Double duty for Darren Law next weekend

Bob Chapman

Darren Law will be driving this Porsche 911 in the American Le Mans series Grand prix of Mosport Aug. 30.

Norris McDonald

MOTORSPORT WRITER

Double-duty racing driver Darren Law – he'll race a Daytona Prototype in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series feature at Montreal next Saturday and a Porsche 911 in the American Le Mans Series Grand Prix of Mosport next Sunday – comes from a racing family with a direct link to one of the greatest drivers in the history of the sport.

Law's father, Peter, was a mechanic with Penske Racing when Mark Donohue was the driver. On April 4, 1968, when Peter was in Toronto working on cars with Donohue co-driver Craig Fisher, Darren Law was born. A few weeks later, he went with his mother to live temporarily with the Donohue family in Pennsylvania before the Laws moved to the West Coast.

You want a coincidence? Law's co-driver in the Grand-Am Series is David Donohue, son of Mark. And they won this year's 24 Hours of Daytona, just as Mark Donohue (with Chuck Parsons) did way back in 1969.

"It's amazing how everything has come full circle," Law was saying in a phone interview from his home in Phoenix where he lives with his wife and two daughters.

"I told David about our ties – that my dad was his dad's mechanic and that, after I was born, I lived with his father's family for awhile – and I imagine he was thinking, `Boy, what kind of a nut case have I got on my hands here?'

"But then he went and asked his mom and she said, `Yes, it's all true,' so now he thinks it's pretty neat, too."

Going into next weekend's races, Law and Donohue are eighth in points in the Rolex Series (one point behind AIM Autosport of Woodbridge's duo of Mark Wilkins and Burt Frisselle); Law is also sitting eighth in the ALMS GT2 class, although Porsche partner Seth Nieman is sixth in points because he's driven in two additional races.

Which brings up the question: If you drive full-time in two professional sports car series, and there is a conflict, which one would you choose?

"Well, sometimes there's a problem but most of the time when there are races on the same weekend, as there are next week at Montreal and Mosport, it's a fairly easy commute," said Law, who's driven more Grand-Am Rolex races than any other driver, 121.

"I'll drive to Mosport next weekend from Montreal because one race is on Saturday afternoon and the other's on Sunday. A few weeks ago, though, I had a race at Watkins Glen on Friday evening and another at Mid-Ohio the next afternoon so I had to hire a plane to get over there so I could get some sleep.

"But at the end of the year, I do have a dilemma. The final ALMS race is in California and the last Rolex race is on the same day at Miami-Homestead – opposite sides of the country. It would be impossible to do both, so ...

"I will drive the Daytona Prototype car in Florida. I love both series – I really enjoy both – but when I race in Grand-Am, I know I can compete for the overall win. In the ALMS, all I can hope for is a class win."

(In October, as well as next weekend, the ALMS is the headliner while the Rolex is the support series. The ALMS is the big dog on both occasions while the Rolex Grand-Am is on the undercard of the NASCAR race next weekend and the IndyCars at Homestead. I just had to throw that in . . .)

Switching back-and-forth between the Daytona Prototype in Grand-Am and the ALMS Porsche has got be difficult, considering the differences in weight and power.

"Yes, it's tough to go from one to the other," Law said. "Different teams, different routines, different personalities present challenges.

"But I've been doing both series since 2004 (he's been racing professionally since 1991 when he went single-seater racing in England; he's been concentrating exclusively on sports cars since 1998) and so it's somewhat routine to me.

"If someone did it for the first time, they would have trouble. But I'm used to it. Having said that, the harder car to drive is the Porsche. The car moves around a lot more and you really have to be on top of it."

While Law is looking forward to racing at Mosport, he feels he has unfinished business in Montreal.

Last year, he and Donohue were in control of the Rolex Grand-Am race. As he approached the finish line on the last lap – less than 20 metres away – he ran out of fuel. He coasted, but Antonia Garcia of Spain passed him on the left and Toronto's Mark Wilkins passed him on the right with Wilkins winning the closest 1-2-3 finish in Grand-Am history.

"I was the most unhappy I've ever been on a podium," Law said this week.

"I was miserable. To be that close and then to lose was horrible.

"This year, I'm looking for redemption."

Norris McDonald writes about Motorsport for Wheels. He can be reached at nmcdonald@thestar.ca

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