Distant Thunder - Allison Duncan's 24 Hours of Daytona

My Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona Experience

portrait of Allison Duncan

This was definitely a weekend I will never forget. You don’t realize how long 24 hours really is until you try to stay awake and alert for most of it.

I arrived at the track on Thursday morning and met two of my teammates. The last minute stand-in was Christian Vann who drove a Chamberlain Viper to 2nd place in the 1999 FIA GT Championship in Europe. Steven Watson drove in the International Formula 3000 series and he also tests Formula 1 cars for the Arrows Team. Raffaele Sangiuolo was the 4th driver with 26 24-hour races under his belt. He also won the GTO class last year in the ROOCK Porsche. I was very relieved to have such experienced co-drivers although I must admit I felt quite inexperienced compared to them (which I guess I am). All 3 were full of good advice for how to still be able to stand by 4 am.

all these legends...

First on the agenda was Grand-Am’s drivers briefing. Fortunately Lyn St. James came over to make sure I knew where to go, which I didn’t. When we got to Victory Circle where the briefing was to be I looked up into the grandstands and there was James Weever, EFR, Paul Newman, Boris Said, and Ron Fellows just to name a few. Was I really here to race against all these legends? I had to pinch myself to make sure it was for real! To be honest I don’t remember too much of what was said in that first meeting. I was in such awe looking around me that I guess I couldn’t pay much attention to what the officials were saying.

The next thing I remember we were in the golf cart rushing back to the garage to get changed for the first practice session. The butterflies in my stomach were more like pterodactyls! Unfortunately, the crew had to change engines that morning and with such a tight schedule, we got the car out on track with only about 20 minutes left in the session. Christian was assigned the job of shaking the car down and working all the bugs out. To say they least, he was a little displeased with the handling of the car. They spent the 20 minutes making changes and trying to get the car feeling more stable.

The next session was qualifying which we opted to use as just another practice session to sort out the car. Since it was only a 15-minute session, Steven drove first. He ran a few laps, made a few changes and ran a few more laps. Then it was my turn. I got all strapped in and they sent me out but unfortunately I didn’t make it too far. As I was driving down the pit lane the checkered flag came out so they stopped me at pit exit and wouldn’t let me out on the track. I was so close!!

Wow...

That night there was a 2-hour night practice and I was second in the line-up. This was my first experience in the Viper at Daytona. Wow, was that car fast down the straight-aways!! And it wasted no time getting out of the corners too!! I got about 15 minutes in the car my first time out, which was enough to get myself settled in the car. I got out and Steven and Christian both did a few laps. After they made a few changes to the car I got back in. I was much more settled in the car and the traffic was thinning out so I got a few clear laps. I got out and looked at my lap times and I had turned the same times as Christian and Steven! Needless to say I was quite pleased.

The following day was another qualifying session. Once again we left the job to Christian. We ended up the second fastest car of the session. We were set to start 41st on the grid. After the checkered flag fell for the session we were all quite relieved to be safely in the show until Christian radioed in that he had taken the checkered flag and proceeded to spin in turn 1, backing the car in to the tire barrier. We were stunned!!! Thankfully the contact only left a small tire mark on the back bumper. What a relief.

The final practice session of the weekend was quite an experience for me. I was second out after Steven in the hour-long session. I pulled out of the pits and rounded 2 corners before I felt the back-end of the car getting extremely loose. I was quite hesitant through the next corner and realized that I must have had a flat rear tire. I radioed to the crew that I was bringing it in. I drove slowly around the bottom of the banking and along the apron down the back straightaway with the back of the car wondering all over the place. I got to pit road and as I pulled into our pit stall the right rear wheel rolled off the car and out into the pit lane!! The hub had broken and the wheel and hub had come off. The crew fixed the hub, put a new wheel on and sent me back out. Steven had been complaining about the clutch and they bled the clutch before I went out.

180mph+...

On my second attempt at practice I got 2 laps before I went down the back straight away at full speed (180+ mph) approaching the bus stop chicane, put my foot on the clutch, pushed the shifter into neutral but it wouldn’t go into any gear. What a horrible place for me to not be able to get the car in gear! I managed to get the revs matched and get the car into gear. Coming out of the chicane back onto the banking the car upshifted fine so I radioed in that I was having some trouble with the gearbox and that I would come in the next lap. I shouldn’t have bothered trying to make another lap because I lost the clutch completely and coasted around the track most of that lap trying to match the revs perfectly so it would go into gear. That was then end of that session, and it was our last time out before the race. Hopefully we’d gotten all the bugs worked out before the race because we were now out of time.

Thankfully the Chamberlain crew was awesome! They got the car all fixed and sorted out and the car was all ready Saturday morning when we showed up for driver change practice. And boy, did we need the practice! Between getting each other’s radios unplugged and drink bottles pulled out and then getting in ourselves and getting our radios and drink bottles plugged in it was quite an operation. Not to mention I had this big foam seat insert to put in so I could reach the pedals and see where I was going.

I was so excited...

We finished just in time to get the car down to pre-grid. The race was starting in an hour and I was so excited I didn’t know what to do with myself. So I went down to the pit lane to see all the pre-race activities. I was beginning to get really nervous until I realized that I still had another 4 hours to wait until it was my turn.

