Randy Pobst: Sometimes, losing makes for more memorable stories

The Rolex 24 At Daytona. It’s the greatest endurance race in North America and number two in the world to Le Mans. It has always been the single granddaddy event in my career. 

Having run the race from the mid ’90s and nearly every Firestone Firehawk race ever, I’d already experienced the obvious by 2000: There are a lot of ways to lose a 24 hour. 

By that time, I’d already been part of a 24 hour-winning team in Firehawk and part of heartbreaking losses with several others. For every car that wins a 24, there are several that woulda, coulda, shoulda. 

[A Brief History of Street Stock Endurance Racing | 1985-2010]

And I’ve also realized that the losers often have better stories than the winners. More drama. Defeat, snatched from the jaws of victory. Let’s start with one of the almost wins.

In 2000, I had the great fortune to land a ride with Alex Job Racing and Bruno Lambert in a Porsche 911 GT3R, the all-new 996 water-cooled version. As the factory-friendly American team, AJR had gotten the 996 early, in the summer of 1999. Alex had already broken the BMW’s stranglehold on GT racing over here with the air-cooled 911 RSR–the 993 version. The ultimate old-school non-turbo 911. It remains one of, if not my most favorite, racers ever. 

[An exclusive look inside AJR Restorations | The legacy of Alex Job’s Porsche career]

Thanks to the dream team under Alex, engineer Greg Fordahl, and crew chief/engine builder Jeff Gamroth, this car was just fantastic. Greg and I just clicked, and he set up some of the best-handling cars I’ve ever driven. And Jeff made them powerful and reliable. Sadly, Greg passed away much too soon a couple years ago. I loved the man and always dreamed of racing with him again, just for the joy of driving his creations and laughing at his dry and witty sense of humor. It was not easy to beat the Tom Milner factory BMW M3 effort, and they had an amazing lineup of pros like Bill Auberlen and Hans Stuck, but Alex Job’s car and team could do it.

The 996 GT3R was a tremendous contrast to the extremely well-developed 993 RSR. After decades of taming the rear-engine layout, it was as if Porsche had gone back to the drawing board with the 996. The AJR 993 was stable and friendly, and it stopped so well with race-tuned ABS. A joy. The 996 was stiff and twitchy, and as delivered it was very difficult to get slowed down with no ABS and a rock-hard pedal. 

But man, was it ever a rocket on the straights. Slick as a worn soap bar, with the new four-valve-per-cylinder, double-overhead-cam engine with water cooling, this thing wailed at high revs. 

It destroyed the 993 at the top end by a good 10 mph, but the old girl sure handled better. The page had turned, though, as the power destroyed the last-gen Luftgekühlt. At Daytona, with its long, high-banked “straights,” the new car was the only way to go. And we were the only American team that had already been running the car.

In practice, we learned another quirk of the 996 chassis. Rear camber gain. It had a lot. And on the high banks at 160+, this compressed that rear suspension, and the tires couldn’t take it. Too much inside loading. This is still an issue today, and your tire company engineers will warn you to reduce rear camber and increase pressure to survive. 

I had a heck of a high-speed blowout exiting NASCAR Turn 4, doing a death wiggle all the way into pit lane, ending conveniently at the AJR pit, like I’d planned it. I didn’t. “Hi, guys, sorry I didn’t call first, but I was a little busy trying not to die and countersteering like a mad monkey.”

The race was crazy nuts. There were lots of new GT3Rs, some from Europe, and they all ran off into the lead. About 12 hours in, they all began overheating. Seems sand from the new castings was leeching out and eating the water pumps. Then they started dropping valves, expiring one by one. Supplier issues, said Porsche.

Ours was one of the last to go, because our gearbox had a bad second gear, and we used only third and up. Less revs. With an hour anna half to go, we had a half-hour lead!

Then boom, we dropped a valve, too. Alex tried something admirably crazy: Cut off the cam and skip the cylinder. Worked for a while but then died. So close.

And what won? The old reliable 993 of another team, the tortoise to the hares. This lesson was part of my comeback team in 2006. Stay tuned for the next column

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