Well race fans, I did it again!  Der Sultan of Multivalves descended upon the quiet town of Daytona FL over the last weekend of January to pay homage to the Gods of sportscar endurance racing. GT1 at turn 1Haywood, Moretti, Dyson, Stuck, Boutsen, et al were there in full force for the kickoff to the 1998 Speedweeks and their respective series.  Despite the newly formed factions in sportscar racing as we knew it; all seemed to run very smoothly.  Gone were the 'Andy Evans Sucks' t-shirts, replaced by the countless shirts of  Joe Racefan's favorite team or sponsor.  A happy little world of racing fans for 1440 minutes. 8-)>

This year we came prepared.  I was staying at MickeyWorld in Orlando so we had to get up early to get to DIS.  The trip to Daytona was uneventful.  After hitting the Mark Martin Supermarket, errr...the Winn Dixie, to stock up on food and beverage the BernDog and I  stopped into the Speedway KMart for our camping supplies.  Then it was on to the track!  At 0900 as we entered the NASCAB turn four tunnel it was clear that the day was going to be a gem!  We could hear the cars doing their last minute shake downs even as we moved slowly underground.  The emergence into the infield is like reaching Nirvana.  The sun, the cars, the track, the crowd-and WHAT A CROWD!  (later I would find out it was the biggest draw in Rolex history).  We quickly made tracks to our meeting point with das Penguin and cross-country traveler and sportscar convert Misha Cat (for those who have no idea what I'm talking about, they are fellow chatters in the ESPN Motorsports chat room).
We set up shop near the middle of NASCAB turns three and four.  We had a tent, Coleman stove, beer, and food.  All the staples of a race weekend!  We were joined by the Stew man and his brother Brian shortly there after. On to the races!!
The daylight portion of the race saw the Dyson cars marching away from the field.  This Ford domination would slowly trickle away through the night.  The 333SPs kept a more conservative pace the whole way and for the MOMO car this proved to be race winning strategy.  Old man Moretti wouldn't give up the seat even for Mad Max Papis when it looked like the Prancing Horse was not gonna catch the Dyson boys.  Luckily for the red car the leading Ford developed a terminal engine failure that led to a melt down and fire. The chances for the R&S team went up in flames in the International Horseshoe.  The Downing Atlanta team made an INCREDIBLE showing!  They kept plugging along through the night and finished 2 in the CanAm class behind the Ferrari!  My inside source reports that the only miscue was a late night pit stop that saw one of the rotary cars miss the pit box and have to be pushed back by the *now* awake crew!  Great job by the peach state boys!!! ;-) btw- I love the pit cart!
In GT-1 the Rohr Porsche GT1 set the pace for most of race.  Despite a few 'incidents' it pushed on through the night and took the overall in GT-1.  Even holding off the the wild Panoz' which both fell out in the morning hours due to overheating problems.

V notes: