So it all boils down to this...the pinnacle and finale of my SCCA rookie season. "The Longest Day at Nelson" 24 hour endurance race. What's that you say? Weasel doesn't like enduros! Well, I had to give it a go since this was the main reason for me doing all of this training and racing this season. My buddy Chad (who owns the car and race team) asked me early this year if I'd be interested in road course racing. Well, shaaa! He wanted to run the 24 hours at Nelson Ledges, Ohio and desperately needed drivers and crew so I jumped at the opportunity. I did my SCCA driver school, and participated in 3 regional races this year to get my regional competition license so here we go.

We get on the road late and make it to Nelson by about 11:00pm Thursday night before the race. We set up camp and try to get some sleep. By Friday afternoon most of the rest of our crew show up and we're set for quals and night practice Friday evening. Chad takes the car out for quals and takes it pretty easy. We end up qualifying 17th out of 19. Not the greatest, but we're running this like it should be...a marathon and not a sprint. We're happy to start from the rear and keep our car in one piece. Out of our 5 drivers, 3 of us have driven Neons here before. One driver (Katie) is from Formula 500 (open wheel motorcycle engine car) and has never driven a car this heavy before. Her F500 is about 800 lbs fully loaded...the Neon is pushing 2,600 lbs. Chad's dad has never even been to Nelson before, although he's been racing since the SCCA Trans Am days in the 60s and 70s. We let Chad, Katie, and Hugh (Chad's dad) take the car out for quals and practice to get aquainted with the course.

After quals we get an hour break and then we get an hour of night practice. YIKES! My turn in the car in the dark and I'm still remembering my last time here during the day...when I rolled the car at turn 3 a month ago. I shake that thought off after my first lap and go ahead and run about 3 laps before I pit and give the car over to the next driver for some dark practice. I'm feeling pretty good so I don't want to take up too much time in the car since we have 5 drivers to get through night practice in the short hour. Practice goes well so it's off to bed to try and get a bit more rest before the noon start on Saturday (yeah right).





Saturday we skip warmups and practice. We want to finish the race...#1 priority! We don't feel we need to endanger the car with extra laps when we all feel faily comfortable. We get to the false grid by about 11:00am and go through the pre race ceremonies. At about 11:45am the cars are gridded up and the pace car takes them out.



Right at noon the green flag flies and we're off!



We're scheduled to drive 1.5 hour stints and I'm the 3rd scheduled driver so I leave the pits and go check out the good vantage points around the course. About an hour before my stint I get dressed and head back to the pits awaiting my turn. My goodness, Saturday was about the worst day to drive. The air temperature was about 90F with about 80% humidity...it was freaking hot! I'm getting a bit nervous and the heat isn't helping matters.









My turn comes up and after the car pits and gets gas I jump in ready to go.



Like a champ I take off and run some easy laps for 1.5 hours until the next driver swap.





While I was running this stint I started feeling sick due to the heat. I was wearing my fire proof face mask (balaklava) and it was making matters worse. I ended up pulling the opening down past my chin so I could breathe better, and realized afterwards that almost the whole time I had my mouth open while driving and was gasping for fresh air. This stint felt like an eternity and I was just about to give up and pit for an emergency driver swap when I finally got the "PIT Next Lap" sign. Not a moment too soon! When I crawled out of the car I could literally wring the sweat out of my shirt under my driver suit. Chad was wondering if I was mad or something because my face was so red. Nope, just heat exhaustion!

After that stint I was almost ready to throw in the towel and give up my seat for the rest of the event. I'm glad I didn't!

After I cooled down I went for a walk around the course again with my wife. We were standing near one of the corners watching where everyone was hitting their lines when I saw the Neon coming up. Chad had put brand new "sticker" tires on the car and went in the corner just a bit too hot for fresh tires. I held my breath as I saw him get two wheels off track and into the grass...and then the grass won and dragged him off course at 80mph and threw him sideways into a tire barrier. Luckily he was okay and the car was still okay. He backed out of the barrier and continued on course.

Notice the four black tire marks hashing across the track...that's my tire marks from a month ago when I rolled.



My next stint was at about 11:00pm in the dark. The air was nice and cool, and we'd already picked up a position or two. I took off from the pits and took a lap or two to get comfortable with the course in the dark again, and before long I was putting down consistant laps. I decided not to wear my balaklava this time and felt very good in the car. I did have a close call at one point when I hit the fast back straight...two racoons decided it was time to cross the track and head into the woods on the other side. Quick reaction on my part and I barely missed them as they made it across. That could have been nasty!

I finished this stint and was pumped! I had a blast driving in the dark. I felt I could have gone on for another half hour or more but the fuel light came on signalling I only had a lap or two more worth of gas before I'd starve the engine and sputter in a corner or run out of gas. I grabbed a shower and hung around the track for a couple hours and then finally hit the rack for a couple hours before my next stint.

