IMSA – WEATHERTECH SPORTSCAR CHAMPIONSHIP
54th ROLEX 24 AT DAYTONA
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
CORVETTE DAYTONA PROTOTYPE POST RACE
JAN. 30-31, 2016
Double Podium for Corvette DP in 54th Rolex 24 At Daytona
No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Gets Third Runner-Up Finish in Four Years
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The Chevrolet Corvette Daytona Prototype continued its success in the iconic Rolex 24 At Daytona with two podium finishes, and all four DP entires finished in the top-six in the Prototype class and overall.
“The Corvette Prototype teams raced strong for all 24 hours,” said Jim Campbell, Chevrolet U.S. Vice President, Performance Vehicles and Motorsports. “It was also great to have two Corvette DP teams on the Rolex podium. We are off to a great start to the season to have our Prototype teams finish 2-3-4-6.”
Wayne Taylor Racing’s No. 10 Konica Minolta Corvette piloted by Jordan Taylor, Ricky Taylor, Max Angelelli and Rubens Barrichello, brought home the runner-up trophy for the third time in four years. This was former Formula One driver Barrichello’s first race with the team.
“Overall I think we are pretty happy with the results,” said Jordan Taylor. “We came in knowing how competitive we would be and we knew we had to run our own race, and we did. It was pretty much another flawless race for us. We lapped the whole race and made no mistakes.”
Completing the podium was Visit Florida Racing’s No. 90 VisitFlorida.com Corvette DP driven by Ryan Dalziel, Marc Goossens and Ryan Hunter-Reay. This year’s third-place honors tied the “home” team’s best finish in America’s longest professional sports car endurance race.
Defending and two-time IMSA Prototype class champion Action Express Racing finished fourth with its No. 5 Mustang Sampling Corvette DP just missing the podium but delivering a strong points day as the team attempts its third consecutive class crown. Christian Fittipaldi, Joao Barbosa, Filipe Albuquerque and Scott Pruett shared the driving duties for the Rolex.
Eric Curran, Dane Cameron, Simon Pagenaud and Jonny Adam finished sixth in the Action Express No. 31 Whelen Engineering Corvette DP. The team bounced back from a broken driveline to score the strong result after leading early and often.
The overall winner was the No. 2 Honda-Ligier, and finishing fifth was No. 01 Ford Prototype.
The next event for Corvette DPs is the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh from Florida on March 16-19 from Sebring International Raceway.
DRIVER QUOTES – POST RACE:
JORDAN TAYLOR, WAYNE TAYLOR RACING NO. 10 KONICA MINOLTA CORVETTE DP:
“Overall I think we are pretty happy with the results. We came in knowing how competitive we would be and we knew we had to run our own race, and we did. It was another pretty much flawless race for us. We lapped the whole race and ended up second. I think we are leaving here with first place points since that team isn’t running a full season so we are happy about that and move on to Sebring!
“Four years in a row of not having to go the garage and be able to lead laps is pretty incredible. But at the same time to be second three times is pretty heartbreaking. So we will just have to regroup and come back next year a little stronger.
“The lap times were the lap times. We knew what they were. You can’t really compete with someone who is a second and a half faster than you lap after lap. We did the best we could…no mistakes. They had penalties, they went off, the had all sorts of stuff and still couldn’t get it done. So, I think we should be happy with the result.”
IF YOU COULD TALK ABOUT THE PACE OF THE PROTOTYPE RACE TODAY. IT SEEMED LIKE A GREAT BATTLE FOR MUCH OF THE AFTERNOON
“Well, it wasn’t much of a battle for the last two hours, but throughout the night and everything, I think it was a pretty good race. If we had track position, we could kind of hold off the 2 car, but with certain drivers in that car, they could kind of get around us pretty easily. So it was tough. We had a flawless race pretty much. We never went behind the wall. Actually in four years we haven’t gone behind the wall. We’ve finished every lap.So we were proud of what we did, so I don’t think we could have done much more.”
CAN YOU GIVE US A HEALTH UPDATE ON ALL OF YOU, INCLUDING MAX?
Well, I don’t feel great. Ricky had stomach issues this morning. I think Wayne came back for Max. He’s at the hospital right now.
WAS IT FUMES?
“No, we don’t know what it is. I’ve been sick for two weeks, so I felt ‑‑ I think I felt sick anyway in the car, and they just didn’t want to take any chances with the last hour.”
