Kettler’s wobbly was thrown in direct sight of the cool-as-ice Dr. Ullrich, which might not have been received as favorably if it was done at Le Mans and in view of the ever-present cameras. The fact that it happened at Daytona, and with Kettler’s inch-perfect boss watching him run the show on his behalf, was still a bit risky.

“Well, Dr. Ullrich didn't say anything to me about it and I came over to him and I said, you understand a little bit of that was for effect and a little bit was to correct the problem. And he said, ‘yeah, I knew that already.’ I said, ‘whew, okay...’ It can be very motivating when the boss gets completely pissed off for a few minutes and makes everybody look at their job a little bit more. I always use the analogy that when Cortez reached the New World there weren't all these ships left over. He burned them all down except one and told his people that the ones who impress me will be going home and the ones that don't will be staying here. So it can be motivating. That's an old philosophy and it still works even in today’s world.”

Between his Tyrant act early in the race to looking for the right time to pounce with the finish in sight, Kettler says watching the No. 24 R8 take the win was one of the most gratifying results in a career filled with major triumphs.

“Well, for me it's definitely top five, for sure, if not top three because the whole thing has been a bit of a personal renaissance,” he noted. “Coming back to GT cars is a big, long circle for me. It's been a long time since I ran real injection GT cars. I mean, I ran GT1 Porsches and had great success with those but I don't really consider them GT cars. Technically they were, but they were more prototypes than GT cars. For me, this harkens back to 1995 and earlier when I ran Porsches and true GT cars.

“And, two, what is another one, Daytona is so big and being an American, Daytona is huge. I've been a long time associated with European operations and really structured myself more towards being part of what happens in Europe than what was happening in the United States because there was just more opportunity for me there.

“Thirdly, to go from where we were last year when the cars fell apart and basically we struggled just to keep them running to go to the end. We were not competitive whatsoever and the program was really, really difficult. In the span of one year to bring it to that level, is really something to be proud of.”

Along with praising the overall efforts of the jobs done by Alex Job, APR and Rum Bum, Kettler gave a nod to his small Indiana workforce that works behind the scenes.

“It was those guys that came down here with me six times with the test car. The mechanics and the guys from my workshop were basically invisible. Their dedication to prepping that test car and to come down here with me and run all these laps and to see the work and so forth is really a very proud moment for me because it's our little Indiana team that really, that pulled this thing up and made it go big. And it's very, very satisfying for me.

“Some of my guys that have been back in the workshop with me for many years, they’ve never gotten to come out and do something like this. And it wasn't only that they got to this time, I needed them. I needed them. You know about… We haven't had a day off since the 11th of December. We worked 16 a day including Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and New Year's Day and whatever to get this to go and that it was those guys doing that. Huge work on those cars, roughly 100 hours a piece to get to the Roar test and more afterwards.

Despite the few personnel hiccups during the race, Kettler believes it was the all-hands-on-deck pre-race preparation that forged the independent teams, his crew, and members of the factory Customer Sport program together into a winning operation.

“During that period, we had four cars in the workshop completely stripped to the monocoque and nearly 50 people, 47 people including delegates from every team and eight or nine engineers and support people in complete and utter chaos and this all happened in Kettler’s little workshop. It was a marvelous group effort.

“And I really think that that week in the workshop, just before the race with the teams there, the Germans there and my people there, really solidified us as of operation. Do you know what I'm saying? We were all side-by-side, working every day side-by-side, looking at whatever each other was doing, comparing tools, comparing information, eating lunch together, drinking beer together at the end of the day. All these things were team-building and I believe that that made us a better group when it came down to go racing at Daytona.”



So now you know the improbable story of how privateers dressed and treated as Audi factory representatives beat an armada of faster, more proven Porsches.

But I’m still wondering how Kettler knew the precise time to go--to turn up the heat—and overwhelm his rivals. Was it as simple as the leading Porsches always staying on fresh rubber, or was it deeper than that?

Turns out taking a little walk from the pits revealed all the “Tire Whisperer” needed to know.

“I wandered over to the Continental Tire trailer and took a look at the ‘take offs’ rack,” Kettler confessed, referring to the collection of dismounted race tires that sit under the tire manufacturer’s tent in the garage area.

“I knew what our tires looked like, and had a suspicion what the faster cars’ tires looked like by how their lap times fluctuated, but I wanted to know just what I was dealing with and man, it was scary. That Continental tire is not a great race tire, but it’s not a bad race tire. The fact that everybody has to use it means you just have to learn how to use it.

“The No. 45 (Porsche) was definitely in trouble. The No. 57 (Camaro) had traction problems, for sure, you could see it. You could see they were having power-down traction trouble. Whatever they did there, it wasn't working for them. There were a few cars that were notable as having really ugly tires and that included some that were in front of us. That lets you know what you’re going to see when you lean on ‘em and we leaned on ‘em.”



Marshall Pruett is SPEED.com's Auto Racing Editor, covering IndyCar and sports cars. Now in his 27th year in the sport, Pruett was an open-wheel mechanic, engineer and manager before joining SPEED. He also contributes to RACER, Road & Track and Racecar Engineering. Follow him @MarshallPruett.