How Kyle Kirkwood will drive two automobiles within the Rolex 24

Come 8:00am on the morning of the Rolex 24 at Daytona, Kyle Kirkwood, driver for Vasser Sullivan Racing, will already be an hour and a half into his work day. The inexperienced flag will not wave for nearly six extra hours.  It is the identical state of affairs for the 230-plus drivers collaborating within the fabled 24-hour race that runs throughout Saturday and Sunday: a 24-hour race, plus the remainder of “race day.”

However for Kirkwood, it is really races, plural. He’ll be piloting each the Lexus crew’s No. 14 GTD Professional and No. 12 GTD entries in the course of the enduro. 

Coming into his sixth season in endurance racing, and fifth Rolex 24, Kirkwood’s logged loads of time behind the wheels of each Lexus’ automobiles in IMSA races, even clinching a few wins with the crew. In the course of the Roar Earlier than the 24, Kirkwood instructed Motorsport.com he was prepared for this yr’s problem, regardless that he solely acquired the decision to take the wheel — sorry, wheels — a number of weeks in the past.

Twin driving comes with lots of bonus problems, significantly o

“I imply, once you’re instructed two weeks earlier than, there is no preparation that may go into it. So that you simply must be prepared. It’s good to be prepared for something that this world can throw at you.” He says that driving would be the simple half. The toughest elements? Holding observe of drive time, and staying hydrated. 

Managing the clock

Drive time turns into difficult once you’re transferring between two automobiles. Drivers within the IMSA collection are topic to run a minimal period of time over an endurance race. For Rolex, particularly, these minimal drive instances are two hours for the Grand Touring Daytona Professional (GTD Professional) and Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) lessons, and 4.5 hours for the Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) and Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) lessons. 

However there is a caveat: a driver can solely be behind the wheel for a most of 4 hours in any six-hour interval — and people hours observe the motive force, not the automotive. Strategically, the sooner a crew can get their drivers to satisfy minimal instances throughout a race, the better it’s to keep away from driving penalties if something occurs. 

And the entire great thing about an endurance race just like the Rolex 24 is that chaos is sure to indicate up. If, say,  Kirkwood have been to get sick and solely completes the drive time in one of many two Lexuses he is driving, the opposite automotive will likely be disqualified. “It’s totally, essential that I keep nicely sufficient to get via the minimal drive time,” he mentioned. “In order that’s actually the brute of the primary 12 hours for me.”

Which automotive is which?

Additionally difficult for Kirkwood’s two-car monte: ensuring he is in the precise automotive on the proper second. The 2 Lexus RC Fs he is driving seem like twins: the No. 14 has purple accents for GTD Professional, and the No. 12 has inexperienced accents for GTD. However the total paint scheme — highlighter yellow over black — the interiors, and the silhouettes are the identical. 

Here is one situation Kirkwood’s already working to forestall: “You can be coming in in some unspecified time in the future and overlook which automotive you [are in], and also you pull into the fallacious pit field,” he says. “So I am already harping on the crew to let me know, as a result of I exploit actually the identical insert — all the pieces on the sprint is similar. You possibly can’t inform that you just’re in a special automotive.

“The one factor you could inform [is] completely different is that you just’re speaking to a special engineer. So it is necessary for me to know — even after doing two hours, six hours, no matter, no matter it has been — that they’re reminding me which automotive I am in and which automotive I am on the brink of get in.”

Downtime is not a very long time

When Kirkwood lastly has the prospect to get out of the automotive, scheduling will permit him a number of hours of break time, however it dwindles shortly. Roughly half-hour are spent getting out of the automotive and debriefing along with his engineer concerning the run. They’re going to speak via precisely what occurred, and what’s arising for the following stint. 

Self-care comes after: consuming, rehydrating. The hydration half is the important thing. With temperatures in Daytona anticipated to remain below 70 levels (ambient), the automobiles ought to keep cooler within the cockpit. Something hotter than that and protecting his physique in correct working order will get onerous.

“It is sizzling contained in the automotive,” says Kirkwood. “You are at a excessive sustained coronary heart charge for an extended time frame. It’s totally exerting once you’re in certainly one of these automobiles — and once you’re doing it twice, it’s good to just remember to’re consistently feeling your self.”

After he refuels, Kirkwood has a while to calm down. He at all times begins with a bathe. 

The #14 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3 Kyle Kirkwood will pilot

Photograph by: IMSA

“I take a bathe after each single stint. It’s simply good to reset, go lay in mattress, lay on the sofa — no matter it is perhaps. However you solely actually have about an hour of downtime after you add up all these issues, as a result of you must be again on the stand an hour earlier than you get again within the automotive.

Kirkwood’s additionally attempting to stay Zen about what’s taking place out on the observe. 

“I did job of with the ability to wind down after a stint [last year] and have full belief within the drivers which might be within the automotive,” he remembers. “I feel that is most likely what will get guys probably the most — as a result of you may have anyone else driving a automotive that you just’re driving. You are curious to the place we’ll find yourself, if something’s occurred, if we’re main, if we’re not main. These form of [thoughts] simply hold going via your thoughts, proper? Having the ability to shut that off and have full belief in your crew and your drivers is definitely what means that you can calm down between your stints.”

Nighttime means nothing

Because the hours shut in on midnight, with the automobiles operating below the lights of Daytona Worldwide Speedway, the adrenaline retains Kirkwood transferring. Regardless of the excessive speeds and alter in lighting, he says he’ll simply overlook what time it’s as he stays locked into the duty at hand. 

“It is extra simply protecting your focus [as] the massive factor, and understanding that you just most likely are getting drained, regardless that you do not discover that you just’re getting drained,” says Kirkwood. “Some some reactionary stuff may decelerate now that you have gone a very long time with out some relaxation.”

Whereas the Rolex clock standing beside the pit lane, simply earlier than the exit, continues counting down, Kirkwood may try to catch a wink of sleep throughout a break. It’s troublesome, even within the early hours of Sunday morning. If he is ready to catch a nap, it would come within the 2:00am to six:00am window, simply earlier than dawn.

“As quickly as the sunshine comes up, you are feeling such as you’re on the house stretch — regardless that there’s a very long time to go when the sunshine comes up,” says Kirkwood. “That is form of when everyone will get within the race mode and issues begin to occur on the race observe. So that you get slightly bit extra amped up once you begin to see some daylight within the morning.”

The ultimate push

Because the solar rises, Kirkwood could have cleared the primary 12 hours of the race and stayed awake for twenty-four hours already (minus a number of potential minutes of shuteye). His schedule could require one other stint in a single or each of the Lexus RC Fs. With the assistance of his engineers he’s efficiently saved observe of what automotive he’s in, and he’s saved up on his hydration. The crew will likely be centered on pushing throughout these last hours to take the checkered flag at 1:40pm, whereas having accomplished probably the most distance. 

When the Lexuses make their last cease within the pits, it’s going to have been 31 hours since Kirkwood final had an actual evening’s sleep. If both (or each) of his Vasser Sullivan Racing automobiles win their respective class, he’ll be a part of celebrations, pictures, and post-race interviews for one more couple hours. The Rolex clock could have zeroed-out, however Kirkwood’s clock continues ticking.

After which, when Kirkwood’s lastly executed at Daytona Worldwide Speedway, he’ll catch a flight for California, the place he’ll be doing IndyCar testing as the motive force for Andretti World’s No. 27 automotive. Perhaps then, he says, he may lastly get some relaxation.

Images from the Friday of Daytona 24 Hours