As Usual, the Race goes Down to the Wire for most
of the Five Classes…
Welcome to the (2022) USA Network’s era of
Motorsports. Y’all know, when you begin the first segment of the Rolex 24 12
Freakin’ minutes Late because of some third string Junior Varsity Men’s college
Basketball game between Saint Bonaparte, Err Bonaventure and Saint Joseph’s. With
the latter trailing by 11 points but still Dishing out Fouls with 21 seconds
left, Ralf! And who knew that ‘Ol Napoleon was a Saint, Eh?
Nice intro segment interview with Alexander
Rossi, musing over being Bored. Since He won’t get into the cockpit until some
9 hours later! Tried playing Call of
Duty, but He’s really Bad at it!
Hinchcliffe is so Silky smooth as a Colour Commentator,
Er Driver Analyst!
3.5Hr mark; 3rd Full course Caution,
Multiple cars involved including #23. Clapping loudly over Hulio’ cutting a
tyre on the #10 Acura. As Mike Shank sez’ will probably go down 2 laps but Not
worried ‘bout it. Hulio’s a wonder to be around, full of energy, Eternally Young
and usually talking in Portuguese first!
Dave Burns and Brian Till in Booth replacing lead
Announcers Leigh Diffey and Calvin Fish.
Good Jimmie Johnson interview, claiming
K-Squared’ aka Kamui Kobayashi is Thar Main Man and he’s No where Maximum
Attack! After having put on another Passing Clinique! Taking the lead back
twice!
Cheep’ says JJ’ will win an IndyCar race this
year, to which JJ’ says playfully; I’m Glad Chip (Ganassi) said that instead of
Me. Especially since we All know how that worked out…
The GTD #32 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo has Part-time
IndyCar Driver James Davison as part of it’s Driving Crew. Not sure if All
Aussie’ Driver lineup? As I’d really like to see more of Davidson in action. As
He seems like a really Decent Bloke!
Made it nearly to Hour 11 of the race, or was
that Hour 12? Since ironically being nearly 11PM Pacific on Ye Oregon Coast
would have been twelve Hours for Mwah. Although I was “Pacing” Thyself, meaning
I probably stopped round 10PM? As I was planning on getting up to listen to the
last 3+ hours in the morning.
As Tristen Nunez, Remember Him Y’all? In the
#31 Whelen engineering Cadillac led the race at the end of Hour 11, following
it’s ninth Caution. With the No. 8 Tower Motorsports Oreca/Gibson leading LMP2.
And the No. 74 Riley Motorsports Ligier/Nissan led the LMP3 Class.
The Saloons’ category saw Patrick Pilet leading
GTD Pro in the #2 KCMG Porsche 911 GT3 R. With the No. 32 Gilbert Korthoff
Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo leading the GTD Class when I signed off for
the evening.
And that’s as far
as I got with this riveting Postscript last year Ladies and Germs’. Meaning I’ll
just try wrapping up below instead…
From Dawn until Race’s End
From my No Fenders story’s title, those apparently
were the Hours I partook of the 2022 Rolex 24, not including the first Hour’s
NBC Stint. Equaling a total of some 14 Hours, meaning I made it more than Halfway
thru the race…
Remember that I couldn’t Sleep so I got up
sooner than expected and resumed during Hour 19 of the race Me Thinks? But it’s
all definitely a Blur now nearly a year later. Thus instead of trying to recap
the final five Hours, I’ll just cut to the chase…
Mike “Ice Ice, Baby!” Conway led in the #31
whelen Engineering Caddy’ at Hour’s end, after Hulio’ had led for most of Hour
19 in the Meyer shank Racing No. 60 Acura. The #8 Tower Motorsports still led
in LMP2, and ditto for Riley Motorsports #74 in LMP3.
The Saloons now saw the No. 9 Phaff Motorsports
Porsche 911 GT3 R leading. And the Wright Motorsports #16 led GTD, giving Porsche
a Clean Sweep of the GT3 Tintops’ classes.
And whilst most Attenzione focused upon the
Fireworks occurring on the race’s final lap between the two GTD Pro Porsche’s
Beatin ‘N Bangin’ for the win! It was the Meyer Shank Racing #60 Acura winning
outright with Gasp! That ‘Ol Dancin’ fool Helio Castroneves as part of it’s winning
Drivers Quartet, Sigh! With Tom “The Bomb” Blomqvist, Oliver Jarvis and Oh
Yeah, don’t forget Me! Simon Pagenaud…
As ironically, it was Mike Shank’s second 24
Hours of Daytona win, which came a Decade after that most memorable win with
A.J. “Bigshot” Allmendinger, the late Justin BIG UNIT” Wilson, Ozz Negri and
John Pew at the controls of it’s #60 Riley/ford Daytona Prototype. Which Racer’s
Marshall Pruett wrote about following
MSR’s second Rolex 24 victory.
https://racer.com/2022/01/29/retro-shanks-breakthrough-2012-rolex-24-win/
The No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R
was victorious in GTD Pro. With Mathieu Jaminet Holding Serve vs. Laurens Vanthoor
in the #2 Porsche. Whose Racin’s Rubbin’ antics saw Vanthoor fall to third,
when the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 said Thank You very Mucho! Playing
Thru, and scooted into P2 in Class.
Colton Herta put on an amazing pass during the
closing stint of the race to bring the No. 81 Dragonspeed with Co-Drivers Pato
O’Ward, Devlin De Francesco and Eric Lux the LMP2 win!
The No. 74 Riley Motorsports team won Back-to-Back
in LMP3 with it’s second, consecutive Class victory.
Whilst the #16 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911
GT3 R of Ryan Hardwick, Jan “Van Hagar” Heylend, Zacharie Robichon and Richard
Lietz won the GTD Class.
And now it’s almost time for this year’s Rolex 24 to commence on January 28th…
