24h Daytona: Disappointment for Rebellion, podium for Jeffrey Schmidt
24 HOURS OF DAYTONA The Swiss super duo of Neel Jani and Sébastien Buemi were unable to have any say in the overall victory with Rebellion's unreliable Oreca LMP2. This was decided by the American Cadillac prototypes. Jeffrey Schmidt from Basel finished second in his class on the podium in an Audi R8. For the Americans, it was a [...]
For the Americans, it was the 55th edition of the 24 Hours of Daytona with the inclusion of the five shorter stages in the early days. Strictly speaking, however, it was only the 50th time that the race had been run over the full marathon distance, and this year's race was absolutely worthy of an anniversary. In total, there were 41 lead changes among five teams and three brands, with the new American cars from the DPi (Daytona Prototype international) category outperforming the European LMP2 sports cars - all from Oreca with standardized Gibson V8 race engines. Even world champions Neel Jani and Sébastien Buemi could not make up for the handicap in terms of driving. "My third place on the grid was the highlight of the emotions, we never got any closer to the best," Jani recapped.
The Biel native quickly lost touch with the top trio formed by the three Cadillac (Italian Dallara chassis with 6.2-liter V8 engines based on the CTS-V8). Already in the second hour, the problems and the crash of the Swiss-flagged Rebellion Racing team from England began. First, as in practice, the actuator of the electronic gas pedal had to be changed, after which at least a reset was enough. As the distance increased, there were serious handling problems. These became so bad in the end that the car was undriveable and after long pit work finished with a huge gap in an insignificant 31st position. Until the next race in March, the 12 Hours of Sebring, the team has a lot of work to do to provide its top drivers with an adequate car.
The overall winner for the first time was GM's premium brand Cadillac with the Wayne Taylor Racing team. US superstar Jeff Gordon, Taylor's sons Ricky and Jordan and Italian Max Angelelli won by just 0.6 seconds after 659 laps - the second closest finish at Daytona. Second place went to the brand colleagues from Action Express with the trio Joao Barbosa, Christian Fittipaldi and Filipe Albuquerque. Angelelli manages Cadillac's racing operations behind the scenes and therefore contested his last race due to time constraints - a dream end to his career.
Due to the many caution periods - a total of 21 over eight hours, i.e. one third of the distance - there was not only constant merging at the front but also a concentration of the top teams in the two GT classes. No fewer than seven cars from Ford, Ferrari, Chevrolet and Porsche stayed on the same lap all the way to the finish in the GTLM, which is dominated by factory teams, and finished 5th to 11th overall behind four DPi sports cars! Dirk Müller, a German who lives in Thurgau, fended off all of Patrick Pilet's attacks at the end, giving Ford the win with the best of the four Ford GTs, just like in the primeval days of this race. However, Pilet, a Frenchman with Swiss roots and passport, deserves a lot of applause right away, because second place is an unexpectedly good result for the Porsche 911 RSR with mid-engine, which was used for the first time.
Early on, Corvette Racing dropped out of the decision with the car of Marcel Fässler. First there was an electrical problem, then the driver from Schwyz was hit by a ram, which resulted in the replacement of the broken lower wishbone. After the great victory in the previous year, Fässler only finished 16th overall. The best-placed Swiss-born driver was Mathias Beche in 13th place in an Oreca LMP2 fielded by an American team.
Faultless drive by Jeffrey Schmidt is rewarded with podium finish
While Rolf Ineichen, driving two Lamborghini Huracan cars, only finished 37th and 41st due to various problems, Jeffrey Schmidt had reason to celebrate. The Basel native mastered his debut with Land Motorsport, the champion team from the 2016 ADAC GT Masters, with flying colors. He made no mistakes in the most difficult conditions during the night and kept up the pace in the leading group in the early morning. He then watched as more experienced team partners Jules Gounon (F), Christopher Mies (D) and Connor de Philippi brought the Audi R8 LMS home in second place, just three tenths of a second behind a Porsche. "I was more nervous at the end than if I'd had to drive myself. My first race at Daytona and with this team really couldn't have gone much better."
Four cool guys before their stint that was to end with second place in the GT3 class: Connor de Philippi (USA), Christopher Mies (D), Jules Gounon (F) and the Basler Jeffrey Schmidt (from left).
