In 2008, I had the opportunity to join a friend at Rolex 24hrs race in 2008. Taking my long lens and DSLR, I became engaged with the race.
I posted a few photos in 2008 about it here
TerraFirma Motorsports and G Jensen put a incredible team together and their team completed the race despite not having breaks at the last several laps.. That's how I got to meet one of the drivers, Ron Zitza.
Ron is a local guy. Grew up in a racing family and even his family business was initially repairing Porsches and later preparing them for races like Rolex 24hrs. He also spend a significant amount of time on the racetrack and as a matter of fact, he has raced Rolex 24hrs about 14 times. A seasoned veteran in the Daytona 24hrs track. Ron is also experienced in other races such as Grand Am, HSR, PCA, PBOC, IMSA, and world challenge. He has also won several National and Regional races. He has also been involved as an intructor at PCA for over 15 years.
In 2008, Ron was a co-driver for the TerraFirma Motorsport team and as many of his races, he wore his Rolex Daytona 16520 White Dial.
I later asked him about the watch he was wearing. He told a wonderful story that I would like to share.
He initially told me that the daytona that he was wearing came from his win in 2000 when racing a Chevy Camaro and winning in the championship in his division. He and his team were divisional winners for that year. Other drivers in that race included actor Paul Newman. For that experience, each member of the team was given a Rolex Daytona. At that year, a Model 16520 with white dial. He said, that he initially did not wear much the daytona but know sees a lot of wrist time with special races and wanted to share his enthusiasm with watches and racing.
Ron other interests involve his family, church, and he enjoys taekwondo and skiing with his family.
