Daytona: New task for Simon Trummer

The chances of a third Swiss victory since Jo Siffert (1968) and Fredy Lienhard (2002) at the 24 Hours of Daytona are minimal, although Simon Trummer will start there for the first time in order to take exactly that.

For the 28-year-old from Thun, this is also the start of a new phase in his career, as he has joined the American team JDC-Miller Motorsports for 2018, with whom he will contest the entire US championship. Last year, Trummer drove the same LMP2 sports car in the FIA WEC.

His teammates on the yellow Oreca-Gibson are three North Americans. In the tests at the beginning of January, the former GP2 driver was fastest within the team and third best of all LMP2 drivers, including Formula 1 stars Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll.

It will be difficult against the fastest American DPi cars. The Cadillac cars in particular, which already dominated last year, outpaced the competition. With a view to the championship, it's simply important for the Bernese to score as many points as possible.

Simon Trummer: "We hope that the organizing association IMSA will do something about the regulations. Otherwise, I think we should be up there with the LMP2 teams. That's our primary goal. It's all happening here in the tenths of an inch."

Lausanne's Hugo de Sadeleer is a second Swiss on the grid with an LMP2 car. Last year's runner-up in the European Le Mans Series has two team partners with Formula 1 experience in Paul di Resta and Bruno Senna.

Marcel Fässler again with Corvette
Marcel Fässler, Jeffrey Schmidt, Philipp Frommenweiler and Rolf Ineichen have other intentions. The three-time Le Mans winner will once again be driving for Corvette Racing in major endurance races in 2018 and is aiming for victories with the Americans in the GTLM class, which is made up of nothing but factory teams. Two years ago, he succeeded in doing so at Daytona and Sebring.

In the GTD class, which is comparable to the European GT3, Rolf Ineichen was surprisingly the fastest ever in the pre-tests with the Lamborghini from Grasser Racing. Here, too, many professionals are in action. At the 24 Hours of Daytona, however, the fast Lucerne driver has never had any luck.

Jeffrey Schmidt drives an Audi R8 LMS at Land Motorsport, as he did in 2017. Last year, he and his team fell just short of class victory at the first attempt. The young driver from Basel wants to make up for this next weekend.

As already reported, Philipp Frommenwiler will make his debut with an American team in a Lexus RC F GT3. His goal will be to deliver another good business card there. For him, as for all the other Swiss, anything is possible.

https://sportscarchampionship.imsa.com