Best result so far for Prestanda NOMAD in ARL Endurance

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League Info

Apex Racing League - Apex Endurance League - 2023
Organiser: Apex Racing League
Details: Entry List Standings

The 5th round of the Apex Racing League Endurance season came from Road America, and another driver lineup in prototypes tested for the team. This time it was Taylor Lane partnering Jason Dilworth in the Cadillac GTP car, bringing his experience in these types of cars.

As always in a series that we're taking race by race, this round was about keeping as clean as possible and seeing what that brings us. It was clear in the run-up to the race that the Cadillac had a pace disadvantage around Road America, with the days of racing beforehand showing an average difference of around a second to the BMW V8 M Hybrid that the majority of the pack are running. With that knowledge, we went into the race happy to try to finish ahead of the other Cadillacs in the field.

Qualifying went reasonably, with Jason posting a 1:46.7 for 10th in the GTP field and 2nd in Cadillacs, just under a second off of pole.

From that grid position Jason managed to execute a clean start, taking advantage of a couple of issues from those in front to move up to 7th in the early laps. From there we push for our original plan to fuel save throughout the race – doing so from the very beginning could potentially help us at the end if we kept things clean. This worked well, pitting from 2nd a couple of laps later than than most of the field and settling into 4th for the second stint.

Working through the traffic and fuel saving for the second stint meant staying fairly static through that second stint, before handing over to Taylor for the second half of the race. The race continued very similarly from there, only losing a place to a recovering and pacey Simufy Esports who would go on to win the race, but regaining it when Fiercely Forward Yellow ran into issues. That stint even ended with leading a couple of laps of the race, with that fuel saving really paying off.

Into the last stint, we had eyes in both directions – Effect Simulations #909 ahead would need a splash and dash at the end and were fighting hard to get a big enough gap to come out ahead and keep their podium position, while Fiercely Forward were going forward fiercely to try to recover from their earlier crash. Taylor did a great job of defending through the majority of the stint. Eventually the Fiercely Forward car did manage to get past, but only after contact with a GT car that probably should have resulted in a penalty. The #909 car managed to keep the gap, meaning that the race ended for us in a very strong 5th position for our best result of the season so far.

The final race of the season comes from Road Atlanta on the 25th of August, and will see Chris Chadderton return to the Cadillac to finish off the season with Taylor. Check out the events page for more details.