Jan 25th & 26th Marked the 47th Running of The 24 Hours @ Daytona, the season opener for the entire racing world, but more particularly the 2009 Rolex Grand Am Series. This was also a particularly special date as it was Jeff Westphal’s Sports Car Racing Career Debut.
The weekend started Thursday, January 22 for the 251 drivers in attendance (not the least of which included drivers such as Juan Pablo Montoya, Danica Patrick, AJ Allmendinger, Jimmie Johnson, Scott Dixon, Ryan Briscoe to name a few) with a mandatory drivers meeting. From then on, it was selected practice sessions until Friday morning Qualifying. PR1 Motorsports had it’s own agenda between the Grand Am schedule; out of the 4 drivers in the car, Team Owner Bobby Oergel needed to select someone to qualify the car.
After a “qualifying shootout” in an earlier practice session, it was decided that Jeff would be the one to qualify the #32 Miracle Sealants Pontiac GXP-R. By the end of the short 15 minute qualifying session, Jeff had positioned the Pontiac in 21st out of 30 Gt entries. The light at the end of the tunnel was that the Pontiac’s disadvantage comparatively to the other Gt cars (Porsche’s and Mazda’s) was it’s aerodynamic efficiency. So it was a pretty sure bet that a Pontiac wouldn’t be on pole at this heavily aero limited track. However, the 2008 Championship winning car was a Pontiac driven by Factory GM driver Paul Edwards which was only a mere .4 of a second ahead of the #32 Westphal piloted Pontiac. “Qualifying was very interesting to say the least, every session so far in this series has been at least an hour long, so to say we have 15 minutes and send us out there, it definitely called upon my F2000 roots to try and get a lap in early. I had traffic and or spun out cars infront of me on my two quick laps toward the end of the session, which cost us a little bit more than .2 a lap, so we would’ve been within a tenth of a second of Edwards had there been no issues.” commented the talented rookie. That being the case, the #32 car would have only started 4 spots farther up on the 30 car grid.
Come Saturday morning, the anticipation had been building since the first test in November. “You could feel the tension in the atmosphere, everyone was pretty much ready to just hop in and get going. But there were media responsibilities to attend to before anything racey happened. I felt like very much the small fish in the big pond if you will, with such a great lineup of drivers, it’s an honor to be racing with some of those names.” As the start drew nearer and nearer, with Jeff burning through the media responsibilities, autograph sessions, pre race prep, before he or anyone else knew it, the grid was set and the national anthem was playing. As the cars rolled out and the green flag flew, the esteemed grid of talent had no idea who Jeff Westphal was, but they were about to find out. After his first double stint (consisting of 2 sets of tires and 2 loads of fuel, approximately 2 hours of driving) Jeff had hoisted the #32 Miracle Sealants Pontiac up to 13th out of the 30 cars. “We’re definitely not the quickest lap to lap, but we are definitely consistent and we’re quite good in the infield as well!” Elated the 22 year old after his first hours in a Grand AM Race.
As the race wore on and Jeff had been retired to his Motorhome for some sleep in preparation for the grave yard shift (midnight - 7am.), at around 8pm on a restart after a yellow flag, the #32 car was struck by a Daytona Prototype car going into turn 3. The result of it was a broken right rear suspension and 40 minutes (-29 laps) in the garage to get the car back into race shape. “When i heard we had an issue, of course i was disappointed but it is a long race, so i knew we weren’t completely out of the running, so i didn’t give up hope.” said Westphal.
Jeff was in and out of the car numerous times through the night into the early morning when he got in at sunrise for his last late night shift. “The racing in the 24 Hours is so much different than anything i’ve ever done before, for one racing at night presents it’s own challenges with shadows and traffic, but the biggest difference is monitoring the car and massaging it rather than beating it up for a good lap time. With GT cars, if you run flat out the entire race you will break down, it’s just a matter of when, and in the end, he who has the least time in pit lane and the garage is the victor.”
As Sunday wore on, and the pace of the GT field slowing due to the cars being tired and in need of rebuilds, The #32 PR1 Miracle Sealants Pontiac GXP-R chugged on to an impressive 11th in class. The rookie effort of the team and all of its drivers secured their position and finished the race just outside the top 10. “We did some math, and minus the -29 laps we lost due to an uncontrollable incident, that would’ve had us in 5th spot in GT out of 30. Though i don’t want to take any credit away from the team or the drivers, it was a team effort, and we are all very proud of each other for enduring our own obstacles and in the end getting the job done as fast as possible. I would like to thank the entire PR1 team, as well as my co-drivers Al Salvo, Mike Forest, Thomas Merrill, and the infamous Pat Barrett for being our go to guy for the entire 24 incase of emergency. It was really great to share this experience with such top notch people. As well as all who made this event possible for me, Alpinestars, Wine Country Motorsports, Cacci Construction, and everyone who has continued to support me through out my career. They were all especially instrumental in this years 24 Hours for me” described an incredibly exhausted and sleep deprived Westphal.
The Grand Am series resumes this coming April, as due time is needed to re-prepare all the equipment. Check back for updates on Jeff’s racing season!