AND THEN YOU TALKED ABOUT MAYBE RICKY MAY HAVE MENTIONED THAT THEY COULD GO ‑‑ THE NO. 2 CAR COULD GO BY ANY TIME THEY WANTED WITH CERTAIN PEOPLE. WHAT IS IT ABOUT THE LITTLE BRAZILIAN KID, THE 22‑YEAR‑OLD KID, THAT HE’S SO GOOD?
“Well, I don’t know. When I was following him, he missed quite a few apexes. I think the car is strong. The 6 car showed that all race long. They were leading when they went out, so it was a strong package this weekend.”
RICKY TAYLOR, WAYNE TAYLOR RACING NO. 10 KONICA MINOLTA CORVETTE DP:
TALK ABOUT THE TEAM’S PERFORMANCE THIS WEEKEND
“I think the most important thing for us is that the team, I think, did a winning performance. Once again we never went back to the garage, the guys had awesome pit stops and strategy. I think we spent four less minutes in the pits than the other cars. The car was fast compared to the DPs and like Jordan said, they could flip the switch and go by when they wanted. So we weren’t really racing them but for us we were very disappointed to have another great run without a watch.”
REGARDING THE TRAFFIC SITUATION WITH SLOWER CARS
“I feel like it was one of the more treacherous 24-hour races in the night. PC cars were especially all over the place. I think you can see in the results that they were very separated in laps. So it was just about survival and very intense this year pushing all night to stay in touch with the leaders. It was a very fun DP battle for about six or seven hours left when the 2 car was kind of behind and that was quite a bit of fun.”
WE KNOW ITS ALL ABOUT A FAMILY AFFAIR WITH YOUR TEAM BUT TELL ME ABOUT HOW WITH THE OTHER DRIVERS AND THE REST OF THE TEAM THAT YOU BECOME EVEN MORE LIKE FAMILY AS YOU RACE
“Yeah, I mean, racing is such a small world. Except when we look at someone like Rubens Barrichello, man that guy is the man, and this is a dream come true to drive with him and share the podium with someone like him. We welcomed him into our family team. But right now, like you said, we are all like family and we are all just thinking about Max and hoping for the best.”
RUBENS BARRICHELLO, WAYNE TAYLOR RACING, NO. 10 KONICA MINOLTA CORVETTE DP:
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE INTENSITY OF THE PROTOTYPE RACE THIS WEEKEND?
“I have to run just because my wife let me race this race, but she said we’ve got to go to Brazil tonight, so that’s the only thing, so I’ve got to run back to Orlando airport. It was an amazing week. Obviously it was a late deal when I talked to Wayne, but it was so nice to meet the boys, meet Max, and I had 20 minutes before I entered the race on the drying conditions, and I felt that my seat was okay, but of course I couldn’t do things on their seat because they’re already all set. They’ve been driving all three in a pretty good seat position, so I put things on my back, but as soon as it got hot, the foam just let it go. So my first time that I was in the car, I was not really comfortable in the car, and I drove for an hour and a half, and it looked like I was driving a Formula 1 for like 24 hours. So I was pretty tired. We had to do something, and that something came up with the idea of running Wayne’s old seat, which it was fantastic because although it wasn’t perfect, it put me back to the condition that I was a little bit more competitive so I could do a stint of two hours and a bit, two hours and a half, and then I was able to set some good times. I’m pleased that we finished up here for such a late thing, and I hope to be back.”
RUBENS, COMPARE THIS DP EXPERIENCE WITH YOUR LAST DP EXPERIENCE, AND IF I REMEMBER CORRECTLY, IT HAPPENED AT COTA, AT CIRCUIT OF THE AMERICAS
“No, actually I had a couple of experiences. I had an Indianapolis one, and I had ‑‑ last year I was here, as well. But this one, I mean, the team is wonderful. The team is well together, the mechanics, the engineers, all the guys that put the strategy up. I really enjoy, because I was able to put some of my experience and talk to them and make some of ‑‑ we went forward, and I’m sorry that I didn’t get to drive much, much before, because I really wanted to help it further, but I think the team did a fantastic job. We had the fastest DP on the track, and it was nice just to be able to be with all of them, and like I said, I hope to be back. I love the series, and I did enjoy my time with the team.”
RYAN HUNTER‑REAY, VISIT FLORIDA RACING NO. 90 VISITFLORIDA.COM CORVETTE DP:
RYAN, IT WAS ALMOST A STRONG BATTLE OF ATTRITION OUT THERE TODAY. RYAN HUNTER‑REAY, YES. IT WAS A STRONG BATTLE OUT THERE TODAY IN THE PROTOTYPE CLASS. CAN YOU DESCRIBE WHAT IT WAS LIKE, JUST THE FIGHT FOR SURVIVAL TO STAY OUT THERE?
