So, as my fellow Hoons may recollect, this olelongrooffan mentioned in a post done for last week’s Truck Thursday, this past weekend was the Roar Before The 24, that is the practice session for the Rolex and Continental Series Grand-Am race cars out here at the local to me Daytona International Speedway prior to the Rolex24 at that famed Speedway. As I have done pretty much every year since I moved to the Birthplace of Speed and the World Center of Racing, I knew attendance at this event was mandatory. This year was no exception.

I had arrived at the track a few minutes later than originally planned and just managed to catch, from the trackside motorcoach spaces 509 and 510 my buddy’s always seem to frequent for the 24, the sight of this Turner Motorsports Rolex #94 missing that “decreasing radius turn”, otherwise known to the rest of us as the West Horseshoe, versus the Universal Horseshoe on the east end of the infield. Luckily it appeared there was no major body damage to that Northwest Sponsored M Series and it was able to extradite itself from those new tires with a slash in the sidewall forming said wall and motor on around the remainder of that 3.56 mile track. However as is evidenced by the black flag that corner worker is holding fast, this portion of this session was over. Time to hit the garages gentleman.

As the track was cold, this olelongrooffan moseyed on down to the security and emergency access area of that west Horseshoe where thejeepjunkie had rescued that errant tire off that Suntrust DP so many years ago. This olelongrooffan walked up to the Security Dude handing him one of my “official” work related business cards as opposed to the one that has my personal blog and a Hooniverse link on it. I mentioned I had sold a trailer to the Daytona International Speedway Fire Department and I had the later ordered spare tire for it in my olebeaterpickemup truck and would he mind if I approached the Fire Dudes in that big ass red 250 to get someone to come over to Motorcoach space 509 and pick it up? “Go right ahead, young man,” was his response. I gotta share with my fellow Hoons, given all the wrinkles this olelongrooffan has on my face alone, those security dudes seriously need to be offered a vision plan.

So, anyway, as I strolled over to that big assed F-250 a temporary security dude rolled up on a mini scooter…(that means of transportation is how his status was known)…and the oletimer security dude basically said all was cool. This olelongrooffan got with that fireman and a few minutes later, this spare tire for a new Bright Red DIS Fire Department HAZMAT trailer was firmly ensconced within that, to them, desirable trailer. I was just happy to get it to them and in my world, as limited as it is, selling the DIS Fire Department a HAZMAT trailer because they came to the realization after Montoya’s crash into that jet dryer last year that all of their HAZMAT fighting shit, while complete, was scattered all over. Well my fellow Hoons, that is pretty memorable to this olelongrooffan and something I’ll remember to the day they spread my ashes all over this track. (My fellow Hoons will have to wait patiently for this olelongrooffan’s rendition of how that happens 🙂  <<

Now, while the track is cold, let this olelongrooffan expound on a few other things and then I’ll get back to the Hot Track. (Hey, I’m writing this so I have liberties.) When that Emergency Services Director approached me back in October to purchase this trailer, it was a great experience. When he came in just after Christmas in his new company provided Explorer or may be it was a Chevrolet, but I am damn sure it wasn’t a Dodge, to purchase that spare tire, he mentioned he would have one of his guys come by and get it. I suggested that since I would be out at the Roar Before the 24, I would be happy to drop it off to one of his team members. He was excited and suggested this olelongrooffan call him on Saturday morning and admission would be comp-ed. Uh? Yeah? Okay. So I called that dude’s cell and our connections weren’t all that great no matter how many (3) times we attempted it. Turns out he had a few other things on his mind of greater significance than the delivery of that spare tire.

Well, after that, I decided I didn’t want to exploit opportunity and although this olelongrooffan didn’t have my Rolex24 ticket in hand (which allows free admission to the Roar) I would just purchase the $15 ticket to it. Well as I turned to the right off the street upon which this olelongrooffan lives in the direction of the Daytona International Speedway, the pick up valve on the fuel supply (which is on the right side of my ole beaterpickemup truck) is having trouble getting fuel to my massive 2.5 liter Renault inspired means of motivation. Now since the gas gauge on my ole truck has a life of its own, I realize I need to insert some petrol in this sweety or I’ll be driving around sweating as much as most of the NASCAR dudes do for the final 5 laps of most of those races they run.

