The 2019 Daytona 24 hours - record-breaking?

With the weather forecast the way it was for the Daytona Beach area over the weekend, there can’t have been many who expected to get through the 57th running of the 24 Hours of Daytona with as few caution periods as we did in 2018, nor with as much Green Flag running.

As a reminder, the 2018 race was interrupted by Full Course Yellow periods only four times, for a total of 1h 16m 30s – accounting for just 20 laps of the 808 completed. Needless to say, the race distance of 2,876.85 miles (4,629.84 km) was a record.

This year, even before the rain started at around 5:00am, there had already been nine FCY periods, so despite increased speeds and record lap times, there was no chance of a further distance record. In the end the anoraks were looking at the record books for rather different reasons, as the race served up 18 caution periods and two red flags.

Together, the two red flag periods accounted for 3h 34m 34s (assuming the race went to its planned 24-hour duration) and the 18 full course yellows lasted for 6h 56m 17s. In total, therefore, more than ten-and-a-half hours of the race were lost. That’s almost 44% of the race!

In terms of laps, 111 laps were non-racing, which meant that of the 593 laps completed, only 482 (81%) were green flag laps.

It’s not the first time the 24 hours of Daytona has been red-flagged, although this was the first time the race had been stopped, re-started, then stopped again. In 1976, 1983, 1989, 2004, 2007 and 2014 the race also had to be stopped, and in 1989 the (single) stoppage was longer than we had this year.

(The story of the 1976 stoppage, due to water in the fuel supply, is somewhat longer than I have space to explain here – I commend J.J. O’Malley’s “Definitive History” of the race for the full explanation of how time went backwards during the stoppage that year.)

In 1989 though, despite a red flag interruption of nearly four hours (due to fog), there were only five further caution periods, allowing 621 laps to be completed, 589 of which were under green flag conditions, more than 100 more than this year – and almost 200 miles greater distance was completed by the winning car.

There have been more non-racing laps during the 24 hours: in 2011, 141 laps were under caution, but, because there were no stoppages, there was still time for 580 racing laps. And there have been more caution periods as well: in 2009, the Safety Car appeared on 25 separate occasions, but that only accounted for 117 laps of the total of 735 completed that year.

In 2004, rain fell for 18 of the 24 hours – at least this year we got through 14 hours on a dry track before the rain started. The race stoppage time was ‘only’ 2h 52m, considerably longer than the first stoppage this year (which was 1h 37m), and when the race was restarted in 2004 the cars then ran behind the safety car for a further three hours. As a result, only 526 laps were completed, and only 454 of those were ‘green flag’ laps. It’s worth considering though, when looking at the laps completed in 2004, that the cars then were at the beginning of the ‘brave new world’ of Daytona Prototypes, which were at least 10 seconds per lap slower than the DPi cars of 2019. In fact they were roughly the same pace (in the dry) as GTD cars of today, which completed 561 laps in this year’s race.

All of which goes a long way to answering a question about records broken (not in a good way) at this year’s Rolex 24 at Daytona. The records for number of cautions (25 in 2009) and caution laps (141 in 2011) remain unbroken, as does the lowest distance covered during the 24 hours (1,872 miles in 2004). Amount of race stoppage time was also not broken (3h 58m in 1989). The only records made, as I see it, were the number of stoppages (at two) and the least amount of time during the race actually spent racing – just 13h 29m 09s, or 56% of the race elapsed time.

(Trivia question in passing: does anyone know when – or if – the 24 hours of Le Mans has been red-flagged?).

Dubai 24 hours - looking at the classes

One of the things that I especially enjoy about the racing in Creventic’s 24 hour series in general, and about the Dubai 24 hour race in particular, is the passion and enthusiasm that is shown across the board for the other classes. Obviously, the attention of most observers is focussed on the race for the overall lead, and the headlines (those that there are) are about the drivers that get the camel rides at the end of the race. But this year especially, the race in the GT4 class was particularly enthralling.

There were thirteen entries in the class, with representatives from BMW, Mercedes, Audi and Ginetta.

During the race, there were 27 changes of lead in the class and 9 different cars (including all four brands that entered) led at one point or another. There was drama in the last few hours, as first the ERC Sport Mercedes AMG GT4, then the similar car of QSR Racingschool struck problems, which resulted in a 1-2 for BMW that looked somewhat unlikely in the earlier stages of the race.

An examination of the lap times is always illuminating, and once again, I include the average lap times, in order to get a better picture of who was consistently quick. For the purposes of the table below, I exclude in and out laps, and those affected by code-60’s, then I take the average time over the 20% best laps.

