In an interesting way, this video really defines what racing is about. Not road racing specifically, but racing in general. You are about to watch BangShift’s official insanely hot shoe road racing driver Jim Pace make some laps at the 12 Hours Of Sebring in the driver’s seat of a thundering BMW Dinan V8 powered Daytona Prototype class car. As advanced as this machine is, it had an achilles heel and that was the fact that it was the ONLY car in the field that had steel brakes on it. According to our man Craig Sutherland that sent the video, the steel brakes were a detriment of about three car lengths on every hard braking turn of the course. As you’d imagine that adds up during a 12 hour race. But that’s the point, right?
The idea here is that racers race. They race the car that is under them and play the hand they are dealt. Those guys knew that they were at a disadvantage but they showed up to give it hell anyway and that’s what racers do. The other side of the coin is that it does illustrate how in road racing, bracket racing, and any other form of motorized competition, races are won in often incremental ways. You were two hundredths better on the starting line and won at the drags, you could out brake your competitor by 45 feet in each corner, etc. Those little smidgeons of time start to compound. Sometimes they do it quicker than others but they all add up.
Ultimately Jim and his team finished the race. They were not in contention for a win but they finished under their own power and it is certainly a proud accomplishment. The 12 Hours of Sebring is one of the great races in America, let alone the world. It has awesome history on several levels and the most legendary names in the world of sports car racing have all competed there with varying levels of success. Having spent one hellish day of my life attempting to keep a VW Rabbit running during an endurance race (with fellow UMass student and current editor of Hot Rod David Kennedy!) I will personally attest to the grinding nature of an endurance race on every aspect of the team from the car right up trough the guys jumping over the wall to work on it.
Crank the speakers and watch a guy who really knows what he is doing get after it in a wonderful race car.
