Daytona--the top five calls, and then...
This was to be the year for Team Savasort at Daytona. Last year, the Savasort Porsche 911 hit bad luck early when a bent engine valve eliminated the team. This was to be the year of revenge at the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona, one of the world's most famous endurance races. It almost happened!

Joining Savasort in supporting driver Neil Crilly for the 1/31-2/1 event were food giant Campbell's Soup Company, who came back after supporting Crilly at the 1997 12 Hours at Sebring; GPS system maker NovAtel; and Forsberg Services, who designs specialized systems using NovAtel's equipment. Graphics from the four companies graced the bright red #52 Porsche GT-3 911, one of the sharpest cars at the event, which shared the same colour as the Ferrari 333SP prototype that Frenchman Yannick Dalmas put on overall pole. Sponsoring the team overall were Yokohama, Kokeln, Easton Properties, Atlantic Real Estate and Protosport, who performed car prep and race services.

Joining Crilly for driving chores were car owner Bill Stitt, Dave Russell, Jr., and Jeff Arnold and Mark Hillestead, who last year drove in the Speedvision Cup. All drivers save Arnold had 911 Daytona experience, and Arnold was immediately quick, so the driver lineup looked strong.

The event did not start well for the team as qualifying only produced a 2:03.96 time (at a 103.36 mph average) around the 3.56 mile circuit. Disappointing not only because it was slower than the 2:02 best from early January testing, but also as it meant the team would start from 67th out of the 78 entrants, or 24th out of 27 in the GT-3 class. In the critical final qualifying, the team had suddenly been plagued with a problem, a misfire which prevented any full tilt laps. Later, the team crew went to work and ended up replacing the engine wiring harness.

Race day arrived with the same clear blue skies enjoyed all event long, and the new Daytona starting ceremonies with drivers and cars lined up along two rows on pit lane began promptly at 12:30 p.m. British driving veteran (and two time Rolex 24 winner) Brian Redman made official opening remarks and then trotted over to start the race in his GT-3 Porsche - the one starting 66th, right next to our team! Who says we qualified badly?

Fortunately, with the race start green flag came much better luck for the team. The progress made during the first half of the race was impressive. The team moved up to 39th by the fourth hour, 32nd by the eighth hour and 30th by 1:00 a.m., hour twelve. By 2:30 a.m., the team was in 27th place. That was a full forty positions higher than the team startedl More important, the team had broken into the top ten in class and was running seventh-out of 27th. By this point, the team started to feel the beginnings of top five aspirations, and certainly top ten. After all, the reason for the progress was because all the drivers were driving the car not only quickly but carefully. In a race marred by ten full course caution periods, and many local yellow flag incidents, the team's car was still completely undamaged. It wasn't that the other competitors weren't trying! Crilly, who drove a particularly "busy" night stint relates: "After the (pole sitting) Ferrari 333 (Papis, Evans, Dalmas, Vollek, Fellows) lost a wheel into the chicane, another CanAm car spun directly in front of me -- on the pace car lap!" Fortunately, Crilly missed the various opportunities to rearrange the Porsche's front end.

Then, at 2:50 a.m., things stopped moving -- literally. The car rolled in and simply would not go into gear. The crew's rapid removal of the engine (which took only ten minutes) uncovered the race-ending nature of the problem: Bolts holding the flywheel to the crankshaft had been sheared off, damage to the crankshaft was too great, and rules prohibited crankshaft replacement. In the end though, a testament to the team's excellent early run showed as Sunday's 8:00 a.m. light came to the Speed: The team was still in 42nd place. By the race's end at 1:00 p.m., only one other class car had gotten by, pulling the team into a finishing position of 14th out of 27 in the GT-3 class, 42nd overall because the team had covered a sufficient race distance. In the end the Team Savasort Porsche shared a good part of the 36th running of this great event, which was won overall (after 18 tries!) by Gianpiero Moretti and his Ferrari, co-driven by Theys, Luyendyk and Baldi. Thanks again to Savasort, Campbell's, NovAtel and Forsberg Services for making this event possible. Here's to more progress next year!

For more information about Sabre Motorsports and TEAM Savasort:


E-mail: info@sabresport.com