1913 Belgrade Ave

Charleston, SC 29407

(843) 763-7356

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Rolex 24 at Daytona, 2001

 When we decided to enter the second largest sportscar car race in the world, we knew we'd be facing some tough challenges.  We had a great driver lineup of Cory Friedman, Lynn Wilson, Adam Merzon, and Basil Demeroutis, and our car was more solid and faster than it had ever been.  Still, the cards were stacked highly against us as we were competing against water cooled Porsches and a V8 powered BMW.

     Our first challenge was the technical inspection.  Having never been through a Grand-Am tech, we were a bit concerned despite knowing the car satisfied all Grand-Am rules.  Tech went pleasantly smooth.  Only some roll bar padding issues which were easily overcome.  When the scrutineers saw that we were running an RSR, they focused mostly on safety concerns, knowing we were already outgunned by the huge field of GT3R and RS racers.

     The car was changed only slightly from what it was at January testing, so we knew it would be tough to get that one last second we felt we needed to qualify.  In the first few practice sessions, we failed to find the speed we had in January mostly due to foul weather, but our engineer and technicians worked hard to make the car faster and more comfortable.  The first qualifying went quite well for us, as the weather was terrible, but we still managed a few good laps.

     Things got even more difficult when a mishap in night practice left our RSR in the tirewall in the international horseshoe.  Our crew worked furiously to replace the damaged fenders, nose, and oil coolers.  Once reassembled, the alignment was checked and thankfully, changes were minimal, and we were able to make the practice before the final qualifying session.  The car wasn't nearly as pretty, but proved to be mechanically sound for qualifying.

     We knew that if we qualified well, then the race would be mostly downhill from there.  We used a radical low-downforce set-up on the car with the softest compound tires we could get and removed the mirrors and taped the seams to get every last tenth out of the car.  We then left it to our lead driver Cory, who had his work cut out for him to say the least.  The light rain did not help either.  On lap 7, Cory turned in a 2:00.5, an amazing time that landed us 75th in the 80 car field and was a full second faster than the car had ever gone before.

     The race was a rainy mess.  Rain tires were used for about 16 of the 24 hours.  This rain ultimately led to some problems.

     Things went as smoothly as they could for us during the race.  The biggest complaint was that between the heavy rain and hours of racing, our clear Lexan windshield was now an opaque Lexan windshield.  Our drivers reported they were flat-footed following the yellow line at 150mph coming out of NASCAR 3 and 4.  Scary to say the least.

     On the 33 degrees of banking, water falls directly through the open passenger side window into the floorboard.  This magnitude of rain we had not planned for.  Shortly after a pit stop and driver change (where the car was completely stationary for about a minute and a half) at about 6:00am Sunday morning, the car started to misfire severely and the engine died in the international horseshoe (where all of our problems seem to occur).  The car was returned to the garage quickly and the crew began troubleshooting.  There was more than one inch of standing water in the driver's side floorboard, where the engine control unit is mounted; this was determined to be the problem.  The spare ECU was installed in a plastic bag and holes were drilled in the floorboard to prevent the same problem from happening again.  The car was back on the track within 45 minutes.  Obviously, relocation of the ECU is a priority for next race.

     The real-time timing and scoring we had in the pits showed us to be as high as 19th before the incident.  When we returned to competition, we were in 31st position and began moving up on the charts.  At the conclusion of the race, we sat in 23rd overall and 13th in class.  A tremendous result we feel that was well worth the huge effort put into the race by so many.

 

I would like to thank the following people and sponsors for their help in making the 2001 Rolex at Daytona one of the best events that we have ever had!

Crewmembers:

 

Adam Friedman – our team engineer that had all the answers when we needed them.

Karen Friedman – our hospitality coordinator & team secretary whose infinite patience and understanding allowed me to pursue this project.

Brian Byrd – lead mechanic, air jack guy and right front wheel changer.

Brandon Libby – pit set up and whatever needed to be done.

Paul Frederick- expediter, assistant to all.

Mark Winkworth (BS Motorsports)- mechanic and left front wheel changer.

Neil Bainbridge (BS Motorsports)- mechanic and pit manager.

John Hatsios- refueler and fuel manager.

Carlos (Suncoast Porsche)- mechanic and fueling "dead man".

Hank Cohn- left rear wheel changer.

Tuggy Mathison- tire manager.

McGrath Keen- tire manager.

Doug Nargiz-hospitality and golf cart driver.

Eddie Evans-helping hand in the shop.

Peter Dawe- advice, engine mapping and cylinder head work.

 

Our sponsors:

Case It

Rennlist.com

Suncoast Porsche

Howard Cooke (Powdertech Plus)

S Car Go racing headers

JRZ suspension engineering

Bob Woodman

SSF

Motorsport Road and Race

Diversified Cryogenics (Frozen Rotors)

Fikse wheels

Paul & Sylvia Huskey

Hank Cohn

Rick Longano

Mike Branning

Jerry Crites

 

Our Supporters:

To all those that watched, e-mailed and called we appreciate all your support.

 

And last but not least, the drivers that did an exceptional job running a good race, pacing themselves and staying out of trouble in some of the most adverse conditions imaginable:

Lynn Wilson

Adam Merzon

Basil (Ace) Demeroutis

Cory Friedman

 

Thank you all !! This was truly a team effort !!

Gordon Friedman

Team Manager