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Hot News & Press from Doran Racing

Rolex 24 Notes

Hour 1 (around 2 p.m.):

  • Didier Theys was extremely careful at the start but he was also extremely fast.  By the end of lap 1 he had moved from his 31st starting spot to 20th, and by the end of lap 2 he was 16th.
  • There was a full-course caution on lap 10 due to debris in NASCAR Turn 3. The team made its first pit stop at that time.
  • We are having radio problems; Theys can hear the pit crew but the pit crew can't hear him.
  • At the end of hour one Theys is seventh overall, on the same lap as the leader with 26 laps down. 
  • Terry Borcheller is leading in the Bell Motorsports DORAN JE4 Pontiac followed by the SunTrust Riley Pontiac and the Howard-Boss Crawford Chevy.  The Michael Shank Racing DORAN JE4 Lexus is 11th.

Hour 2 (around 3 p.m.)

  • Ten minutes ago, around 2:50 p.m., it started to rain.  Rain is predicted throughout the night.
  • About 15 minutes ago the Doran-Lista team, with Theys behind the wheel, was as high as second place.  We had been running third but when the Fabcar Porsche #59 pitted that moved the Riley Lexus #01 into the lead and the Doran-Lista team into second place.
  • Several pit stop occurred at the end of hour two.  At the point in the official rundown Theys is third overall on the same lap (lap 58) as the leader.  Borcheller is leading in the Bell Motorsports DORAN and the Howard-Boss Crawford #2 is second.

Hour 3 (around 4 p.m.):

  • At 3:13 p.m., lap 57, the Doran-Lista team is second overall, trailing only the Bell Motorsports DORAN JE4 Pontiac.
  • We do a driver change at some point here, with Theys getting out and Marc Goossens getting in.
  • At 3:29 p.m. (lap 65) there is a report that the Doran-Lista 27 spun out in turn one.  The conditions aren't good.  We still don't have radio contact and our car's windshield wipers aren't working.  That isn't as bad as it sounds though, because most of the spray goes over the top of the car due to its high speed.
  • The damage to the Doran-Lista #27 isn't too bad; a wheel was bent and there is some bodywork damage.  The contact was with the #88 ASM Team Brisa Porsche.  It is being driven by four drivers from Portugal but it's unclear who was behind the wheel of that car at that time.  Goossens was driving the #27 when the incident occurred.
  • At the end of hour two the Doran-Lista team is ninth overall, one lap down (83 laps to our 82 laps.)
  • Borcheller is leading in the Bell Motorsports DORAN JE4 Pontiac followed by the Chip Ganassi Racing Riley Lexus and the SunTrust Racing Riley Pontiac. 

Hour 4 (around 5 p.m.):

  • At 4:38 p.m., on lap 95, Marc Goossens in the Doran-Lista DORAN Lexus #27 and the Seike Motor Sport Porsche #56 got into each other.  It's not known who was in the #56 at the time.
  • The #27 made it back to the pits under its own power but the team loses about 10 laps to make repairs. All the repairs are made in the pits, however; it was not necessary to go back to the garage area.
  • Kevin Doran: "We  replaced the splitter, crash box, radiator and nose.  The right sidepod was destroyed."
  • Marc Goossens: "A Porsche missed his braking point in the chicane on the backstretch.  He went straight and he came from the right and we crashed.  I don't know which Porsche it was.
        "The first time was exactly the same thing in the chicane.
        "Traffic and the weather conditions are difficult.  We have no radio contact and no windshield wipers."
  • Jan Lammers got into the car after the repairs were made and he's flying, trying to make up some time.
  • At the end of hour four the Doran-Lista team is 29th overall,  nine laps down to the leader, the SunTrust Racing Riley Pontiac #10, 109 laps to 100 laps. The Chip Ganassi Racing Riley Lexus is second overall and the Howard-Boss Crawford Chevy is third.

Hour 5 (around 6 p.m.):

  • The Doran-Lista team is in 20th place, eight laps down to the leader, the Bell Motorsports DORAN JE4 Pontiac.  The Howard-Boss Crawford Chevy is second and the SunTrust Riley Pontiac is third.
  • Lammers is flying.  If he's not the fastest driver on the track at this point he's close to it.
  • The rain is starting to let up.  The track is still wet but it's not raining as hard as it was.

