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TeamMBR
RACES IN THE GRAND AMERICAN ROAD RACING ASSOCIATION (GRAND AM) ROLEX AND CONTINENTAL
TIRE CHALLENGE SERIES, IN THREE CAR CLASSES: DAYTONA PROTOTYPE (DP) GRAND TOURING (GT) GRAND SPORT (GS) |
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DAYTONA SUMMARY: RACE DAY - 28 January Race day finally arrived and was greeted by a cloudless
blue sky and perfect temperature. It
was the largest crowd we have ever seen at the Rolex 24 and we were ready to
go. We unveiled the freshly dressed
car, and sharp new crew suits all around courtesy of Dynamat
and Hub Garage.
After the opening ceremonies, we finally took the track
at 3:30. Ray Mason Jr. took the wheel
for the first stint in the #46 Dynamat/Hub Garage
Corvette. Ray handled the car
beautifully throughout the stint, stayed out of the trouble, and moved us up
4 positions before handing off to Dutch National Team driver Ivo Breukers. Like
Ray, Ivo stayed out of trouble while advancing through the field. He carefully moved up two more positions
and scored a perfect stint consistent with the team strategy. Near the end of his stint, Ivo reported a
problem with second gear, but the car was nevertheless fast.
Armand Fumal took over for
Ivo for the third stint and despite a slow start, and an intermittent problem
shifting into 4th gear, was able to advance us two more
positions. He brought the car in clean
for a quick hand-off to Jeff Nowicki for the 4th stint. After a quick stop for tire, fuel and the
driver change, Jeff took over. Jeff
was fast right out the gate and quickly moved up another position. With 6 laps to go to complete the stint,
the 4th gear problem Armand had experienced came back in a big way
and the transmission was done.
After a two hour transmission change, Jeff was back on
the track matching our fastest speeds of the weekend. He quickly picked up a couple of the
positions we lost while changing out the transmission. He completed the stint perfectly, returning
the car back in excellent condition and capturing some positions. He turned the car over to Mike Baughman at
9:45. As Mike was leaving the pits, he
lost power and we were once again in the garage. The crew worked feverishly to isolate and
diagnose the issue and got us back in the race. Mike hopped back in and finished the
rotation before handing back over to Ray at about 11:30. Ray took over for a multiple stint rotation. Ray drove well through the first stint of
his session and with the exception of a scheduled pit stop for fuel, tires
and minor electrical trouble, he continued make up the time we lost for
earlier in the race. In the second
stint of rotation, he retook 2 positions we had lost earlier. Racing hard at the 1:00 AM mark, he got
into some traffic and caused some minor damage to the splitter. When he came in to turn over the reins to
Ivo, we repaired the damage while we completed the scheduled service of tires
and fuel. Ivo took over about 1:45 chomping at the bit. It looked like we were past all of the
problems and on our way to sunrise when Ivo radioed that 4th gear
was gone and again we were out with a serious transmission problem. After the crew looked it over, they
determined the backup transmission was a goner and without a third
transmission, we were forced out about the 3:00 AM mark. 27 January Rain was the word of the day but the weather really
didn’t get in our way. The crew worked
diligently all morning to replace the test and practice engine with the race
engine, and complete all final preparations for the 50th Aniversary of the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona. We only took the car out on the track long
enough to test all the replacement parts and make a final checkout before
race day. This is our 6th
Rolex 24 and we are in the best shape going into the race we can possibly be
at this point. Tomorrow … RACE DAY! 26 January Today we had a great day of practice and qualifying. The car was fast and was well taken care of
all day. We had one scary moment when
Ivo got loose in the bus stop and spun into the tire wall but Ivo got it
together in time to limit the damage to just some body damage. The car was still plenty fast for Ray to
get us qualified. An excellent
addition to the team for this year’s Rolex 24 at Daytona is Buddy Fey. Buddy is author of "Data Power", a book on racing
data acquisition and has engineered for some of the best teams and biggest
races in road racing. Buddy had the
team and equipment working together like a fine oiled machine by the end the
day. 25 January The team arrived in Daytona earlier today and final
preparations for the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona are underway. If you are coming to the track, the team is
located in garage #64. Tomorrow, the
team is scheduled to run all Rolex practice sessions, as well as meet to work
out session and race strategies with the driver team. |
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