View the pre-race event details here
It was a dream start in the LMP3 class for our #56 crew of Jason Dilworth and Lochlan Bearman, as they took the top step of the podium in the first round of this years Clubsport series.
The car, with pre-race preparation from Tom Marton and race engineering from Tom Stanley, went into the day feeling confident with the pace shown in practice, but a disappointing qualification of 10th position knocked the wind out of the sails. That was furthered early on by a lack of top speed around the banking of the famous Daytona circuit. It became clear very early into Jason's first stint that there wasn't much chance of moving forward on outright pace.
Early on the team decided to latch onto the back of other LMP3 cars wherever possible, using their top speed and saving as much fuel as we could. That meant we could go an extra lap in the first stint, during which we'd also moved up a few positions as others suffered various issues and penalties.
The second stint was spent mostly in clear air, and here the car was OK – the pace we'd seen in practice was still there, as long as we didn't need to defend around the high speed sections. Soon enough that stint was over and it was time for Lochlan to get into the car, not just for the first time in NOMAD colours, but for the first time in a team event!
Lochlan soaked up the pressure with seemingly no problem, and 8 laps into his stint came an extra spanner in the works in the form of a safety car. We'd been hoping for green running to the end, because we felt we'd be sitting ducks on the straights with the rest of the pack directly behind, but Tom's call to pit in the hope we could fuel save to the end gave some hope.
Whatever memo the rest of the team had received about not being able to fight with our wing level obviously didn't get to Lochlan, because he moved relentlessly forward after the safety car while still saving the fuel he needed. When 3rd on the track, and with a penalty for one of the cars ahead putting us in net P2, the leader spun – suddenly leading, before the charging TREQ eSports car performed some great moves to try to take that away. In the end it came down to the last lap, with Lochlan managing to get the move done into turn 6 of the final lap and holding on for dear life (with a little tow from a Cup class car) to take victory by 0.08 of a second.
An incredible result for the team, and one that we're very proud of. Good results in IVRA events are hard to come by, with the level of competition incredible high, and this was no different.
Unfortunately it was a different story for the #456 Mercedes GT4 car that we have taking part in the Sport class, driven by Ryan Hamilton and Håkon Eide Lindmo and race engineered by Tom Marton.
After qualifying 12th in class, they were on the receiving end of some contact from an LMP3 car early on which put them to the back of the field. From there, an unfortunate mess of a pit stop resulted in contact, damage, and ultimately 2 laps lost. From there it was a drive to pick up places as others had their issues, and ultimately that happened to 6 cars to leave this car with a 16th in class. Some very strong cars ended up retiring, so there is still hope for the long term in this car.
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