Eat my dust!

There are Chevy guys and there are Ford guys. Then there is Darren Law.

He’s unequivocally a Porsche guy.

That nameplate on four different cars carried the Ahwatukee Foothills professional race car driver through 27 races in two separate series on tracks from Laguna Seca near Monterey, Calif. to Daytona International Speedway in Florida and from Canada to Mexico this year.

His Lizard Race team Porsche GT3 RSR and the Red Bull Porsche Brumos Riley Daytona Prototype were fast and reliable enough to earn him a second place finish behind fellow American Johannes van Overbeck in the Porsche Cup Worldwide driver’s points championship.

The Cup is designed from privateers, or teams and drivers that are not owned or employed by the Porsche factory in Germany.

Law and his wife, Karrie, were the guests at the awards ceremonies held at the Porsche racing factory near Stuttgart, Germany earlier this month

Law missed the championship be a mere 100 points.

“A race win is worth 1,000 points, so 100 points is nothing,” said Law, a 2001 GTU, or small production-based race car, champion, “It was so close. If I had finished a position higher in any of those races it would have been a done deal.”

Law, a former instructor at the Bob Bondurant’s School for High Performance driving at Firebird International Raceway just south of the Ahwatukee Foothills, is already gearing up to win the Cup championship as well as both the Rolex Grand Am sports car and American LeMans series.

“The goal was to win the championship for Bob Snodgrass this year,” Law added.
Snodgrass, 64, the Brumos team owner who had been involved in racing since 1973, died in the spring of this year.

“He had been around racing for a long time and was a great asset to the racing community,” Law said. “That was tough on the team.”

This season Law will be back with David Donohue, a teammate since 2004, in the Rolex series.
Donohue is the son of the late Mark Donohue, the former NASCAR, Formula One, 1972 Indianapolis 500 and 1969 Daytona 24-hour champion who cut his teeth on racing sports cars, including a Porsche.

The Daytona Prototype is designed as an endurance car for races like the 24 Hours at Daytona.

The GT3 RSR is a racing version of the 911 model Porsche found on the streets.

“The GT3 is probably more difficult to drive because it has a high center of gravity and moves around a lot more,” Law explained. “The Prototype is more like a go-kart. It handles very well.”

Law will be sharing the Prototype seat with Donohue and 2004 Indy 500 winner and former go-kart racer Buddy Rice from Phoenix in this year’s Grand Am Rolex 24 at Daytona Jan. 26-27.

Law has already been testing the new Pirelli tires at Daytona.

“They’re a lot faster,” Law said. “At Daytona we were two seconds faster than the pole (for 2007) and that was only in testing, so they’re significantly faster.”

Law is a veteran of 12 and 24-hour endurance races, but that doesn’t make it any easier. He, Donohue and Rice will alternate driving in one-hour shifts through the day and night at this year’s Rolex 24.

“You get a two-hour break, but you really don’t sleep,” Law said. “They have buses for us to take a break in, but you’re up pretty much all day and all night.”

How the team is running depends on how tired the drivers become late in the race, Law explained.

“If you’re running in the back you just want to finish and get it over with,” he said. “But if you’re racing for the leading your adrenaline is flowing and as long as you’re doing well it’s pretty exciting.”

Unlike races a decade or more ago when a winner might come in with a 21-lap lead, front runners can be within a half-lap of the leader as the clock winds down.

Then the drivers wind down.

“The day after the race I’m pretty much a zombie,” Law said. “I can’t even think straight. My wife knows to just let me sleep for a couple of days.”

After that it’s back to the track and another attempt at winning the championship.

“We came so close,” Law said, “so our goal this year is to win the point championship as well as the Rolex and American LeMans series.”

It may be a while before the guys down at the Bondurant school see Law again.