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GURSS: 12 Hours of Action
Written by: Jade Gurss   
12/09/2008
Mooresville, North Carolina
 
Faster. Louder. The weekly column on SPEEDtv.com by Jade Gurss. (Harold Hinson Photo) ยป More Photos

The intent this week was to write a complex and well-thought-out column about the politics of the proposed bailout of the Big Three automakers, but the situation is so fluid and ever-changing, it seemed whatever I turned in on deadline Monday night would be moot by the time the column is posted Tuesday. So perhaps I can tell you why I’m typing this column with sore hands and blistered fingers.

I was lucky enough to compete this weekend in the 12 Hours of Victory Lane Karting presented by NOS Energy Drink. The once-around-the-clock race in Charlotte featured some of the best kart racers in the world. Imagine a dozen hours non-stop with only local yellow flags and an occasional pit stop on a twisting, 13-turn course. Each lap is approximately 31 seconds (give-or-take a few tenths if you’re a hot-shoe or has-been), and the winning team completed 1386 laps in that time – as did the second-place finishers for a remarkable margin-of-victory of only 22.25 seconds.

The winning team, EnduranceKarting.com, consists of guys who do this sort of thing for a living, including Johan Schwartz (who owns the Endurance Karting company and had finished second only the day before in an eight-hour endurance race, driving a Legends Roadster at Road Atlanta) and Dan Burke, known as “Danimal,” the iron-man who competes around the world and set the fastest lap of the race at 30.259 seconds – only .001 quicker than the next fastest lap. (Someone needs to give this guy a shot in a full-size racecar!) The winners
achieved their feat by doing double-length driver stints throughout the race.

The second-place team was equally remarkable, as the “Stacked” bunch won the pole position, then set the pace for the first half of the event, leading by almost two laps before issues with the transponder on a kart and other pit issues dropped them to second. They spent the remaining hours fighting back inch-by-inch to finish on the lead lap.

An endurance race is a unique beast, and I have vast respect for the winners at places like LeMans, Sebring, Nurburgring and the 24 Hours at Daytona. It takes calm speed, consistent aggressiveness and occasionally some luck.

Our fingerprint inc. team had a sparkling pre-race strategy, which went out the window within the first hour. After a slight injury to one of our drivers early in the race, it became do-as-one-can for the remaining quartet for the final eleven hours. My team consisted of Dr. John Connaughton (a professor at UNC-Charlotte whose age is north of 60); Kevin York (road racer extraordinaire, driving instructor, and driving inspiration for the best-selling fiction book “The Art of Racing in the Rain,” which I can highly recommend as a piece of fine literature); Kevin’s son, Evan York (15-going-on-20-years-old and who turned out to be our quickest and most durable driver); Joe Cooley (of Circuit Motorsports in Durham, NC) and this writer (the quickest publicist/author in the field. OK – the only one in the field).


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