The race was going very smoothly for our team. We were slowly moving up through the field. Finally it was my turn. I had tried to stay calm but it was rough. Derek (our crew chief) warned me with 5 laps to go before my stint but Raffaele decided to come in a few laps early. Actually he was coming in the next lap. Panic!!! I wasn’t quite ready yet. I was so nervous I was shaking and I was trying to hurry and get myself ready. I thought I had another 10 minutes!! Not so, and the car pulled up about a minute later. I grabbed my water bottle and hopped over the pit wall. I was helping Raffaele get out of the car and my legs and hands were shaking so much it was making everything a little more difficult. I hear Derek yell out, "Allison, your padding!!" I was so nervous I was about to get in the car without my padding. This was not starting out very well. He tossed my makeshift seat over the wall to me, I stuffed it down into the seat and jumped in. I got myself all belted in as Derek was giving me instructions over the radio, "turn on the switches….start the car….you’re clear!"

cars everywhere...

The car dropped to the ground and I thought, Oh wow, here I go!! I pulled out onto the track and it seemed like there were cars everywhere and everyone was going so fast!! Somehow I managed to get myself calmed down and drive, but the traffic was very unnerving. The stint went quite smoothly. A caution came out about 40 minutes into the stint. I had the option of staying out for another hour or getting out. I opted to turn control over to Steven and not over do it my first time out.

My next stint started around 9:30 p.m. When I got in the car I was a lot more settled and much more comfortable. It was dark now so it was much easier to see the SR and fast GTO cars coming up behind me. I settled into quite a good groove and was turning really consistent laps. I actually turned a lap that was less than 2 seconds off Christian’s fastest lap. Another caution came out about 30 minutes into my stint and I was felling really good in the car so I decided to stay in and go for another hour. I brought the car in and the crew refueled it and sent me out with fresh tires. When my second hour was up it, I pulled in, helped Raffaele get in and hopped back over the wall. The whole team proceeded to applaud me on my great stint.

I knew I had to try to get some sleep if I was going to make it the rest of the 24 hours. I went back to the motor home and tried to sleep but the Judd and the Corvettes didn’t really let me. I think I slept for about a half hour but I didn’t want to miss my next stint and I wanted to make sure I was wide awake when my turn came around. I tried to eat something but I really didn’t fell like it.

I went back down to the pit lane and boy was it cold! Thankfully Lynne Huntting had loaned me her warm coat or I think I would have frozen stiff! I didn’t think it ever got down to 35 degrees in Florida.

running like a charm...

The Chamberlain Viper was still running like a charm when I got in for my 3rd stint at about 4:30 a.m. The lack of sleep was starting to catch up with me while I was sitting in the pits but as soon as my stint drew near the adrenaline started pumping I was wide awake. The stint was going well until about 40 minutes into it when the lack of food and sleep started taking its toll on me. I started making some mistakes (locking up the brakes mostly). I radioed in and said that I was getting tired and I should probably get out. The crew was fine with that, and two laps later my stint was over. I was relieved to get out of the car and I wasn’t feeling very good when I got out. They carted me back to the motor home to lay down. As soon as my head hit tie pillow I fell asleep, with my drivers suit and all still on. I slept for about 2 hours and still wasn’t feeling that good when I woke up. I tried to eat something, which didn’t help much and made my way back down to the pits. It was 8 a.m. already and there were only 5 hours left in the race.

The Viper hadn’t missed a beat while I was asleep and we were up to 11th place overall by this time. Everyone in the pits was glued to the TV that showed the running order. We were a lap behind the team car (#46) and within a few laps of several of the cars ahead of us, and closing in. The team opted to have the two fastest drivers finish the race since Christian and Steven were turning the fastest times of the weekend in the car. They were switching off doing double stints (2 hour stints) and moving their way up the leader board.

The final four hours, all the Porsches we didn’t pass on the track were having mechanical problems and dropping out of the race. One of the Corvettes was behind the wall with mechanical problems and the Cadillac that was running just in front of us fell out with problems. Passing them moved us up to 6th overall. One of the Oreca Vipers was struggling but they were so far ahead of us that we couldn’t catch them, even if they didn’t finish the race. We were now the first non-factory car in the running order with less than an hour to go. I couldn’t believe we were doing so well. I made a comment to Christian that finishing was going to be a huge feat for me but finishing so high up and he quickly replied that there were still 15 minutes left and anything could happen. And he was right.

sigh of relief...

About 10 minutes from the end Steven, who was in the car, started slowing down and radioed to the crew that he was slowing off. Somehow the crew misunderstood him and thought that the wheel was falling off. They rushed around, grabbed some tires and were on the wall ready to bring the car in. All this with less than 10 minutes to go. We all watched anxiously praying each lap that Steven would come around again, breathing a huge sigh of relief when he did. He had us all on pins and needles when there really was nothing wrong with the car!! When the checkered flag came out we were all ecstatic! We were one of the fewer than 30 cars of the 80 that started to finish the race. We were also the first non-factory car to finish which was a win in itself to the team.

I never would have dreamed that we would finish my first Rolex 24, never mind finish so high up in the field. It was quite an experience I won’t soon forget. I was warned that such good finishes don’t happen that often and to enjoy the success. I don’t think they need to worry about me not enjoying it. I think it took 3 days after the race for my feet to hit the ground again!

I can’t thank Thomas Group, Chamberlain Motorsport, and Fortis Aviation Group for their contributions to my first 24 hours of Daytona experience.

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