Congratulations to the #22 Archangel Motorsports Lola/Nissan SRP2 team and Chad for their great performance at the 2002 Rolex 24 hours of Daytona. The team finished 6th overall and took 2nd in the SRP2 division.

Well, here we are again. Another racing venture under my belt, and wow..what a great one it was!!! bitter sweet for sure. 2nd In class and 6th overall was a great accomplishment for me in my first closed wheel race....not many people realize I've only been racing cars for 2 years.

Well back to the week:
When i got to the track I was stunned at how great the #22 car looked with the Gestetner color Scheme on it!! it was awesome..that immediately got me pumped up!! But....for the first day..we struggled with a missing motor...it wasnt firing smoothly and was significantly down on power. We had to qualify it anyway..so I went out and blew off a flyer on the second lap, good enough to put us in the field 25th overall, and second in class (rand was 17th). The guys were thrilled, and so was I, considering i couldnt really even pull 6th gear down the straight. Later that night i got to do some "night" laps which was awesome!!! needless to say....I couldn't wait!!

So Friday we practiced driver changes and so on. I was really nervous about the start on saturday!! but I needed to just buckle down and get pumped up. Saturday morning was great, I was signing autographs from people that new my name and seeing people from my past..all saying "this is awesome you are here..." It was really a great feeling, and Gestetner and Archangel made it possible for me, i was hoping i wouldnt screw it up.

1pm and the start came real quick. With words of advice from Andy Lally and the crew i set off to heat my tires after the "start your engines" sounded. I stayed out of trouble and settled down in my first hour and 20 mins in the car (a single stint). When i came in for the first driver change we were up to 11th overall and Rand was 10th, only about 25 seconds up on us, not too bad. I passed the driving duties on to Steve Knight, and waited for the time when i would jump in again. It came around 6pm or so, meaning It was dark, and I was to do a double (3 hour) stint. About halfway through i got real comfortable and was running on the same pace as the Rand car. After those three hectic hours, I went back to the hotel for a shower and some sleep.

When i returned at about 3am, I found that the car had been in an accident with a slower porsche and spent 20 or so laps in the pits... now we had to just survive, Rand was running like clockwork. Well I had another single stint, then another double at the finish. We had fallen to 24th overall at one point, and in the last 3 hours i was in the car it was my job to make up about 5 laps on the 6th place porsche. Luckily I did so about 3/4's of the way through. So we did it, 6th overall, 2nd in class. Not bad for my first 24hours, but a win would have been nice.

It was a great experience, something I'll never forget. Thanks to Gestetner, Archangel, Steve Knight and Mel Hawkins of Knighthawk, my family, and everyone else i forgot to mention....I will never ever forget it. I hope I gave some fans something to cheer about in the closing hours. And of course...congratulations to Rand Racing....they did an awesome job.

It's time to get my package finalized for this season. You may well see me at Sebring..This time.....further up the podium I hope, and with even greater memories!!!

talk to you soon!!! Stay fast
Chad