Vintage Picture Post - Y2K Rolex 24

Years ago, my buddy Kevin and I hit the road on a very last-minute trip to check out the Rolex 24 at Daytona. I had been wanting to go for years....my obsession with all things sports car related was showing no signs of slowing, and after watching almost all of the televised portions of the LeMans 24 the year before (1998), I had little choice. I needed to experience something similar, in real time. Adding to this draw was the fact that my good friend Robert (now owner of Lufteknic in Richmond, VA) was working for G&W Porsche that year, ensuring we would get a bit of a behind the scenes view whenever he had a spare second...which was not often.
Y2K was the year that the GT3R first came out, and although Daytona was crawling with the first-ever watercooled 911 street racer, they were not so reliable. G&W's own brand new car was running third in leading their class up to around 7:30 a.m., then boom. Oil, coolant, everywhere. Retired. They had quite the all-star driving team for that car, including Darren Law, Uwe Alzen and Patrick and Duncan Huisman, so they really could have had a shot at the class win.
With so many of the faster GT3R's expiring, the Jennifer Fund 993 RSR stayed reliable, stayed on track, and managed a 3rd in class finish. Robert and the team were kind enough to let us check it out. I even got to crawl inside and check it out from the pilot's perspective, which was (and still is) pretty cool. Less than an hour after this car ran the 24 and finished on the podium I got to sit inside and make racing noises, that sort of kid stuff. Good times.
The Roock racing team was running in GT2, but this was the era of the Viper domination, so they didn't win, but it was an awesome car nontheless. More pics to come, plus a report from the 2002 race, where the Jennifer Fund 911 did not fare quite as well...

Until next time...

_WRS