Grand Am Road Racing Media Conference

Topics:  Grand Am Road Racing

Terry Borcheller
Ryan Dalziel
February 3, 2010

THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to this special edition of NASCAR Grand-Am teleconference. Joining us today are drivers Terry Borcheller and Ryan Dalziel, winning drivers in Rolex 24 at Daytona, helped give Action Express Racing a victory in its very first race. The first Daytona Prototype champion in 2003, Terry is now a two-time overall winner of the Rolex 24, plus he has an additional watch for a class victory. He will continue co-driving of the No. 9 Action Express Porsche Riley for the remainder of the season. Terry, that's a great way to celebrate your new full-time ride. How pig was opening the season with the victory for Action Express.
TERRY BORCHELLER: I think it was huge for everyone. I mean, for myself, the team, just the whole effort that was put behind it and the time that was spent, it was huge. In looking at the championship that I'm going to be running with Joao for the year, as far as the points go, it's huge in that way, too.
THE MODERATOR: Very good way to start the year. Ryan, you were a guest driver with Action Express. You're going to join Starworks in the next Rolex series race, March 6th, Homestead Miami Speedway. Can you bring the momentum of the Rolex 24 victory to your new team?
RYAN DALZIEL: You know, I want to say a quick thank you. I had a lot of people follow me overseas, the response has been overwhelming. I wanted to take an opportunity to thank the Scottish press, a standout newspaper for me has been the Scottish Sun.
As far as your question goes, it's been just crazy the past couple days. Terry and I were talking before we came on line. I made a comment, I didn't realize how much of a lack of a career I had, until I won this. I hope so. I hope I can bring the momentum forward. It has been a huge eye opener to me how big this race is. For me and my career. I think everybody involved with Action Express, including the four drivers, everybody had their own agendas of why this is so special. I look forward to going to Homestead, a new venture, team, and hopefully with the points lead we're going to go in there and have a good show.
THE MODERATOR: I'd like to turn it over to the operator for questions. Ryan, you with a charity tie-in with the Rolex 24. Are you going to continue that at future races?
RYAN DALZIEL: You know, we are. We started a RaceforHaiti.com. It's something that's chose to my family and my wife's family in particular. I felt we didn't do enough justice. I had the suspicion going into Daytona we left just a little late. We're going to continue it. Haiti is not going to be rebuilt in one race weekend so we're going to keep it going.
We did pretty well. We raised $1600 in the one day that was kind of live. We're hoping to keep it going. Hopefully we can just kept it a little bit better. I do feel a little bit disappointed with myself.

Q. Terry, you had a dry spell between your championship of 2003 winning the Rolex 24 in 2004 and now again here. With a full season ahead of you of commitment, tell us how did you manage to sustain yourself in between that?
TERRY BORCHELLER: I kind of anticipated you would be our first question. You've been a great supporter of mine at good and lean times. I appreciate your faith in me and your friendship.
But for me, you know, you never know when the faucet is going to be turned off. I think I had a record of wins, major sports car wins, that kind of piled up quicker than really anybody in the sport had ever done. Then all of a sudden almost overnight it turned off. I don't think you can ever predict those times because you can't predict racing.
From 2004 until this race, I still had been racing every year. I just kind of bounced around and did some different sports car series. I did some in the Rolex, I did some in the GT, some in what was the Coney Challenge. I bounced all over the place. Even went down to Central America and ran their TransAm championship.
For me it was just knowing that once I was able to get in a good car with a good team that I would be able to do the same job I always did. So I just made sure that I stayed in shape and kept my training up. I was able to do a lot of things personally that I hadn't been able to do in the past, particularly here locally in Vero Beach, our church has a program called School of Leaders. I was able to get trained and become a pastor. In charge of a small group of men. That's exciting, kind of a dream for me. It really impacts the lives the other people in a positive direction for the long-term. That's been real gratifying for me.
Also spending a lot of time with my family. They put so many sacrifices out over the years with me being gone, the travel that I have done, it was nice for me to be able to have quite a bit of time to spend with my kids and my wife, just really plug in at home.
Unfortunately I still was traveling quite a bit because I coached a lot and I did race quite a bit. Just no major wins. Kind of under the radar. But I'm very excited to be back with the Rolex 24 win and especially with the team of drivers that were with me, it was just an incredible event and incredible race. I'm looking forward to this year with Barbosa. We're going to have a blast.

