts, and personnel in the garage area, waiting for the car to arrive.

            At the last minute, team owner Kevin Buckler made the decision of a lifetime.  Weighing his options, he came to the conclusion that bringing the car in to change the clutch would give them no chance of finishing in the lead.  If the drivers could change their driving style slightly to mitigate the damage to the transmission, shift without a clutch, and stay out of trouble, there was a small chance that they could salvage the race.  Buckler was of the mindset that TRG would either come away with a win, or throw the car in the scrap bin when the day was done.

            Thanks to the extreme talent of the drivers enlisted, they did exactly as they were asked.  Keeping the car out of trouble for over 17 hours without a clutch was paramount, as any spin or off track excursion would have ended in a stalled car with no chance of getting it moving again.  Every pit stop, the car had to be push started to get on its way again.  Pumpelly and Lally both agreed that the braking zone for turn one was a bit disconcerting while driving without a clutch, but they managed to persevere, and finish in the lead.  Winning the race, quite literally, came down to a split second decision.

            Call it a testament to Porsche’s engineering skill, their ability to attract winning drivers, or their sheer number of entrants, but even with a bit of difficulty, Porsche’s weekend at the high banks of Daytona was eventful, and even successful.  The track record in both DP and GT, pole position in both classes, fastest race lap in both classes, consistently quick laps in both classes, and a 1-2 finish in the GT class all have the Porsche name attributed to them.  The 49^th running of the Rolex 24 at Daytona was absolutely obliterated by Porsche’s determined drive for excellence.