From the archives: 1990 Daytona 24 Hours

Qualifying

"Welcome" says the sign, "to the World Centre of Racing". For the benefit of anyone clinging to the laughable belief that that the centre of the racing world resides in the Place de la Concorde, this is what they call the magnificent Daytona International Speedway, right here in sunny Florida and they might be right...

Every year, the paddock of the SunBank 24 at Daytona buzzes with the enthusiasm for the sportscar racing season to come but, this time, the talk was all to do with Le Mans. The Americans in particular responded to each item of news from Paris with jaw-on-the-floor disbelief.

The entire Le Mans affair, quite simply, is beyond the comprehension of racing people in America. In this country, any discussion about a motor race is conducted around the essential, inalienable premise of the event itself. As closely as matters of commerce and politics are interwoven with motor racing in the USA, it would be out of the question here to do anything that might endanger the actual running of a race that has any kind of substance - especially a substance involving history. This was the 28th running of the annual Daytona 24 Hours, and you can rely as much as you need on the word 'annual'.

The field for the race which heralds the start of the international season (and which will continue to do so throughout the foreseeable future) included only 16 GTP cars: six Group C Porsches with double-turbo, water-cooled engines, three GTP Porsches with single-turbo, air-cooled engines, three Nissans, two Jaguars, the Eagle Toyota and the Spice team's latest Chevrolet-powered car. Two more GTPs - the Momo run Gebhardt which now has one of the turbo five-cylinder Audi TransAm/IMSA engines, and the Tom Milner Ford Probe - were also here, but merely to be tested in the practice sessions.

The first man to shift attention away from the goings-on in Europe, and onto what was happening on the race track, was Oscar Larrauri. 'Popi' had been fastest in testing in early January with Brun Motorsport's Torno Porsche, one of the team's regular Group C cars built early last year by John Thompson. Larrauri was on a fast pace the very instant Thursday's half-hour pole session began.

Jan Lammers, Tom Walkinshaw, Andy Wallace © LAT

After a single lap to warm up a set of Yokohama's soft-race (that is, night racing) tyres, Larrauri came up with a lap time more than half a second under the longstanding track record - Sarel van der Merwe's pole time with the Hendrick team Lola Corvette in late 1985. Oscar - up so early as to miss the traffic - thought he could go faster yet, so stayed on for another lap.

Coming off the banking onto the start/finish straight, Larrauri had to go down low so as to drive around Drake Olson in the Eagle Toyota, which was on its first lap out of the pits. At this moment, the Porsche's right rear tyre exploded.

The car flicked around and, hurtling backwards into the airflow, flipped onto its roof. Larrauri: "I flip over one time, two times, and then - boom! - the car went sliding onto the top. I kept waiting for it to stop. I was sliding upside down saying, 'Stop, please stop', but it didn't, and I tried to sit deeper and deeper into the seat to protect my head."

In every way, this was a good move by 'Popi'. When his car finally did stop sliding, the roll cage had been compressed and the roof had almost been ground through. Worse, a door had been ripped away during the accident, exposing the driver's helmet to the asphalt.

As it was, Larrauri emerged from the wreck wide-eyed but unhurt, and the chassis itself was intact. There was no way, however, that Peter Reinisch's team could repair its car for the race.

The works Nissans, save for some valve-gear in the Japanese-developed V6 engines, were unchanged from last October, but were obvious favourites for the front row. Larrauri's mark was soon beaten by IMSA's reigning champion, Geoff Brabham, although he was understandably miffed because he failed to take his Nissan to its full potential. "I was able to use two sets of qualifiers," said Geoff, "but I lost a few tenths on the first set when I had to out-brake another car into one of the infield turns." The lap time, even so, was more than a second under Geoff's 1989 pole. Brabham was sure he could go better but, on the second set, he was badly baulked in the chicane.

On this occasion, IMSA departed from the usual single-car procedure for the pole session, and Thursday's half-hour was fraught with the kind of traffic problems that make this race probably the most frustrating of all for the fastest sports-prototype drivers.

