Month: February 2016

After what many could call a young Tequila Patron Team, this year started in a very solid manner for the No. 2 car driven by Scott Sharp, Ed Brown, Johannes Van Overbeek (all from the U.S.) and Luis Felipe Derani from Brazil. It’s proven to be difficult enough for the Team after many ups and downs and chassis changes but experience certainly counts and this time drivers and team were able to find a good rhythm and the car behaved flawless all the way through the 24 hours to come first across the line. 736 laps completed in 24 hours, 2,620.16 miles in total and three cars within a minute and a half fighting for the lead in the last lap… the Honda Ligier V6 Turbo was closely followed by the two Corvettes DP V8 of team Konica Minolta and Team Visit Florida.com both teams doing an excellent job as well.

Brazilian Derani was the new driver at Tequila Patron, Daytona was also a first for him but he managed to find speed right away and that proved to be a key point in the race itself when he flew past the the No. 10 to never be caught back again.  The Konica Minolta Team Corvette was driven by very experienced drivers Ricky and Jordan Taylor, Max Angelelli and Rubens Barrichello and they finished 26 behind the leaders after a 24 hour race! 1 minute behind, the Visit Florida Team also got a fantastic result with drivers Ryan Dalziel, Ryan Hunter-Ray and Marc Groosens.

Consistency the key for a 24 hour race… to win you must find the right balance between speed and durability, an excellent driver can only be fast if he is allowed by team and machine to do so, teams have to be precise and provide with precise information of what’s happening around the track so the driver reacts accordingly and of course, the car has to be reliable and that is exactly what the issue was for many other teams, drive shaft failures hurt the Corvettes probably due to the steep angle of the Daytona Speedway banks and other teams had different issues that they had to overcome and in some cases they just couldn’t.

In the Prototype Challenge, the difference was basically the drivers since the cars are all Oreca FML09 chassis with V8 engines. Car No. 85 was the winner with 702 laps completed driven by Miller, Goikhberg, Simpson and Koch and 4 laps ahead of car No. 52 driven by Alon, Kimber-Smith, Gutierrez and Boille.  Third place went for car No. 20 driven by Drumwright, Mowlem, Grissi, Gaughan and Vera who finished 5 laps behind 2nd place. These are the only open cockpit cars in the series and also the only ones without traction control so the skill of the driver has to be high and well balanced for a 24 hour race.

Corvette No. 4, winner of the Daytona 24 Hour Race
Copyright @ Wise Racing Wor

GTLM and GTD are the categories that group the factory cars, represented by Ferrari, Porsche, BMW, Audi, Chevrolet and Lamborghini. The GTLM is the fastest of the two and the competition was really fierce all the way to the checkered flag where dramatically the No. 4 Corvette beat the No. 3 Corvette by 34 hundreds of a second to claim an amazing 1-2 for Chevrolet. But it wasn’t all bells and whistles for the No. 4, driven by Gavin, Millner and Fassler, since they had to overcome a lap lost after a penalty imposed after running a red light on pit exit, an error that the team claimed for themselves forcing the drivers to give it all to catch the No. 3 Corvette back.  No. 3 was driven by Magnussen, Garcia and Rockenfeller, third place was for car No. 912, the Porsche of Bamber, Mackowieki and Christensen just 13 seconds behind the leaders. No. 68 Ferrari driven by PierGuidi, Premat, Serra and Rojas finished one lap behind a little over 40 seconds ahead of the BMW No. 25 very experienced drivers Auberlen, Werner, Farfus and Spengler.

 

In GTD, the winner was the Audi R8 Le Mans No. 44 driven by Potter, Lally, Seefried and Rast with little over 3 seconds from the No. 540 Porsche GT3 R of Pappas, Catsburg, Long and Pilgrim who at the same time finished just over 2 seconds from third place finishers in the No. 93 Dodge Viper GT3-R of Keating, Robinson, Mosing, Foss and Faulkner.  One lap behind the leaders of the category were the No. 98 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of Dalla Lana, Lamy, Lauda and Stanaway and the No. 28 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 of Ineichen, Willsey, Conrad, Babini and Bassing making it 5 different constructors in the 5 top places.  The next race will be the Mobil 1, 12 Hours of Sebring on March 16-19 at Sebring International Raceway.  Full Results click here.