Q. Ryan, you join a list of great Scotsmen who have accomplished much in motor sports. Tell me what it's like from that perspective for you, please?
RYAN DALZIEL: Thanks for your support, as well.
It's undescribable to win this and really be able to put into words other than talking to somebody like Terry who has won it before. I think I kind of beat myself a little bit because I've been pretty close to winning it before, maybe haven't given it the respect winning this race deserves.
You know, when I woke up on Monday morning, I think it did hit me. The amount of emails I got from high-end people in motor sport. I actually got one email from Gil de Ferran has become a friend of mine over the years. His email basically said, great job, welcome to a group of elite drivers that made history. It was pretty much a one-line email. After I kind of dried my eyes a little bit, it kind of hit home a little bit that this is something huge.
Coming from a small country where we have such an abundance of talent when it comes to motor sport, and we still have Dario winning championships, and we also have the younger generation. I don't know what it is we brew in the water over there, but it's something to be part of. It's special for me to be part of a winning team and something as huge as the 24 Hours of Daytona. It's something special to give something back to Scotland. I've had lots of good press over the years when things have been rough for me over the past couple years, so maybe a little bit of payback to everybody.

Q. Ryan, during one of the press conferences prior to your win, you mentioned you had the option to go with Starworks, who you'll be with for the reason, or race with the Action Express team for the Rolex 24. Looking at how a driver's career comes down to which decision to make, how does this go down in the I'm glad I chose this one category for you?
RYAN DALZIEL: I have my dartboard at home that has my lucky and non-lucky side. For whatever reason, it hit the right decision that day.
I don't think really anybody, probably my wife and my brother, know how difficult it was for me to make that decision. You know, Peter has been loyal to me. He is a good friend. He might have actually been the final decision maker. He was the one that told me to go do this, which I think says a lot for somebody like him who doesn't want to see their No. 1 driver go and do this.
It was a collective decision he made. The Starworks program, I believe in it as far as the long run, but I also know that Daytona wasn't going to be a winning effort for them. I expected them to be quick, but I also knew the opportunity to drive with Action Express was one of those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. It's being offered to drive at LeMans, whether you're in a fast car or slow car, you take it. When I did get involved initially with Action Express, it was tight-lipped at that point. It was going to be Action Express. I assumed it was going to be a two-car effort. As the progression went through, I heard Action Express, I heard who was involved in it, especially when I heard the driver lineup, I never knew who the third driver was going to be, I knew it was to going to be Terry, and I knew who the next driver decisions were going to be. To be honest, I was kind of the underdog. I had to push myself pretty hard in front of Bob Johnson and Gary Nelson to get them to pick me over some people that had slightly bigger names.
I'm pretty proud of myself that I managed to convince them that I was the right guy for the decision. And I think that one of the reasons that I maybe wasn't always in contention for these kind of seats is because I didn't have a major win under my belt.
I think things are going to be different now. I really do appreciate everything that Peter allowed me to do. He was one of the first guys on the phone to me. I'm looking forward to the rest of the season. It's been one of those dream situations that will never happen again, to have the option that I had to be able to leave your full-time team to go and drive for somebody like Action Express and know afterwards no matter what happens you still have your ride. I don't think it's ever going to happen that way again, but I'm happy that it happened this time.

