More Rolex 24 Memories

Originally published February, 2008

My brother, Ed, called me earlier and told me, "Quite a blog you got going there. Congratulations." I told him he only liked it because he is mentioned so often. We had a chuckle about that. He told me I should post about the trip his son James and I took to the pits at this year's Rolex24Hours at DIS. So here is that story.

A little background. The Rolex 24 Hours has been running at DIS for something like 43 years. It started out as a 12 hour race but expanded to 24 hours a few years later. The race, literally, runs nonstop from 1pm on saturday to 1pm on Sunday. Most teams have 4 drivers, but some have more or less. For the remainder of the races in the season, most teams have just 2 regular drivers. For the 24 hours race, drivers from almost all of the other racing series join these teams. In the past, Max Papis, Dale Earnhardt Sr and Jr, Jimmy Johnson, Kasey Kane, Juan Pablo Montoya and many others have raced in this race. It is pretty cool to see them all.

The race is run on the entire NASCAR track at DIS plus an infield road course. In all, I think there are something like 75-80 cars in this race in two classes. The Daytona Prototype (DP) and GT class. The DP's are one off, they all have the same body style but chassis and motors are up to the owners. Supposed to save bucks this way. The GT class consists of Porsche 911's, Vipers, Ferraris, Corvettes, and Mustangs and more. The two classes race at different speeds, with the GT's being slower. As a result, when a DP approaches a GT car, the GT must move over and let the DP by. You think, "This is not a big deal." Until I point out that oftentimes, two GT cars are battling for position when the DP shows up. The trick for the lead GT driver is to let the DP car by but not his opponent, the GT. It is a blast to watch and observe different tactics, at least for us. There are actually three winners in this race, Class winner in DP, Class Winner in GT, Overall winner. Each driver with the winning teams gets a Rolex watch.

For the many years, a friend of ours has had a concession at DIS and during Speedweeks, the Rolex24, Daytona 500, the Brumos 250 and the (former) Pepsi 400, Ed and I become his employees and we enjoy passes that allow us everywhere, except the grandstands, we are there to work, afterall. Our buddy brings his motorhome out and we camp out in the infield with several hundred other motorhomes. Ed and I are the camp stewards. I am the chef and Ed is in charge of basic camp duties, get the generator going, set up and take down chairs, police the campsite, well you get the idea. Our buddy never stays overnite. He lives in Ormond Beach and, I think, enjoys the party more than the race.

Ed, James, and I have been going to this race for quite a few years,

but this is the first year Mom let James stay overnite. At 15, I would say about right.

At some point, the three of us, along with a buddy of James, camping with his dad in tent city, went to the pits but with only three passes.

Along the way, we saw this Kodak DP spun out in the hairpin, yes the same hairpin where Ed got that tire a few years ago.

In the pits and garage area, we saw some pretty cool, and some not so cool, stuff, such as this not so cool DP

So sad, I hate to see this as this means less entertainment on the track. Unlike some forms of circle track racing, wrecks are not cool, just expensive. With reference to the crowds at the 24, think Maserati Quatroroport vs. Ford Taurus.

This was the pit stall for the #60 car, forgot what it is. Check out those computers. And to think, I am just learning how to blog. Sorry about your luck.



I was going to tag this going but you can see what it is. Brumos is a high end sports car chain based in Jacksonville. Sadly, this was the first year in many Bob Snodgrass was not there. He passed in 2007.

If you look closely in this photo, you can see Ed telling the mechanics how to change a radiator in this Porsche. No, not all Porsches are air cooled.






At one point, Ed and I appropriated seats on a cart while James and his buddy went into the pits. James had Ed's pass while his buddy had a spare. A few minutes later, they returned looking down in the dumps. I asked why back so soon. James related, to us sitting right there in that picture, upon passing through the second security station, they got stopped. The security dude asked James' name, and James said, "James Lee" while wearing Ed's pass. Needless to say, Ed and I burst out laughing. Ed, to his credit, described the protocol for using fake passes, but did add that if James ever did that to get booze, the sh** would hit the fan.

But that is not the story this post is about.

As I mentioned, this was James' first time to stay overnite.

The three of us are sitting in the motorhome, about 12:30 that night, watching the race out the windows

and watching it on SpeedTV. James looks over at me and says, I swear, "John-John, this is surreal". I was floored. I was watching this boy become a man and he described the moment perfectly.

Of course, in this deep moment of mature reflection, I said, "Let's go to the pits".

And James and I did. Ed was to pooped from bossing around those Porsche mechanics earlier in the day, and decided to stay home with his friend Bud, under the Lite.

So James and I set off. On the way, at the hairpin, we saw Chip Ganassi's 02 car spun and being recovered. Guess we should stay away from the hairpin.

We got to see this Kodak car get a 20 minute brake job, rotors included, and yes, we saw this car come into the garage area, stayed for the whole show, and watched it leave.

Shortly after this picture was taken, we walked down a few pit stalls and came across a guy, in the lower left of the following photo, working on a couple sets of tires. I asked him if they were heading to the truck, meaning wrecked out or terminal mechanical failure. He replied, no, the previous tenants of this stall were already in the truck. He worked for Mazda, the next booth over.



