This YouTube episode follows a racing team around the 24 Hours of Daytona, combining live race commentary with interview reflections. Speakers discuss the prestige of Le Mans, challenges at Daytona (straight-line/oval-dominated setup tradeoffs), a new Porsche race car and perceived regulatory handicaps (engine restrictor/ballast), team mentality after winning the prior year, and the season roadmap toward Sebring and Le Mans.
Chapters
Anyone who drives a racing car dreams of driving at Le Mans.
This is like one of the top five racing events on the planet.
Turn three for the long gorge. Got about 10 laps to go. 10 laps to go.
Huge gap. Now go get it.
This year we're facing some new challenges that we've never faced before.
There's a bunch of unfinished business we need to get ready for this season.
This should be downhill from.
Last year for me. Obviously started off at something that was a dream come true when we won the 24 hours of Daytona. But as soon as one race ends, it just sets you up for what's next, right?
For 20, 23, the number one thing that I'm looking forward to is opportunity to race and compete at le Mans. The 24 hours of Le Mans is the biggest race in the world, and it's such a prestige, prestigious thing just to participate in it. Every driver, every team has to be invited by the fia. So the fia, you know, is the same that runs Formula One, and it is truly the largest spectacle in racing.
There's a bunch of unfinished business we need to get ready for this season. And every time you reach a goal and you reach a dream, you get a new one and you set yourself a new goal. So now it's about repeating those and going one step further and improving on those results.
One of the unique attributes of Daytona is that it's all based on top speed. Many tracks, you can. You can make up speed, you can sacrifice the setup for straight line versus the corners. And the unique thing about this track is that we have this giant oval that makes up half of our racing surface. So the top speed is super important. So although at many tracks you're running what's maximum downforce, which gives you the maximum amount of grip, here, you're doing basically the opposite. Top speed becomes your most important, basically, performance marker that you can chase because of the track. So for us, the car becomes. It's no longer about how much air can I get to the car to start it to the ground. It's how slippery can I make the car through the air. So you're sacrificing grip a lot of the time, making the car a little bit more difficult to drive. But with the nature of this track, if you can get a car that's quick on the oval, it essentially becomes one long straightaway. So how can we make our car faster on the straightaway? And that is definitely how we optimize the car for, for Daytona.
It's Sam.
Coming into Daytona one year after winning the race as a defending race winner. You have a lot of confidence coming into the race and our team knows this place so well. The drivers know it well. We obviously have proven we can execute at the top level. And this year we're facing some new challenges that we've never faced before. This year we have a brand new car from Porsche that is, everyone's very excited about. And let me tell you, I've driven the car and tested it the way it came from Porsche and it's unbelievable. Porsche has built an amazing race car. The officials have set a set of regulations that has to do with an engine restrictor and an amount of weight and ballast in the car. That is, has great intentions. It's intended to make the car on an even playing field with the other cars. However, as we discovered here in Daytona through the practice sessions, the regulations that the Porsche has been given as far as the engine restrictor and weight ballast in the car, has made the car's performance so far out of line compared to the field it is, it's insurmountable. If we run the most perfect race, we make no mistakes out on track as drivers. We make no mistakes with the team on pit lane. We have no contact with any other car. Our pace will yield us losing over one lap per hour to the leaders in our class at this race. The best we can do.
And that's, that's a lot to swallow for a competitor, right in a 24 hour race. Fast forward 24 hours. There can always be cautions, there can always be other competitors take themselves out and drop out of the race. There always is. There's lots of attrition. So I don't expect our team to go out and finish dead last. That's not going to happen. But it's going to be a tremendous mountain to climb to win this race Again. Back to back, here we are at the birth of a new era, maybe the most significant era in the history of the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship. So much has gone into this. The millions of dollars spent, the planning, the anticipation. And it all sees green right now here in Daytona.
Green. Green, green, green, green.
Should be clear and left. Headlight on the side. First gear.
Kill.
Huge gap now. Go get them.
Three to go at the line, Zach. Three to go at the line. Fuel number is excellent.
Turn three is going to be all yours.
Especially in these long races, you want to just get in sync and be able to do lap after lap. After lap in unison. And that was very difficult to find and achieve. In Daytona.
Being such a long race, you're going to have a lack of sleep, you'll lack of rest. You are going to spend 2, 3 hours in the car at a time which would be rare for the rest of the year. There's nothing quite like being strapped into a car where you literally can't move for hours on end.
Good deal, man. Good pace, good job. Just keep hitting your marks here.
Five pack, T2, 10 back of him, ET outside.
Copy. Let's come in with a pit. Pit, pit, pit. Driver change.
When we get the final wayfire, we gotta push like hell, bud. We're gonna push like hell to catch up.
Great job. Awesome work. Good job. Everybody does a 24 hours of Daytona, baby.
You know, we've all had setbacks and things happen in our lives that are concerned completely out of your control. And I have noticed in my life, when I have a positive attitude about it and I look towards the future, that some of the greatest moments in my life have come right after some of the biggest setbacks. And that's what I was personally thinking about. You know, I don't know about the other, you know, guys on the team, but for me personally, I was going out there truly feeling like I am paying my dues here. I am just going to take this like a man and it's, it's not for my own doing, but I'm going to do the best I can. And I just, I just have faith that something better is going to, you know, be on the horizon for, for myself and for our team in the future.
So following Daytona, historically, It's always the 12 hours of Sebring. So we've got that race coming up in March. Totally different track. That's one where the car is going to be set up more for average corner speed. The top speed always makes a difference. But it's not make or break at Sebring because it's going to be lots of hard braking, a lot of fast corners. So basically everything you learn at Daytona essentially gets thrown away. Sebring is the start of the regular season, so to speak. The rest of the tracks are much more like Sebring. And Daytona kind of is its own beast because of the fact that it is so straight line dominant. So to us, you learn at Daytona, once you have that out, basically throw everything out and then restart for Sebring and the rest of the season goes from there.
Obviously, with the 24 hours of Le Mans coming up this year, that that's a major focus of our entire program this year. And so a bit of me was.
Saying, you know, maybe I got to.
Take it on the chin here in Daytona, and it's not going to feel good. And it's, it's, it's.
It's going to be painful. But we came out of there with.
Absolutely the best result that was humanly possible. And, you know, it put us in a good position going into Sebring.
Three, two, one. Just another walk in the park here.
