4TH PLACE AT DAYTONA

The season got off to a good start for Tim with 4th place in the Rolex Daytona 24 hours, the first of the year’s 3 major 24 hour races.    The Racers Group (TRG) entered Porsche GT3 cup car was one of 25 similar models in the massive 43 car GT field and the race had attracted most of the top level Sportscar and GT drivers from around the world.

If the season has started well the Daytona weekend did not when in Thursday’s practice sessions they had gearbox problems restricting running to a handful of laps.  Twice the crew stripped the box but even for the first qualifying period all was not well and Johannes Van Overbeek who had been chosen to qualify the car could only manage one flying lap.    On Friday the problem had been traced and in second qualifying the car was quickest but the starting grid gives preference at this race to those qualifying in the first session so the number 64 car started in 31st position in the GT field and 56th of the total 66 cars in the race.

  With 5 drivers to share the number 64 car, Tim ran in difficult dusk and pre-dawn periods with a 3 hour stint on Saturday evening that saw the car move from 11th to 4th place.    As this race is run so early in the year the night-time running with over 13 hours in darkness is longer than at either Le Mans (June) or Spa Francorchamps (July) and sadly during the night the the rear wing was damaged and needed repairs so that when Tim took over again at about 4.00 am it was back in 12th place.   More long stints by Tim, Johannes and Jim Pace saw the car gain places so that by 12.00 the car was up to 4th place.   Tim took the final period to the finish at 1.30 when 3 of the TRG cars finished together in 2nd, 3rd and 4th places behind the Mazda RX8 that won the GT class.

After the race Kevin Buckler, owner of TRG said of car 64: “The guys got tangled up in an unfortunate wreck (during the night).  This goofball was driving the Ferrari all over the track throughout the race. I don’t know who it was, but he ran RJ (Valentine) off the track and he got into a little accident. I kind of expected that they would have a shot at the win and was really rooting for them. This was really disappointing for me because this was an all star line-up, a group of my friends and they deserved better.”

By coming from 31st on the grid to 4th place the number 64 car won the Hard Charger award for making up most places. For full story click this link