I told James to head into that booth and we kept talking to the Mazda dude. Well, he took off his headset and put them on James' head, saying, "Don't touch anything". I was floored and James didn't know what to do. Unbeknownst to me, while James had that headset on, the Master of Operations came on the radio and said, "Next time around bring it in and we'll take four tires and a change of drivers". Once the tire dude saw all the activity in the pits, he snagged that headset and got to work, doubletime. James looks at me and tells me this. I was so excited for him. I suggested James go up by the pit wall and hang out. You can see him in the same pic sitting in the corner, but definitely not in trouble.


Needless to say, we stuck around for that pit stop, and took pictures.

Check out James' sh** eating grin...

and mine, too.



One of the best parts of this tale is this Mazda won First in Class.

Now for the best part.

As we are walking back to the motorhome, James tells me, "Ya know John-John, I knew at the same time as everyone on that team they were going to come in." I didn't say anything and we continued to walk along. James then gave me this biggest compliment I have received in some time. He said, "John-John, every time we hang out we always do something fun."

Wait until the Amelia Island Concours de Elegance next month.

But that is another post.

On The Road, Denver, Colorado: The Do You Remember It Edition?

Dateline Denver, Colorado; July 18, 2011

When I was a kid back in the 1960's, I distinctly remember visits to my paternal grandmother's home while we resided in the Gateway to the West back in the day. At Moo's home, kids were better seen than heard and if we weren't seen at all, that was even better. As a result, thejeepjunkie and this olelongrooffan spent a lot of our visits to that Giles Avenue home in the dark and dank basement playing with some cool old toy cars while our sisters were upstairs in the parlor visiting with Moo and the folks.



One of the cool things about that house, other than my Uncle Frank's wide track Pontiac convertibles, was the fact my quite elderly grandmother was still sporting around in a 1953 Desoto Firedome, yes with a hemi. It was maroone with a grey cloth interior and the semi automatic transmission of the time. You used a clutch to get underway and stop but when it was time to shift gears, you just lifted off the accelerator and it shifted automatically. It was pretty fascinating at the time although I rarely rode in Moo's car back then, only to learn to drive it much later in life.  It was the same body style as the one in the above pictures. This olelongrooffan will never know how I came to be in possession of those images but I am sure they were saved so they could be utilized in this post.

Later, after it was determined that Moo was unable to drive herself any longer, that old MOPAR product, now extinct, came to reside on our Halltown edition of Haven Lee Farm.

One time an older sister, who had recently gotten her driver's license, and I were traversing some country road out in Lawrence County, Missouri, had to be 1971 or 72 and when we crested a hill, that gravel road also took a blind turn down to the left.  My sister over compensated and we bounced off the adjacent embankment severely damaging the left front quarter of the old beast, which had by now been painted a bright orange by one of TheGentlemanFarmer's buddies.

Well, needless to say, when we returned home, the proverbial sh*t hit the fan for a couple days and then it kind of blew over. And my Dad, in one of his many travels around the countryside, stumbled across a 1952 Desoto 4 door post sedan parts car and, of course, drug it home.  And it was a parts car for the repairs to Moo's car so this olelongrooffan could hoon it around for a while.

So by now this olelongrooffan is sure those of you Counting Along With Me are screaming at the tops of your lungs..."WTF longroof, you think we are here to reminisce the ole days with some dude who is hanging in the Rockies for the month?"

Whoa?...Where did that come from?....But I think it was pretty funny considering...

So anyway, this afternoon while out scoping out suppliers for this remodel project I am involved in and which solely represents the reason I am here.....anyway, until a couple days ago, life in the mountains had left me disoriented with respect to north/west/south, etc. "If you see the mountains, you are looking west." Yeah that's great if you can see the mountains!...sh*t where the h*ll was I?  Literally and Geographically.

Oh Yeah! So this olelongrooffan was out and about and on a street which I knew and in a location roughly where I thought I was and I spotted this while travelling north on Lowell.



Yeah, it's a 1952 Desoto Custom two door post.  Looks to be nearly original and I had to teach Filmore, the Vanagon, how this olelongrooffan likes to whip ueeeys just for this reason.



And in my world, seeing this old classic and not gathering some images to share is beyond my comprehension.



I mean Counters, when was the last time you saw a manufacturors name, trademark and design flair all on the same car?  H*ll not just the car, this was just the rear emblem.



So, I guess it is time for this olelongrooffan to put his foot in it again and share the absolute next image after the trunk emblem I captured.  Yeah, Klutz could be my middle name.



Having said all that, this sweet old beauty had the exact same transmission set up as did Moo's '53. I drove Moo's car (as it was known until the day it was sold) up and down that mile long driveway out at the farm many times to "check the mail" as it were.



That multi-toothed '53 sedan, the '53 turn signals were moved outward to the chrome in the fender and Chrysler was able to squeeze in a couple more teeth on each side, anyway...Moo's car would haul *ss, in the hands of a 16 year old Hoon and on a gravel road, well let's just say I had a couple Lightning McQueen incidents before this olelongrooffan met my Doc Watson.



