Here is a primer for the 24 at Daytona this weekend (also known as the Rolex 24 Daytona in deference to the provider of the traditional* prize of a watch to class winners).

Where can I watch/listen to it?

Motors TV and Speed have TV coverage for Europe and the USA respectively. Magnus Racing (one of the GT teams, running car #4) will have an on-board camera accessible via the internet all race. Please consult your TV listings if you live elsewhere and post if you are in a position to augment or correct my information.

Where is it?

The race is held at a tri-oval with infield section called the Daytona International Speedway, in Florida, USA. It is 5 hours behind GMT. The track is 3.56 miles long, with very fast corners (aided by the 31-degree banking) and somewhat trickier (but still fast) final sector.

How old is it?

The 24 at Daytona celebrates its 50th birthday this year, having run a race every year since 1962. It has "only" been 24 hours long since 1967, which is still long enough to be considered one of the three races in the Triple Crown of endurance racing (albeit Petit Le Mans is sometimes substituted for it).

Points situation?

It's the first race of the Grand-Am season, so nobody has any points at the moment. Many of the entries have no intention of completing the whole season, but some will complete the 13-race calendar. For those doing so, the points on offer go from 35 for the winner to 1 for 30th place. Only finishing positions score points.

Who and what is in it?

The entry list is divided into prototypes (which are all a Grand-Am specific class called Daytona Prototypes) and GT cars (which are also a Grand-Am specific class, similar to GT3s in performance level). It's a very long list, so I will simply provide a link to the full list and highlight some names who may do well.

Prototypes

#01 Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, BMW-Riley (Hand, Pruett, Rahal, Rojas)
#02 Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, BMW-Riley (Dixon, D Franchitti, McMurray, Montoya)

Chip Ganassi has raced at Daytona for 7 years, with Scott Pruett having been there since the beginning. It won the 24-hour race last year as well as in 2007 and has three championships under its belt in this series. It is difficult to find any weak link in this team, though Corvette is providing strong competition.

#2 Starworks Motorsport, Ford-Riley (Hunter-Reay, Kanaan, M Potolicchio, Scala, Viso)
#8 Starworks Motorsport, Ford-Riley (Dalziel, Luhr, McNish, Popow, E Potolicchio)

Starworks is running a pair of grandfathered cars this year, in contrast to the likes of SunTrust (car #10) who have a 2012-spec car. In testing, the #2 had the fastest grandfathered car in the "Roar Before the 24" test. Allan McNish of Audi is in #8, while the #2 car is full of Indycar stars.

Sadly the #2 StarWorks has since been withdrawn.

#10 SunTrust, Corvette DP (Taylor, Angelelli, Briscoe)

By some margin the fastest prototype overall (though not the holder of its fastest lap), SunTrust has clearly learned the Daytona circuit well. Keep a close eye on SunTrust as it is arguably the strongest contender for the overall win.

#60 Michael Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian, Ford-Riley (Allmedinger, Negri, Pew, Wilson)

Like the #2 Starworks, this car is full of Indycar experts. Michael Shank Racing has previously qualified on pole in Daytona, back in 2008.

#76 Krohn Racing, Ford-Lola (Braun, Jonsson, T Krohn, Zonta)

Nic Jonsson turned the fastest lap of the "Roar Before the 24" test, suggesting that Krohn will be extremely quick in qualifying. He and Tracy Krohn teamed up to great effect in the GTE-Am class of ILMC last year, while Ricardo Zonta is an ex-F1 driver.

GT cars

#03 Extreme Speed Motorsports Ferrari 458 (Brown, Cosmo, Sharp, van Overbeek)

It's the first time the Ferrari 458 has been used at Daytona and it is proving to be a very quick car in Daytona configuration. Ed Cosmo produced the fastest GT lap of the final day. Extreme Speed hasn't done Daytona before but it is already a very strong prospect.

#45 Flying Lizard Motorsports with Wright Motorsports, Porsche GT3 (Bergmeister, P Long, Neiman, Rockenfeller)

Last year, Flying Lizard took overall pole and second place in the race with a prototype. In GT they will be with a car they are even more familiar with, making them a big threat for the top positions. Mike Rockenfeller will be familiar to most sportscar fans from his work at Audi. His talents will be complemented by Joerg Bergmeister and Patrick Long, who drove commendably for Flying Lizard in ILMC last year. The weak link is likely to be Seth Neiman, but even so, car #45 should not be lightly discounted.

#48 Paul Miller Racing, Porsche GT3 (Bell, Maarsen, Miller, Wilkins)

Rob Bell impressed enormously at JMW last year and his addition to the squad will help it a lot. The others are experienced at Daytona. Expect car #48 to run quietly under the radar and surprise with a good result at the end of the race.

