24 Hours of Daytona… Messy, Just Messy

This messy race might be best described as iRacing with the masses. The 2017 Daytona 24 Hour Race was a microcosm of too many iRacing member’s poor race craft, poor situational awareness, and is likely symptomatic of what might be described as the “i-Generation”, i.e., me first… at all cost! If you haven’t raced an iRacing sanctioned races in a while, you might be in for a rude awakening. Where it used to be when you caught a driver from several seconds back, they would generally and graciously let you by… that doesn’t happen much anymore. Now, it doesn’t seem to matter what position they may be, even if they’re a lap down or in a slower class, today’s iRacers will more often fight you like they’re fighting for the lead! Add this to their inattentive, like checking text messages while driving, and it gets messy. In some ways though, this rather selfish, i-generation driving style, seems no different than real life! At least in iRacing, the road rage is simply verbal abuse and no one pulls a gun! Such was vApex Racing Group’s foray with the masses at the 24 Hours of Daytona… it was messy, just messy! Thanks to each team for providing race reports.

Corvette C7 - Green:

Our C7 Green Team included Dave, Mikey, Kevin, and Rick Woelkers. They has a strong run for the majority of the race, although the start was a bit chaotic (see C7 Red). Once things settled in, it was a two car race, with them P2 . There were some small ups and downs along the way and the Team trading the lead several times. At the mid-point, they were a solid P2, a lap behind and about 2 laps ahead of P3. With only 3-1/2 hours remaining, they got it all wrong exiting the bus stop and spun into the wall resulting in 18+ minutes of repairs and unfortunately… slipped to P10.

With the team exhausted, they managed to finish the race and picked up a few spots in the process. Final result: P9.

Corvette C7 Red:

Our C7 Red team included Russell, German, a wounded Chuck, a sick Rick, and newbie Rick Yeager. Their setup was a total team effort, except for that fateful final decision; their final results was indeed a total team effort with everyone doing their best to kill that resilient Corvette! Their trouble started… yup, L1, T1 and dropped them about 3-5 laps down. Strike that one up to inattentive driving? Poor situational awareness? Texting and racing? Once their stellar crew repaired the Vette, they proceeded to throw that poor car off-course so many times they lost track! Most, no fault of their own, yet still they had a few unforced errors! Their incredible crew repeatedly repaired that Vette, only to be dash against another car or fence somewhere along the road. With perhaps only 6 hours completed, down now by… perhaps a 12-15 laps, maybe 20 – we finally got a decent couple of stints and rocketed all the way up to P22, yet the prognosis was bleak. Still, despite that poor car resilience, they proceeded to throw that poor Vette into more barriers than a wrangler breaking a horse! They finally parking the worn out nag when it veered wildly from one side of the track to the other trying to rid itself of its driver! A seriously bad day… except for German - their star!

Mercedes AMG GT Red:

Driving the awesome Mercedes AMG, our GT Red Team had a stellar lineup that included IndyCar and IMSA sensation Sage Karam, Shane, Clark Archer, and Erich Smith – our young guns! From the start they immediately started climbing their way through the field and prior to the first pit stop held P2 and was 5-7 seconds out of first. At about the 2 hour mark and double-stinting, they pitted and traded drivers. Shortly thereafter, they made a pass into P1 and held the lead for about a while, but eventually P2, P3, and P4 caught and passed them. About 20 laps into the fourth stint, they started catching P2 and P3 and yes, as fate would have it in a 24-hour race, a bunch of lapped cars wanted to race them. One lapped car in particular did not want to give up and swapped positions with them several few times over 5-6 laps! Then, on lap 120 as they were entering T1 on the inside of a lapped car, they drifted up just a bit, and the right rear made contacted the front left of the lapped car and the contact put them directly into the concrete wall head on. They took the tow and 30 minutes of repairs, but the car was severely damaged and the team decided it was unsafe and unfair to the other racers to be on track. The car was retired just prior to the 4 hour mark and everyone cried.

Mercedes AMG GT Blue:

Our other Mercedes AMG was driven by Andy, JC, and our fearless leader Ted. They started P53 and made a cautious decision to start from the pit lane. At the first pit stop, they had worked themselves up to P10 in GT3 and running well. Then, as fate would have it, one of those pesky DP decided to do a triple salcow at the exit of T1. They avoided the accident, but someone else thought they could shoot the gap at a high rate of speed… hey, “if I see a gap and don’t go for it, I’m no longer a racing driver” (Senna), but this idiot was no Senna and T-boned the driver side door and spun them into the wall.

Luckily the driver survived the massive impact with... astonishing, only 8 mins of repairs! But alas, the car was down 5 mph in straight-line speed. After that major incident, and several other pinballing events by other GT3 and DPs, they traded driver and continued making a balled-up, tin-can our out of an otherwise fantastic looking Mercedes AMG. But, the fun didn’t stop there either, because when they traded drivers again… same story much like C7 Red. Are you starting to detect a theme here? Regardless, this hard-nosed team wasn’t about to call it quits and they finished the race!