Q. I was watching from trackside as much as I could from about midnight to 7 a.m. What you were able to do with your car was just an a different level from anyone else on the track, not just the speed, but the consistent speed you were able to drive was on a different level. Knowing many of the drivers on the team were familiar with the Riley flat six configuration, tell me how you were able to be so fast, so convincing and confident with the Porsche V8 behind you?
RYAN DALZIEL: I was going to add it was purely down to the skill of the drivers. I think we're both going to say something similar, so I'll let Terry take this one.
TERRY BORCHELLER: I don't know that any of us on the team, other than maybe Gary Nelson, thought that we actually could be as competitive as we were, only because of how many things were coming together late. There just was a lot of unknowns.
But I would agree with Ryan, him saying it jokingly, but the driver pairing that we had was really special, I think. I've been to LeMans five times, and I've done Daytona a lot. I really do think, and it's not even about the fastest four guys on the planet, but it's about four guys that can leave their egos at the door and realize they're all there because they're good and because they're supposed to be there and focus at the job at hand and not always be so concerned about the watch.
There's definitely a time to be concerned about lap times, but with the 24 Hour, it's such a different race than anything else we do in Grand-Am. I think the four of us were able to get to that level. I didn't know Ryan that well going into the weekend. I got to know him a lot more, and have grown to like him a lot more and respect him a lot more than I ever did just because I didn't know him that well. Rocky I've driven with before and Joao I've driven with before. I would take that thinking and that team and put it right into the team.
We had a lot of adversity. Not that it was seen necessarily from the outside, especially when it first started originating, with the clutch happening on the first pit stop, I left the pits, the clutch won't engage, I'm thinking we're going to deal with this for the rest of the race, we're in big trouble, we got 23 hours to go here. The team was just amazing in how they knew the job that needed to be done. They were able to come together at the right time without losing time and with the ability to think about the race in the back of their mind always continuing going on and yet get the problem solved. I thought that was an incredible assembly of people. Really that's at the core and the heart of sports car racing. It is about the people.
We just had a wonderful group from the very top all the way down. I'm guessing that the drivers are probably on the bottom of the totem pole because we're the easiest to replace. But from the top of the pole all the way down, we just had a pretty amazing assembly of people that were able to go against the odds and overcome adversity and be there on the top at the end. The more I think about it, the more special the win becomes.

Q. Ryan, the Franchittis are known for sending their friends home with Cadbury chocolate. Did they pile you up with chocolate after the win?
RYAN DALZIEL: I hope my wife isn't listening, she'll be mad. I am going to Scotland this weekend. We don't race for a month or so. I'm going to go back to Scotland and celebrate for a month and pig out and eat everything I shouldn't.

Q. My question has to do with going with a new team. There has to be some concern in your mind that maybe not everything will come together, then maybe practice may have made you think about second-guessing your decision to do that, just the way it played out. Was it Gary Nelson or Bob Johnson? What were the sparks that made you go with that and contributed to the success of this arrangement?
RYAN DALZIEL: You know, I think I've been involved now a couple of times over the year with first-time teams, teams in a new series. For this opportunity, I never looked at it as a first-time team or a new team. There was so much experience still involved in Action Express. I think Gary Nelson is kind of at the head of the line for that, but it trickles down through the crew chief and the crew. One thing I said in press conference, which I'm in awe about, is in our pit stops through the race, whether we did just tires, we did just fuel, we did a driver change, or we made repairs to the car, never once did we have a delay, never once did we have somebody miss putting the wheel on the hub properly. I've never even seen that. Even when you watch some of the best LeMans teams, when you watch Ganassi, Ganassi is always at the top of the line. I think consistently we were quicker than them and consistently we made no mistakes.
Yeah, the car was great. Everything was good on track. On the last pit stop, it was crucial we lost no time. We beat Ganassi on the last pit stop by four seconds. I think I was never worried about it. I think we all thought going into the race we're going to be reliable, we'll be there at the end, maybe we won't have the pace.

Q. You were given the Rolex watch. Are you wearing it?
TERRY BORCHELLER: I can answer this. I'm not looking at Ryan. He's wearing it. Am I right, Ryan?

