Attrition knocks favorites from contention at Rolex 24

Winners of the GT LeMans Class in the IMSA 24-hour auto race, from left to right, Marcel Fassler, of Switzerland, Tommy Miner and Oliver Gavin, both of Britain, celebrate at Daytona International Speedway, Sunday, Jan. 31, 2016, …

But 24 hours before the day-long endurance race was set to begin, Hand was trying to stay relaxed.

The Delta Wing driven by Katherine Legge led in early action in the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

The race’s defending champion – the so-called “Star Car” of IndyCar aces Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan and NASCAR’s Jamie McMurray and Kyle Larson – finished 13th after serious brake problems hit the Ford Riley auto in the ninth hour.

IMSA ruled that Jordan Taylor violated the drive-time rule late in the race, finding he was behind the wheel more than four hours during a six-hour period.

Ryan Daziel, Marc Goosens and Ryan Hunter-Reay completed the lead lap runners in third aboard their Visit Florida Corvette, a further minute adrift of the Taylor entry.

The early part of the race was dominated by the Ligier JS P2 Hondas of Tequila Patrón Extreme Speed Motorsports and Michael Shank Racing, and the Panoz DeltaWing Racing vehicle. Derani closed an 11-second gap to Ricky Taylor in just a matter of laps. Its sister vehicle, the No. 70 Mazda, had dropped out of the race already during the first hour, suffering a transmission failure. They were happy to hear that we wanted to run the new (Honda) engine at Daytona and Sebring. “It hasnt sunk in yet, but its fantastic, ” said Sharp. “It was going exactly how we had planned; we were literally dead on where we wanted to be, ” team owner Mike Shank said.

Winners Scott Sharp, Johannes van Overbeek, Ed Brown and Luis Felipe Derani drove an LMP2 Ligier chassis built in Europe, an unkind good-bye to the Daytona Prototype era after 14 seasons.

“There are five Original Equipment Manufacturers that are racing who have a different philosophy that they bring and different technology”, said Hull of the GTLM class. “Obviously, each of them thinks the way they approach it is best. It was a strong package this weekend”.

That’s because the Porsche is in the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class, which is typically the third-fastest of the four classes, and it qualified when the track was drier than when the typically-fastest Prototype class, and the second-fastest Prototype Challenge cars qualified. The two Corvettes crossed the finish line almost neck-and-neck to give the team a 1-2 finish – Corvette Racing’s first 1-2 at Daytona in its history.

“You just have to think differently in these races”, he said. “I knew I was going to have a battle on my hands. “You’ll see them nod off but when I call on the radio to the drivers to pit, they pop up and are ready; they’re like robots”.

“If we can get a bit of boost back, we should be able to challenge, as at the moment, we’re probably only good for a solid fourth- or fifth-place finish”. Hes a fantastic teammate and an incredible guy.

“I want to thank (president) Ron Watson and all of the Motorsports Hall of Fame’s board members for considering me for this prestigious award”. “He kept it super clean”. “It is fantastic that we have a Corvette 1-2”. “It was an exciting finish”.

The winning No. 44 Audi R8 LMS GT3 GTD driven by John Potter, Andy Lally, Marco Seefried, Rene Rast.

IMSA rules when qualifying is declared to be held under variable conditions provide for gridding the fastest cars in order of their class for the actual race. The team was comprised of Chris Miller, Stephen Simpson, Misha Goikhberg and Kenton Koch in an Oreca FLM09 Chevrolet.