Racer's Group Rules at Rolex 24 Hours

[FlaCarrera]

For those with Speed Channel access, what a great TV weekend!
The network did a terrific job of covering (live) the 24 hrs at Daytona and The Racers Group won the thing in a 911 GT Class. Congrats to Kevin Buckler and the No. Calif team! The 66 car ran without skipping a beat the whole 24 hrs...sad that the other 2 cars knocked out by spectacular accidents not their fault. Both drivers OK.

The side benefit was seeing 2 Chayenne commercials, a fun Boxster spot and a never before seen Carrera spot. The pit action was fascinating too...a brake pad change in 19 minutes...wished my shop could do that. Slotted rotors seemed the norm vs. drilled. A highlights recap due in late Feb. A bunch of my fellow PCAers were there watching, but alas, I had to settle for the tube!
Cheers
Ted in SoFla 86 Carrera (under the cover all weekend)

[Bones]

courtesy of Flat-6.net and Rennlist
"Daytona, Florida. – Feb. 2, 2003 –

The Monster Racer’s Group Porsche 911
GT3RS improved on 2002’s GT class win today at the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona
by capturing the overall victory. Co-Drivers and repeating winners Kevin
Buckler, Michael Schrom, Timo Bernhard and Jörg Bergmeister drove quickly,
consistently and mistake free through the night to take the trophy. The
victory marks the first time since 1977 that a GT team has captured the
overall win. Until the last three hours of the race, the Monster Racer’s
Group Porsche had close battles with a number of cars, the most dramatic of
which were with the #59 Brumos Porsche Fabcar and the #88 Multimatic Ford.
During the 19th hour, the Multimatic Ford came within 8 seconds of overtaking
the Porsche, but electrical difficulties slowed the car.

Kevin Buckler, team owner and lead driver of the Monster Racer’s Group
Porsche 911 GT3RS, was in disbelief. “I can’t believe it. We knew we had a
tiny chance, but the guys did what they always do. We came here, put our
heads down, and went to work. We didn’t want to talk about it too much
because there were some really good teams here. We had a battle last night
with one of the Daytona Prototypes where we were thirty seconds apart for
hours. We were biting our nails the whole time. There were a lot of good GT
teams, too. As the race stretched on, we just stayed consistent and didn’t
make any mistakes. The little Porsche was completely, absolutely perfect.
Not a single mechanical problem, not one, for 24 hours. Unbelievable.”

Michael Schrom, last year’s 2nd place finisher in the Porsche World Cup,
spoke about his feelings on the race. “I am so fortunate for the
opportunities Kevin has provided with this team. I’m speechless. Last year
was incredible, and this year, we’ve started it off as best as we possibly
could have. It is absolutely unbelievable – we’re going to be in a museum. I
just can’t believe it.”

Porsche Factory driver Timo Bernhard summed up his thoughts. “I thought we
could win during the last two or three hours, but not in the sixth hour. It
was a big surprise. A lot of people expected us to win, but I didn’t even
think about it. I thought just getting a class win would be good. To win
overall, it’s a dream come true.”

Despite the overall win for The Monster Racer’s Group Porsche, the race was
somewhat bittersweet. Car #67 was involved in an incident with an Arcangel
Nissan SRP II car, and retired from the race in the 6th hour. At the time of
the incident, car #67 was running in 6th place in GT. Andrew Davis was
unhurt in the incident. At 8:20 a.m. on Sunday, Jim Michaelian was involved
in a scary wreck in which the car was heavily damaged. Jim, thankfully, was
also unhurt. Unfortunately, the 68 car was running in 6th place in GT at the
time of the incident, and had the car stayed on the grid, it would have been
in great shape to finish in the top five due to the repair time for the #20
JMB Racing USA Ferrari."