So this past weekend, the practice session for the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona was going on. It’s known as the Roar Before the 24 and this olelongrooffan has attended many of them. But the fact this olelongrooffan now resides in my new old hometown of Naples, Florida and due to a fun new job, I knew an extended weekend to enjoy the actual race, unfortunately for the first time in a long time, would not be in the cards. As a result, my attendance at this practice session, now a five hour drive away as opposed to within earshot, was mandatory. And a fellow Hoon made this all possible. And it was a part of my Hoonimas present to boot. Make the jump to see a bit more about this race car and how this olelongrooffan met a fellow Hoon.

A couple weeks ago, this olelongrooffan received an unsolicited email that read like this:

“Longroof,

It looks like the team is sending me to Daytona for both the Roar and the 24. I don’t have the kind of pull to get you credentials, but I can get you a ticket. Let me know what day/days you can be there.

Don’t lift,
– skitter”

Now, this olelongrooffan reads dang near every post here in the Hooniverse and always checks out the comments; they are, after all, the best to be found around these interwebs. I had read many of skitter’s comments but I had no idea what team he was referring to. The Hooniverse team was the foremost one in my mind.

I responded the Saturday of the Roar Before the 24 would be the most ideal day for this olelongrooffan. I then received the following:

“We’re in yellow garage either 10 or 11; it’s unclear.”

Well my fellow Hoons, this olelongrooffan was still unsure as to who our fellow Hoon is but I dutifully headed over to Garage 10 or 11 to check out what was taking place in that hallowed yellow garage stall.

Of course it was the space allocated to The DeltaWing and, yes, it was as incredible as my fellow Hoons would suspect. Covered in a chrome wrap finish much like the Rolls Royce this olelongrooffan  spotted a whiles back down there in toney Palm Beach. And while I was standing around wearing, what this olelongrooffan thought was, my signature, black and white fedora, this DeltaWing Racing attired dude was chatting it up with whoever would ask questions my fellow TUDOR fans may have.

This olelongrooffan heard that dude mentioning to some fellow attendees that there was a new driver working out that car that afternoon. So this olelongrooffan decided to mosey on in to the garage to see what was up. Yeah, there is a player on that team carving up a new seat for that new driver with an old school kitchen electric knife. 

The narrow front end on this thing could’t have been four feet in width. And check out the number of lug bolts on the front wheels. Three per wheel to be exact, the same number that are on the wheel of a Citroen 2CV.

And check out the disparity in the widths of the front versus rear tires on this set of rain tires. 

So, this olelongrooffan decided to mosey around the garage area, because I can, and I wandered over and saw the winged Porsche GT America Randy Pobst was to be testing and a bit later I headed back to try and find Skitter in the yellow garages.

As I was standing around checking out this ride, that same DeltaWing Racing dude I overheard chatting it up earlier approached this olelongrooffan and asked if I had any questions and I commented that I was good. I did, however, ask if they were going to run the chrome finish for the season. He commented he wasn’t sure as they were looking for sponsors and would probably paint it in the sponsor’s colors. I mentioned everybody in racing is looking for sponsors. We both got a chuckle out of that and he wandered off to chat it up with some other folks. The team was getting ready to head back out onto the track after lunch for another hour long practice session and were just fastening the engine cover in place.

The DeltaWing was parked in the lineup getting ready to move out when I spotted Wayne Taylor chatting it up with the head dude from the DeltaWing team.

LED lights and Gurney wings on the rear of this revolutionary race car. Even Peter DeLorenzo likes this one. 

As I knew once these cars started racing, the ability to utilize my trusty cell phone would be naught due to the engines screaming by the garages at speed, I stepped away and called skitter. He answered and I identified myself and turned to look back at the number 10 garage and

there was this guy talking to me on his cell phone not ten feet away. Yes, my fellow Hoons, it turns out skitter is an engineer on the DeltaWing race car and was down from Hotlanta for this weekend’s session. We shook hands and he brought me into the garage area for a brief tour and to grab the remainder of my Hoonimas presents, three awesome vintage ALMS poster of various races over the years. We chatted it up a bit and then heard that DeltaWing fire up. As it was beckoning for skitter’s attention, we took leave of each other’s presence, with him heading to the pits and this olelongrooffan heading to the bleachers to watch it for a few laps and then to check out what is in the lot.

Once again, it was fun meeting a fellow Hoon and, like every one of the others this olelongrooffan has met, he was as nice and as genuine as a human can be. 

I love this place.

Copyright Hooniverse 2014/longrooffan