TRG / TRG East - Rolex 24 final
TRG and TRG East 18h to 24h
car GT position at 24h
16 7
61 3
62 23
63 8
64 27 (out of race)
65 5
race report
time car driver action
18h15 61 Nearn tires, fuel, rear
brake pads
18h46 62 change Fujita in, tires,
fuel
19h 65 change Lally in, tires,
fuel
19h23 63 change Flanagan in, tires,
fuel
19h27 16 change Carrio in, tires,
fuel
19h33 61 change M Wilkins in,
tires, fuel
20h2 65 Lally tires, fuel
61 M Wilkins fuel
20h58 62 change Wada in, tires,
fuel
21h2 16 Carrio fuel
21h10 61 change Lacey in, tires,
fuel
63 change Sluszny in,
tires, fuel
65 change Plumb in, tires,
fuel
21h38 62 Wada fuel
22h9 16 change Coleman in, tires,
fuel
22h16 61 change G Wilkins in,
tires, fuel
65 Plumb tires, fuel
22h29 63 change Clark in, tires,
fuel
22h35 62 change Hirakawa in, tires,
fuel
22h50 65 Plumb fuel
61 change Nearn in, tires,
fuel
16 Coleman fuel
22h59 61 Nearn pass for third
Peter Baron, TRG East team owner:
"The goal right out of the box here is a podium – that's what's so rough
about Daytona. It's so long and there’s so much up and down. We all put in
so much work that we're thrilled to finish on the podium. This is the first
time we've had this team all together, and you can't imagine how great all
the drivers were, how solid the crew was – everyone worked together and
really, to come in third here is a fairy tale."
Dave Lacey, No. 61 TRG East:
"We had a fuel problem early in the race – we ran out and it cost us about
three and a half laps, and that same fuel issue came back to take out the
car we were battling for third position. What comes around goes around and
that’s racing! We had a half-lap left to go, we never gave up. Peter put
together a great team, and this has been a great experience."
Robert Nearn, No. 61 TRG East:
"We had a good fight that went back and forth for nearly an hour and at the
Bus Stop on the last lap, I took third position. He was pushing his fuel
window. We finished with four liters of fuel and he ran out on the
penultimate lap.
David Shep, No. 61 TRG East:
"We got within two seconds of the guy, it didn't look like there was any way
we could have caught him and then Robert screams, 'He's out of gas, he's out
of gas!' That's a fairy tale ending."
Greg Wilkins, No. 61 TRG East:
"We just feel fantastic – hard fought race all along. Robert Nearn did a
fantastic job trying to chase down the 73 car for the last hour of the race,
and I can't believe that after 24 hours of racing, the result came down to a
few seconds in the last minuteof the race."
Mark Wilkins, No. 61 TRG East:
"It was unbelievable! It was great to be involved in the event again. We did
really well last year [with an SGS podium finish], but it makes such a big
difference when you get behind the wheel and you're really part of the team,
so it feels really good this year."
Adrian Carrio, No. 16 TRG Team16 driver:
"It feels amazing to have competed in and finished this race, and I’m
grateful to my teammates Colin [Braun] and Brad [Coleman] for doing such a
great job. From the moment we decided to do this race back in October, we've
been working from a plan, and we followed that plan exactly. Ross [Bentley]
was a great co-driver and coach, and we're all thankful to him for the help
he's given us. I feel we've earned some respect, coming in here and
finishing seventh in class in our first 24-hour race!"
Kiichi Takahashi, No. 62 TRG driver:
"It's just a hard day because we had some overheating problems because
something broke the radiator, and the way for us to finish the race was to
limit the revs on the engine. So, on the banking, we shifted at no more than
7000 rpm, just trying to keep the engine cool. The goal was to finish the
race, and we’re happy to have run with TRG because of its preparation.
We’re very happy!"
Pat Flanagan, No. 63 TRG driver:
"The race has been great, we had one little incident at the beginning of the
race but other than that, everyone has run consistently – we gained
something like 25 spots overall. I’m happy because last year I finished
14th, so to finish eighth this year is a big improvement."
Kevin Buckler, TRG team owner and No. 65 Auto Gallery/TRG driver:
"All the [TRG and TRG East] Porsches except for one finished – we had an
engine failure on the No. 64 car – everything else went pretty well in the
race. I’m incredibly proud of the TRG East car – they had an amazing battle
to the last lap with another car. The crew did an amazing job – everyone
worked their asses off, and I don’t think anyone slept at all."
###
Sylvia Proudfoot
HYPERLINK "mailto:spurcom@shaw.ca"spurcom@shaw.ca
403 287 3945