Brabham said: "It doesn't make sense to me, running the pole session - for the top two places on the grid - as an open session. The Friday session will decide places from the second row back, and the various classes will be split! For the more important of the two sessions, they've given us a crap-shoot."

Brabham, indeed, although he benefited from the Thursday session, saw the pole itself elude him. Throughout the half hour, Bob Wollek had been going faster and faster with the Bayside team's striking Texaco-Havoline Porsche, which was here for its first race since being crashed at San Antonio last year.

In the last gasp of the session, Bob found himself a clear lap. It put him in an exceptionally sunny frame of mind. "Hey, I did something brilliant today!" laughed the 1989 winner of this race. "And, I tell you, it was easy, we didn't even use qualifying tyres. We just went one grade softer on each side of the car. So I had some life in the rubber, which was good, because I had gone for it on both previous laps and run into traffic."

Daly/Earl/Robinson/Brabham Nissan GTP ZX-T © LAT

Chip Robinson, a tad outside the pole record, was next fastest on Thursday with the other Nissan, and the team confirmed that, like last year, it would start both the blue cars while intending to take only one through to the finish.

Like Robinson, Frank Jelinski produced a strong lap on Thursday with Joest Racing's Porsche, and neither man was bumped from the second row of the grid when the split qualifying sessions were run the following day. The Joest entry was the same Group C chassis that won last year at Dijon.

Initially, the inside slot on the third row was held by John Paul Jnr and the customer Nissan which now arms Busby Racing, last year's Daytona winning team. This was the car with which Brabham won the IMSA title last season, but Paul had to drive through an understeer problem he encountered on the infield section as the team continued to dial the car into the BF Goodrich rubber.

In addition, Paul was using a 'tired' engine during practice. Jim Busby's team fitted a new engine for the race on Friday evening, but it broke during the Saturday morning warm-up, and the team had to rush to fit a third V6.

On Friday, James Weaver's effort with Dyson team's new Group C Porsche - a product of Stuttgart - was good enough to bump the Busby Nissan to the outside.

Paul's time was matched on Friday by Raul Boesel, with Jochen Dauer's Porsche. Another 1989 factory chassis, newly modified by John Thompson, this car had missed the first session because if a blown engine. The 1987 World Champion would therefore start from the inside of the fourth row, alongside Bernard Jourdain in the Spice team's impressive new car.

Powered by a 6-litre, 2-valve Chevrolet V8, the Spice was the fastest overall through the speed trap at 203mph. Once the team had dialled out some oversteer, this brand new contender began to show its real potential. Castrol Jaguar team manager Tony Dowe maintained his drivers on a strict qualifying schedule, and ceded to the forced induction men the kudos in the build-up to the big race. Without giving them Goodyear's Q-tyres, Dowe invited his US drivers, Price Cobb and Davy Jones, to qualify the latest XJR12 cars, Cobb half a second outside Jan Lammers's front row time from 1989.

Although the new Jaguars have been built around existing tubs, the overall specification is very different from that of the XJR9. Bodywork modifications to improve the aerodynamics and cooling, and revised suspension for the 17 inch Goodyear tyres, head up an impressively long list of detail changes.

The cars were very reliable throughout the practice days, and here was a team quietly confident of another Daytona success, perhaps with the Cobb car, which was built around the monocoque of the XJR9 that had won this race in 1988.

Moran/Olson/Fangio Eagle HF-89 Toyota © LAT

Behind the Jaguars, Drake Olson lined up the solo Eagle Toyota on the sixth row. With its underpowered, 4 cylinder turbo engine, this was the only chassis built so far by Dan Guerney's team, although another, improved version is almost ready in Santa Ana. Although untidily prepared, the Toyota looks effective and, in the race morning warm-up, Guerney was "tickled pink" when Olson was third fastest.

Alongside the Toyota was Bill Adam with the DSR team Porsche, the best placed of the three GTP Porsches.

The most frustrated GTP driver at Daytona was probably Hans-Joachim Stuck, back in a Porsche for the first time since Le Mans last June. Owned by Rene Herzog's Alucraft yacht building company, and run by John Shapiro, Stuck's cars was one of last year's US-made Jim Chapman GTP chassis. Stuck's Thursday effort was thwarted by an electronics glitch and he had to make do with qualifying the next day with the race set-up, down on the seventh row.