Pos	No.	Car	Average	Best
1	426	MRS GT-Racing BMW	2m 12.248s	2m 10.740s
2	451	Sorg Rennsport BMW	2m 13.779s	2m 12.453s
3	454	QSR Racingschool Mercedes	2m 12.160s	2m 10.181s
4	430	Century Motorsport BMW	2m 12.397s	2m 10.685s
5	469	3Y Technology BMW	2m 12.448s	2m 10.555s
6	447	Fox Motorsport Audi	2m 12.501s	2m 10.958s
7	429	Century Mootorsport BMW	2m 12.351s	2m 10.858s
8	432	Optimum Motorsport Ginetta	2m 13.729s	2m 10.658s
9	405	ERC SPORT Mercedes	2m 11.077s	2m 09.909s
10	462	Ciceley Motorsport Mercedes	2m 11.515s	2m 09.905s
11	488	Dragon Racing Mercedes	2m 11.212s	2m 10.014s

From this, it seems quite clear that Mercedes had a pace advantage over BMW – the best BMW lap was more than a half-a-second a lap slower than the best Mercedes. However, it should be noted that the Hofor Racing BMW (#50), was the quickest BMW, both on a single lap and on average, but it finished too far back to be classified, having hit problems in the middle of the race.

In the GT3 class, a similar advantage was enjoyed by the Audis over Mercedes. The difference was that in GT4, none of the cars had a truly trouble-free run, and the teams from ERC Sport and Ciceley in particular, must regard the race as a missed opportunity.

Of the other classes, the 991 Porsche Cup class was dominated by the race between the Duel Racing entry of the Moutran family, ably assisted by Irishman Charlie Eastwood and the Modena Motorsport car in which Benny Simonsen flew, figuratively speaking, when he was behind the wheel. No-one else really got a look in, and when the Modena car fell back with a 45-minute delay, the Moutrans pretty much had it their own way.

Leipert Motorsport had a clear advantage in the SPX class with their Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo car that was easily two seconds per lap faster than any other car in the class. Ricardo Mauricio was the undoubted star in MRS GT-Racing’s SPX Porsche, but could only dream of hanging on to the coat-tails of the flying Lambo, which won the class by five laps.

The Touring Car Endurance division of the race somehow failed to excite to the same extent as the GT cars. The fact that only 19 cars took the start didn’t help (although it was probably a relief to many of the quicker and more committed GT drivers).

The SP3 class consisted of a non-starting Porsche, Colin White’s Ginetta (which spent more than five-and-a-half hours in the pits) and the Vortex V8, (more than three hours in the pit). The trophies should go to the mechanics, not the drivers.

The A3 class was little better – but the winning BMW of GR Motorsport was also in the pits for nearly four hours. The enthusiastically-run Lotuses need developing into proper endurance cars.

Neither of the BMW M235i Racing Cup cars ran without a problem either: surprisingly the fun-M Motorsport entry was the less delayed than the DUWO Racing car and won the class by just three laps.

That left a dozen cars competing in the TCR class for victory in the TCE division and the (dubious) honour of a camel ride to the podium. The front runners in the early stages were all Audi RS3 LMS DSG’s, one entered by AC Motorsport spearheaded by the driving talents of Vincent Radermecker, one by Bas Kouten under the LMS Racing banner and thirdly the Team Dynamics entry with the Neal brothers (or should that be sons?) aided by James Kaye and Jake Giddings. They all fell by the wayside to greater or lesser degrees, and the running was taken up by the KCMG Honda Civic FK7 before it came to a fiery end with Andy Yan at the wheel. This left the Autorama Motorsport VW Golf GTi in command, once the AC Motorsport Audi had faded away for good.

Here’s a look at the lap times for all of them, plus a couple of others that I have thrown in for good measure.

Pos	No.	Car	Average	Best
1	112	Autorama VW Golf GTi	2m 14.561s	2m 12.754s
2	125	Bas Kouten Cupra TCR DSG	2m 14.849s	2m 13.209s
3	101	Red Camel Cupra TCR	2m 15.553s	2m 13.696s
5	188	AC Motorsport Audi RS3	2m 13.745s	2m 12.290s
9	122	KCMG Honda Civic FK7	2m 13.561s	2m 11.863s
11	129	Bas Kouten LMS Audi RS3	2m 14.892s	2m 14.159s
12	138	Team Dynamics Audi RS3	2m 13.841s	2m 12.491s

A couple of surprising things to note here: firstly that the Honda Civic was the fastest TCR car out there, although it was over a second slower than Colin White’s Ginetta; and secondly, just how consistently quick the LMS Racing Bas Kouten Audi was. The difference between the best lap and the average lap is just 0.5%. Compare that to the 1% (roughly) in GT4 or 1.5% in the GT3 class.

