Daytona Rookie Makes History with Strong Debut in the Historic Race

Compass360 Racing Team Principal finished second in his very first Rolex 24 Hour at Daytona race, driving with the Canadian Bullet Racing team. It was a weekend of highs and lows, and he shares the experience in the following report...

IT AIN'T OVER 'TILL IT'S OVER
by Karl Thomson

I'd been on the podium at Daytona twice before, but this was different. In 2007 I'd driven a strong race and won with my then co-driver Billy Johnson in our Acura TSX in the KONI Challenge (now Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge) race that opens the Rolex 24 weekend. I followed that up in 2008 with a third-place finish in the same TSX with Travis Walker. I've not raced at Daytona since, having concentrated on building our Grand-Am Honda program to the point where we ran five cars in the 2013 CTSCC ST-class, the most ever for a single-class team at any event.

After our squad's aborted attempt to run a very cool Audi TT-RS VLN as part of Grand-Am's new Rolex GX class (the series ended up feeling the car fell outside its intention for GX), an opportunity to drive with some of our ST-class competitors from Bimmerworld in a Canadian-fielded Porsche Cayman presented itself. I jumped at it.

Vancouver's Bullet Racing built a car specifically for the new GX rules, and our driver line-up looked quite strong. Canadian Darryl O'Young, who lives in Hong Kong and races around the world including the WTCC, would join BW's James Clay, Seth Thomas and Dan Rogers (who you may recall drove one of our Hondas in 2011) with me for the Rolex 24. James, Seth and I were Rolex rookies, while Dan had run with Dempsey racing the year before, and Darryl had done a couple with Bullet's previous efforts in GT. But our three rookies had all been top-running ST pilots and so we felt we had a pretty good roster.

As a new class, GX is still developing, and consequently only two marques were represented. Mazda's new diesel cars comprised three entries, and Porsche Caymans provided three more. The promised Lotus Evora did not make the race. I still think the TT-RS VLN would have been a cool addition, but that's me.

So there were six cars in GX and we felt with our car and drivers we were in with a shout for the win. Then I wrecked the car in the first practice session.

I'd made my way from our CTSCC garages to the Rolex garages, having seen our #74 Honda under extensive repairs thanks to an incident that would see it need to head to a local body shop for frame pulling. Mindful that with five drivers to cycle through we'd all need to get good practice time during daylight and night-time sessions, I knew to take it easy.

The maple leaf-liveried Cayman felt great when I got in. Perhaps a little tail-happy, but completely manageable. I warmed up the tires, got used to the shifter feel, the pedal feel for the brakes, and the grip of the tires. Then, after corner one on my first flying lap, I got on the gas. Not like I would with a front-wheel-drive car with a full throttle mash, but just a crack. Unfortunately it was still a bit too much and the Porsche rotated. And didn't stop. I had a slow slide into the concrete wall on the inside of the corner, with what felt was a small impact. I re-started the car and took it back to the garage, apologizing tothe Bullet guys and cursing my ham-fisted-ness at the same time.

Back in the garage that small graze ended up being a pretty big deal: the frame needed pulling. So it was off to another shop for the Cayman (our normal shop -- and thanks to Irish Mike's! -- was busy with the #74 Honda) which meant that all of our drivers missed the valuable night practice, as well as qualifying.

The bad news was that our #22 Cayman would start at the back of the pack. The good news was there were only six cars in class and the Mazdas were not looking too reliable. The better news was that like our #74 car, #22 was back from the frame shop and ready for battle.

For me, standing on the grid as a driver for the 24 Hours at Daytona was akin to a fantasy come alive. Ten years before I'd stood there as a rookie driver and team owner, but in the CTSCC support race. And our team has a lot of success since then. But the electricity, the excitement, the fans and photos and autographs of the Rolex? My gratitude to the Bullet guys to get the car on ready for the race was absolutely beyond words.

As the slowest of the three Rolex classes (Daytona Prototype, GT and GX), the race was more about driving to a lap time and keeping out of trouble than of massive battles on every corner. And yet it required a high level of discipline nonetheless, as we'd have to adapt as parts of the car began to wear.

Although the race didn't start until 3:30pm on Saturday, none of the Mazdas made it until darkness set in, all retiring with engine or related issues. Which left the three Caymans to battle it out to the end. Meaning reliability was key. BGB's #38 car had a small issue with a drive shaft, which put them a handful of laps down in the early going, which moved us up into second. Napleton's #16 was so much faster than we were on the straights we knew that only misfortune or parts failure would hand us the win.

As we cycled through our driver line-up, I enjoyed my first experience driving at Daytona at night. It was epic. Although the speed differential between the DP's and our GX car were pretty substantial, we never had an issue and the car finished the race with not a mark on it.

The Napleton car ran as flawlessly as ours did, and they took the win in GX. We were second and BGB third, for an all-Porsche Rolex 24 podium. And as a Porsche guy, it was a good thing we did, as without the GX efforts, it would have been the first time in an eon that Porsche would not have been on the podium at the 24.

Although disappointing that we came oh so close to winning the GX class and taking home the coveted Rolex Daytonas, it was an absolute thrill to stand on the podium for the ceremonies. I'm very grateful to everyone that made it happen. In the end, my damaging the car in practice made no difference, as the Napleton car was vastly faster that ours was. Did I provide some unnecessary drama? Absolutely. But with Napleton's pace we were never going to win without them having some misfortune. It's all part of racing at this level.

Now we'll get back to our normal routine, where the C360R crew and I will do what we can to keep our Bimmerworld competitors behind us. But if we're going to be beat, I'll be okay with it being James, Seth and Dan more than most.

-k-