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?).
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?).
After the crash of Lois Duval in 2014 Le Mans was red flagged.
ReplyDeleteErwin - correct, but I really was looking for the year in which the red flag was used to stop the race... rather than merely a practice session.
ReplyDeleteTrussers, you have me there, you are going to have to put me out of my misery....
ReplyDeleteYou're referring to the question of red flags during the Le Mans race?
ReplyDeleteI'm not going to make it that easy, but refer you to Quentin Spurring's excellent "Official History" books. And yes, we are talking pre-WW2.
Info on the ‘76 race can also be found here ->
ReplyDeletehttps://www.racingarchives.org/tag/24-hours-of-daytona/