| November 15, 2019 Staff Report IMSA Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Take it from IMSA legend, Derek Bell. If you have the means, the Classic 24 Hour At Daytona Presented by IMSA is a must-attend event. “All I say to people is, ‘If you want to come and see a major part of sports car racing history, you have to come to this event,’” said Bell. “It’s the same as going to the [Rolex 24 At Daytona]. You’re seeing the modern cars in action for 24 hours. But you come here, and you see everything that made that history and some of the drivers that did it.” Bell is one of those drivers at this weekend’s unique event organized by Historic Sportscar Racing (HSR). The five-time 24 Hours of Le Mans winner and three-time Rolex 24 winner is sharing perhaps the most iconic IMSA race car of all time, the No. 14 Lowenbrau Porsche 962, and several other important Porsche race cars with his son, Justin Bell – another Le Mans-winning driver – Gunnar Jeannette, Rodrigo Sales, Rod Emory and Todd Holbert. Bell appreciates the fact that Holbert – son of the late Al Holbert, his longtime former co-driver – is part of the driver lineup for this weekend’s races on the 3.56-mile Daytona International Speedway road circuit. There are seven different run groups that will participate in four, one-hour races throughout a 24-hour period beginning at 2 p.m. ET on Saturday. “Al’s not with us, sadly, but the great thing is, his son, Todd, is out there in one of the cars,” Bell said. “He’s a charming, lovely man like his dad was. Al was really the greatest man in my racing career as far as working with him. “Al’s determination, his engineering prowess, his ability to set up cars and the fact that he was always looking for new developments to improve the cars, he was a wonderful driver. We’d go out and we won races, so you can’t have a better teammate than that.” As you can tell, it doesn’t take long for a trip down memory lane to start at the Classic 24. It continues right into the cockpit for Bell. “Whenever I get in the car, straightaway, as soon as I sit in it, my hand goes automatically to the key,” he said. “I know where everything is. It’s uncanny, like when I drove last year at Rennsport (at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca). I get in these cars every two or three years somewhere, a 962 if not this very one. “As soon as you get in, the memory is just unbelievable. I mean, you know exactly what it’s meant to feel like. Generally, within two or three laps, you’re doing good times. You’re not pushing to the limits, possibly, but you’ve got the lines right and it’s just fantastic.” The Classic 24 also offers fans those same opportunities to reminisce about earlier eras of sports car racing. Bell cherishes those opportunities also. “It was funny this morning, because a gentleman came up and he said, ‘Can I have your autograph, please?’” Bell relates. “I was like, ‘Good God, that’s the first one I’ve done today.’ And then a photograph and that sort of thing, and then – of course – it all just flows. “The amazing thing is the way they come up and they just say, ‘I’m one of your greatest fans and I’m glad I’ve met you after all this time.’ You go, ‘Bloody hell, you’ve been waiting a long time, haven’t you?’ But it’s very special to see the fans and the other drivers.” And most of all, it’s special to see, hear and smell those classic sports cars once more on the racetrack. “Most people would buy a piece of art and stick it on the wall in the house and only the people that came to the house would ever see it,” Bell said. “Now here, these same sort of gentlemen, quite wealthy gentlemen, have a passion and they buy a car, but they have the opportunity now to have it driven by the people that drove it. Or to drive it themselves and to experience some of the history that they might have only seen on TV or read about in books.” Tickets for the Classic 24 Hour At Daytona Presented by IMSA will be available for purchase from the Gate 40 ticket booth at Daytona International Speedway. For more information, please visit Classic24Hour.com. IMSA TWITTER, INSTAGRAM and FACEBOOKFollow on Twitter @imsa, use the hashtag #IMSA, follow on Instagram @imsa_racing and ‘like’ IMSA on Facebook –www.facebook.com/imsa. For further information, visit www.imsa.com. |