Q. Terry, are you wearing yours?
TERRY BORCHELLER: Of course.

Q. Which one are you wearing?
TERRY BORCHELLER: I'm wearing the black face, the one I won.
RYAN DALZIEL: I'm back on.
TERRY BORCHELLER: I told them, Ryan, I'm not sitting with you, but I can answer the question that you're wearing it.
RYAN DALZIEL: I didn't hear the question. The only thing that got me out of bed on Monday morning was to go to the jewelers and get the watch looked at. It's been welded to my wrist since then.

Q. Terry, you mentioned earlier about picking a team. How do you know this is the team? And how can you tell during the course of the 24 hours that this team is coming together and it's going to maximize the potential?
TERRY BORCHELLER: Well, I'm not a hundred percent sure I understand your question. But I'm going to shoot from the hip.
For me, with the drivers in particular, Joao, I don't know how well the people -- I think the fans are getting to know him pretty well, and the racing community probably knows him very well. Zero baggage, zero ego. Down-to-earth, basically wants to race kind of guy. To start with him as our lead driver, I think that trickles down because, again, I've known Rocky and raced with Rocky, and he's the same. I didn't know Ryan that well going into the race weekend. But spending the weekend with him, I can tell you he's the same. I'd like to think that I'm in that same vein.
So when you have everybody on the same page without apparently agendas, you have your agendas for the team, the win, what you're supposed to do, but I think that's the key.
Then as far as the assembly of the people, obviously the drivers rarely have anything to do with that. On occasion we'll get a call as far as a reference or whatever. Gary has done a really good job. Even before Gary stepped in as the team manager, Bob Snodgrass was that kind of guy with Brumos. That's where the pinnacle of Action Express started, was with the formation of the two-car Brumos team. When Bob Johnson decided to start up Action Express, he saw the quality of the people on that second car and didn't want to lose that continuity.
Again, there is a lot of to say about the continuity of people and the way that they work together or not. I just think that we had that firing on all cylinders, from the drivers, the team, crew, management, everything. It was just hitting on all cylinders. It made for a special weekend for a lot of people.

Q. When did you notice when that was coming together? Was that before the race started or sometime during the race? If it happened during the race, talk about that.
TERRY BORCHELLER: No, I think again for me, I've got to look prior to Action Express because I've been involved with Brumos. I think the first time I drove with them was end of the season, which was the Utah race in 2007. That was my involvement with Brumos. I had beaten them for the championship in 2003 for the inaugural championship, so I think there was a little bit of a bad taste in their mouth with regards to me. They were kind of between a rock and a hard place at the end of 2007 and needed me -- I happened to be at the right place at the right time. I had a real good friendship with Darren and Hurley. They asked me to drive that last race with them. They already had Joao under contract for 2008.
But I was able to come in and run that race. Then they invited me to do the 24 Hour, which was going to be the next race for the beginning of 2008 as a guest driver. Whenever I went into that race, I went into the team meeting, which they had the day before the weekend was going to start. To answer your question, I think this is kind of where the light went on for me. Whenever they stood up in front of the team meeting and said we've assembled the best people in the business, and we already believe you're the best, that's why you're here, you don't have to prove yourself, you don't have to go out and do anything different than you've already done, you're here because we believe you are the best. When they said that, it really settled me down in thinking that I had something to prove, really enabled me to relax, do my job. We've had a great result every year. That first year in 2008 was a little rough. But 2009 as a team we finished first and third. Then this year with splitting the Brumos program to one car, then Action Express forming, us having with Action Express a win, it goes a long way just talking about the people that are assembled in that group.

