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

 

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Sylvia Proudfoot
HYPERLINK "mailto:sylvia@spurcom.ca"sylvia@spurcom.ca
403 287 3945