Hour 6 (around 7 p.m.):

  • Catching up a little, here are how our driver changes have gone so far: Theys drove the first 43 laps.  Goossens drove from lap 43 to 94.  Lammers then got in and drove 64 laps, getting out at lap 158 to turn the wheel back over to Theys.  Theys just got in the car.
  • Gambling a little to try to make up some time, the team had put slicks on when the rain let up a little, but unfortunately the rain has picked back up.
  • Theys isn't able to go as fast as Lammers did because he's on slicks instead of rain tires and it's raining steadily now.
  • At 7 p.m. the Doran-Lista team is in 12th place, eight laps down, 157 laps to the leader's 165.  The Howard-Boss Crawford Chevy is leading followed by the SunTrust Riley Pontiac and the Chip Ganassi Racing Riley Lexus.

Hour 7 (around 8 p.m.):

  • Around 7:45 p.m. the Doran-Lista team pitted for four Goodyear rain tires, fuel, and to clean the windshield thoroughly.  Theys stayed in the car.
  • Around 8:05 p.m. Theys came back into the pits unexpectedly, since he can hear the crew but the crew can't hear him.  The reason he needed to pit was because he had a flat right front tire due to contact with someone.  In addition to changing all four tires the team gave the car fuel and another windshield-hosing.
  • The Doran-Lista team is 13th overall, 11 laps down, 183 to the leader's 194.   There is no one else on our lap but there are four cars nine laps down, so if we can make up two more laps and get in front of those cars we'll move up the standings considerably.
  • The Howard-Boss Crawford of Andy Wallace, Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhardt Jr. is leading following by the Bell Motorsports DORAN JE4 Pontiac of Terry Borcheller, Forest Barber, Andy Pilgrim and Christian Fittipaldi.  The SunTrust Riley Pontiac is third, one lap down to the first two cars.

Hour 8 (around 9 p.m.):

  • At the eight-hour point the Doran-Lista team is still in 13th place.  We're 12 laps down to the leader (206 to 218), which is the Howard-Boss Crawford Chevy of Andy Wallace, Tony Stewart and Little E. The Ganassi car is second and the Bell Motorsports DORAN JE4 is third.
  • It's raining even harder now. Theys is still in the car.
  • Although there's nobody else on our lap, there are two cars one lap ahead of us: the Red Bul Ferrari GT car and the Michael Shank Racing DORAN JE4.  The latter is making its first start ever.
  • There have been 22 lead changes and six cautions for 20 laps. The attrition level is remarkably low considering the bad conditions.

Hour 9 (around 10 p.m.):

  • Theys just got out and Goossens is now driving again.  Timing and scoring has had a problem and said there will be no hour nine report from them; they said they'll resume at hour 10.
  • After the pit stop for the driver change, this corner believes we're in 11th or 12th place, 14 laps down, but that's totally unofficial.
  • Theys drove 69 laps in his last stint, from lap 158 to lap 227, when Goossens got back in.
        Shortly after Goossens got in, around 10:05 p.m., the lights went off in our pit area and so did our scoring monitors.  The same thing happened to several other pit areas too.  A few minutes later they came back on.
  • We are currently working under a light drizzle.
  • Didier Theys: "You can't see anything.  With no wipers, all the rain goes into the windshield.  It's very bad.  It's pretty slippery and there are big puddles everywhere."
  • When asked about the puncture, he said, "There were two GT cars running together.  One didn't see me and we touched, causing the puncture."
  • Theys added that the car is "running OK," and he said he really isn't
    that tired right now.

Hour 10 (around 11 p.m.): 

  • We're back in the top 10! The Doran-Lista #27 is in tenth place overall, 13 laps down. The Michael Shank Racing DORAN JE4 is right ahead of us in ninth place, on the same lap.
  • The leader is the Howard-Boss Crawford #2 followed by the Ganassi Riley #01 and the Bell Motorsports DORAN JE4 Pontiac #54.

Hour 11 (around midnight):

  • The lap charts aren't in yet but unofficially we're in ninth place, still 13 laps down.  No one else is on our lap but there's a GT car in eighth place, one lap ahead of us, so hopefully we'll continue to march forward. The Michael Shank Racing DORAN JE4 is in tenth place.
  • We'll head down to the pits and try to find out more in just a minute.
  • The Howard-Boss Crawford #2 is still leading but the Bell Motorsports DORAN JE4 is back in second place.  The pole-winning Ganassi car is third.
  • Our photographer, Rick Dole, just gave us a CD and our Webmaster, Craig Van Eaton, is busy preparing to post the new shots.
        Enjoy!

