SAMAX - Daytona race

SAMAX/Doncaster Racing savored a second top-five Rolex Sports Car Series finish in less than a week, adding fifth in the GT class at Daytona International Raceway on Thursday evening to a fourth-place finish at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on June 24.

Dave Lacey and Greg Wilkins of Toronto drove the No. 17 SAMAX/ Doncaster Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car in the one-day event, which was scheduled to include practice, qualifying and race in less than 13 hours. The day was reduced to two practice sessions and the race – with the grid set by championship points – when the qualifying session was cancelled due to communication problems between the series and track safety officials.

Wilkins started the race from fourth on the GT grid. He briefly dropped back to 10th, but recovered to second in class before handing off to Lacey after 72 minutes of the two-hour 12-minute race. Lacey returned to the track ninth and worked his way up to take fifth in class just three minutes before the checkered flag. The race was slowed by only one caution period, for three laps.

race report
time driver action
start Wilkins
1h12 Lacey in pit – driver change, tires, fuel

Dave Lacey:
"Awesome race! It was great! It's very exciting to compete at an international race track with top international drivers. For a couple of pencil-pushers from Monday to Friday to have fourth at Mid-Ohio and fifth at Daytona was just awesome. Greg did a great job, brought the car in really clean and we stuck to our strategy. It was a quick-enough pace, not blindingly fast, but just keeping the car out of trouble, staying away from the prototypes. A couple of the guys ahead of us were pretty lean on fuel – had we had 10 more laps, we may have made the podium. I'm thrilled with the car and the guys did a great job. It was balanced from the minute I got in 'til the minute I got out. It was just super."

Greg Wilkins:
"It was a good race. It was a really hectic one-day event and we had to work hard to pull things together. We showed up with a pretty good car, we ran a very consistent race with a good strategy and we didn't make any mistakes, so we had enough speed to have a good result. It was a green race, so I think it shows what we can do."

online
samaxmotorsport.com