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Transcript
00:00Alright, well what's good everybody, Dylan Spalding here with you with here at HSR
00:05Daytona. We are joined with Steve Dunn, former IMSA driver, raced with Precision
00:10Performance Motorsports and has had a lengthy career in sports car racing.
00:14Steve, thanks so much for taking the time to talk. Obviously this is an exciting
00:18weekend, HSR at Daytona, historic 24, so just talk about overall how excited are
00:24you to be here. This is obviously a track that you've raced at before in the past in IMSA, so
00:27you've had experience here, but what is it like being here for the historic 24?
00:31Yeah, the historic 24 is very special. We run multiple cars in multiple classes so
00:37that we can get a lot of seat time. So we can run the classic sprints, the HSR
00:41sprints in one car, and then we can run the classic 24 in another car. Lots of
00:46seat time. I think last year I raced 18 sessions. It was just so much fun. And then
00:53you know obviously the beauty of this event is not only the the magnificent
00:57cars that are out there, we're on the track sometimes with DPI's.
01:01It's just an incredible thing. But just being at Daytona, it's just a special
01:07event. Being on the high banks during the day and at night with a DPI, for example,
01:12it's just very special. Talking about that class here, and obviously that's
01:16Group F this weekend, so there's a lot of exciting stuff. You mentioned racing with
01:20the DPI's. That's a pretty fun group. We're not in F. Oh, you're not in F.
01:24Okay, that's right. We're in E. You're in E. E in the 991. That's right. And then I'm
01:30running in the 996 as a Group D. That's still an impressive class though.
01:33They have prototypes in there with us. Yeah, a lot of prototypes as well. So I mean,
01:36talk about racing in that class. There is a lot of impressive talent there. You
01:41have Patrick Lindsey who's racing in there, who's obviously got a handful of
01:44experience, also being a team owner as well. There's other drivers who have been
01:48to various clubs. Talk about how competitive it's been in Group E. Yeah, it's very
01:51competitive. In fact, Patrick Lindsey's in a 997 and he's on pace with the 991s.
01:56Yeah. Tells you what a good driver he is. Very impressive. But yeah, we won the
02:02sprint race for the BRM Enduro in the 991s yesterday in our
02:08class. And then the 996s are getting ready for the Classic 24 tonight.
02:14But they race with 997.1s. So we've got our work cut out for us. Talk about
02:19this weekend as a whole. What is it about HSR that makes racing in this series
02:26appealing to teams like yourself and to even just teams in general? I mean, this
02:31is a very exciting and up-and-coming series. Yeah, it really is up-and-coming.
02:35It's gonna continue to grow because what it is, is it's competitive racing but
02:40it's not door-banging racing. Yeah. You're not gonna get usually, well,
02:45obviously not competitive like MX-5 or Carrera Cup or something like that.
02:50It's more gentleman driving. It's a little bit, it's a notch down but it's
02:54still competitive. And it's, like I said, being out here with pros on the same
02:59week, you're never gonna get that. Where else, what other series can
03:02you go out there with the EPI? There is none. And now, obviously, they
03:08have the four classics. They have the classic Daytona, classic Sebring, classic
03:12Road Atlanta, classic Petit, and then a walk-ins line as well. So I just love it.
03:18Obviously, you raced here in 2019 in the GTD class, in the Lamborghini, in the
03:23Rolex 24. Obviously, this weekend's a little bit different. You're only doing
03:27four stints, technically, in your class. But with the Rolex 24, that's a
03:31different beast. I mean, talk about preparing for a race like that compared
03:36to this weekend. You're not on track as much this weekend, but you still obviously got to
03:39prepare. But talk about preparing for the Rolex 24 and the process that
03:44goes into that. Well, honestly, when I raced the Rolex, I was a bronze, right? So
03:50I'm the slowest driver in the car. There was another bronze with us,
03:54that guy named Don Yount. He was a bronze with me. We were roughly the same pace.
03:57But it's very intimidating, right? So we have the roar ahead of time. So we get
04:02seat time there. And then we get seat time practice here for the race
04:07weekend, as well for the Rolex. But it's night and day, 180-degree
04:12difference from this. Very little relaxation, very intense. Racing against
04:17the best of the best. You have to perform. We practice driver changes till your
04:21butt is sore. It's very, very, very intense. And the exposure to failure or
04:28the ramifications for failure is enormous. You hit another car, you wreck
04:33the car at 2 in the morning. Well, you have 15 people that are going home, right?
