Team Spirit Of Daytona In The Rolex 24-Hour Daytona Race - From 2 Wheels To 4

"I jumped in and smelled something funny."

Milliseconds later, Scott Russell scrambled out of the cockpit, witnessed flames engulfing his team's racecar, and wondered if his new driving career was going up in flames, too. Ironically, this drama unfolded just 500 feet from the site of his horrific, bike-career-ending accident nearly 10 years prior.

The happy-go-lucky man known in motorcycle roadracing circles as "Mr. Daytona" was back careening around Daytona's hallowed high banks-but not as a former World Superbike Champion or winner of five Daytona 200s. Instead, Russell was the lead driver in his first event for Team Spirit of Daytona Racing in the Grand Am Sports Car Series' Rolex 24, America's harshest 24-hour car race.

Undeterred, the team repaired the car in less than 60 minutes-the fire was caused by a broken fuel pump bracket-strapped Russell back in, and went on to finish 11th in class with 649 laps in the books before the checkered flag flew on this round-the-clock race of attrition.

Looking to generate crossover interest between motorcycle and car racing, this AMA Pro Racing-sponsored team was made up of Russell, World Endurance/AMA 750 Supersport/Formula Xtreme champion Jason Pridmore, and motocross legend Jeff Ward, himself a seven-time AMA national champ with titles in the 125cc, 250cc and 500cc motocross classes, Supercross, and even Supermoto. Of the three, only Ward, who nearly won the Indy 500 in 1999, had extensive car racing seat time.

The bike guys were fortunate to have co-driver Guy Cosmo-an experienced car racer and driving coach with 24 Grand Am starts to his credit-serve as the team's development driver and help the two-wheel champions quickly get up to speed. "They're outstanding guys and it's been a fun process," said Cosmo. "They're real champions, truly talented racers. Seeing how methodical they were in their approach was amazing. They were never egotistical. They just wanted to learn, asked me a ton of questions, totally put their success behind them and adapted to doing this properly."

What were the challenges of making a motorcycle racer into a competitive car driver? "Mostly just getting them to understand and best utilize the forces that cars can create in comparison to the bikes," opined Cosmo. "What I understand from them, is that when you're leaning it over on the motorcycle, all the forces the driver experiences on a motorcycle happen vertically, up through your body. You don't experience any lateral force across your body. They couldn't get over how hard you could brake. They couldn't get over how hard you could create lateral load in the middle of the corners. So once they figured out that it's not gonna tip up on the front wheels when you stomp on the brake pedal or when you stomp on the throttle, then they really started to use that to their advantage. That was the biggest thing for them to get around.

"Outside of that, they are road racers and they understand the corners, they understand geometry, they understand the physics, they understand everything. So, that's why they were able to excel and do the good job they did."

Pridmore was thrilled to have Cosmo on the team. "From day one, Guy Cosmo has helped us so much. He was so good in articulating the points he wanted to get across," said the proprietor of the STAR motorcycle school. "There are a lot people who know what's going on but they don't know how to explain it.

With Cosmo's tutelage, the motorcycle racers only spun the car twice, and otherwise stayed out of trouble. Rather than rookie mistakes, downtime was caused by a faulty electrical system, a sticky throttle cable, a malfunctioning clutch and the aforementioned fire.

"It's a big challenge for us to jump into this sandbox like this," said Pridmore. "But I think we just kept getting closer and closer and we'd made a lot of progress before the fire. You always want to finish on top, but this was our first time out." Even while his crew was pushing the injured racecar back to the pit garage, Russell noted that, "I hung up my bike leathers way too soon, so this little fire isn't going to ruin my new career."