BulletRacing

It's been a couple of weeks since we competed in the 2009 Rolex 24hrs of Daytona, but it's almost taken that long for everyone to catch their breath and let the experience sink in.

Long story short, we finished the race.

It's hard to imagine that such a short, seemingly inconsequential sentence as that can have such a huge sense of accomplishment attached to it, but it does.

Click on the "READ MORE" link to read more of our experiences.

There's a lot that goes into competing in a 24 hour race.

To start with, you need the car. We left the car in the Daytona area after our testing sessions a couple of weeks before, so that was easy. Then you need the tools to work on the car. Matt and Al were the "lucky ones" to drive our truck and support trailer from the shop in Vancouver all the way to Daytona so we had everything we needed to set up and work on the car. Little did we know just how much we'd have to use those tools in the coming days!

Most of the team (drivers and crew) made our way down to Daytona on the Tuesday before the race.
We all checked into our hotel, got our credentials, and prepared to load our car and gear into the speedway.

Wednesday morning came bright and early, and it didn't take us long to get our transporter parked and our car and gear unloaded.

It was time to start working on the car to get ready for the testing and qualifying sessions leading up to the race.

It was also time to bring a couple of the "rookies" up to speed on what they'd be doing for the days to come. For instance, refuelling the car, whether in the paddock or the hot pits, requires that certain safety protocols are followed. If not, Grand-Am is not shy about levying a fine.

And, as always, there was the seemingly endless supply of decals that had to be put on the car.

The one that meant the most to us, however, was that of the BC Children's Hospital Foundation. This was the first year (of many to come) that we partnered up with the BCCHF in order to raise money for their very worthy cause. When that decal went on the car, it meant a lot to all of us involved.

That being said, we were very happy to have all of our sponsors proudly displayed on the car.

Then it was time for testing.

We had 4 drivers this year; Ross Bentley, Keith Carter, Daniel Harrington, and Glenn Nixon. They each took their turns doing a few laps in the car, while we did final adjustments on suspension, aero, and driver ergonomics.

It was then that we discovered a bit of an issue with the gear box. We weren't sure exactly what was going on, but Bernie took the differential apart and did some looking around.

Yeah. No. It wasn't good.

The next thing you know, we "borrowed" a temporary transmission from another team, and swapped it into the car. It was really amazing how all of the teams that were competing would go out of their way to do whatever they could to help another team. While we were there, I saw everything from duct tape and hose clamps to transmissions and ECU's being shared amongst the teams.

So, the borrowed transmission was put in the car and our box was sent out for a quick, overnight rebuild. It was going to be NICE! A complete internal replacement with all, brand-new 2009 gear sets. Mind you, in this case "nice" meant "stupidly expensive", but the reality was the transmission we had wasn't going to last 24 hours, so it had to be done. Still... OUCH. On the up-side, Bernie got to be involved in the rebuild, so he learned a ton.

Meanwhile, Ross took the car out and did our first qualifying session.

We qualified near the back, but really, we weren't too worried about it. In a 24 hour race, it typically doesn't matter where you start the race, as long as you start. Sometimes it's better to be at the back while the first-lap antics get all sorted out in front of you, rather than being caught up in someone else's first-lap-first-corner excitement.

After that qualifying session, we focused on practising the pit stops and driver changes.

Even though the race was a couple of days off, you could see that everyone was getting their game faces on. The excitement was really starting to build.

All that stuff to be done made for some very long days. You quickly learned to get your job(s) done quickly and efficiently, and grab whatever rest you could, when you could. It was important to not burn yourself out before the race. Let's just say that some people were better at it than others. ;)

The morning of the race was finally here. We put in our newly rebuilt transmission, checked everything over, wiped down the car, and prepared for the big rollout.

And the crowds were starting to build.

It was then time for the pre-grid ceremonies.