Hour 12 (around 1 a.m., the half-way point):

  • Marc Goossens has been in all this time, about three hours, and he's brought us up to seventh place, 15 laps down.  He drove from lap 227 to lap 312 (85 laps).
  • Goossens didn't have any contact this time and he has done an excellent job; before he pitted a little after 1 a.m. he was setting the fastest laps of anyone in the race.  Two laps before he pitted he did a 2:02 to the leader's 2:06.
  • Jan Lammers just got in the car to relieve Goossens.    There is still a light rain falling.
        Marc Goossens: "As soon as it rains a little bit more [meaning the rain picks up a bit], you can't see anything in the car.  There is a close call every corner.
  • "The radio is working now, at least most of the time.  The only problem is the wipers.  Everything else is fine with the car; you just can't see."
  • Goossens was surprised to learn that he was the fastest driver on the track right before he came in.
  • "I didn't look at the lap times; I was too busy," he said.  When he got out of the car he was stiff and his hands were sore from all the concentration he needed to have in the cockpit.
  • "It's definitely the worst conditions I've ever been in during a race," he said, and then added, "Well, 2002 at Le Mans was very similar to this. "The spray just sits there on the windshield, and then you can't see anything," he explained.
  • The Howard-Boss Crawford #2 of Andy Wallace, Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhardt Jr. is still leading followed by the Bell Motorsports DORAN Pontiac #54 and the Howard-Boss Crawford #4 of Elliott Forbes-Robinson, Butch Leitzinger, David Brule Sr. and Jimmy Johnson.
  • Ron Mathis, engineer:  "We're running as fast or faster than anyone out there, but we don't have the time to catch them outright; we need for the others to have problems too."
  • Stay tuned.  As we walked back to the media center to file this note, the pole-winning Gannasi Riley #01 was being pushed back to the garage area, around 1:20 a.m.  The rumor is that it has some sort of a leak.  They replaced that car's radiator a little before 1, but apparently that didn't solve the problem.

Hour 13 (around 2 a.m.):

  • Lammers is still in the car.  We're up to seventh place overall and fifth in the Daytona Prototype class. We're still 14 laps down to the leader, but there are two GT cars ahead of us in the overall standings.  The one in sixth, the Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche #74, is on our same lap and the one in fifth, the Orbit Porsche #44, only has two more laps than
    we do.
  • The Howard-Boss Crawford #2 is still leading. It has a two-lap lead over the Bell Motorsports DORAN JE4 Pontiac #54.  The Howard-Boss Crawford #4 is third, one lap behind the #54.
  • We're chasing them as hard as we can and Lammers is setting the fastest lap times right now of anybody. We're doing all we can do, but we need some good luck.
  • Counting everyone, there are 21 people in the press room. That's at least two less than there should be...

Hour 14 (around 3 a.m.):

  • Jan Lammers just got out and Didier Theys got back in.
  • According to the official hourly results sheet we're seventh overall, with those two Porsches still in front of us.
  • The Howard-Boss Crawford #2 still leads followed by the Bell DORAN #54 and the Howard-Boss Crawford #4.
  • Is this the most rainy race that Jan Lammers has ever been in?  "I don't know if this is the worst rain conditions or not; I couldn't see!" he joked.  "It's worse than Le Mans 2002. There were some races in Japan that were pretty bad too, but this is definitely among the worst. In 32 years of racing you can't remember them all.  "The rain comes in the car and combined with the rain on the windshield and the spray, you can't see anything.  I mean nothing," he continued. "It might be better if we took the windshield out, but that might be against the rules; I don't know."
  • There was a full-course yellow right after we pitted for that driver change due to the standing water.  We used that opportunity to pit for new front brake pads, to work on the windshield and to work on the radio problem, which is back.  We also got tires and fuel.
  • We had to have the officials black-flag Theys in order for him to know to come in due to the radio trouble.

Hour 15 (around 4 a.m.):

  • We had Theys pit again under this long full-course caution to clean the windshield again.  The conditions are really bad.
  • We're beginning to worry about a possible shortage of Goodyear rain tires.  One rumor is that if it keeps raining through the morning, the Daytona Prototypes may run out of rain tires around 7 a.m. Such a long rain during this race is unusual, especially since we're in Florida and this much rain wasn't predicted in any of the five-day forecasts.
  • We're under a very long full-course caution for standing water in the turns and perhaps as a tire-saving measure.
  • With these stops we're officially eighth overall and sixth in class, still 14 laps down to the Howard-Boss Crawford #2. The other Howard-Boss car is second and the Bell DORAN is third.  

