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Jon Fogarty on Night Racing

In honor of the upcoming 81st running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans this week, I thought it would be appropriate to kick off the brand new “Ask a Pro” category with a few questions about driving in a 24 hour race and in particular, the art of night driving.

I, for one, find it challenging these days just to slow my Subaru from 70mph down to 45mph to negotiate a freeway off-ramp in the dark so to be able to hit your marks at 2:00am from 185+mph lap after lap requires a certain skill set that most folks aren’t equipped with.

When I think 24 hour endurance racing it’s fun to reminisce over the insanity of British driver Eddie Hall driving solo and finishing 8th at the 1950 French classic or the intestinal fortitude displayed by Dan Gurney and AJ Foyt in 1967 for piloting the winning Ford GT40 7.0 Liter V8 that was capable of hitting 220mph down the 3.7 mile Mulsanne straight.  For two men to tame a beast like that Ford for 24 hours and beat the nearest rival by 4 laps is still one of the all time great feats in motorsport.

So to get a great insight into the mind of a contemporary endurance ace who better to turn to than two time Formula Atlantic and two time Daytona Prototype champion Jon Fogarty?  Jon has been chasing that elusive Rolex watch for 10 years running at the Daytona 24 and has established a reputation of being a night driving specialist for Bob Stallings Gainsco squad.  Bulseyeview was thrilled that Jon took a little time out of his busy schedule to answer a few questions.

Bulseyeview:  Do you devise a driver schedule with the engineers before the race so you have an approximation of what time slots you will be driving based on a 24hr period?
JF: We do and there are a number of factors that go into the schedule.  A big one of course is how many drivers, 3 or 4.  Alex has poor night vision, and mine is very good so we try not to have him in much at night.  I always push to keep the schedule very rigid for the first 18-20 hours, not to change the driver rotation around changing conditions, yellow flags, etc…  Makes it much easier to save yourself for the final stints.
Bulseyeview:  So knowing that you will be driving from, for example 2:00am – 4:00am est, will you do personal training in the weeks leading up to the race to be functional during those times?  I’m almost envisioning waking up to go running in the middle of the night just to get the body and mind prepped for what is coming?  Any special training techniques?
JF: I have given a lot of thought to how to best prep for an all nighter, so in the weeks leading up I regularly don my old silky Simpson “Future Suit”  and go clubbing non stop fueled on red bull and cocaine.  Actually, I try to get as much sleep in a regular pattern as possible.  My personal circadian clock is very difficult to alter so instead of trying to change it I play to it knowing that for the 24hr race I will have a monster zeitgeber in the form of a 650hp 5.0 V8 that will wake me up when necessary.  The last several years I have also run a 25 hr race in December.  Having the opportunity to do endurance events allows me to fine tune how my body best reacts to food intake and such.  I am considering a 24hr mountain bike race this fall with a 4 man team as well.  Another thing, I eliminate caffeine from my diet a few weeks prior to the event.  All in all it improves my sleep and I know that if I need it during the race it is really going to have an impact.
Bulseyeview:  How many hours of sleep do you attempt and can you actually sleep knowing the race is going on?
JF: Seems to vary year to year, again depends on many factors.  Our old engineer was “jumpy” and would have the drivers up at least an hour before you were scheduled to get in.  And of course during that hour while you were waiting there would be a yellow, prolonging the wait to get in.  He also liked to put me in if it was wet, so I would get yanked out of bed to go drive around at night in a car with zero driver aids in the wet.  But all in all I would say I get 4-5 hours of fitful rest.
Bulseyeview:  Are you operating on autopilot out there or are you constantly looking for braking, shifting, apex reference points and telling yourself to push?  Are you aiming to just drive at a target lap time of say 8/10’s or are you trying to constantly better your lap times?
JF: Well for us it has usually been 24 hours of qualifying laps.  We (Chevrolet) have been outfoxed by Ford/BMW/Porsche just about every year at Daytona.  We bring a motor that has been approved by the competition department, and to be honest it’s just slow compared to what the other manufacturers are showing up with.  I can only imagine how much easier it is on the driver and equipment to have a car that can keep pace driving 8 or 9 tenths of maximum.  Then in the last 3-4 hours you have a something to work with.  We have been ringing our cars neck from the drop of the green, and as tough as these cars are these days it is not how you want to go 24hr racing.
Bulseyeview:  While you are out there in the dark do you ever get a song in your head or start thinking about life in general?  How much chatter do you have with the team and spotters?
JF: Yep, one thing I think a lot about is how awesome a job I have.  It usually comes into my head if I am in the car late at night or when the sun is coming up over the East grandstands.  Its just cool to be out there ripping around at the limit, surrounded for the most part by other like minded folks who just like to go for it.  We also have two awesome spotters who rotate through the 24 hours, Jimmie Johnson’s dad and “Hammer”.   They are super good at seeing whats going on out there and they are really entertaining.  Our engineer John Ward and team owner Bob Stallings also stay up for the entire event and chime in as well.  It gets quiet sometimes but that’s when the driver can chime in with a smart ass remark, usually about a GT car.
Bulseyeview:  Does it feel as hairy in the car as it does watching when you are lapping backmarkers on the high bank engaged in their own battle?
JF: Sometimes.  The banking has so much grip that you are not really at the limit, so if you need to take action you have the ability.  But going into turn 1 is sketchy at times, you just need to know when to be patient.
Bulseyeview:  With the merger of Grand-Am and ALMS, do you ever envision cruising down the Mulsanne straight at LeMans in the middle of the night at 200mph?
JF: Yes, wish I was there right now- Jim France is, and that bodes well for the future.

 

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