Mowlem's Musings

It all began just before Christmas. I got a phone call from Max Crawford whom I had just met the week before at a Sebring test. "Hi Johnny, it's Max, just wanted to give you an early Xmas present and let you know that we've decided to hire you for the Daytona 24 hours." (Much silent jubilation at my end of the phone).

Max continues: "It'll be just the three of you. We'll use Jan Lammers to get the car set up as he has all the experience and then we'll try and split the remaining seat time between you and Tony."

"Tony?" I enquire, "Tony who?"

"Tony Stewart" comes the reply.

"Not THE Tony Stewart, as in IRL and Nascar superstar, as in Tony 'I can't go to McDonalds without being attacked by hoards of screaming fans because I'm mega' Stewart?" "You've heard of him then!" Says Max.

For a moment I'm speechless! For this I make no apology, I'm fed up with people in life pretending to be blasé about something when they are either genuinely impressed, or have finally achieved something that they have been working towards for a long time.

I fell into both camps on this one. Not only had Max just shown enormous faith in hiring me when I hadn't driven his car yet, but he was pairing me with arguably one of the best sportscar drivers in the world and one of the most famous drivers in America. As a Christmas present this would last me until 2010!

This whole deal was especially nice, as so often in the past when I have agreed a deal it has been the result of weeks or months of drawn out negotiations, finally resulting in a feeling more akin to relief when you finally sign contracts. My agreement with Max happened so quickly that the feeling of euphoria in getting to drive a car capable of winning overall one of the world's biggest sportscar races, never had a chance to wear off!


Fast forward to the official test in early January. I meet the whole team along with Jan Lammers and Tony Stewart, and immediately feel at home. They are a fantastically nice bunch of people. Extremely professional, but also intent on enjoying themselves wherever possible, and there is a real family atmosphere about the whole operation. Jan is extremely impressed with the Crawford SSC2K and shows the car's potential instantly by setting competitve times from the start. We eventually end up third overall, and Max and Jan Crawford are quite understandably delighted. Us three drivers all hit it off very well and Tony and I get around 25 laps each in the car. Enough for me to begin to feel comfortable and and get the lap times down to where the team appear pleased.


Fast forward again to the race weekend. Because of how well we went at the test, expectations are quite high for the race. We know we have one of the quickest cars out there, and therefore if we are reliable we have an excellent chance to win the race. The downside is that we also have one of the newest cars, and with the limited tracktime at the race weekend we don't have much time to really plug into the Crawford's enormous potential. Nevertheless, Jan does an excellent job to set third fastest time in qualifying, and we all know there is more to come. Max is great and allows me and Tony to drive the entire night session, which amounts to around 25 laps each, all in one go.

I really begin to enjoy driving the car and my times reflect that. The biggest thing I was having to get used to was dealing with slower cars. I've been on the receiving end of some prototype abuse over the years, both in a Porsche and a Saleen, but I have to say that having now joined the 'big boys', I can see where some of the problems arise from! The closing speeds at some points are ridiculous! For example, in the Crawford I was braking after the 100 yard board for Turn One as you come off the banking. That meant that at the 100 yard board I was still travelling at the best part of 190mph. A GT car, especially when being driven by a non professional driver, was braking for the same corner at around 200yds, which means that by the 100yd board he would have slowed from 180mph to around 90mph - thus a closing speed of 100mph...


Friday's final practice session brought me one of my personal highlights of the race weekend. As it is the final session before the race, everyone rotors through all their drivers and by the end of the session I had clocked the fastest time to head the time sheets. I know Jan could probably have gone quicker if he'd had less traffic, but it was still very nice to top the time sheets for the first time in a prototype, especially as we had been running full tanks and used tyres. It was also very nice for me to put the Crawford at the top of the time sheets and I hope vindicate Max's decision to hire me.

Now I really felt ready for the race.

Race day dawned slightly cooler than those previous, but it was still pleasantly sunny as all the cars lined up in pitlane. I helped strap Jan in for the start and then Tony and I went and watched the start from the pits for a few laps, before retiring for lunch to his motorhome, which is bigger than my house!

Jan did one stint and then brought the car in for my first stint. I can remember looking up at the scoreboard every lap as I drove by, and seeing us in third place, which was rather nice. Unfortunately on Tony's first stint we had a flat battery which lost us some time, but we eventually clawed our way back up to a solid third position. Then on my fifth stint, shortly after getting in the car at around 1am, I heard a slight change in engine noise and a loss in power. Rather than risk anything I brought the car straight back into the pits, but unfortunately the problem was terminal. The dream was over, but Max and Jan Crawford and Andrew Scriven, the designer, had all proved a point. The car was imensely competitive on it's first proper showing, and got the fastest race lap by some margin. They had showcased the car beautifully and they deserve for it to be a success in the hands of customer teams.

On a personal note, I learnt a lot! Experience counts for a great deal with these cars and Jan Lammers and Max taught me an enormous amount. Meeting Tony was an absolute pleasure. Like me he was driving a prototype for the first time and despite his lack of road racing experience he did an outstanding job. We all fitted together really well.

I can't ever remember having so much fun with a team, and I hope that I have the opportunity to drive for them all again at some point. Max said some very nice things to me after the race, and I'm really glad I delivered for him, but the bottom line is that I will always owe him for giving me the opportunity to show everyone what I could do in the first place.