www.porscheroadandrace.com 2021 Daytona 24 hours – A Look Back Published: 5th February 2021 By: Martin Raffauf Online version: https://www.porscheroadandrace.com/2021-daytona-24-hours-a-look-back/ Rolex 24 at Daytona, 30-31 January 2021: Some of the Porsches do a publicity shot at the ROAR I first came to this race in 1971, so this would be my 50th year at the Daytona 24 hours. It is an interesting exercise to look back at what has changed over the years. www.porscheroadandrace.com The circuit The track has changed quite a bit since I first attended. Back in 1971 it was 3.81 miles in length and the track had NO chicane, now it is 3.56 miles long with a chicane on the backstretch. The chicane was first used in 1983 and was an attempt to control top speed and save the tyres in the banking. The pit complex and garages are totally different with fewer pits today than in 1971. In reality, only about 55 cars can be accommodated today without sharing pits, but back in the 1970s up to 100 plus cars might be entered for qualifying. Rolex 24 at Daytona, 30-31 January 2021: The IMSA old timers dinner was subdued this year due to Covid19. It was a small group, but a lot of fun in any case, and the tradition www.porscheroadandrace.com continues. From L-R: Steven Charsley, Alwin Springer, Larry Holt, Michael Colucci, Martin Raffauf, Mark Raffauf, John Shapiro, and special guest Steffen Hoellwrath of Porsche Motorsports The other huge change is track lighting. In 1971 it was very dark at night as there were no lights around the circuit, but today it is lit up like a Christmas tree! There have been some significant improvements in track safety and today safety barriers and guardrails line the infield. In 1971 the circuit was much more dangerous. Some of the infield was lined with 3- foot dirt mounds, which sometimes acted as launch ramps, not barriers! The drivers of today probably would not even want to race on the circuit of 1971 deeming it potentially unsafe. www.porscheroadandrace.com Rolex 24 at Daytona, 30-31 January 2021: Antagonists in the Ford vs Ferrari Wars in IMSA in the 1990s, Elliott Forbes Robinson and Didier www.porscheroadandrace.com Theys. Both are now IMSA driver stewards along with Johnny Unser The cars The cars of 1971 while just as fast as the ones today for top speed, if not faster, but they were more dangerous and more unreliable than the cars of today. In 1971 there were several ‘factory cars’, maybe twelve or so including the Porsche 917s and Ferrari 512 models. Most of the field was made up of private entrants and frequently the cars were self- built from a basic street GT car, such as the Porsche 911S. Today all the cars entered are factory-built cars. Reliability in 1971 was terrible compared to today. In the 1971 race, 73 cars were entered, 50 qualified, but only 21 finished. In 2020, 38 cars started and 32 finished. BoP (Balance of Performance) did not exist in 1971 and rules were very generic in structure, with weight, engine size and overall dimensions the only real factors. Today all the cars are built by factories to a homologation specification. www.porscheroadandrace.com Rolex 24 at Daytona, 30-31 January 2021: Dan Davis of Brumos Porsche was the Honorary Starter. As such, he brought some of his cars for some demo www.porscheroadandrace.com laps before the race, including the 1977 winning Carrera RSR The racing Cars in 1971 would routinely qualify at one speed and race quite a bit slower, as the cars would not last the distance at qualifying speeds. Today, the cars are over designed and run flat out for the whole 24 hours. Speed differentials in 1971 were huge, the gaps between the fastest qualifiers and slowest would probably be more than 30 seconds a lap. In 2021, the gap was probably less than 15 seconds. Pace cars and full course yellows in 1971 were extremely rare, broken cars were just left on the side of the road, and crashes were cleaned up under local yellows. Due to safety concerns and insurance reasons, this just could not happen today. In 1971 broken or damaged cars could be repaired and still have a chance at winning the race, today although a few laps can be made up under full course yellows, long repair spell doom for any chances overall victory. www.porscheroadandrace.com Rolex 24 at Daytona, 30-31 January 2021: The winner in GTLM goes through tech inspection Drivers and teams In 1971, there would routinely be two drivers per car entered, today there are at least three and frequently four. The standard of driving in 1971 was disparate. You had professional drivers such as Donohue, Hobbs, Rodriguez, Siffert, Revson, Elford and others, but the bulk of the field was made