We have a deep history with the 24-hour race that starts “Race Weeks” in Daytona every year. And this year was a repeat of the first year that I attended my first Daytona 24 back in 1970 when Porsche 917’s dominated the Ferraris. This time it was Porsche 963 and Roger Penske Motorsport who completed 791 laps – 2,816 miles averaging 117 mph. That includes time out for thirty-two pit stops. Wow. Congrats to Penske and Porsche for a great outing.
Oh, yea – in the first six places overall, four of those places were Porsche 963’s. Penske had his two 963’s were first and fourth, with Proton Competition in fifth and JDX/Miller Motorsports in sixth. The JDC/Miller car was down two laps, the others were on the lead lap. After 24 hours.
In the GTD classes, there were four Porsche 992 entries. All four of these were running at the end of the race!. Corvette, Cadillac, Lexus, Acura, Mustang GT3, Aston Martin, Lamborghini, and Mercedes didn’t make it to the end. Porsche? All eight that started finished the race.
So Porsche did well in Daytona this year following overall victories in ’68, ’70, ’71, ’73, ’75, ’77, ’78, ’79, ’80, ’81, ’82, ’83, ’85, ’86, ’87, ’89, ’91, 03, and this year, 2024. That is nineteen victories making Porsche the winningest manufacturer in Daytona 24 history.
With the family move to Daytona Beach in 1969, my first Daytona 24 was in 1970 where a bunch of us from Mainland High School (Daytona) camped at NASCAR 3-4 for the duration of the race. Going to sleep around midnight with the sound of the 12-cylinder 917K and Ferrari 512S screaming by on the high banks was music that I will never forget. Flat-12 vs V-12. Over 200 MPH in the back straight in the days before the addition of the chicane, carrying that speed directly into NASCAR 3-4. And the Rodreguez/Kinnunen/Redman Porsche finished 724 laps, 55 laps in front of the number two Porsche 917K. (The 963’s margin of victory was less than a second this year!) Thirty-eight of the sixty-five 1970 entrants did not finish.
Fast forward ten years and I crewed a backyard Camaro for 24 hours that was built in a garage in Daytona Beach Shores, and that continued for three years. We did well in class with a local driver lineup and all-volunteer crew. Those days, unfortunately, are gone. In the early 80’s, we raced against Porsche 924 Carrera GTP cars along side of the deadly fast 935’s, shooting fire twenty feet out of the exhaust on deceleration.
In the late 80’s and 90’s, we both volunteered to be “pit marshals” monitoring pit stops and reporting what went on during the stop – fuel, oil, tire changes, driver changes, etc. – and reporting that back to Timing and Scoring. Being in the pit area was a wonderful thing generating some great stories of what we witnessed. One such story involved a South American team with an Oldsmobile trying to fix something on pit lane with ONE screwdriver and ONE flashlight between five of them crawling all over the car. Can’t make this up!
Now fifty-four years later I was back again, this time in the infield in the Porsche Paddock with Sparky, our 924S. Way back when a sub-two minute lap was fast – damn fast. The Camaro broke two minutes in qualifying and that was fantastic. This year, all qualifiers were under 1:45 across all classes, with the pole speed in GTP at around 1:32! My fastest lap in my 924S SCCA race car was 2:26 – the GTP cars would lap me every other lap. At the end of the race, the 963’s were lapping at a consistent 1:35 after 24 hours!
And yes, I told myself back in 1970 that someday I would like to race at Daytona. In 2005, I did. I raced there with SCCA about a dozen times all together, and also at Sebring.
In 2025? Porsche Paddock, and I will be there. And a hope to see you there, too!
