Tequila Patrón ESM Earns Best Finish
of FIA WEC Season
at COTA
No. 30 finishes fourth; No. 31 exits early

Austin, Texas – Sept. 19, 2015 – Tequila Patrón ESM earned its best finish of the season today during the FIA World Endurance Championship (FIA WEC) 6 Hours of Circuit of The Americas (COTA). A hard-charging Ryan Dalziel passed the No. 43 LMP2 for fourth place moments before the checkered flag.

Six hours earlier, Dalziel started the race in third. He claimed second with a smooth pass on the No. 28 LMP2, and then took over the race lead on pit stop strategy. Dalziel went from third to first in less than an hour from the green flag. He pitted once for fuel and attempted to double stint the Dunlop tires. Even with older tires, Dalziel was able to keep the competition at bay while he led the LMP2 field. His double stint turned into a stint-and-a-half once the tires began to show wear. Dalziel pitted for fuel, tires and a driver change to Scott Sharp.

In one of the most challenging stints of the race, Sharp ran in the heat of the day. The No. 30 machine was a handful, yet Sharp battled the competition through his stint before the scheduled stop to David Heinemeier Hansson. The silver-ranked Heinemeier Hansson ran competitive laps and maintained his position before the final driver change back to Dalziel.

Johannes van Overbeek started the race from the sixth position in the No. 31 Tequila Patrón ESM Ligier JS Honda. Per the team’s race strategy, van Overbeek double-stinted the first set of Dunlop tires before pitting with a driver change to Ed Brown. The Tequila Patrón ESM cars were the only LMP2 competitors to double stint tires in the first segment of the race.

On lap 54, with less than two hours complete, Brown was in Turn 19 and heard a pop. He continued towards Turn 20, was airborne, landed and slid into the wall causing damage to the rear of the racing machine. The car was safely removed from the track via flatbed and sent to parc ferme for inspection by FIA WEC officials and team personnel. The team determined that tire pick up caused an issue with the brakes. The No. 31 machine was unable to complete the race.