It took me 17 hrs to get there; air travel, you don't want to know; but I got there.

The first hurdle for me was, after spending so much time in air-conditioned airports, not to mention airport food, and jumping into the thick hot Florida air was a big shock to my system. The whole day of practice I was sick to my stomach. Shane Lewis was so kind as to bring me some bread hoping I would eat something, but only when the temperature dropped did I start to feel better, but my thanks to Shane for caring.

Practice seemed too short to get to know the track and the car. The heat certainly did not help. I did not get the opportunity to qualify as the car had a fuel pick up problem, so I started in the back of the pack. But was I having fun? Absolutely!

The race was scheduled for 11pm. Right after church with Motorsports Ministries' Pastor Steve, we had our drivers meeting. The Grand-Am Rolex team had a plan A and a plan B for TV, and this depended on whether or not one of the NASCAR drivers had a crash during qualifying for the Pepsi 400, to allow for a window to clean up. So at 9pm we waited for the call.

One word of caution, at the meeting, was you had better be ready for the light transition from the outfield to the infield, as the grandstand lights are so bright that your eyes need to adjust. It turns black entering the infield. This was no problem for me, except, in the rush of things, I missed getting my second seat pad and was sitting too low to see the right hand turns, (these cars have a large hood) which after the race proved to be a real pain in the neck, literally. But I certainly loved the opportunity to run at night, and doing it at Daytona for the first time was simply fabulous.

Coming down the front straight was an awesome site. I got on the radio and said, "I wish I had my in-car-camera" to see the thousands of fans in the Grandstands at Daytona. It was incredible!

At the start, I had a couple of prototypes behind me, so I let them by in the first corner. The track was hot and greasy, even at that time of night. The bus stop was cool as they had a good old fashioned freeway light arrow pointing the way. I did grass it at the bus stop on the exit one lap, to get out of the way of some proto types. Running a race like this as well as Grand-AM Cup or ALMS, you have different races of different classes competing at the same time. We were in the slowest class so there was a lot of letting by going on, which made for even more exciting racing.

You would have to be in the drivers seat to fully describe running with such fast prototypes, GT cars, and talented drivers from road racing and NASCAR. It's truly "Art in Motion". I had a good consistent run. I brought the #150 Firebird in at about 1:20 for a driver change. Our change was a bit longer that practiced for, but he went out and had a good run till 5th gear gave out at about 2 and some hours in. We finished 11th in class.

My special appreciation and thanks to God for being able to run with as such proven drivers not only from the road racing circuits but NASCAR as well. This Rolex event was a challenge and exciting. I am so grateful to have been a part of it, and able to run with the MBR Racing Team. Meeting Mike and Mary, the team owners of MBR Racing, was so very pleasurable. A devoted, focused, and determined team. Professional and competitive. My thanks go to each and every one of the them! Frank for the introduction, the other drivers of the team, Bob and Mike you guys win an academy award for the drama at Mid-Ohio, (I'm joking here, you guys almost had it!, and that's what matters.) Look forward to the opportunity to run with them again!