It seems so easy and uneventful … even whimsical … but that’s the last thing that it is. Actually, the 24 hours of piloting the car on race day is easy in comparison to the 4 months of stress, anguish and financial calisthenics that precede it. Driver searches are based as much on financial where-with-all as they are on skill or intensity. Critical part availability is an investment in faith as much as anything.
No matter how you look at it, the math is just brutal.
Our 2009 effort at Daytona had math that looked like this:
Catastrophic Wreck Insurance: $25,000
22 sets of tires: $46,000
600 gallons of fuel: $3,600
Entry Fee: $8,500
New motor: $25,000
Trans R&R: $25,000
Trackside Support: $125,000
Brakes: $4,200
Livery: $5,400
Uniforms: $5,140
Subtotal: $277,980
Race Damage: $56,000
Total: $333,980 spent to raise $75,000 for charity.
Obviously the math only starts working when the funds raised get into the millions…per event. Yet the potential, when considering the international draw and multi million person fan base keeps eating at me. It feels like raising a few million dollars should be EASY.
This year, the driver search is killing us. We walked into the practice this week with what I had thought were two seats filled, looking only for one more co-pilot. Monday night we meet co-driver #1 at Outback Steakhouse for dinner and he shows us his broken left arm from a motorcycle accident four days prior. He had removed his cast so he could practice with us. The next day, driver #2 discloses that he was a victim of the Farnbacher Loles bankruptcy and has his better half saying theft or not, his racing $$ has been spent. The Guardian Angel Motorsports 2010 Rolex24 effort had been halved before the track went hot on Day 1 of practice.
The complexity of the 997 transmission raises the challenge an order of magnitude further still. The 6-speed sequential gearbox is unique in that it does not require the driver to clutch on up-shifts. It does require clutching and blipping of the throttle to match revs on the downshifts. It’s a somewhat intricate process; if not, the transmission only lasts about 20 minutes.
There are usually 25-35 GT entries, 2/3rds of which are Porsche. This creates a bottleneck for parts suppliers at about this time of the year. As such, we need to enter our orders for motors, transmission parts and wheels for Monday of this week (12.14.09). This means we are committing to spending approximately $60k on the SPECULATION that we can rebuild the team for the 1.8.9 practice … I’d MUCH rather balance the car in the rain or on the banking at night vs. playing poker like this.
We just have to stay focused and find 3 drivers and a bunch of people to pledge their support. As much as I want to walk away from this MONUMENTAL project, I just can’t put it down. I HAVE TO participate this year, I HAVE TO raise more than I did last year and I HAVE TO finish in the top 10. I HAVE TO COMPETE FOR THE CAUSE. It’s just that simple.
So we press on.
Loose Bruce
Grand Am Rolex GT #18
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Bad time to mention it’s christmas and your brother was hoping for a flat screen tv with surround sound?
-your brother