As I said in my previous review, it was good to get the season underway. The Dubai 24 hours provided plenty of lessons, and lots of teams will be coming away with plenty of work to do before heading off to Florida, Australia or Tuscany. For those whose season hasn’t already started – you need to be better prepared than many were in the United Arab Emirates!

The Dubai 24 hours - a hard race

I really quite enjoyed the Dubai 24 hours. The place may not have much charisma, but there is unquestionably an appetite for the race locally, and in early January it is a very pleasant way to warm the bones.

An entry list of 75 cars (74 of which took the start) may not have been as many as in recent years – the average of the last four races has been 92 starters – but this was widely regarded as a good thing. Despite this the total time spent with the race neutralised under code 60 conditions was nearly four hours – only two of the last four races were greater than that.

The quality of the entry lacked for absolutely nothing. There were 23 cars in the A6 class, split 10 in A6-AM and 13 in A6-PRO. The entire A6-PRO field was separated by less than two seconds in qualifying. With an array of Porsche, Audi, Lamborghini, Nissan and Mercedes and singleton entries for Ferrari and Chevrolet, predicting a winner was not easy. Qualifying suggested that the Audis had a bit of an advantage in pace, and Matteo Malucelli made it quite clear that he thought that the Ferrari was unable to keep up. There was a point in the middle of the race when the Black Falcon Mercedes’ were actually quicker than the Audis, but whatever gave them that advantage strangely disappeared again after only a few hours – I suspect it might have been down to tyre pressure variations.

It was unusual for Car Collection to enter a full A6-PRO class car, and it seemed strange seeing Rik Breukers in an Audi rather than a Lamborghini, but although he is not classed by Creventic as a PRO, his times compared well with those of Frédéric Vervisch (who did the fastest lap of the race, two-tenths slower than last year’s fastest lap) and Christopher Haase. Dimitri Parhofer, the AM in the car, did his bit, but was well off the pace of his more accomplished co-drivers. All in all it was a well-deserved victory in a race in which many fell by the wayside.

The driving time figures make interesting reading:

Name	Class.	Driving Time	Best Lap
Haase	PRO	6h 34m	1m 59.255s
Vervisch	PRO	5h 19m	1m 58.695s
Breukers	SEMI-PRO	8h 32m	1m 59.461s
Parhofer	AM	2h 03m	2m 04.482s

The rules restrict the total PRO driving time to be under 12h – Haase and Vervisch were at the wheel just seven minutes short of this limit. And Parhofer was just three minutes over his minimum driving time. Such are the margins at stake in the race.

A look back on the race would not be complete with a look at average lap times. In the table below, after the top six overall positions, I have selected just the fastest from each manufacturer which finished outside the top six. In each case, the Average Lap Time is taken over the fastest 20% of green flag laps.

Pos	No.	Car	Average	Best
1	88	Car Collection Audi	2m 00.387s	1m 58.695s
2	7	WRT Audi	2m 00.479s	1m 59.134s
3	11	Scuderia Praha Ferrari	2m 01.433s	1m 59.774s
4	63	Grasser Lamborghini	2m 00.550s	1m 59.015s
5	99	Attempto Audi	2m 00.921s	1m 59.805s
6	9	Mücke Audi	2m 00.841s	1m 59.439s
8	91	Herberth Porsche	2m 01.327s	1m 59.439s
15	2	Black Falcon Mercedes	2m 00.995s	1m 59.524s
57	23	KCMG Nissan	2m 01.206s	1m 59.622s
63	18	V8 Corvette	2m 02.296s	2m 00.021s

Before the race (and after qualifying) the organisers updated the BoP table to give the Audis five litres less fuel at each pit stop. The GRT Lamborghini was also given 20kg additional weight. Whilst the table above clearly shows that the Lamborghini (having had pole position) was a little slower than the Audis in the race, it is harder to evaluate the impact of the reduced refuelling amount.

In fact, I think that simply reducing the amount of fuel that may be put into the car at each stop makes very little difference at all, particularly if the amount of the reduction is as little as 5%. Think about it – the Audi R8 LMS has a 120-litre fuel tank, which will be full at the start of the race. The first (and indeed 19 out of the 32 pit stops the car made) were done under code 60 conditions, when only 48 litres are allowed to be put in. But on each of those occasions, the car made its stop before it was empty, so the fact that less fuel was put in was hardly a handicap.

