Netherlands racer will start up front, but 24 hours is a long time.
DAYTONA BEACH — In literature, the Flying Dutchman is a ghost ship, blown off course by angry gods and sentenced to eternity on tossing seas.
Thursday at Daytona, the Flying Dutchman had some challenges, some of them produced by northeastern bluster, but most certainly ended the journey at the most desired location: The pole for this weekend’s Rolex 24.
Renger Van Der Zande, a 31-year-old Netherlands native, was an odd choice to be an afterthought, given that he was piloting the Cadillac Prototype that won its series championship last year.
But with so much focus elsewhere, including on blue-blood veteran Helio Castroneves, who appeared to have the pole in hand, heads snapped when Van Der Zande concluded Thursday’s qualifying session with a high-wire lap that will put him up front for Saturday’s start.
They had to move to the second decimal point to determine the results, and Van Der Zande was well into his cool-down lap before the good news was relayed to him.
“When they told me, I was over the moon, I can tell you that,” said Van Der Zande, who’s not only new to Wayne Taylor Racing, but actually replaced Taylor’s son, Ricky, who has moved on to Roger Penske’s new team.
Castroneves, new to IMSA sports-car racing after a highly decorated career in Indy-cars, had completed his qualifying efforts just prior to Van Der Zande’s pole-stealing lap, which the Dutchman described as an “all-in” effort in heavy winds and high pressure.
“Somehow, it turned out to be a fast lap,” he said
It was a fitting bit of competitive drama, serving to remind everyone of the reason we’re here. More and more every year, it seems, it’s easy to get lost in the blanketing sights, sounds and colors of the long Rolex weekend. Particularly on Day 1, when the trials of preparing for, much less finally starting, a marathon auto race have yet to grip the competitors.
The Rolex, especially compared to Daytona’s famous NASCAR visits, has an unmistakable international feel. This year, it seems more pronounced, due in large part to the whopping 17 worldwide auto manufacturers who are now involved in IMSA sports-car racing — and, of course, highly involved in using the IMSA platform to promote and hopefully sell their machinery.
But there’s also this year’s addition to the driver roster of a certifiable international superstar, two-time Formula One champion Fernando Alonso, the Spaniard who took a busman’s holiday for last year’s Indy 500 and is now adding the Daytona 24 to his 2018 preseason itinerary.
“You obviously know these places, you have these venue names in your head when you’re a kid,” said the 36-year-old Alonso, who drives for the famed McLaren team in F1. “You see these big races on television: The Indianapolis 500, Daytona 500, Daytona 24 hours … you play with these little cars when you’re a kid.
“You see the names. And then one day you’re here as a professional driver.”
In recent years, the Rolex has often featured well-known drivers from the NASCAR world, including Jeff Gordon, who was part of the 2017 overall winning team. But this time, the biggest names built their fame in the open-wheel world. Along with Alonso, there’s Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya and the Brazilian Castroneves.
Given all that, it’s no surprise that the Speedway issued credentials to media members from 17 different countries, including representatives from South and Central America, Europe (including Hungary and Sweden) and Asia.
In all corners of the globe, automobiles represent varying degrees of importance and therefore their styles also vary greatly — from the wildly popular pickup trucks of North America to the squat VWs of western Europe to the sturdy Volvos of Scandinavia.
But nearly all corners of the globe also contain racetracks, and on those tracks, the universal language is speed. That’s why Daytona’s sprawling garage area, from one stall to the next to the next, is just a blur of sameness — wrenches clanking, teams practicing driver changes, engineers staring holes in their laptops.
It continues Friday, with more practice laps, followed by more tuning and tweaking, followed by more practice laps to gauge the results of that tuning and tweaking. And then on Saturday afternoon, they wave a green flag.
The Flying Dutchman will lead the dive into Turn 1. Victory Lane will be a stone’s throw to his left, yet far, far away. Stones don’t fly 24 hours.
Alonso, from the Formula One world where starting up front often means staying up front, didn’t mean to throw a damper on what it all means for Van Der Zande, but was instead putting his own spin on qualifying 13th. Two laps around the clock, he knows, has many land mines and plenty of potential opportunities to gain ground on those who may be a tick faster.
“This is probably the least important qualifying of my life,” he said.