“Yeah, first of all, it’s great to be with this team. These guys are friends of mine off the racetrack. They’re great teammates. Couldn’t ask for a better team to be teamed up with. It’s great to be back at Daytona, and we had some balance issues that we’ve been working through, some grip issues. We never quite got a handle on it. So we had our hands full today. I think we salvaged a result out of it, and we’re looking forward to the future.
But, yeah, it was tough out there. You just had to keep your nose clean, and especially for us, it was just so tough to put the power down.”
RYAN, NORMALLY YOUR PROGRAM IS OPEN‑WHEEL RACING. INDYCAR YOU’VE RACED HERE QUITE OFTEN. NEVERTHELESS, CAN YOU DESCRIBE HOW DIFFERENT SUCH A DP CAR TO YOUR NORMAL OPEN‑WHEEL INDYCAR?
“It’s a lot different. That’s why I love coming here. I love changing up driving styles. It makes me think about my driving style and how I can change, and ever evolving as a racing driver. So that’s why I love doing it, especially with a group like this. So it’s definitely something I look to do a lot in the future as well.”
RYAN, AS FAR AS WINS MEAN EVERYTHING TO YOU GUYS, THAT’S ALWAYS THE CASE. BUT TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THAT SMILE YOU’RE GOING TO TAKE INTO ST. PETERSBURG NEXT MONTH?
“Yeah, well, I hope so. We’re busy at work on the IndyCar side of it. I’m actually testing at Sebring all day tomorrow, so I’ve got to get some rest and head over there. I’ll be a little sore tomorrow.
But it’s something that we’re really focused on. We were just in the early stages of testing. We’ve got a lot to do. So I really can’t tell you how we’re going to look there, but I think we’ll be stronger than we were last year.”
RYAN DALZIEL, VISIT FLORIDA RACING NO. 90 VISITFLORIDA.COM CORVETTE DP:
RYAN, YOU’RE NO STRANGER TO THIS FORM OF RACING AND THIS RACE ITSELF. WHAT WAS THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE THAT YOU FACED TODAY?
“I think, yeah, like Ryan said, we had a rough month in general. We had three new guys into a team. None of us had driven a Corvette and never driven for this team. So a lot of time a new guys comes into a team, and it’s kind of plug and play, and you deal with what you’re left with or what the other guys like.
We didn’t have that. We all came in. We all liked something similar. It wasn’t what we hadwith the VisitFlorida car and unfortunately weather, as everybody knows, was not on our sides and we just kind of ran out of time to get the car dialled in. But we made some pretty significant changes in pit lane in the first six, seven hours, which was a plan. We had planned to make certain changes had we needed to under yellow. I think it was the right direction.
But we never really had the pace, for sure, of the 10 car. I think at times through the night we could run with them. But for us, it was just a matter of keeping on the lead lap, hoping for some attrition with the guys in front. I think for our first race and with the conditions we were dealt, a third place almost feels like a victory for us.”
MARC GOOSSENS, VISIT FLORIDA RACING NO. 90 VISITFLORIDA.COM CORVETTE DP:
MARC, ARE YOU EQUALLY AS SATISFIED WITH THE THIRD PLACE FINISH?
“Yeah, for sure. Because I think to what Ryan “Diesel” as we call him now, was saying, our issues started at the roar. We had quite some mechanical issues with the car, gear box issues. So we lost a lot of track time then. So with the weather that we had this week, we had very limited running time trying to make the car better. So we knew before the start of the race that we didn’t have the greatest car in the field.
Like the boys were saying, there were some other guys, maybe the GTD guys, I can’t remember, but somebody was saying a lot of guys that were in contention for a win took themselves out.
I think we hit our marks all the time. The team did as well. We kept working on the car during the entire 24 Hours. So like these guys are saying, coming away with a third place is pretty strong for the championship at this point.”
IT’S BEEN A WHILE SINCE YOU’VE HAD THE CHANCE TO RUN FOR THIS RACE HERE, THE ROLEX 24. GIVE US YOUR THOUGHTS, PLEASE.
“Well, I’ve been here quite often. But, yeah, the last couple of years was always in the GT class, so you kind of forget how intense the DPs are, especially like you were saying, with the car that’s not a hundred percent. It’s actually requiring even more work.
But, again, the good thing is we know we have a good group of people, all professionals, all fits of ‑‑ we thought it was a big advantage to do this race between the three of us. And like Ryan is saying, I think we all feel a little sore right now, but we’re working on this program and we’ll be back stronger next time.”