The fact that both the WRT and CC Audis were lapping a tenth of a second faster than the Lamborghini (over 600 laps, that makes one minute over the duration of the race), more than compensates. On top of that, of course, the lower refuelling limit meant that each pit stop was a few seconds quicker for the Audis compared to the Lamborghini and Mercedes.

I am sure someone from Creventic can explain the thinking behind it all, but I am afraid it seems like a paper tiger to me, particularly because there were so many code-60 periods.

In a similar way, looking at the total time spent in the pits can be misleading – clearly being in the pit lane while everyone else is travelling at 60km/h is very different from a fully green pit stop. Unfortunately, I cannot (yet) distinguish between time spent in the pit lane and time spent in the refuelling area. Nevertheless, it is interesting to examine the following table.

Pos	No.	Car	No. of stops	Time in pits
1	88	Car Collection Audi	32	1h 33m 41s
2	7	WRT Audi	39	1h 37m 35s
3	11	Scuderia Praha Ferrari	30	1h 24m 32s
4	63	Grasser Lamborghini	36	1h 48m 37s
5	99	Attempto Audi	29	1h 38m 11s
6	9	Mücke Audi	35	1h 53m 18s
7	25	HTP Mercedes	31	1h 29m 54s

Perhaps most noticeable is the large disparity in the number of pit stops taken by different teams. There is a 25% difference in the number of stops made by cars finishing in the top six. Remember that Grasser, WRT and Mücke Motorsport spent extra time in the pit to resolve mechanical issues. And even if the Audis were allowed to put less fuel in at each stop, the untroubled no. 88 car still spent longer in the pit lane than either the Ferrari or the HTP Mercedes. A further indication of the inefficacy of reducing fuel amount as a means to handicap the car’s performance.

The Dubai 24 hours worked though, on so many levels. The winning Car Collection Audi led 560 of the 607 laps, and held the lead unopposed for the final nine hours of the race, yet it was still a gripping encounter. The battle in the GT4 class was even better than I had expected it would be (and I will try to get around to writing something about that soon). The separate TCE element of the race provided plenty of fun and games too, with many cars having problems, even if there were only 20 cars in that division.

For me, it was a ‘proper’ endurance race. Attrition played a huge part, as it should do in races of this kind. And yet, a good number of those who had problems overcame them, and still had their cars running at the finish. Just as it should be.

I have to say a big thank you to my friends at TimeService.nl. Rob, Floortje and the team make a huge effort to ensure that the timekeeping system is one of the best. Anyone using the “Live Timing” website during the race will know what I mean. If examining data is something that interests you, then you probably already know about their results website. If you don’t know about it and you are interested, it’s here.

January 2019 - Happy New Year!

I don’t really do New Year Resolutions. I normally try to resolve to do things on the basis that they are worth doing, not that the rather arbitrary date of January 1st has been and gone. So the fact that I am writing on this blog in the first week of January after a hiatus of nearly a year has nothing to do with any “New Year, new commitment” malarkey. No, instead it is in recognition of my rather changed circumstances this year.

Readers may be aware that professionally, I describe myself as an IT consultant; and indeed, it is in that capacity that I have made (most of) my money over the years. However, I left that job at the end of December – of my own choosing, I hasten to add – and now am attempting to earn money devoting myself full-time to the sport that has been my passion for more than fifty years.

To some extent I have been doing this in my spare time, for Radio Show Limited through my commentary work on radiolemans.com and in various other outlets for many years. I also kept myself busy (although not well-paid) writing for dailysportscar.com. More recently, I have also made some money out of my contributions for sport auto magazine in Germany and of course sporadically for Racecar Engineering.

But I have finally decided to take the plunge and throw myself into this business full-time. I have various plans that I’m working on, which in the fullness of time I may get to share with readers on this blog.

First up, this year as for the last seven years, will be the Dubai 24 hours. A hugely popular race in a warm and usually sunny place in January can’t be a bad thing, and I am looking forward to a great race between some of the top GT3 drivers and teams, ably supported by a good variety of GT4 and Touring Car machinery.

I may be being a touch naïve, but I am also hoping that having some more time at my disposal (theoretically at least) will allow me to write more here. Several of you had made kind remarks about my various ramblings, and I am hugely encouraged by your appreciation. If the words here dry up, then it will mean that I am far busier than I anticipated, which hopefully will mean that I am earning some money in my enterprises.

On the other hand, if I find the time to post more frequent posts than I did in 2018, then that might be a sign of idle hands. So if you are one of those people who think: “We really need Truswell to do this for us, but he’s bound to be busy doing something else…” then drop me a note and I would be delighted to do that something instead of writing here. Especially if you’re going to pay me for it!