I got back from my trip to Daytona last night. Actually, it was my son’s trip. It was his graduation present. I was the one lucky enough to get invited along. Although, I don’t think his mother would have had any part of it.

Anyway, we spent from Wednesday through Sunday living in a motorhome at Daytona International Speedway. We were fully immersed in the NASCAR experience. Even though we met some very nice people during our stay, I do have to say that most of the stereotypes of the NASCAR fan are true. I saw beer being consumed in mass quantities by almost everyone at any time of the day. And, I was subjected to so much second-hand smoke that I should have just lit up and joined in.

My son had a good time and that is what is important. However, the highlight of the trip for both Evan and I was that we got to work the hot pits for the Rosser Racing/Mind over Motorsports GT entry for the Grand Am race on Thursday night. This was made possible by the asshole that we call Brad.

Let me set the stage for Thursday night. The Fourth of July weekend is a big event for NASCAR fans at Daytona. There are all kinds of things going on. But, the two key events are the Winn-Dixie 250 Busch series race (Friday night) and the Pepsi 400 Winston Cup race on Saturday night. Leading up to these two races are the normal practice and race qualifying sessions held on the days prior to the races. This year, the organizers decided to cram in something a little different for the fans. They added a sports car race on the road course at Daytona for Thursday night. The race is called the Paul Revere 250 and it is part of the Rolex Sports Car Series. To draw a few fans, the race was scheduled to take place right after the qualifying session for the Winston Cup race. I think this worked, there were probably 100,000 people in the stands when I first got down to the pits.

As you may have read in Sean’s earlier post, Brad has been working with the Mind over Motorsports team in supporting Blake Rosser. Brad invited Evan and I down to help out for the race.

We met Brad at 7:00 PM the night of the race. We hooked up at the entrance to the tunnel leading to the infield. I told Brad that I would be easy to spot. I was sure that I would be the only person wearing a Porsche hat. Sure enough, we didn’t miss one another. Now, we didn’t have much time for pleasantries or talk about 914s. There was a lot of work to be done and we got right to it.

Brad drove us into the Grand Am paddock. Because there were three separate races that week, we didn’t have a garage. The garages were in use by the Winston Cup guys. Now, because it was a NASCAR event, security was extremely tight. You couldn’t get anywhere unless you had the proper credentials. Thanks to Brad, we had the proper credentials. As I found out later, I could get everywhere except the NASCAR garages. It was very cool to be waved in to different areas by the security guards while hundreds of people were milling around hoping to get a glimpse of something happening.

Here is my first picture from the night. That is Brad’s ass sticking out of the car.

We met the Mind Over Motorsports team in the paddock. These were some of the nicest guys that you will ever want to meet. They were thankful for the help and took the time to explain things to us if we had any questions. Tim Wiener, Chris Shaffer and Alan Tasaka make up the team. They are all very good and very young. These guys are building something that hopefully will last a long time and accomplish some great things in motorsports. BTW, Tim told me that he owns three 914s.

Next we met owner/driver Blake Rosser. Again, he is a really nice guy. He thanked us over and over again for helping out. The thanks were great, but we were thrilled just to be there.

Here is a picture of my son Evan in the paddock. I believe that he was talking to our co-driver Randy Pobst when I took this one.

We were helping out getting the car ready and packing up the paddock waiting for 9:00 to roll around. We had to wait because Winston Cup qualifying was scheduled from 8:00 to 10:00. Around 8:45, we loaded up the trailers and the golf cart and starting making runs from the paddock to the pits.

It was an awesome experience to be in the pits at Daytona when there are over 100,000 people in the stands all cheering or booing while their favorite or least-favorite NASCAR drivers were qualifying. The noise coming from the stands was incredible. My son, being a NASCAR fan, loved it.

Brad and Evan stayed in the pits setting everything up. I was driving the cart, so I continued to run back and forth bringing in equipment.

I made multiple runs to bring equipment or people in to the pits. During one of those runs I had an encounter with Hurley Haywood. This was actually a follow-up to an encounter that we had had earlier in the afternoon. He is a nice guy, but quite a bit different when he has his game-face on.

On another run, I was bringing Randy Pobst down to the pits. This guy is amazing. He knows everybody and knows them by name. That trip took me twice as long as the others since I slowed down so Randy could hold conversations with people walking along side. Needless to say, Randy is also one heck of a driver. He was putting down some consistently fast lap times during the race.

Here is a picture of Evan and Brad getting ready for the first pit stop. Notice the stands in the background. They were almost full just 15 minutes earlier.

The first pit stop was not without problems. We had a driver change which went well. We changed all of the tires which went off without a hitch. However, we had some problems with the fuel rig. We weren’t getting enough fuel into the car. It was temporarily fixed when I held the supply lines up in the air. We got some gas into the car. But, we knew that we would have to make one more fuel stop.

After the car left the pits, the problem with the fuel safe was rectified by some ingenious use of zip ties and bungee cords. The next stop was a “splash and go” by Randy that went off flawlessly.

The car and team did well. We finished second in class just behind the Ferrari.

I’ve got one other story that I wish that I could share with everyone. But, it may be sensitive and I will hold it ion private for now. I will tell you that it was extremely funny and that I have never seen someone move as fast as Randy Pobst did.

He is one last shot of my son and some of his “pit groupies”.

I had to lighten up some of the night pictures so you can see them.

Paul,

It sounds like you and Evan had a great experience and a good time as well. Congradulations.

I just wanted to make a few comments. One is that the Paul Revere 250 has been around for quite a while. It began back in the old IMSA days and continued until NASCAR became the successful series that it is today, at which time it was dropped. It was resurrected under the NASCAR/France/Grand Am banner a few years ago to try to promote the Grand Am series which has struggled to develope a fan base. Whether it has drawn any new fans from the NASCAR scene is questionable, as most of those fans are probably toasted by 11:00 PM!

Second, as a sportscar racing fan, I have in the past been interested in attending this event, at least until this years new reulations decimated the field, but have no interest in going to Daytona on the weekend of one of its biggest "events", the FireCracker 400. Five day minimum hotel? No thanks.

By the way, the race was fairly intersting on Speed the following Friday.

Mike

Thanks for the write up Paul... we where all beat after loading the trailer to 4am..

I jumped in the rental with Doug the team strategist and drove strait thru to Fort Lauderdale.. caught some ZZ's and hung out all day on the beach in Lauderdale (4th of July)

Thanks again for all your help.. I know Tim and Chris really appreciated the help.

B