#51 APR Motorsport, Audi R8 Grand-Am (Baas, Canache, Norman, Pirro, Moltke)

APR Motorsport has two things in its favour; the Audi R8 (as a new car to this category, a surprise could be sprung) and the evergreen skill of Emanuele Pirro. The car will probably run in the back half of the grid most of the time but have some spectacular stints from Pirro to enliven the race.

#55 AF Waltrip, Ferrari 458 (Augas, Kauffman, Pastrana, Waltrip)

European powerhouse AF Corse and Michael Waltrip team up with 24H Le Mans team-mate Rob Kauffman. Expect Rui Augas, who raced well in GTE-Am ILMC last year, to be quick. It is not yet clear how fast Travis Pastrana will be, but this year is mostly a learning experience for the AF Waltrip alliance.

#59 Brumos Racing, Porsche GT3 (Davis, Haywood, Keen, Lieb)

Brumos is a highly experienced squad, with all four of its drivers having done the race in its car last year. They carry the confidence born of winning the Grand-Am championship last year. Marc Lieb is one of the fastest GT drivers in ILMC and Leh Keen is doing very well in GTC. Hurley Haywood is doing his 40th and final Daytona, so it would be good to see him and his team-mates have a great race to remember.

#62 Risi Competizione, Ferrari 458 (Bruni, Fisichella, Matos)
#63 Risi Competizione, Ferrari 458 (Beretta, Bertolini, Vilander)

Risi Competizione hasn't visited Daytona in over a decade, not that anyone would have known from looking from the timesheets. Toni Vilander produced the fastest GT lap of the entire test. The Risis have been slightly inconsistent, but much of this is due to three of its six drivers having never driven in a Daytona race before. By race day, expect both cars to be up there with the best. Each car is only going to use three drivers in a race that normally uses four, but everyone in the squad is experienced either with Daytona or Le Mans' 24-hour races, so fatigue shouldn't pose a significant problem.

#64 TRG, Porsche GT3 (Ardagna, Costobal, Da Guida, Orjuela, Salazar)
#66 TRG, Porsche GT3 (Farnbacher, Keating, Pilet, Simonsen)
#67 TRG, Porsche GT3 (Bertheau, Bleekemolen, Goosens, Henzler, Pumpelly)

The record of TRG is excellent at Daytona. They've put 5 cars into the race, 3 of which are likely to be of particular interest. The #66 TRG has got the core of the old Spyker GT2 team in its driving squad, plus Patrick Pilet from the IMSA Performance Matmut team. This balanced squad should help it do well in the race. The #67 TRG also has a high-quality driver line-up, ranging from Jeroen Bleekemolen (one of the stand-out talents in GTC last year) to Wolf Henzler, who was in a huge variety of GT races last year and did respectably well in all of them. While the #64 TRG probably won't be as quick as either, it does feature ex-F1 racer Eliseo Salazar.

#70 Speedsource, Mazda RX-8 (Bomarito, M Franchitti, Hinchcliffe, Tremblay)

Marino Franchitti knows sportscars well and will be the key to this car's speed. Promising Indycar driver Jamie Hinchcliffe has joined in and the other two drivers are experienced with the Mazda RX-8. They've looked pretty good throughout the "Roar Before the 24" test.

#88 Autohaus Motorsports, Camaro GT.R (Edwards, Marsh, Milner, Taylor)

Autohaus is a strong team that came 2nd in the Grand-Am championship last year. The only car out of those I've highlighted to be using the Camaro GT.R, the balanced line-up is likely to be strong.

#93 Turner Motorsport BMW GT3 (Auberlen, Dalla Lana, Marsal, D Muller, J Muller)
#94 Turner Motorsport BMW GT3 (Auberlen, Dalla Lana, Johnson, Said, Werner)

While there are BMWs in the prototype race, this is the place to look for the drivers who previously competed in the ILMC and ALMS series. There is a lot of talent here. Granted, many of the drivers don't have Daytona experience, but they are all likely to learn the ropes quickly. Also, the Auberlen and Dalla Lana mentions are not typos; in Grand-Am, drivers are allowed to swap cars if entered for both, provided drivers doing so only take points for the first car they drove out of those listed.

* - I say "traditional" but it's only been awarded since 1991, the point where Rolex began the sponsorship.

Just after lunch today, Dad, my brother and I went to the Kurburgring in Sutton-in-Ashfield. Never mind the punny title - it was the first time I'd karted in a while and as a bonus I would get to compete against my brother! He has had some road car driving experience but between the sessions I've done at Elk Karting and the one at Amen Corner, I've got slightly more experience of karts.

