Alumnus races in Rolex 24 at Daytona

UCF alumnus Jon Miller had a busy weekend. Miller raced in two events at Daytona International Speedway over a span of three days. He participated in the BMW Performance 200 Friday, in which he finished 25th, and in the Rolex 24 Saturday and Sunday, in which he placed 41st.

Miller spoke with the Central Florida Future on Tuesday about his experiences and what it was like to be in a 24-hour endurance race.

Central Florida Future: What was your experience like this weekend in Daytona?

Jon Miller: It was my first Rolex 24-hour race, and it was everything I expected it would be and a lot, lot more.

I spent a lot of time training for the race, in terms of getting myself in the best physical shape that I could. I did a lot of cycling, a lot of running, spent time in the gym working on upper-body strength, neck strength and just endurance – being able to keep my heart rate elevated for a long period of time – because that's what replicating being in the car is like. Your heart rate is elevated for two to two-and-a-half hours or for however long you're driving.

I kind of knew what to expect for the Friday race – I raced in that series back in 2006. Those races are generally two-and-a-half to three hours long, so in terms of the 24-hour it was good. It was a chance to get ready and warm up for the long race we had.

The 24 was as grueling, as intense and as crazy as I was expecting and then some. It was emotionally, physically and mentally completely draining. It's Tuesday now, a full two days after the race, and I'm still feeling tired from how intense it was.

CFF: Do you think there is a way you can prepare yourself for a 24-hour race, or is it something you have to experience?

J.M.: There's something to be said for that. Hopefully next year I'll be able to go back and participate again in the race and apply what I learned this year.

Like you said, there is really no way to know what it's like without having done it before. You can train physically. You can get yourself in the best shape possible, but the emotional stress, the mental stress, just the toll it takes on your body and your mind is not something you can get ready for.

It's really tough, because it's a team sport. Racing relies on individual performance with the driver in the car, but it's a team sport. There is tons of crew. In our case, there was five drivers sharing a car and each one had to be on their game at all times. So the mental aspect of it; when you're out of your car, when you're not driving, you have to be disconnected. You have to walk away, you have to go back to the RV, you have to go back to the garage and just hang out and not pay attention to what's going on. If you're paying attention, if you're totally plugged in and watching each lap, seeing what lap times the leaders are running and what lap times your co-drivers are running, that's the kind of thing that wears you down faster almost more than driving. Because you are so mentally committed to what is going on. That was one of the hardest parts for me. Having to disconnect, walk away and trusting that everybody else was going to do [his or her] job. There was nothing I could do at that time, and I just had to go and rest and wait for my next turn to drive.

CFF: How did you feel emotionally and physically after the race?

J.M.: It was actually pretty draining right from the first couple of hours of the race. The way we scheduled the driver lineups, I was scheduled to drive last. I was scheduled to drive at about 8:00 after the other guys had already gone through, and one of the co-drivers had some problems with the car. The clutch broke down and I thought that was going to be it, I thought the car was going to have to be retired before I got to drive any laps in the race at all. Luckily, it was not a serious issue. The team got the problem fixed and the car back out on the track, and I was able to drive.

I put in about seven-and-a-half hours behind the wheel between all of my different driving stints. Just to finish this race was such a huge accomplishment.

All those emotions from the night before and all of the adrenaline of getting in and out of the car and racing the car for 24 hours, peaked right there in the last minutes of the race. It dawned on me that we were going to finish. We were going to cross the line and still be running, and we were going to take the checkered flag at the 24 at Daytona. That was a huge accomplishment.

I had been so focused on just getting to the race, just on making it happen in the first place, that I kind of got caught up in it. So at the end, when I realized that it was going to happen, we were going to conquer all of this adversity and take the checkered flag. It was just this rush of emotion near the end; it was something I really didn't expect. It was joy, just complete happiness and a little bit of disbelief. We accomplished all of the goals we set out to accomplish.

After the race, I didn't want to go home. I didn't want it to end. When I got home I passed out at about 9:00 that night and slept till about 9:00 the next morning.

Now, two days later, I'm feeling the effects of the adrenaline wearing off and feeling proud that we accomplished our goals and performed so well. Now it's like I'm looking forward to next year's race and the work has already started.