24 at Daytona

Today I saw a new type of race. (new for me) It was titled Rolex 24 at Daytona. It was a 24hr stock car race on a closed track. Basically it was a typical NASCAR type oval track, only the space inside the oval was used to add turns (it had 14 turns according to the commentators). Teams were changing the drivers but still each driver was driving for atleast 2-3 hours at a stretch. It was 5.30am local time when i started seeing the highlights and there was not a soul inside the track except for drivers, crew and officials. So I thought for whom these drivers are driving for. People complain about Formula-1 being monotonous and boring (Forgive them O Lord!) , imagine there reaction on these kinds of races.

Later I learnt that this type of racing is called endurance racing. The purpose of this race is to determine who can drive farthest in a fixed time period, rather than the shortest time over a fixed distance as in most of the other races. Acceptable, I said, but still it is so boring! Rally races are fun because the tracks are damn good. But as far as I can see, no aim is achieved in this kind of racing than a very very long engine and tire test. Probably this was just a warm up session before the NASCAR season kicks off.

Oh and by the way, the winning team had a familiar face. Juan Pablo Montoya! Poor chap had to leave F1 because of inferior treatment as compared to Kimi by Mclaren. It was kind of cool to see him.