Hour 14

Yeah, that thing I wrote last hour about it being 30 minutes short of two-thirds completion was exactly two hours off. The fine folks at Grand-Am are kind enough to Sharpie in the hour for each rundown sheet (Hour 1, Hour 6, HOur 14) and actually have it printed into the hourly reports (weather, distance compelted, Overall average speed, lap leaders, cautions, and Notes of Interest). Both sheets said 13 which the average second grader would've deduced, therefore, to mean there were 10+ hours of competition left.

Alas, I must've missed that little exercise in elementary school math and got it wrong. Apologies. Yet another strong indicator as why I was an English major in college ... albeit a seven-year student without a degree.

It's currently 6:30 a.m. so, with the checkered flag scheduled to wave over what's left of the field at 3:30 p.m. Eastern standard Time, I think that means there are nine hours remaining in the race. Mears made a fuel and Pirelli stop a few laps ago so past the midway point of his second stint in the NO. 2 Gentleman Jack Pontiac Crawford.

The wack-job who announced he was going to ride his personal water craft around Lake Lloyd for 24 hours stopped and loaded up his stuff just after the halfway point but, from what one observer noted, just passed the world record. I say if you announce you're going to do something and fall short, despite surpassing the record, you don't get the credit. Don't get me wrong, 12 hours on a JetSki is quite impressive in its own way but the guy (wack-job) opened his mouth.

I'll close for now with the observation that I can't remember the last time I stayed up a full 24-hour stint, especially sober. I'm just shy of an hour of doing that (damn, those numbers again!) and I haven't had even a sip of caffeine all day.

More later.