I still don’t need sleep during Rolex 24 at Daytona

DAYTONA BEACH – I remember walking down pit road during the 1979 Rolex 24 at Daytona at 4 in the morning. Back then, I had that kind of energy and wonderment about racing twice around the clock.

Despite a deafening roar of more than 50 exotic sportscars, crewmen sat in lawnchairs, many covered with a sleeping bag or tattered blanket, trying to steal a few minutes of sleep. The top teams splurged and had a crock pot of chili simmering. Others ate bologna sandwiches and candy bars.

Back then, endurance required willpower, sacrifice, strong coffee and horsepower, not a kinesiology and artificial intelligence background.

Forty-six years ago, the racers had hands of stone, each stained by grease and sweat. Now they arrive in Polo shirts and fine Italian shoes.

Nonetheless, it’s still the greatest show on wheels.

There’s nothing better than the 24-hour race at the Daytona International Speedway. It’s always been my favorite race of the year; it always will be.

The cars have changed from sportscars you could find in the drive-thru at Dairy Queen to futuristic prototypes from a Jules Verne novel. But the more it changes, the more it stays the same.

“The car that usually wins is the one that spends the least amount of time on pit road,” Haywood often said.

He should know. He’s won America’s premier endurance race five times. The driver from St. Augustine also won the 24 Hours of LeMans three times and the 12 Hours of Sebring twice.

A lot has changed since Haywood dominated endurance races. Teams now have massive compounds erected on pit road. WTFAndretti, for example, have four command posts, each outfitted with at least 15 computer screens.

Most teams, especially the elite GTPs, now have masseurs, quiet motorhomes with beds and showers and a nutritionist on standby. Others use hyperbaric chambers to help their drivers decompress after two- or three-hour shifts.

But whether you’re fueled by chili like the old days or enjoy the pampered comforts of the modern era, the race is still about being around physically and mechanically after 24 hours.

The first time I met Hurley was after his win in 1979. Danny Ongias, Ted Field and Haywood drove their black No. 0 Porsche 935 to a 49-lap victory. They won by nearly 175 miles because the rest of the GTX field had serious engine issues – particularly blown head gaskets and turbocharger seizures.

The winning car wasn’t immune from problems, but their issues came with only seven minutes to go. Ongias radioed the team his turbo was breaking. When they saw it smoking, they told him to stop on the track apron 100 yards short of the finish line. He waited until he saw the checkered flag, and the car chugged, spitted and spewed white smoke the final 300 feet for the win.

I have other great memories. ZZ Top drummer Frank Beard – the one without the beard – was part of a team that drove a Porsche 911 to a 15th-place finish. He sat against a fence along the pit road fence as two boys walked past in the night. They stopped, waved their right arm with a scoop and finished with the little wave seen in the band’s music video, “She’s Got Legs.” Beard cocked his sunglasses – yes, the band wears them at night, too – and smiled.

Do you know who else has been behind the wheel during the sportscar marathon? Bruce Jenner. NFL quarterback Dan Pastorini. Actors Paul Newman, Craig T. Nelson, Lorenzo Lamas, Tim Allen, Patrick Dempsey, Gene Hackman and Robert Carradine of “Nerds” fame.

Let’s not forget AC/DC singer Brian Johnson or comedian Dick Smothers.

Newman was a serious racer. He was a constant competitor in the SCCA series, and he teamed with NASCAR star Mark Martin, Mike Brockman and Tommy Kendall in a Ford Mustang in 1995. The team finished third overall, but first in the GTS-1 class on Newman’s 70th birthday.

Including Martin, racers from IndyCars and NASCAR have made their marks on the twisting 12-turn, 3.56-mile road course. Jamie McMurray, Kyle Larson, Jeff Gordon, Casey Mears, A.J. Allmendinger and Juan Pablo Montoya all took a break from their fulltime stock car teams to win the 24-hour race.

IndyCar racers Tony Kanaan, Scott Dixon, Montoya, A.J. Foyt, Mario Andretti, Alexander Rossi, Helio Castroneves, Simon Pagenaud and Alex Palou have been featured in prototypes.

But perfect, cool conditions, combined with a year’s worth of development on the Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) cars that comprise the top class of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, created a festival of speed Sunday in qualifying for the 62nd running of the Rolex 24 At Daytona.

A Cadillac V-Series.R of Pipo Derani, Dixon, Sebastien Bourdais and Renger van der Zande will start on the pole ahead of 58 other cars on Saturday at 1:40 p.m. Derani broke the road course track record last week with a qualifying run of 138.318 mph.

Just like in 1979, the only thing that matters is how fast the car is at the of the race.