The reception was nice, with race-themed chairs and friendly staff. Our luck was in because it turned out that Thursday afternoon is "happy hour", so there was a discount on the karting. One downside became apparent immediately; it was noisy, largely because there were petrol karts on an indoor track. This was an issue for me as I have sensitive hearing. I'd brought earplugs but the staff provided some as well.  The other issue with using petrol karts indoors is ventilation, though the place didn't have much in the way of fumes in the air.

The briefing was not the usual set-up of someone standing at the front of the classroom going through the rules. It started that way, with a staff member pointing out the basics as well as briefly explaining circuit-specific things like where different rooms were and the evacuation procedure, but then we were left watching a video with the rules on there. If I'd been a first-timer, I do wonder what would have happened if I hadn't understood the video properly, but fortunately I've karted before and the rules were only slightly different for the Kurburgring. The big circuit-specific rule was that the banked Karusell Corner/Turn 2 was a half-speed corner with no overtaking permitted.

This banked corner was the big "selling point" of the Kurburgring; a square hairpin with a very uneven surface unlike the rest of the track surface. The bank was steep enough that it was impossible to see what was on it from the spectator area, but there was a marshal position inside the corner in the (likely) case of someone getting it wrong.

The corner was important but it wasn't the most important one on the circuit. That was the double-apex Turn 6, which had a deceptive amount of run-off and invites two major faults - excessively early turn-in and excessive entry speed. I found the early turn-in issue to be quite a fault in my driving during the early stages, resulting in two small crashes. Once I got myself out but the other time I had to wave a marshall over to help me.

The excessive entry speed problem was more noticeable in the group that raced before my family descended upon the track. Two karters in particular had a tendency to try going full-pelt through the first apex, slam on the brakes, skid, barely make it through the second apex... ...and get passed by the karter who'd gone wide and let them make their mistake. Apart from the times the karter who'd gone in too fast simply found the barriers and had to get help.

The karts in question have 270 cc, which is as much as a single-engine arrive-and-drive kart can be expected to do. The circuit is also fairly new, so we're talking about karts in a reasonable state. For the first five laps, I also missed the barriers. With that in mind, note this:

• The Kurburgring is 450 metres.
• My first lap was 62.343 seconds.  
• This is a rather stately 16.147 mph. 

  My first lap round the track may be the slowest one of the day (and certainly was as of the time I left the track).  My next three laps were nothing special either because I was still learning the track. This involved nearly stopping the kart at each corner because I was figuring out apexes and braking points. I even had to apply the brakes a little on the flat-out Devil's Elbow/Turn 1. My brother was long gone, having passed me halfway round the first lap.

Apparently Dad, on the sidelines, was getting worried that I might not be enjoying myself. Admittedly, the point in the opening lap where I got cramp in my right foot was no fun at all, but it wore off (the cramp not the foot) and fun started to creep in. Then I suddenly went 4 seconds faster than my previous lap - and 27 seconds faster than my first one - to put in a respectable 35.932 second lap. That was more like it :) This gave me more confidence - perhaps more than was warranted. Next lap, I spun at the second of three hairpin corners called "Mirabeau" (or Turn 8). There was no Monaco-esque crane, only the need to wave over an ever-willing marshal. My brother crashed at the same corner later in the lap, which made me feel better and got me within half a lap of him.

I'd almost caught my brother again when I had the first of my crashes at Turn 6, followed by another crash in the second Mirabeau hairpin two laps later. So much for getting a rhythm and now my brother was threatening to pass me again.

Fortunately, something had clicked in my head. I pulled out a string of laps in the high-35 to low-37 second range, gradually getting better until lap 23. Then I had another breakthrough and did 7 of the next 8 laps within a second of one another, the fastest at 34.008. The one lap that wasn't was the lap I caught my brother. He was beginning to get tired and make mistakes. I spent much of one lap following him (his basic technique was good) but when he made an error of concentration at Turn 3 of the following lap, I cut to the inside and overtook him. He retired 3 laps later due to tiredness and spent the rest of the session with Dad, watching me.

I was worried for a time that I'd missed the chequered flag signal because I didn't see any indicator that proved I should be the only kart on track. It was only when I saw Dad and my brother not waving their arms round trying to get me to notice them that I worked out everything was OK. Whereupon I crashed at the double-apexed Turn 6. Oops.

That was my last major error of the session. I turned in a series of reasonably consistent laps. There was a lap in the high-35 seconds, two in the low-36 seconds and then 8 of the last 9 laps were within half-a-second of one another, in the high-34 seconds and very-low-35 seconds. 

There was something a little bit different about the other lap, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. I was still very happy as the chequered flag was waved, though - I can't see times from the kart but I could feel a pattern beginning to settle into my muscles. I cruised round one last time, parked the kart and scrambled over the barrier separating kart from staff. The staff member who met me (who'd also initiated my safety briefing) told me I'd done very well. I assumed she meant I'd behaved well and not been a complete embarrassment to anyone, so I said "thank you" and went to Dad and my brother.

