Today was the first day of my 3 day (or 2 depending on how you count it) Rolex 24 experience. I attended the Rolex 24 in 2009 and this year is already 100 times better than last. So many great things happened today that I don't know where to begin. How about I start with the most exciting and then ramble on from there. I went for a pace car ride around the road course of Daytona International Speedway! This is the 5th race I've attended so far and I've been trying to get a pace car ride since the first. I finally achieved my goal today and it was definitely worth the wait. I got to ride shotgun in a 2010 Mazda Speed3 and the driver put that car deep into the corners. I have video of it that I will post when I get home next week.
These are the two guests with my company that won the drawing to take a ride. I tagged along and got lucky. Oh yea!!! That little car was fun on the track, if only it wasn't front wheel drive.
Of course there was more than enough race car action to go around. The "Red Dragon" was involved in an incident on Thursday during practice that almost took the team out of the race all together. JJ used his private jet to fly the parts and the mechanics down to fix the problem overnight. It's good to be king. The photos below were from the last 2 practice sessions before the race.
This is the driver's practicing driver changes.
Today I also got to participate in my first team meeting. I have been asked to be the one responsible for waking up and delivering the drivers from the trailer to the track. When I was asked to do this, I immediately said yes without considering the importance of the task. It was made a little more clear to me when I was sitting in the driver's motorcoach with the drivers, owner, manager, PR guy & 3 team geniuses and they were all looking at me. Oh wait, did I forget to mention the HBO film crew? Yep, that's right. JJ has a film crew following him around making a TV series. To make a long story short, I was given a golf cart that only I have the keys to and my own radio with transmitting capability. Kind of a big deal in my eyes but then again I am a little biased, I suppose.
The rest of the day was kind of a blur that included me trying to get a bicycle into the track (not allowed), a lot of waiting to unload the car, attending the company dinner, driving horribly at the race car simulator, hit 3 holes in one on the virtual golfer, and played some "Band Hero" (Wii's version of Rock Band). Today was an awesome day from beginning to end. I have high hopes for tomorrow but today set a very high standard.
I doubt I will post much (other than 365 submissions) over the next 4 days but you can bet I'll have lots to show next week. Check back later for more.
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