He shared it with Derek Bell, who described Gianpiero Moretti's Momo Porsche, a 1989 Thompson Group C chassis, as the best all-round Porsche he had driven at Daytona. But Derek, having sorted the car and found a good pace on Thursday, was asked to spectate while the team owner qualified it on both days. In between, Bell was fastest in the Thursday night session.

The lowest-placed of the prototypes was Hotchkis Racing's old GTP chassis, built by Fabcar four years ago, which was qualified 15th by Jim Adams.

Race

The race was over essentially by the middle of the night with the Jaguar's well clear of the remaining Porsche privateers. There were some serious concerns for TWR in the closing four hours of the race as both cars fought overheating problems, but the team had enough of a cushion to nurse the cars home.

There is not the slightest doubt that TWR's American operation is in a class beyond anyone else in IMSA, Geoff Brabham may have won the last two IMSA titles for himself and Nissan but when it comes to planning, detail work and the ability to adapt to whatever might occur, TWR's Tony Dowe managed operation sets the standard for IMSA.

The team came to Daytona this year intent on reversing last year's failure in the Floridian 24 hour race. They brought a pair of V12-powered XJR9-based XJR12s to the season opener as the naturally aspirated engines approach the end of their life cycle. Other than at next month's Sebring 12 Hours, TWR will be running V6 turbos this year.

The two new cars were different in many details to last year's, primarily because of the need to accommodate Goodyear's radials. Largely forgotten about in qualifying, they started beside each other from the fifth row, but began to move up as soon as the race got underway. By the first round of pit stops they were up to fourth and sixth positions and after various dramas struck the pair of factory Nissans, the XJR12s came out of the pits third and fourth.

Jones/Lammers/Wallace Jaguar XJR-12 © LAT

One of the Nissans lost a few places when it ran out of fuel a mile or so before its pit. The other hit more serious trouble when a split O-ring in the refuelling system caused a flash fire. The conflagration was quickly extinguished and a decision was made to turn what had been intended as the team's primary car into a back-up, tyre scrubbing machine.

Then in quick succession during the second hour the two leading Porsche 962s lost time in separate incidents. First, the leading Leven/Havoline 962 driven by Bob Wollek/Sarel van der Merwe/Dominic Dobson tangled with one of the tatty GTO Camaros that traditionally populate the backfield.

An hour later the car was back in for more service and delays after an oil fitting to the transmission broke. For the rest of the night and the following day, Wollek/van der Merwe/Dobson were to play catch-up, ultimately the only car with a hope of catching the Jaguars.

While the Leven 962 was stationary in the pits, Reinhold Joest's 962 also hit trouble. Joest's car had taken the lead in the opening laps with a strong stint by Frank Jelinski, but shortly after Henry Pescarolo had taken over, the Frenchman skated off the road in the infield and damaged the car's rear suspension. A long stop was required for repairs.

The third hour brought the first of many yellow flag/pace car episodes. This was caused by Jeff Kline falling foul of one of the GTU cars and crashing the factory Spice-Chevrolet in the infield. Bernard Jourdain qualified the Spice eight and the car was running a strong sixth when it was eliminated. An unfortunate end to a very promising run.

As night settled in, the race had dwindled already into a straight fight between the two Jaguars and the remaining factory Nissan. Jim Busby's ex-works Nissan driven by John Paul Jnr/Kevin Cogan/Mauro Baldi had hit trouble in the pre-race warm-up, blowing its engine. A frantic change got the car onto the grid but the rear anti-roll bar set-up had been compromised by a rushed engine change.

Once the race started Busby's drivers found the car to be an oversteering pig and it took some time for the root cause of the car's handling problems to be discovered and cured.

A sad first retirement from the race was recorded on lap 7 by Rob Dyson who decided to start his own 962 rather than deferring to either of co-drivers James Weaver/Scott Pruett/Vern Schuppan. Unfortunately, Dyson made a mistake as he waded through traffic and finished the race perched on top of a guardrail in the infield.