Hours 16 and 17 (around 6 a.m.): 

  • Not much to report. The race has been under a full-course caution for three hours now. Theys drove around under caution for 24 laps and then Fredy Lienhard got in on our lap 386.  We're still under a full-course caution due to standing water in the turns and a lack of rain tires for the Daytona Prototype class.  We've been under that caution for three hours now.
  • The pace car has been bringing the field down pit lane.  We waved to Lienhard as he passes our pits and, nice guy that he is, he waved back.
  • We're still in seventh place.
  • The green may wave again pretty soon.

Hour 18 (around 7 a.m.)

  • At 6:25 a.m. we went back to green-flag racing after three hours and 15
    minutes under a full-course caution.  Goossens was in the car at that point.
  • Unfortunately it started to rain harder than ever around 7:26 a.m., and we
    went back to a full-course caution at 7:28 a.m.  Ten minutes later  (7:38
    a.m.) the officials waved a red flag, marking the first time in 15 years that this
    race has been stopped completely.  Our car is on pit road with a tarp over
    it.  The crews can't do any work on the cars but the drivers can get out.
  • We had to catch up with our hourly reports post-race because we spent this
    time chasing after the SPEED pit reporters, campaigning for them to do a piece
    on our Lista cabinet promotion.  Theys and Lienhard are at the motorcoach;
    Lammers and Goossens are chatting with the crew in the pits.  We showed them
    J.J. O'Malley's book on the Rolex 24, and both were very interested.  Fredy
    Lienhard gave members of the pit crew the book for Christmas.
  • We're eighth overall and sixth in the DP class, 14 laps down to the
    Howard-Boss Crawford #2.  The Bell Motorsports DORAN JE4 is second and the
    Howard-Boss Crawford #4 is third.  The Michael Shank Racing DORAN JE4 is right in front
    of us in seventh overall.

Hours 19-21  (8 a.m. to 10 a.m.)

  • We're still under red. Calvin Fish ended up doing the Lista cabinet piece
    on SPEED; he did a great job.

Hour 22 (11 a.m.)

  • We went back to a full-course caution at 10:23 a.m. and then green at 10:29
    a.m. 
  • At 11:05 a.m. we pitted for fuel and slicks.
  • We're sixth overall and fourth in DP.  We're 12 laps down to the leader,
    the Howard-Boss Crawford #2.

Hour 23 (around noon)

  • We came into the pits about 8 minutes ago to clean the radiator; we were
    overheating a little due to all the sand and grime that we've been picking up
    with all the water.  Once we clean things out, the temperatures straighten out.
  • At 11:54 a.m. the overall leader, the Howard-Boss #2, comes into the pit
    with a flat tire.  It's smoking from the front end too.
  • We're sixth overall and fourth in DP, 11 laps down to the leader, which is
    still the #2.

Hour 23 (around 1 p.m.)

  • It's not over until it's over! At 12:41 p.m. the SunTrust Riley #10
    dropped out with a broken driveshaft while running third.
  • Then, at 12:53 p.m., on lap 519, the leader, the Howard-Boss #2, spun out
    due to a broken right-rear suspension and wheel.  The car is towed to the
    pits and retires from the race.
  • Three minutes later, the Bell Motorsports DORAN JE4 #54 takes over the
    overall lead.  If we can make up one more lap before the checkered we'll get
    fourth overall and second in DP.  Lammers is in the car.
  • We do just that!  The DORAN JE4s in the field finish first overall and
    first in Daytona Prototypes (Bell Motorsports); fourth overall and second in
    Daytona Prototypes (us); and seventh overall and fourth in Daytona Prototypes
    (Michael Shank Racing).  Wow!

One-Two Punch!
Bell Motorsports DORAN JE4 Wins Rolex 24;
Doran-Lista DORAN JE4 Battles Back for Second!

If you're reading this and you haven't entered the contest for the Lista cabinet give-away, please go to www.listaintl.com and do that now so you don't miss out on your chance to get a really nifty mobile tool box!

There is live timing and scoring at www.grandamerican.com too.

For more information:
Linda Mansfield, Restart Communications
E-mail: [email protected]

 
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