Kodey.com - Rolex 24 at Daytona, 2003

Rolex 24 at Daytona, 2003

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Track Time

· 2005 ·
Summit Point

· 2004 ·
Fall Foliage

· 2003 ·
Rolex 24

· 2002 ·
DC Grand Prix
4th of July

· 2001 ·
Speedway

· 1999 ·
San Diego

February 1-2, 2003

It was about time I went to see the mother of all road races. (In the US, at least. Maybe I'll go to the 24 Hours of Le Mans sometime...)

I was very excited to see this race. The Grand Prix of DC was really awesome, and I expected the same from Daytona - even more! The plan was the same: Garage/Paddock in the morning, then the race.

Two years ago, I took 5 laps of the Speedway. Now it was time to watch a race!

Travel

What's the best way to get off an airplane? Yell "bomb"!

I had a pretty interesting flight down to Daytona. It's a bit of a long story, so I'll save it for the end.

Pregame

So... After 4 hours of sleep, my Dad and I went to the track. Hopefully the excitement will keep me awake. First stop: Garage/Paddock.

Click on a thumbnail for a larger image.
Don't forget the tickets!	24 hours to go.	Wanna buy a race car??
Ferrari of Washington's #33 360GT.	The engine sounded awesome!	The JMB Ferrari shows the reflective tape.
I thought the Marcos Mantis was a Viper at first.	The BMW-Powered Red Bull Prototype gets a fill-up.	The Xavex Mosler fills up too. $4.50 a gallon.

The Racer's Group

I've been a big fan of The Racer's Group ever since my first BRBS. Bill H., from Suncoast Porsche and ThaList.com, is one of the TRG sponsors, and donates great prizes for BRBS. Bob C. takes pictures for the team, and is one of the organizers for BRBS. So now I'm a fan!

TRG won the GT class last year. I was hoping for the same outcome this year. Little did I know...

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Getting ready for battle.		Finishing touches.
	24 hours...Better make sure the lights work!

Start Your Engines

Some pictures from the grid.

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Pushing the JMB Ferrari...	...and the Mustang...	...and a Porsche. No, they weren't racing the Cayenne.
We even walked on the track. That's me.	My Dad.

The Main Event

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The Brumos #58 Porsche heading to the infield portion of the track.	The Brumos #59 Porsche heading to the infield portion of the track.	Everyone heads out of the infield under caution.
We got pretty close to the action.	TRG #66 zooms by at dusk.
TRG takes the Checkered Flag, and the overall win!	The Brumos #59 Porsche finishing second in class.	Ferraris finish in style.
	TRG heads to Victory Lane.

Video Clips

My father has a Canon PowerShot A40 digital camera, and he took some surprisingly good video clips of the race, with sound! It'll only do 15 seconds or so per clip, but it's enough to get the feeling.

I'm definitely going to upgrade my digital camera!

Click on a thumbnail for a larger image.
TRG #66 accelerates out of the infield.	Ferrari accelerates out of the infield.	The field drives by under caution.
TRG #68 crosses the start/finish line.	The Brumos #58 Porsche crosses the start/finish line.	The Brumos #58 Porsche brakes into the infield.
The Brumos #59 Porsche brakes into the infield.	The field drives by at night.
A Corvette roars by.	A Porsche and Corvette race by.
TRG takes the Checkered Flag, and the overall win!	Ferraris finish in style.

The Story

The weather didn't look great as Washington National Airport. I figured that if I could get out of DC ok, I'd be fine. Well, I got out of DC fine and landed in Atlanta without incident. I was hoping it would be an easy flight to Daytona. Wrong.

The airlines have this scheme, you see... They rush everyone onto the plane as if they're going to take off on time. Then, the second they close the door, they announce, "The weather is bad in Daytona. We're going to sit for an hour to see if it clears." It's 10pm.

Of course, if you got off the plane, you couldn't get back on. Security. So, they had efficiently made a captive audience that's not going anywhere. Great.

About half the plane was occupied by a ski club returning to Daytona. They were all friends, all talking, all being obnoxious. The average age was probably 40.

The club began passing around water bottles. Seemed reasonable - an hour trapped on a plane - I wish I had some water. But they were laughing about it, and referring to it as "water". Want some "water"? Where's the "water"?

Vodka.

11pm. One hour down. The flight attendants decided to do the beverage service. Since it was supposed to be a short flight, they only had orange juice and cranberry juice. "Water" goes pretty well with fruit juice...

Midnight. Now we had a bunch of obnoxious, drunk, 40 year old people trapped on a plane for 2 hours. They wanted off. So did I, for that matter. Some "rocket scientist" decided to crack a joke - under his breath - and said, "Maybe they'll let me off the plane if I yell bomb." Ha-ha.

The bunch of obnoxious, drunk, 40 year old people thought it was pretty funny. In response, the "rocket scientist" decided to let the rest of the plane in on the joke.

"He's got a bomb!"

It's now 1am. The police had surrounded the plane, came on board, and escorted our hero off the plane in handcuffs. At least is was some entertainment for the third hour.

So... I finally arrived in Daytona at about 2:30am. 4 hours of sleep with a FULL day ahead...

Back to the show...

Last updated:
Jan 9, 2005
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