Renger van der Zande has been
racking up some serious air miles this year. Looking to put a disappointing Dubai
24 Hours behind him, the Dutchman will share the no. 8 Starworks FLM09 with
Alex Popow, Chris Cumming and Jack Hawksworth at this weekend’s Rolex 24 Hours
of Daytona, before tackling the Bathurst 12 Hour race the following weekend in
a Car Collection Mercedes SLS.
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| van der Zande has a busy week ahead of him! (Renger van der Zande). |
As one might expect, back-to-back
races across opposite sides of the world pose unique logistical complexities. The
distance between the Daytona International Speedway and the Mount Panorama
circuit is a mammoth 9,457 miles, or to put it another way, an astonishing 733
laps of the Nürburgring Nordschelife (the record distance completed in the Nürburgring
24H, set in 2014, is a mere 159 laps.)
Two hours after the drop of the
chequered flag on Sunday afternoon, van der Zande will fly to his native Amsterdam,
arriving on Monday morning. But before he can get too comfortable, it’s back in
the air for another 7 hours to the layover at Abu Dhabi and then 14 hours non-stop
to Sydney, finally arriving Down Under on Wednesday evening.
At least van der Zande won’t be
the only one feeling jet-lagged, with fellow Mercedes GT ace Maro Engel, Ferrari's Toni Vilander, Audi
stars Markus Winkelhock, Christopher Haase and Rene Rast and V8 Supercar fan-favourite Shane van
Gisbergen, who will campaign an Alex Job Racing Porsche, all making the same
arduous journey, not to mention much of the international media corps.
Who said motorsport was all glitz and glamour?
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