Q. When you look at a team do you look at the car, the people in the background, the front office, the drivers? What's the one thing that stands out above the rest?
TERRY BORCHELLER: Well, again, it's so hard to pick one thing. I've been asked this question a lot, people that are wanting to form a racing program or team. There's a lot of times they're asking my advice. It really is like a big puzzle. You know, it's not a mystery. It's not a secret. It's just a lot of hard work and a lot of good people.
You know, I don't know that you can point to one specific direction. You got to have it all to win championships and to win races like the Rolex 24. It's just a very special thing when you're able to do it.
Then when you get it all right, you still need a little bit of racing luck because we're not the only team in the paddock that had that going on. There's a lot of competition going on. The Ganassi guys are incredible, SunTrust, just an immense amount of depth in the field. I'm sure I missed quite a few. There wasn't one team out there that didn't have some of the pieces to the puzzle, and some of them actually had all the pieces, they just didn't have the racing luck this weekend and we did.
That's a tough question to pinpoint one specific thing because it's not an easy task.

Q. Terry, now that you have won the Rolex 24, how does that change your outlook on the season, winning that first race with your sort of new team?
TERRY BORCHELLER: I don't think it changes my outlook really at all. It's always great to leave the first race with the points lead. As we saw last year with Brumos winning the 24 Hour, then the rest of the year, they tended to struggle quite a bit. It was really an uphill climb. When you win that first one, you're kind of the target. Everybody is gunning for you.
It's not going to be any easier. If anything, I'd say it's going to be a little bit harder. But it always is nice to leave with good points from Daytona because it really does impact the season. If you have a bad season at Daytona, you're at least half the season catching that up. Depending on how your competitors do, sometimes you never can gain that ground back up.
I'm really happy to be leaving Daytona with the points lead. I know it's going to be a huge battle for the year because there's so many great drivers, great teams and cars out there. But we're definitely starting out on the right foot.

Q. With Brumos in the past, how different was it racing with Action Express this year? Was there any difference?
TERRY BORCHELLER: I would say there were differences, for sure. Some of the personnel has changed. We don't have every single person. The other thing that happened was the crew that was on the 59 car last year was on the 58 car this year. We actually got the crew that was on the 58 car on the Action Express team. So there were significant changes that were made. It wasn't a totally smooth transition.
But, you know, again, I think speaking from the side of Action Express, from the top, Bob Johnson, who I've known for quite a while now, his character, his integrity, the way he deals with people, I'll never forget the first time that I drove for Brumos in 2007, my payment was in my hand before the start of the race. I'd never had that happen before, ever. I called them up. I'm like, do you realize you already paid me? Actually, the comment back was, yeah, that's something Bob Snodgrass started a long time ago. He wants the drivers, when they show up to the track, that they were committed to and that they have people that believe in them. They don't want them to be thinking about anything other than doing their job.
That just really hit home to me because it was so different than anything else I ever experienced in the racing world. I'm sure Ryan can speak to this. How many times have we been chasing money even into the next season. Sometimes it involves getting on a plane, looking people in the eye, saying, don't you owe me this?
It was a great joy to experience that. But, again, I say that to say I think it says a lot about the organization and just what they're about. They are about people. They're about winning and about racing, but they're about the people. Whenever you are about the people, that's a priority, you get a lot of loyalty back. That's a great thing in this small community. It goes a long way.

Q. You both have gotten to drive some different engines in the Grand-Am series. How does the Porsche V8 stack up against them?
RYAN DALZIEL: You know, I think I've driven everything other than the six cylinder Porsche to this point. The other thing is it changes every year. Sometimes one engine is strong and three races later another engine is strong.
The one thing, Grand-Am does a good sure of making sure nobody has the advantage. If they do have an advantage, it's short-lived. Everybody gets their opportunity to shine, I think.
I actually drove the Porsche V8 in a Riley chassis at the end of 2008. It was so bad that we pulled out of the car and turned up at the 24 Hour race with a BMW in it. I was completely shocked and impressed at how much they've done with the engine.
Obviously, when you look at the race, we never really got passed on the straight. I think that was a factor for a couple of different things. The V8, it definitely looks a little bit in torque, but what it lacked up for torque, but it made up for it the car. I think it's going to be strong. Action Express are going to be a contender at every race. I think the motor is only going to get stronger. For sure, there was stuff that we didn't have on the motor that we didn't put on for reliability issues. The one thing was the car or the motor ran extremely well, just reliability-wise. We had absolutely nothing with the engine all the way through the race.
I think the top engines are still a little bit of the race. I think the Ford is extremely strong. My concern throughout the race actually, I felt the one car that could be the upset was the 6 car. I think if you had a little bit of legs on us and on the Ganassi car, and the 10 car with the Ford motor was extremely quick.
I think Ford seemed to kind of keep themselves under the radar and not cause any issues, the political side of the Grand-Am series, but I think their motors are definitely the stronger. The Porsche V8, hard to compare to the other Porsche, but for me it's going to be extremely quick through the season, maybe not right away, but it's definitely got a lot of potential.