04:37So the pressure and the intensity is 180 degrees off. What's the trickiest part of
04:42this track in terms of racing here? What may be the trickiest section, trickiest
04:47area in this circuit? What is maybe the toughest area to navigate, especially in
04:52the race? It's not a terribly difficult track. It is nuanced as far as it's got a
04:57couple of horseshoes that you would think would be simple. And they somewhat
05:00are simple. But when you're racing against the best and you want to get
05:02every tent, they become not simple anymore. Those two horseshoes matter. Turn
05:06six matters because you're leading onto a long straight. The banks are basically
05:10straights. Now, the bank after the bus stop of NASCAR 2 or 3 and 4
05:16is the longest straight in motorsports. So if you get through the
05:20bus stop correctly, then it pays dividends all the way down through the
05:23trials. You get it wrong, you suffer all the way down there. So I'd say the
05:26trickiest part of the track now is the bus stop. They changed it. This is the
05:31first weekend that we've run on the new layout. It's much different. It's a second
05:35to two seconds a lap slower now because of that turn. They put in big curves
05:39there. You have to take it much slower. You have to turn more and you don't get
05:42such a launch onto the back straight. So I would say that to answer your
05:46question, it's the bus stop. Having raced at IMSA for many years and obviously
05:50doing Super Trofeo, doing George Pereira Cup, getting a chance to do GTD, what has been
05:56the biggest thing you've noticed in terms of the progression of the series?
05:59I know you've raced a handful of years within IMSA, so what has kind of been the
06:03biggest change that you've seen over the years within IMSA? Obviously it's
06:08constantly growing and the GTD class has brought a new level of a fan base as
06:12well to the series. Yeah, well it's not the same now. It's difficult to do what I
06:17did now. I was a bronze driver. I wrote a check and I got in the car. It's really
06:21difficult to do that now because everybody is fast. I don't even know
06:26that there are many bronzes anymore. I think it might all be silvers. But the
06:32competition has doubled as far as the pace, the money, the expense. Everything
06:37has doubled. It's so big now and there's so many cars that to do what I did to
06:41hop in as a bronze is becoming more and more difficult. Yeah, the size of the
06:46fields are getting bigger and bigger and bigger, so it's naturally going to be more
06:49competitive. Yeah, absolutely. It's really an exciting time to be seeing what IMSA is doing and then
06:55not only that, it translates over to HSR to see the competitors that are coming out to this event.
07:00It really is making, it's really making these weekends really special to see the driver
07:08talent that we're seeing within the field. It's got to be exciting to be a
07:11part of something like that. Absolutely, yeah. I want this event to explode, but not just the
07:16Classic 24, all the three other Classics as well. They're less well
07:20attended than this. Obviously this is the big house, but Road Atlanta,
07:24Sebring, and Watkins-Mead. I want them to be just as big. Like I said, you can run
07:29sprints. They have the BRM Enduro Challenge, which is a 50-minute race, and
07:34then you can also run the Classic 24. And running at Daytona at night is super
07:38special, obviously, especially on the high banks. But yeah, with IMSA's
07:46backing now, it's going to just explode. So you guys have a field of courses that
07:51you're running this weekend, a full fleet if you will. And you know, Porsche has had such a big
07:57year as a manufacturer in terms of their growth. We're obviously seeing them about
08:01to win the Hypercar Class at WEC. There's just so much exciting things happening
08:06within the brand. Why is it such an awesome time to be with the Porsche
08:10family and just have the field of cars that you have? I mean, Porsche is really an
08:14expanding brand, and it's also one of the top brands right now, I feel like, in
08:17racing in general. Yeah, we are not really in that pool. We're not in the new
08:22cars. We're in previous generation cars. So we're in the 991, the 960,
08:29that's 20 years old. So we're more vintage racing. Even the 991, which is 2019, it's
08:34still vintage compared to the new cars. So we're not really involved with Porsche
08:38all that much, other than support. We need parts. Porsche is the
08:44dominant brand out here, for sure. 80% of the cars in some of the
08:50fields are all Porsches. They have the one-make series with the Carrera Cup.
08:58And Sprint Challenge. Ferrari does that, but you don't see any Ferraris out here.
09:03Lamborghini does that, but you don't see any Ferraris out here. Porsche is just a special car.
09:09At what pace, you kind of mentioned doing Carrera Cup, and you've raced in Porsche Carrera Cup,
09:13you've raced in Lamborghini, you've raced in Ferraris. So what makes like single-make series so special,
09:17and being involved in those type of series? Well, it means they take it serious, right?
09:21So it means that the R&D, the research and development on the cars is
09:26there, and they have to have the support and the engineering
09:29behind them, which they do. So all that translates from Carrera Cup,
09:34into Sprint Challenge, into the Caymans, and into us. So it all trickles down.
09:40It means they take it seriously. That's why you see so many Porsches.
09:43When you race a Porsche, you know it's a race car. Absolutely. As we wrap up 2024 here,
09:49and heading into 2025, what are you most looking forward to heading into the
09:52upcoming year? Obviously, you've still got the Sebring race coming up here in a few weeks,
09:56but what are you looking forward to here? It's mainly the first two
10:00classics in next year. So the Classic 10 at Road Atlanta is new.
10:08It's brand new. It'll be the first race. So I'm really looking forward to that growing,
10:11and then Watkinsville as well. Customs and Profits Sebring is special too, of course,
10:16but that's been around for a while already. It's going to be an exciting year next year,
10:20and Steve, good luck to obviously the team. Thanks again, really do appreciate it.
10:23Driver Database, you guys got to get Steve's stuff correct. It said he raced
10:28in World of Outlaws and Trans Am, but unfortunately that was not correct.
10:32But Steve, thanks again, my friend. Okay, buddy. Thank you very much.