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Prestanda NOMAD fielded three cars in last weekends 2023 Daytona 23 hours on iRacing. Our 12 drivers across the 3 cars had put in many hours of practise and setup work in the weeks leading up to the event, with many drivers putting in over 24 hours of practise.
With a large contingent of new-to-NOMAD drivers in the lineup, everyone was excited to work together and see what results we could pull out of the bag. Finishing the race with all 3 cars is a win in itself, and the fact that one of those finishes was a podium in a very strong split ensures that we can all be very positive with the outcomes.
#561 – Dallara P217
Our P217 driven by Jason Dilworth, Ryan Hamilton, Daniel Gilding and Chris Chadderton found itself in split 5, helped by the minimal numbers of P2 drivers compared to those in other categories. The recently updated livery car was put onto 6th on the grid by Jason in what he felt was a below-par qualifying performance. That was followed up by a forceful race start that meant the car lead the early laps before settling into P2 to use the draft.
Early double stints went well for this car, until an error at the pit stop meant that Dan was left without fuel at the beginning of the stint, and a couple of minutes lost to the lead pack in P8. Very disappointing at the time, but the car had the pace to get back to the top positions, which it did over the next couple of hours to settle into the top 3 as pit stops cycled around.
This race settled down very early on, by the 10th hour it was clear that the winner would be the one who made the least mistakes in those top 3 positions. As it turned out, some damage sustained to the car in the early hours of the morning meant that it was our car that volunteered itself for the P3 position, and that's where the car stayed to finish out the race. A very strong race overall, with minimal mistakes.
#562 - BMW GT3
Our BMW GT3 car was driven by drivers who were all partaking in their first special event for NOMAD, although all have great experience in special events previously. Nic Veltenaar, Jon Williams, Pablo Arteaga and Dean Timms found themselves in split 12 and qualified in P10.
The car had a positive first stint, moving up to P2 early on before taking contact from a P217 in their split onto the oval in their second stint. The damage sustained would become the story of the rest of the race. The 6.5 minutes of required repairs first dropped them way down the order, and the 5.5 minutes of optional repairs that they carried through the race meant that whatever pace they could have had was impacted.
Despite this, the drivers stuck with their plan – putting in good stint lengths and double stinting tyres to help to reduce the damage level without increasing their pit stop times. It cannot be overstated how difficult it is to drive a damaged car for 23 hours of a 24 hour race, and their finishing position of 5th in class massively masks the teams performance throughout the race.
#563 - Ferrari GT3
This car was split 50/50 between new and existing team drivers, with Ayden Refaie and Oliver Bunn being joined by Eray Necipoğlu and Håkon Eide Lindmo in split 21 of 42. They qualified the car in P12 and had what they described as a "hectic" start.
That hectic start turned into a horrible one, with Eray suffering a disconnect in the 2nd stint which in turn triggered an iRacing bug where the team couldn't clear a black flag that was given to them and resulted in a DQ.
The team re-qualified for the next timeslot and continued on, now 4 hours off of schedule with the rest of the team. More early issues for Eray meant that this car also carried damage through the early part of the race, although the 563 elected to take the repairs and settle into the race.
24 gruelling hours battling for recovery resulted in a well deserved P5, just missing out on P4 who took damage late in the race.
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