Q. Ryan, do you know anything about who is going to be in Starworks second car with Bill?
RYAN DALZIEL: Yes and no. Yes, I do, but, no, I can't really say anything about it.

Q. Terry, it was only six years since you were in victory lane at Daytona. What was it like being in the new Victory Lane? Have you communicated with Forest Barber? For both guys, the 24 is a unique event, but what did this show you about the team that proves you can be competitive throughout the season?
TERRY BORCHELLER: As far as the Victory Lane, I think 2004 was the last time they used the old Victory Lane the. The next year I walked by and it was, come one, what is this. It was a huge improvement. I've walked by it every year since thinking I can't wait to get back in there.
As far as Forest goes, he was not only my co-driver, but he also was a very good friend, a good friend of Grand-Am. I know he was one of the ones that pulled the trigger to be involved at the very beginning. We had some great meetings with Jim France and Jim France laid out kind of the vision of Grand-Am and the Rolex series, what he wanted to accomplish. I relayed that information to Forest. Forest said it sounds like a good thing, he sounds like a good man, so let's do it. So that was the beginning.
I actually got off the phone with Forest probably 10 minutes before this call. He sent me a text. I responded to his text. He called me immediately and was overjoyed and happy about the victory. He's building a lake house in Texas. He's racing a little bit. But not at the level that he was. I think he's enjoying his girls growing up and building his lake house.
He's still very much a fan and stays tuned into what I'm doing and what Grand-Am is doing.

Q. Terry, what did the 24, which is a unique event, show you about the team that proves they can be competitive throughout the season?
TERRY BORCHELLER: Again, I can't say it enough, but it so important as the season progresses that you're able to communicate as a team. Every single team is going to encounter obstacles. It's too much stress and too much pressure as you go through, especially if you end up being in contention as the season moves on. With the travel, with the time away from family, there's just so many things that start to creep in, not to mention the late nights at the shop and all the other normal stuff that the team as a whole is going to be encountering.
I think being able to navigate through all of that really starts from the top and works its way down. If you have a lot of things going on in the team, a lot of turmoil, when the fire gets turned up mid season, like I said, especially if you're in contention for a championship, it just goes from bad to worse. It doesn't get any better.
I think that this team with the adversity we had coming in, getting started late, to just the car not handling the way that we were hoping it would, to the engine not hoping the way it would right off the bat, just even with weeks in between from one test to the other starting from December to January, then into the race weekend, it shows the ability of the team to just keep moving forward.
I was completely impressed with the way the team as a whole handled the whole situation. Again, I think the drivers would all agree on this statement. Coming into the race weekend practice, Rocky, myself and Ryan, we didn't get more than -- I don't think Ryan and Rocky got more than 10 laps in. Because I drove in the test, I didn't get but five. With that in mind, you go in and you're thinking, man, I don't know how good of a chance we have, if any, to be on the top step. But, like Ryan said, if we can just be there at the end, maybe we can salvage a podium, get some good points. But to win, I don't know if any of us thought that was possible unless something really strange happened.
Man, come the start of the race, all the work, just some rolling of the dice with the setup and different things gave us a car that was competitive and on pace, which was really incredible.