It was a real thrill to push the car down pit lane, and to hear the shouts of "Go Canada!" from the crowds. At that point it felt like we were more than just "Bullet Racing"... we were the Canadian Team. Goosebumps.

The only "downside" to the pre-grid ceremonies was the fact that we were gridded right in front of Patrick "Dr. McDreamy" Dempsey. The mob of people trying to get their picture taken with him, or autographs, etc., was insane.

Almost as insane as the guy that tried to climb up on our car in order to get a better vantage point. Needless to say, he wasn't at all successful, and we might have damaged the Canadian "always polite" reputation a bit. *ahem* Anyway, a human shield of Bullet Racing crew was formed, and we did our best to keep a bit of a buffer around our car.

Still, it was NUTS.

And then, before you knew it, the race was on, and the green flag was flying. Let the waiting begin!

The attrition started early. Boris Said was part of the Black Forest team that was beside us, and at about lap 30 they pushed the car into the garage, and we never saw them again. Little did we know...

Things were going pretty well for us for the first few hours, and we were following our game plan, and nothing all that exciting was going on. And we weren't complaining one bit!

Then some "stuff" started to happen.

We busted a front left lower control arm, which had to be replaced.

It wasn't all that bad, and we were lucky that there was a fairly extended yellow-flag session while we were fixing it.

Then we started breaking axles. All in all, we went to the garage 3 separate times to replace 6 axles.

THAT wasn't fun, and it was tough on the morale, never mind our standings in the race.

It also seemed to be a common problem with a lot of Porsche teams.

Then there was a bit of a spin, where one of our drivers had a little contact with the wall at the Bus Stop. That meant replacing a wheel, bumper, and fixing some minor collateral damage.

Then there was the failure of our driver-ID plug. In case you weren't aware, when a driver gets into the car, there's a little plug attached to his helmet that gets plugged into the timing and scoring transponder on the car so that the Race Control timing and scoring folks can tell who is in the car. If that isn't working, then you have to fix it.

We got called in and we spent a fair bit of time in the hot pits re-soldering the connection and getting it to work. Not that difficult, just finicky, detailed work that is NOT fun to do after racing for 22 hours.

So, all in all, we spent probably 120-150 laps out of the race, either in the hot pits or in the garage fixing issues that came up.

Here's a picture of the guys working like mad replacing YET ANOTHER FREAKING AXLE. *ahem* Sorry about that. You have NO idea how hard that is to do with a totally heat-soaked race car. And I just DARE you to ask Bernie to change an axle in the next couple of weeks. ;)

Things kept breaking or going wrong, but we kept at it. We NEVER gave up. And we got tired. And kept going.

And it wasn't just those of us in the hot pits that were active, Michael Ainsworth and his team of spotters (Jeff Alton and Cindy Stevens) were on top of the grandstand proving the drivers with much needed assistance. They did a great job of maintaining their focus and letting the drivers know what was going on around them, further enhancing our chances of finishing the race in one piece.

And all the while the car just kept going around and around and around and around and around. And around. Ticking off the laps.

And we kept working. The car would come in, we'd put gas in it, check the oil, change tires when needed, and send it back on its way.

The end was in sight.

And then we were done. It's like we blinked and it was over.

AND WE HAD FINISHED. Our car drove under the checkered flag, under it's own power. We had done what a few large, professional teams with 10 times our budget didn't do.

There were a lot of times during those 24 hours where the easy answer would have been to call it quits and pack it in. We were getting hammered unmercifully, with issues coming at us non-stop. But we didn't, and a large part of that is because of Steve and Leah's understanding that each and every lap we ran meant more money for the Children's Hospital. And we all knew that.

We got angry, we were annoyed, we were frustrated, we got beat up and burned... but we never lost sight of why we were there. We never gave up.

We didn't win, we didn't podium, and Steve and Leah spent WAY more money than they ever intended to.

But we are very proud of what we accomplished.

So yeah, it might not sound like much to some people... but we FINISHED, and that means everything to us.