My next go was at 9:00am so the sun was already up. Hugh brought the car in after he spun and we had a vapor lock in the engine.



I jumped in and after the crew took care of the vapor lock I was off again. With only 3 hours left in the race I decided I was tired of everyone else on course thinking we we just out for a Sunday drive...so I started pushing. It felt good too! I threw down our team's fastest laps and started holding off the cars that had been passing us all night, and running with the cars in our class. I think the corner workers were just used to throwing blue flags at us because they were used to seeing us go slow...so I started waving them off when they'd throw them. After a few laps they quit showing me the blue flag because I was running the car much harder and folks weren't getting by me. I was happy to see the next two drivers let it all hang out to the finish too.



We met our #1 goal...we finished the 24 hours still running!

We finished 9th overall out of 19 teams, and 2nd in ITA class. The car took a beating from a couple offs and trading paint with a BMW that outclassed everyone and was racing unsafe (who eventually rolled and was out of the race with 3 hours to go). We had run about 1,850 miles!

We let our crew guys hop in the car for a victory lap...these guys were big guys too...kind of like a circus clown car...



Oh yeah, Car and Driver magazine had a team for the race. They were driving a brand spanking new 2008 Mazda MX-5. They had 10 drivers (6 rookies) and were in a special class so they weren't really racing us...just doing this for an article. Around 10:00pm Saturday they went off at the carousel, hit the tire barrier and rolled over into the woods. It took the emergency guys about 10-15 minutes to even find the car! I talked to Tony Snow shortly after and he told me he had 6 rookie drivers...but it wasn't one of them who rolled the car. They worked hard and got her back on track and were driving a bit wreckless but were still fast. Then, around 10:00am they went off again and totalled the car.



It was kind of funny in a way. The BMW that was rubbin us for most of the race, and the C&D MX-5 were both about $150,000 cars...and both were beaten in the end by a $9,000 95 Neon.

What a weekend!

Good stuff WK. Sounds like a great finish, especially if you can beat a few high-dollar teams.

They proboably serve a purpose, but those tire piles don't really look like barriers - Obstacles maybe... or launch ramps?

I wonder how much a "cool suit" would be... or maybe a bag of ice down the driving suit? I could see taking some frozen hot/cold packs to slip in... something to beat the heat.

Fantastic Weasy! A real 24 hour race, man, that must have been something.

I've always wondered about heat while driving, like what the Nascar drivers go through. Despite all the technology, it's just flat hot in the cars. Trying to race and keep concentration while your body is screaming has to be something else. Glad you made it through.

Sounds like a great race for Team 95 Neon. Gotta love that SimHQ sticker--think that had anything to do with it?

Thanks, a really fun to read AAR.

What, no air conditioner?

Fabulous pictures and write up Weas. Now, as the lad with the most experience, you have to run the 24 SSCA hour event at Lemans with us

They said that Nelson Ledges is where the tire barrier was invented or first used. I believe some of the piles of tires are still from that era 50 years ago and still haven't been stacked right...lol. That's precisely why I rolled last month. I brushed the tire pile and hit some tires that were just laying around which launched me. All told by the end of the Longest Day I believe 6 cars rolled. However many cars (like ours) got lucky and hit the tire piles right and saved the car from further damage. It's all hit or miss with them...(ooh, a pun).

I did see some guys wearing cool shirts under their driving suit. They have like rubber tubing wrapped around the shirt that feeds water around to cool. Nascar guys have AC or blown air pumped into their helmets and suits to help them. After racing a few times in moderate heat before this weekend I honestly didn't think it was going to be that big of a deal. Of course this wasn't moderate heat...heh. Luckily my 2nd stint in the car was at night and my 3rd stint was about 9:00am so it was still pretty cool out.

Wow, awesome read, one of the best 'you were there' so far!

I can relate to the heat--I did about 45 minutes on a high speed indoor cart track with full face helmets on a hot summer day last year--I was drenched and could feel the dizziness starting to come on at the end of that time--and the nausea. I can't imagine a full firesuit in a real car like that.

Great to hear about your teams 2nd in class finish as well as 9th overall!

Thanks for taking the time to post and share with the rest of us.

Congrats on getting your own forum section!

Awesome read. Congrats on the great finish!

Congrats, Jay. I plan to take a beater to the 25 Hours of LeMons some day. Not quite the same, but it should be fun as well.

That would be the http://www.24hoursoflemons.com/ , and I lose it every time I see their tag line for the venues:

"Coming to a (better than we deserve) racetrack near you:"

Endurance Racing For $500 Cars. Join the ultimate test of not-so-bright man and incredibly crappy machine.

Oooh, the next one is at Toledo Speedway in a couple weeks. Man, that would be a blast...except it's on a 3/4 mile oval track.