The
repair took six minutes and once again the #14 returned to competition.
During the eighth hour, Heinricy brought the car into
the garage with shifting problems. The crew had the driveline almost out of
the car when they discovered the clutch master cylinder leaking. They quickly
pulled Norwicki’s new GTR street car into the garage and jerked the clutch
master cylinder from his Corvette. After installing the cylinder they still
could not shift the transmission. Finally they removed the entire driveline
and found the rubber drive shaft bushing that holds the drive shaft inside the
torque tube had failed. The car was repaired and returned to the race during
the thirteenth hour.
During the fifteenth hour the same thing happened again
and the same part was replaced for a second time. The repair took almost four
hours. The exhausted crew staggered back to their pits as the car resumed its
journey around Daytona. At 8:40 AM the same thing happened again and the team
was now out of parts. The exhausted team pushed the car back to the garage for
the final time and Jeff withdrew the car from the race. A 24-hour race is a
gritty test of determination and professionalism. Danny Kellermeyer and his
dedicated #14 C5 GTR pit crew established themselves as one of the best at the
2000 Rolex 24 Hours. CM.com
