Thanks for joining us at Daytona

Thanks, everyone, who spent the weekend with us. Sign of a good weekend at Daytona: I'm beat and have no voice. Oh, plus all of our cars are totally filthy.

I just had breakfast across the street from the track, and we watched a steady stream of haulers pass by: Park Place, Ganassi, Audi, etc., etc.

In reply to David S. Wallens:

Sadly I spent the weekend watching in my living room. Then Sunday my wife says "You should go to that next year" WIN!
Glad you had a good time and see you next year!

I was 15 minutes west of you, autocrossing in Deland. but I sure had a great time doing it:

Video

We watched most of it and now may also be going next year. Wife wants to know if she can leave the track and come back during the night as right now she can only take so much walking and noise.

Wally, tell her she can definitely come and go. It's not even too difficult, outside of a couple of predicable choke times (right before race start and finish, basically). This is with the GRM Experience ticket, which gets you into the infield after it's been closed to traffic to all the other types of parking passes (which typically happens before noon on Sat. and Sun.).

Margie

You know, Wally, if she wanted she could leave the track for a bit and run down to the beach. It's maybe a 15-minute drive. If she's into shopping, there's also a mall across the street plus a flea market nearby. (The "dirt mall," by the way, is prime people-watching territory.)

While there are certain parts of the race that should not be missed, one of the great features of the 24HR is the ability to leave for a period and return to find a race still ongoing. GRM will feed you if you wish on Sat nite but seafood calls my name all day so we leave for a time. Most sports bars have the race on tv so you can eat and keep up with any developments. We ate our fill at Our Deck, Down Under and didnt miss a thing.
We travel on our stomachs and routed ourselves up I-95 so that we could stop at the Shell House on the way back to Tennessee. We got back today about noon; not bad for 25yo exotic car cruising at 80+ on the interstate all day. Damn Porsche has better range than my bladder.

That was your 911? I saw it cruise by--nice.

Thanks. We watched a lot of it and she got into it. I have almost got her sold on it. Her parent's have a good friend that moved to the Daytona area and they don't like to travel. We are talking them into riding down with us, then when the wife needs a break she can head back to see them.

The only part of the plan we aren't comfortable with is my In-laws will want to take their Jetta, which replaced a POS Tiguan, which replaced a POS Jetta, that replaced a POS Golf.... It will be about a year old which seems to be when they need their first tow.

This was my first 24. The GRM package is a smoking deal and it was a superb 4 days of fun. Hit Billy's for dinner TH night and Aunt Catfish's FR. Great hospitality from GRM and the Grand Am & WTCC folks too. Can't wait to do it again.

I'm guessing I'll watch next year's race on TV like I did this year's race and last year's race, but if I ever have a chance to go, the GRM experience seems like the best way.

A few photos are posted here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151476262893140.550342.66381183139&type=1&l=145595c038

I'll get more up tomorrow, too.

Yeah, that was my purple 911(officially known as cassis red). They kept trying to get me to pull into the Porsche corral but I wasnt wearing enough chains to fit in there. I get a lot of comments with that car and it made a great car for cruising the streets of Daytona on one of the ultimate car weekends.
Our first long road trip in the car and it performed great. 25mpg at 80+ mph and except for the bumps on I-16(almost as bad as I-59 in Alabama), Debbie never complained about the ride. It's crusing range is absolutely amazing(I have almost 400 miles on the tank right now and it still shows more than 1/4 tank on the gauge). I was somewhat afraid that it would be a police magnet but none of the cops that I passed seemed to notice it. I guess they were looking for drug runners on I-75, not a middle aged couple. Anyway, a great weekend thanks to GRM and the weatherman. Next year!

we had a great time. the only bad part was some jerk off in the grm tent who told my 9 yr old he better move or else.. was glad to meet alot of grm folks though.. great cars and food. and an amazing race for my sons first 24. hope to make it a tradition for him and I...

Great time, great set up. Had to miss a lot of the pre-race due to friends and family in the area, but that was good too. I really liked having my car convenient and watched over with my camera equipment in it. Definately going to do it again with Grassroots. Good job!

Oh we might have had a little fun

Renewing an old friendship

did you say brakes

these guys did their best to make me look good

these girls did their best to make me feel old

"... and then when I overtook Senna on the outside at Laguna Seca.."

broken bimmer

we're not worthy

a perfect grouping of GRM gold

from the patio

infield

GT winner prior to start

Toly hamming it up

Ford love

Thanks ,I needed that.

Had a blast. My friends are all planning on it next year too.