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Archive of Porsche Lola Race Reports/News/Photos 2000/2002

 
 

 

 

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2002 Rolex 24hrs - Practice & Qualifying

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  Day One  
     
 

The weather is anything but pleasant in Daytona for this year's pre-Rolex 24 Test Days, but the Champion Porsche Racing crew have gotten straight to work tuning the Lola/Porsche for Daytona's high banks, in preparation for their second bid for Rolex 24 victory. The team were already confident after a fine showing at the Grand-Am Daytona Finale, where Andy Wallace and Hurley Haywood came second after leading in the race's late stages, but the team are well aware the competition will be fierce this year, and are leaving nothing to chance.

Since the Finale, the Champion technicians have made a large number of changes to the car, upgrading many components to be either more durable or easier to replace should the need arise. Other mechanical lessons learned during last year's Rolex 24 and the Daytona Finale were incorporated during a full off-season rebuild of the car. The Lola's suspension is one of the major areas of attention, though much of that work was done prior to the Finale, and the mission now is fine-tuning all the new tweaks to work properly together on the demanding Daytona circuit.

Champion Racing are quite pleased to have the support of Porsche Motorsport in preparing the Lola-Porsche for the Rolex. Porsche Technical Director Norbert Singer was pleased with progress made during today's first test sessions, and Porsche Engineer Helmut Schmid's vast knowledge of our particular Porsche drivetrain has enabled the team to make rapid progress in engine tuning. Marcus Haselgrove, formerly of Motec, is now working with Champion full time looking after telemetry, and TAG's Jamie Kellock is again on hand to see to the engine data.

Two more days of testing are on tap here at Daytona...check back for further updates of Champion Racing's bid to take Porsche back to the Daytona Winner's Circle.

Combined Thursday Times:

1 - #36 Ford R&S Jim Matthews Racing 01:41.452 - 126.326mph

2 - #2 Judd Crawford Crawford Racing 01:42.245 - 125.346mph

3 - #16 Ford R&S Dyson Racing Team 01:42.712 - 124.776mph

4 - #38 Porsche Lola Champion Racing 01:42.791 - 124.680mph

 
     
 
At day's end, Porsche Motorsport's  Norbert Singer listens to Wallace debriefing the day's progress with Technical Director Brad Kettler and Ops Dir. Mike Peters Andy puts in the testing laps, driving all three Thursday sessions Andy Wallace waits patiently as Marcus Haselgrove (red coat) and TAG's Jamie Kellock (tan coat) download data, and the mechanics check over the Porsche motor
Hurley Haywood and Andy Wallace discuss setup while the mechanics make suspension changes Porsche Motorsport Engineer Helmut Schmid looks on while Jamie downloads engine performance data First order of business - Tech Inspection
Champion Racing arrives at the 2002 Rolex Tests
 
     
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