Who then pointed me to the timing screen. It's a good system that clearly indicates best times, recent times by everyone on track and a leaderboard of times for the day. I'd beaten my brother (whose time of 34.408 seconds was itself very respectable), which was hardly a surprise given I'd had the unfair advantage of 16 more laps. The odd thing was that I had the fastest time of anyone who'd come to the track today. Especially odd when the staff member who'd said I'd done well observed that a lot of the others had previously visited.

That lap which felt a little bit different? It was 33.755 seconds, beating the next-fastest time by 0.289 seconds. Turned out that it was fast enough to get onto one of the leaderboards. I am officially the 15th-fastest woman at the Kurburgring in terms of fastest laps - all of those with better times having set them on second or subsequent visits. Yippee!

On discovering this, we collected our timesheets, returned the borrowed kit and left to tell Grandma what had happened. She said she never wanted to be my passenger in a road car. That's fine by me as it is unlikely I will even have a road licence any time soon ;)

I very much want to go again - and hopefully this time warm up a little quicker! Until then, my brother has the consolation of having a faster average time than me... 

Date: November 24 2009

Currently: Reading F1 Magazine (December 2001 edition)

Mood: Thoughtful O=:)

Joe Saward's blog has a very interesting entry today, quoting Carlos Ghosn's perspective on F1. It is not exactly sweetness and light. Charles seems rather annoyed about a variety of things.

Firstly, he is unhappy about unequal treatment in F1. Renault of all F1 teams should know, since it's experienced that unfairness from both sides. On the one hand, Renault has benefitted from a surprisingly lenient decision with regard to its acquiring McLaren information in 2007, alongside a relatively light (if logical from a certain point of view) penalty from the Nelsinho Defence. On the other hand, Renault has lost out on such matters as the mass damper case in 2006 (where the justification for the technology ban implicitly banned all F1 cars which have ever raced) and has also seen other teams - notably Ferrari - receive concessions that could be deemed unequal.

After Crashgate, Renault must know that at the Bank of Luck (or at least the Bank of FIA Leniency) it's hit the credit limit. As a racing team and a business, Renault naturally looks for advantage wherever it can find it. If there is zero possibility of special favours coming its way, then it can call for the cessation of special favours to others and advance its cause that way. Whether the bartering of special favours is appropriate behaviour for a racing team is for those of us who worry about ethics to debate, but from a strictly logical point of view, it makes sense for the Renault team to fight this particular battle despite the inevitable accusations of hypocrisy.

Part of that battle is internal. This is made clear from the strong emphasis on the environment that Carlos placed. The only reason I can see for casting doubt on the FIA's environmental policies is if the team's controlling influences doubt the possibility of their success soon enough to help Renault out of recession. A F1 racing team may be an attractive accessory for a broader company but ultimately it is only an accessory. If Renault has decided that the environment is the next big selling point that will convince people to buy cars, then they will insist that their marketing aligns with that concept. If F1 is seen as a waste of time, energy and fuel, then it will be jettisoned. After all, it's not like Renault can point to recent success as justification to stay.

After three years of struggle in the mid-field, slipping down the table despite talisman Alonso coming back to aid them, Renault need a strong justification to avoid having their funding cut by the board. Worse still for them, Alonso is leaving again, implying that something is seriously wrong with Renault (else why would someone so successful and determined leave it for Ferrari?) If it can't be found, Enstone and Viry-Chatillon will face an uncertain future. F1 has become known for cheating and dodgy behaviour - ironically due to scandals including the Nelsinho Defence - and perhaps being seen as part of the reason for the improvement of F1 will help Carlos justify to the rest of the board why Renault should stay in F1.

Carlos came into Renault with a reputation for being "The Cost-Cutter" and for a long time there was concern that the F1 programme would be cut. Then came the championships and everyone stopped worrying. However, Renault could easily have walked away last year and didn't, despite Honda doing so. This gives me a certain amount of hope that Carlos has become pro-F1, even if other members of the Renault board are anti-F1 and could out-vote him.

However, this outburst probably won't help Carlos get the answers it wants. The FIA is perhaps the only body able to answer these questions and it is likely to keep its silence until Renault leaves it with implicit permission to gloat at the folly of manufacturers who believed its words and then leave despite contracts when they are proven wrong. It will probably say this means commitment, development and competition mean nothing to manufacturers. What it really means is that sensible rule-making, protection of the sport and the needs of other stakeholders mean little if anything to the FIA.

I want Jean Todt to prove me wrong. Time will tell.