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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
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