up of drivers with a lot less experience. In fact, many could be classified as club racers, whereas today you must be a rated driver with an FIA license to even enter. The 2021 field has a much more qualified driver list. You even have such entries as Colton Herta, an INDY car winner driving a GTD car, and Joao Barbosa, a two time overall winner driving an LMP3 car. In 1971 the driving was completely different from today. You wanted someone who could maintain a consistent pace at the level the team decided was quick enough to win, but not break the car. It was difficult to do, to drive on www.porscheroadandrace.com that edge of outright speed and reliability of the equipment. Today the cars are over designed and exceptionally reliable, you just drive them flat out for 24 hours. www.porscheroadandrace.com Rolex 24 at Daytona, 30-31 January 2021: The Headlight assemblies of today’s cars are quite some technology. This is the headlight of the TGM www.porscheroadandrace.com Porsche GT3 of Ted Giovannis, Hugh Plumb, Owen Trinkler and Matt Plumb 2021 Preliminaries The 2021 edition of this race promised to be interesting for sure. Despite the Covid19 pandemic, the entry was up from 2020 with 50 cars entered and 49 starters. The pits can only hold about 55 cars, so that is near capacity for Daytona in its current configuration. The 2021 edition had some idiosyncrasies that had not been seen before Would the pandemic affect the race? Yes and no. IMSA has had a lot of practice running their events under the pandemic during 2020, basically running their whole schedule from June – November 2020, albeit under ‘Covid19 Protocols’. Some races were limited spectator events, some were no spectator events, some were run under changed venues due to conditions in the various states at the time. However, IMSA became particularly good at getting the job done, considering the conditions they had to work under. Daytona would run under these same protocols, with limited spectators (maybe 25,000), or about half of the number of 2020 spectators. Teams were limited to their garages and pits, while spectators were limited to their areas (no access to the paddock, pits or garages), everyone had to stay in their ‘bubble’. The racing itself, though, was unchanged and while some spectators were perhaps unhappy with the arrangements and protocols, it seemed clear these things were required to even run the event at all. www.porscheroadandrace.com Rolex 24 at Daytona, 30-31 January 2021: From the old friends department – Max www.porscheroadandrace.com Angelelli, multiple Grand Am champion and multiple 24-hour winner, now working for Dallara IMSA has developed an ingenious technical system to deal with all the required medical protocols. They have a computer database of all team members and officials and every evening you would receive a cell phone message with a medical questionnaire to be completed. Once completed, you would get a text with a QR code that would be scanned the next morning when you enter the circuit through an exclusive team entry point. There the personnel would be temperature checked and receive a medical sticker on your credential for that day. www.porscheroadandrace.com Rolex 24 at Daytona, 30-31 January 2021: The entry point for IMSA team members and officials with the Covid Protocol. Technology was used to www.porscheroadandrace.com speed the process, which went well Would there be any cars, people wondered? Yes, there were. Fifty cars were entered which was more than 2020. A new class was allowed in 2021, LMP3, but the classes of DPi, GLTM, LMP2 and GTD (FIA GT3) remained basically the same as in 2020, apart from some BoP adjustments. Rolex 24 at Daytona, 30-31 January 2021: The ERA Motorsports LMP2 Ligier stripped to the bare chassis after crashing at the ROAR. They would go on to win the category in the race Would anyone interesting show up? Answer yes! The dynamic of cars, teams and drivers underwent a big shuffle for 2021. The entry of 50 cars is quite remarkable given the www.porscheroadandrace.com pandemic, but the mix of drivers was equally remarkable. One could argue that the 2021 Daytona 24 had the most superior mix of drivers of every discipline imaginable. NASCAR champions, Daytona 500 winners, Indy car champions and drivers, Formula 1 drivers, rally drivers, and of course most of the great sports car drivers of this time. Despite the pandemic, IMSA assembled a stellar field of cars and drivers. Some of the afore mentioned drivers: NASCAR 2020 champion Chase Elliott would drive one of the Action Express Cadillacs, the Whelen entry with Pipo Derani, Felipe Nasr and Mike Conway [Ed – Toyota LMP1 driver].