It didn't hurt that spotter Jeff Lepper is a local radio DJ, but more importantly, he's a racer. My limited mental bandwidth was never wasted with info I didn't need. At night, it's nearly impossible to see what's going on behind. With the new Civic's high beltline, all headlights within about five car lengths or so disappear. Being warned when a closing car was trying to make a pass saved me more than once. Also, having eyes on the other side of Thunderhill's blind crests kept me from stacking into parked cars during the full course yellow traffic accordions.
The car was scheduled for a major stop at the end of my stint. First it would be fueled on the hot pit by crew one, then I would drive it back to the compound in the paddock where crew two would change all four tires and brake pads while we switched drivers. The yellow 'low fuel' light came on-I needed to pit within the next four laps. Then wham. "Major contact, I'm off-course with right-side suspension damage."
It was a hard hit. The final two turns leading onto the long front straight are taken as one double-apex corner. They also happen to be one of two small blind spots that spotters in the tower can't see. Something tried to go under me at the second apex. It had to be one of the prototypes, since they were the only things fast enough to get into that horribly ill-advised position. I never saw the car and it wouldn't be until daybreak that the culprit would be identified.
My hands were full just trying to get the car back to the pits. The contact happened about 10 feet past the pit entrance, leaving me with three full miles to go. I tried to relay an intelligent damage assessment back to the team, but it was hard to feel the car while staying in the marbles to avoid the now much faster traffic. The steering wheel had to be pointed at about two o'clock to go straight. But it was so loose in the corners that I thought the car might be crab-walking. There was also a lot of noise coming from behind me, indicating serious rear suspension damage.
In the face of adversity, the PDQ Motorsports team really shined. After fueling in the hot pit, I pulled the car into our paddock spot where the second crew already had spare suspension components laid out on the right side of the stall. Then the entire team swarmed over the car.
Later, I interviewed an obviously proud Quan after he reviewed video of the pit stop. "From the time we stopped the car in the paddock until it reversed out," said Quan, "it took three minutes, 45 seconds. During that time, we changed four tires, front brake pads, adjusted the front right camber, replaced the front splitter, hammered out the rear fender, pulled out the front fender, checked/added oil and switched drivers. Pretty fast crew, huh?"
After a quick extra stop to adjust the front toe setting, the car was right back on track. In total, the incident set us back by about two laps. Shortly thereafter, the race finally started to come our way. The rain fell a little after midnight. Our front-wheel-drive Honda (on Toyo R888s) charged right through while competitors fell off the pace. Things were looking good, but fate was not on our side. The required electrical kill switch shorted out. Diagnosing and fixing the problem took about 20 minutes. We all poured on the coals in our final stints, but there just wasn't enough. We came up five laps short of the class-winning BMW, but still finished a solid second out of 14 cars.
Throughout the event, Quan seemed concerned that I would later give away all his secrets to success-I've divulged them the best that I could. But truthfully, every team knows they need a solid game plan to tackle this race. It's the exceptionally unified team, able to stick to that plan, that puts these guys in a winning position every year.
All the demented enduro competitors gathered for a last hoorah after the race. Unbrushed teeth were shining throughout the group. In front of the crowd sat the overall 25 Hours of Thunderhill-winning Daytona Prototype-with a giant hole in the side that went deep into its composite honeycomb frame.