How Kyle Kirkwood will drive two cars in the Rolex...

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 truly races, plural. He’ll be piloting each the Lexus group’s No. 14 GTD Professional and No. 12 GTD entries throughout 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 group. In the course of the Roar Earlier than the 24, Kirkwood informed Motorsport.com he was prepared for this yr’s problem, although he solely acquired the decision to take the wheel — sorry, wheels — just a few weeks in the past.

Twin driving comes with loads of bonus issues, notably o

“I imply, while you’re informed two weeks earlier than, there isn’t any preparation that may go into it. So that you simply must be prepared. You’ll want to be prepared for something that this world can throw at you.” He says that driving would be the straightforward half. The toughest components? Holding monitor of drive time, and staying hydrated. 

Managing the clock

Drive time turns into tough while 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 comply with the motive force, not the automotive. Strategically, the sooner a group can get their drivers to fulfill 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 point out 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 probably be disqualified. “It’s totally, essential that I keep properly 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 tough for Kirkwood’s two-car monte: ensuring he is in the best automotive on the proper second. The 2 Lexus RC Fs he is driving appear to be 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 possibly can be coming in sooner or later and overlook which automotive you [are in], and also you pull into the improper pit field,” he says. “So I am already harping on the group to let me know, as a result of I exploit actually the identical insert — every little thing on the sprint is similar. You possibly can’t inform that you simply’re in a special automotive.

“The one factor that you could inform [is] totally different is that you simply’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 just a few hours of break time, however it dwindles rapidly. Roughly half-hour are spent getting out of the automotive and debriefing along with his engineer concerning the run. They’re going to discuss via precisely what occurred, and what’s arising for the subsequent stint. 

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

“It is scorching contained in the automotive,” says Kirkwood. “You are at a excessive sustained coronary heart charge for a protracted time frame. It’s totally exerting while you’re in certainly one of these automobiles — and while you’re doing it twice, it’s worthwhile to just be sure you’re continuously feeling your self.”

After he refuels, Kirkwood has a while to calm down. He all the time 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 occurring out on the monitor. 

“I did a superb job of with the ability to wind down after a stint [last year] and have full belief within the drivers which can be within the automotive,” he remembers. “I believe that is in all probability what will get guys essentially the most — as a result of you might have any person else driving a automotive that you simply’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? With the ability to shut that off and have full belief in your group 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 underneath 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 preserving your focus [as] the massive factor, and understanding that you simply in all probability are getting drained, although you do not discover that you simply’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 and catch a wink of sleep throughout a break. It’s tough, even within the early hours of Sunday morning. If he is ready to catch a nap, it’d come within the 2:00am to six:00am window, simply earlier than dawn.

“As quickly as the sunshine comes up, you’re feeling such as you’re on the house stretch — although 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 monitor. So that you get somewhat bit extra amped up while 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 just a few potential minutes of shuteye). His schedule might require one other stint in a single or each of the Lexus RC Fs. With the assistance of his engineers he’s efficiently saved monitor of what automotive he’s in, and he’s saved up on his hydration. The group will probably be centered on pushing throughout these closing hours to take the checkered flag at 1:40pm, whereas having accomplished essentially the most distance. 

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

After which, when Kirkwood’s lastly carried out 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 International’s No. 27 automotive. Possibly then, he says, he may lastly get some relaxation.

Photographs from the Friday of Daytona 24 Hours