Q. Ryan, you have some open-wheel stuff in your background. Is Grand-Am a viable career option for professional racecar drivers these days?
RYAN DALZIEL: Absolutely. I think my past, back to Champ Car, was through Grand-Am. At the end of my ladder system, I did pretty much everything I could do in Atlantics, still couldn't get the opportunity to go into Champ Car at the time. In 2005 I ended up completing a double season in LeMans and Grand-Am. For me, it was a bit of a shell-shocker. You go from making no money in Atlantics to people are actually giving me checks to racecars here.
Throughout the couple of seasons, '05, '06, I felt at home, especially in Grand-Am My kind of journey back into Champ Car was a little bit strange. When I actually had resigned for 2007 with Pacific Coast, it was to compete in Grand-Am. Not many people know this, but I was the one to try to convince them not to go to Champ Car. Even though it was a dream for me, I felt it was the wrong decision. I kind of made my home in Grand-Am.
But I think there's so many drivers there that never really quite got that opportunity. A lot of guys should have an opportunity. We're there making money. The competition is huge. I've raced in so many different series. I went back to Europe end of 2008, competed over there again. I don't think there's a series in the world that has so many funded drivers, drivers that are actually making money, this is a career, this is a professional opportunity for them.
Yeah, I mean, I think it is a good place to be. I think it goes all the way from Grand-Am Rolex series all the way down through what is now the Continental Tire Series. I think there's more drivers in Grand-Am being paid than any other series in the world. As long as they keep doing what they're doing, I think they're getting stronger and the fan base is getting stronger, I think it's two years in a row where the Rolex 24 came down to the last lap. No other series has even done that.

Q. 45-car field, competition wasn't there. I daresay I understand where you're going to come from, but I would like to hear your comments about the strength of your victory as compared to others in the past.
TERRY BORCHELLER: Well, I think for me winning this year, when I won in 2004, Ganassi was just getting in. SunTrust was just kind of getting rolling. Nobody really had their feet wet. We had the 2003 season championship under our belt going into the 24. I heard a lot of -- there were a lot of things said about the team, about the drivers that we had in that 2004 win. There was some validity to it. The series definitely was not as competitive as it is now, not even close.
But when you're around the sport as long as I've been around it and you've co-driven with as many guys as I've co-driven with, you know where you rank. I know there are guys that are out there as good or better than me. I never believed that in my 20s, but I think reality hurts sometimes. I know I have a gift, I have a talent, and I just need to do the best job that I can do.
This year for me, you know, all of those teams that were coming in 2004, they've been developed now in 2010. We had the best teams in the world in Grand-Am represented at the 24 hours of Daytona and we beat 'em. That speaks volumes to me. Ganassi still came with two cars. The field was smaller than last year. The toughest teams, not only at the 24, but the toughest teams always in contention for the championship, were all represented. It doesn't get any better than what we experienced at the 24 Hour. Just because there were a few less cars, it doesn't change my thinking at all. I think everybody that knows motor sports knows that we beat the best teams in the business and nobody can ever take that away from us and I'm really, really proud of our team and our driver lineup and that accomplishment.

Q. Ryan?
RYAN DALZIEL: I totally agree. I think there's a couple of different factors. I remember somebody asking me something similar on the buildup to the race. I actually went and looked on the entry list. Yeah, there's 15 cars. How many of those were very experienced, Formula One experience. The level of experience throughout those 15 cars was huge. For probably the first time as long as I've been involved in Grand-Am, there wasn't many non-pros in the cars. It was a 15-car field. If Ganassi has two cars, that's who you have to beat. I don't care how many cars. There was some chatter even between the Ganassi cars, which was a little disrespectful to what we've done. Ganassi made out like they lost the race. That's not what happened. We won the race. We beat them fair and square. We hunted them down, passed them. I think you could have put two cars in the race and it would have been probably a similar outcome, or you could have put 30 cars in the race and it would have been a similar outcome. I think we beat the best Grand-Am team on the course of the past five years on average.
Everybody wants to see 90 cars there, but we still had a 45-car field. NASCAR has their field, one of the largest in the world. But there really aren't many series, and we start earlier than most people, but come March and April, we'll see how many other series really get above 18, 16 cars.
Yeah, it's disappointing for all of us that there's not more cars out there, but I think the depth of field is huge.