As everyone began to think about dinner, the only cars still in range of the two Jaguars and the first of the Nissans were All-American Racers Eagle-Toyota and Jochen Dauer's brand new 962C. Putting it into perspective as the race worked into its third hour was TWR engineer Ian Reed. "I never expected to be here at this time," said Reed as he glanced at the scoring tower. "I reckoned it would be at least midnight before we had both cars in the top three."

Jan Lammers prepares to take over during the night © LAT

As the race took shape it became even clearer that TWR was going to be very difficult to beat. The team's pit stops were consistently 20 seconds or more quicker than most of their rivals and as the hours stacked up, the Big Cats progressively padded their cushion.

Into the race's sixth hour there was drama in front of the pits when Derek Bell's red Momo 962 suddenly came into view on its roof! The car had got out of control after blowing a tyre coming off the east banking and Bell was lucky to escape a nasty looking accident without injury.

Meanwhile, the Jaguars continued to set the pace, running cleanly without incident. Brabham/Robinson/Daly/Earl kept the pressure on, however, while a surprising presence among the leaders as Saturday faded into Sunday was the Dauer 962C driven by Boesel/Unser/Unser. Despite his complete lack of experience in GTP machinery, young Robby Unser was able to come close to the lap times of his more experienced cousin and Boesel.

Just after midnight the Dauer Porsche hit trouble with a failed gearbox oil pump and, after pushing through a variety of additional woes, the team finally called it quits around 5am because of a failing engine. The valiant Eagle-Toyota also had to give up the struggle, its engine beginning to give out after a competitive run by Olson/Fangio II/Moran.

None of this had any effect on the Jaguars which still had the looming presence of last year's championship-winning team to consider. Around 1am, TWR's Tony Dowe leaned over from the scoring stand he was occupying with Tom Walkinshaw. "We've got a race on our hands," he commented grimly. Indeed, the Jaguar drivers were running at a fast pace, faster than many thought was prudent. But, as Dowe had said earlier in the weekend and would say again after it was all over: "The only way to break the others, the Nissan in particular is to keep forcing the pace."

Through the uncommonly warm and humid night, they continued to do exactly that, and by dawn they had largely accomplished their task. Both the factory Nissan and Busby's private example had succumbed to engine failures and as the sun came up on Sunday morning the Jaguars were still running in tandem, no less than 16 laps clear of the third-placed Wollek/van der Merwe/Dobson 962.

The first sign of any trouble for TWR came on Sunday morning when Price Cobb had to clamber out of the car he was sharing with Brundle/Nielsen. A few hours later there was more trouble when the Lammers/Jones/Wallace XJR12 came into the pits with an overheating problem. After a couple of stops to bleed the cooling system, the car carried on, virtually unabated, but you can be sure the mood in the TWR pit was tense.

The atmosphere was exacerbated about an hour later when the other Jaguar had to come in for a similar flushing of its cooling system. These stops meant that the charging Wollek/van der Merwe/Dobson 962 was able to move dangerously close to the pair of Jaguars. As the race wound down the third-placed Porsche kept chipping away at the Jags, ultimately getting to within six laps of the winner and three laps of the runner-up. The rest of the field, led by the Stuck/Haywood/Grohs/Herzog 962 were 50 or more laps behind!

Victory lane © LAT

So it was that TWR won its second Daytona 24 Hours in three years, thoroughly avenging its defeat in this race last year. For Lammers and Wallace, it was their second 24-hour victory in company with their Le Mans victory in 1988. for home grown talent Jones, it was his first 24-hour victory and first win for TWR, helping cement an already strong relationship.

"This is much more satisfying than the win in '88," commented team manager Dowe. "We had only been together as a team about 16 weeks in '88 and I think all of us were too busy to appreciate what we'd done. But this time round was different. We knew what we had to do and what was involved in doing it. But when we arrived here I knew we could do it. The team wanted it. We were hungry for it. We came here to win and I don't think anyone else was anything like as prepared for the job as we were."