So this olelongrooffan got to evaluating my monetary expenses for this weekend and realized that petrol or ad hoc admission to the Roar were almost equal in importance, really sorry Hoons petrol to get to work always wins out. But as I was standing at the life blood dispensing pump for my olebeaterpickemup truck, this olelongrooffan got to thinking about other opportunities for admission to the Speedway this overcast and chilly Saturday morning. Then I remembered the comment section of that post I did last Thursday where one of my favorite commenters (okay, you are all this olelongrooffan’s favorite) here in the Hooniverse encouraged me to get real credentials so I wouldn’t have any concerns with gaining meaningful admission to Daytona International Speedway. Well, my fellow Hoons, it was too late this Saturday morning for that to happen but I did remember that leftover Media pass a certain well known Porsche writing dude left in my olebeaterpickemup truck after he was dropped at the airport near the end of the 50th running of the 24 Hour Race at Daytona.  

Well Hoons, fifteen bucks represents about 8% of this olelongrooffan’s weekly take home so a trip back to The Garage to retrieve last year’s media pass and try to sluff my way into the track was certainly in my budget. And no matter what, if I were to get busted, it would be easy to destroy that old Media pass and thus save our Porsche friend any problems in the future. Well it turns out this was not a problem and free admittance is what this olelongrooffan received in return for that short drive back to The Garage. I’ll work on real credentials the next time around. Really, I will. I Swear. No. I mean it. I will.

 Meanwhile, while the track was still frigid I was able to spot this ole Buster out on the parade grounds to the rear.

Shortly thereafter, the track went hot for the Rolex Series cars and they were tearing it up. A couple buddies showed up and we had a great time enjoying the on track action.

We all agreed the Audi’s look pretty strong this year and DAMN are they loud. There were five Audi’s present in the Rolex Series category and 6 Aston Martins in the Continental Series practice session.

As is the norm, Ganassi’s 01 and 02 showed up and represented Chip and Felix rather well. And as is also the norm, we all are pretty sure they held a few things close to their vests this past weekend. During practice, they never seem to reveal their true potential as they always seem to be dominant in the running of the 24. Not always victorious but definitely a contender.

And on the parade route out back, the shuttles were busy toting all the visiting Boy Scouts around on their complimentary track tours.

Just to let my fellow Hoons know, it’s not just Busters and Shuttle Trucks that can be seen out and about in the infield of the Daytona International Speedway.

After sighting that rarely seen at the track vehicle, we decided to head up to the garage area. We climbed in my buddy’s Vibe longroof that I thought was pretty cool and I handed the driver a certain client’s business card and told him to “Drive up to the Fan Zone. If anyone stops us, just show them this card and tell them **** told us to park up by the blue garages.” Well my buddy was a bit flamboozled but did as I suggested. We did in fact get stopped at a checkpoint and the instructions this olelongrooffan provided gained us the access we desired and we ended up parking just outside the Fan Zone near where I spotted that Miata driving Hoon last year. (Hey RalStig!)

Once we got into the garage area, we spotted some of the cars here for the Ferrari Challenge. Note this image was not taken of this MILF’s butt, I was trying to capture the following image.

There are just way to damn many kids here this weekend. Yeah, it was a Get Off My Lawn kind of day for this olelongrooffan. As I age, I realize that I pretty much don’t like any kids who don’t have the same last name as me. And the jury is still out on some of those. But know, I love all Hoonikids throughout the world. Just stay off my lawn.

HOLY SHIT! This post is nearly 1,700 words long and this olelongrooffan has just hit the garages. I’m gonna close out for now and continue our garage visit and more in another post.

Image Copyright Hooniverse 2013/longrooffan