Q. How did the team or you as drivers go about celebrating this victory?
RYAN DALZIEL: Trust me, mine is not what you're expecting. I live in Orlando. Daytona is kind of my home race. I didn't get out of the track until about 6:30, 6:45. I saw Terry. We left the similar time. I called my wife who already left. She was starting to call up friends, let's go out and do some stuff. The truth of the matter, when you're doing well at Daytona, the last thing you want to do is sleep, for the worry you wake up, the car is out of the race. I never slept for the whole race. Obviously we put everything into it. We did a long stint at the end. I actually had to plead with my wife not to celebrate.
She invited some friends over. Had a quiet dinner. I was in bed, wrapped up by about 9:45. That's been the extent of my celebration so far. I'm actually going back to Scotland this weekend. It's my brother's 30th and father's 60th in the same week. We're doing a triple celebration. Hold my celebrations till I get back there and then I can make a clown of myself.

Q. Terry?
TERRY BORCHELLER: Mine was pretty low-key also. I had a lot of friends and family that drove up from Vero Beach, Florida, a couple hours from Daytona. They all hung around until all the post race stuff was done. They met me at a restaurant close to the Speedway there. We hung out and talked and hung out with family and changed a diaper, did all the normal stuff. Didn't change a whole lot.
I actually had kept my room booked for Sunday night because in the past I've driven home. It's a pretty miserable drive. It's the last thing you feel like doing. I had gotten sick towards the end of the race. I was real happy I didn't have to drive home. I could just go to the hotel and crash. The next morning I consoled Darren. Our family knows his family pretty well. Our kids enjoy hanging out with his kids. We went to his hotel, hung out, spent the morning, first part of the afternoon with him, took a drive home. It's been pretty non-stop. I have about a thousand text messages and emails that I'm intently trying to work through. But it's been really, really difficult to get them answered. As soon as I get a couple answered, there's a few more that come in. That part is a bit overwhelming. This didn't happen in 2004, I can tell you that.

Q. Ryan, does the winner's Rolex feel heavier than a regular watch because of its inherent awesomeness?
RYAN DALZIEL: I took it to a friend who owns a jewelry store. Can you size it? Yeah, I have a Rolex specialist here. I think the guy was more excited than I was to see this watch. Anybody involved in racing or maybe involved in Rolex knows what it is. The watch is incredible. For years I've said to myself, like I said previous about Daytona, I've not given it enough credit. I don't think I gave Rolex enough credit because I could never afford to buy one. If I could afford to buy one, as a principle, no driver will buy one. To win it, it is another satisfying thing you've done in your career.
I've had it on non-stop. I've had a lot of compliments on it. I wish I could wear it back to front so people could see the engraving. I have to figure out how to get a mirror on my wrist so people can see the reflection on the back. It doesn't take me long to unclip the band and see the engraving on the back.

Q. Terry, future plans to modify the Cheyenne motor in seasons to come?
TERRY BORCHELLER: I don't know what the future of the Cheyenne motor and Grand-Am hold. I know that Grand-Am is really enjoying having the V8 out there. I know politically there's things going on within Porsche where they're not so happy about that. Again, I don't get into the politics of it.
But Porsche is a great brand, and the motor ran flawlessly, like Ryan said, throughout the 24 hours of the race. I sure hope that the development continues and I think that it will. I'm looking forward to that showing itself throughout the season.
THE MODERATOR: Ryan and Terry, congratulations once again on winning the 48th Rolex 24 at Daytona. Best of luck March 6th at Homestead Miami Speedway. I'd like to thank the members of the media for taking the time to join us. We appreciate your coverage.