To my mind, even the front emblem on this automobile is nearly asspectacular as the rear. This olelongrooffan would love to have one of those hanging from the wall of the Taj Mahal. Not this one though, it is in its proper location, hopefully forever.



I don't know if many of you Counters Out There follow we Hoons over in the Hooniverse.com but over there is a Mystery Car Contest, usually on Fridays...anyway, I thought about submitting it for a post in that category but those Hoons can guess a mystery car by its freaking shadow at night, so that image remains here on By The Numbers, for now.

After this olelongrooffan had gathered those images of that two door,



of course, I had to take a peek out back. The fun ones are a 54-55 Ford Ranch Wagon, a baby Jaguar of some indiscriminant designation, a couple beige vehicles, an early 70's Cutlass, what I'm gonna call a 50's era Olds and behind that Ford pickup was the nose of a '56 Chevrolet. It was quite a sighting, not unlike most days here in the Mile High City thus far.

But it was when I sneaked around the other corner and spotted this



ole flatfender to share with thejeepjunkie, the Kid and the Bus that this olelongrooffan really remembered how to

Celebrate Life.

Another Day At The Races With the Kid

So, the Kid and this olelongrooffan are out at the Daytona International Speedway for the Sprint Cup version of racing this 4th of July weekend. On Friday we saw the Nationwide racecars out and about and the Kid decided we needed to come around for the "Big Boys" racing action on Saturday.



As those of you Counting Along With Me saw a bunch of race cars in my blog about Friday's activities, I thought I would mix it up today and include some images of the "war wagons" utilized on pit road. The big yellow one seen above belongs to Roger Penske's Kurt Busch #22 team.



I didn't really note who the drivers of the Roush Fenway or the Hendrick Motorsports teams were represented by but the Target Wagon off in the distance belongs to the Juan Pablo Montaya Target team.



And just a whole bunch of NASCAR tires and rims were seen and recorded by this olelongrooffan.



If memory serves me correctly, the above images are of a couple Toyota teams, one of which I am sure is of Michael Waltrip's number 56 team.



And these? I have no clue but they did have the covers on those wheels that the Kid so wanted to put in this olelongrooffan's Continental Tire backpack.  But as I related to the Kid, "If I am going to Hell, it is going to be for stealing a bunch of billions of dollars, not a NASCAR wheel cover that will bring me maybe ten bucks on ebay."



By the time we arrived out at the Speedway, all the NASCARs were lined up on pit road.



Meanwhile, the Kid and this olelongrooffan beat it over to do the obligatory signing of the start/finish line.



Luckily, the Kid left out my growing bald spot in the following image.



On the stage set up in the infield area, Martina McBride was putting on a great show.



And she, like the weather, is hot!




After listening to her awhile me and the Kid decided to head over and take a break on the pit wall.





In the Jeff Burton pit stall was this box with used lug nuts and lug bolts in them.



A dollar per lug nut and five bucks per lug bolt was requested to be donated to charity. I pointed them out to the Kid and reminded him of the lug nuts this olelongrooffan got from Dale Jr.'s pits a couple years ago which are resting comfortably on a cool wooden flatbed semi trailer I got as part of a traveling museum from the Bus a while back.



I was so excited that Mark Martin got the pole for the Coke Zero 400 this weekend.



the Kid and I meandered over to Robby Gordon's pit stall and the Kid pops open a drawer in his tool box to verify its contents were what was labeled on the front.



They were as labeled.




While we were at Robby's pit box, I captured an image of the helicopter that lingered overhead all afternoon.



Just to make sure I remembered whose pit box it was.



the Kid and I headed back to the Fan Zone and on the way to purchase a four dollar pen to make some notes on a truck I had seen earlier, I spotted this t shirt that I found rather humorous.



the Kid allowed me to capture this image of him next to Dale Jr.'s GT Vodka race show car.



After driver introductions were complete, the Kid and this olelongrooffan were standing in the garage area, just outside of the pits, a bunch of drivers were headed to the nearby restrooms.



While the Kid and I don't really see the need to capture any autographs, a whole d*mn bunch of touristas did.



We found it humourous and the Kid commented the place to be was in that restroom when driver introductions were finished.



And I was able to capture the flyover of the jets.




Not as cool as the image the Kid got a few years ago with the jets and a flag in it, but cool nonetheless.



And who says racing is all about the cars?



the Kid and I were sitting in the Crown Royal bar stools just outside their pit box and I saw these two hotties and even the dude guarding the gate to the pits commented on them.



Shortly thereafter, we spotted Trevor Baine pull his wrecked Wood Brother's machine off the track for the final time that day.



the Kid and this olelongrooffan skedaddled around to his garage to see if it was terminal. Unfortunately it was. I felt really bad for that kid and his team.



And the truck I sacrificed four bucks for to take notes about? This is it. More to come on this vehicle shortly. And sighting this olelongrooffan in a t shirt is pretty rare but this one from the 2011 Canadian Grand Prix was sent to me by a fellow blogger and I thought it only appropriate to wear it to a race! Thanks again kashgar.

And spending another day with the Kid and having fun doing it really lets this olelongrooffan

Celebrate Life.