MOTORSPORT: Aussies in the forefront at Daytona

It’s a big weekend for Australians and New Zealanders in international endurance racing – and it could get even bigger generally, with a major announcement imminent on the future of sports and GT racing.

Aussies Ryan Briscoe, Matt Campbell and Chaz Mostert are lining up for the 24 Hours of Daytona (known these days as the Rolex 24), as are Kiwis Shane Van Gisbergen, Scott Dixon and Earl Bamber.

All except Briscoe will be flying to Australia immediately after the twice-round-the-clock race in Florida for next weekend’s Bathurst 12-Hour, as will many others competing there.

Before the Daytona race begins an announcement is to be made that could unify regulations in Europe and America in a couple of years and enhance the global sports car scene.

It would see more cars from both sides of the Atlantic competing against each other more, especially in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, at Daytona and the other Florida classic, the 12 Hours of Sebring.

The announcement will come from Pierre Fillon, president of France’s Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO), which runs Le Mans and the World Endurance Championship, and Jim France, chairman of America’s International Motor Sports Association (IMSA).

The aim is to get the hypercars that will debut in Europe in September and the next-generation Daytona prototypes (DPi) to be introduced in 2022 competing against each other.

Toyota, Aston Martin and boutique American manufacturer Glickenhaus are committed to the hypercar era from its outset, with Peugeot to follow in 2022. The participating makes in DPi are Cadillac, Honda’s American brand Acura, and Mazda.

Convergence of European and American regulations has long been talked about, but whether anything seriously comes of this weekend’s announcement only time will tell.

Veteran American motorsport correspondent Marshall Pruett has stated on Racer.com: “For a meaningful French-American partnership to work, one formula will need to die, and for some incredibly pragmatic reasons it can’t be DPi … the ACO/WEC formula would be untenable for IMSA’s manufacturers and teams.” (See Pruett’s comment piece here).

In the meantime, Mazda’s RT 24Ps have been the pacesetters at Daytona, where Cadillac has dominated in recent years.

After four years in Ford’s now-concluded GT program, American-based former Sydneysider Briscoe is in a Cadillac DPi entered by racer-turned-team owner Wayne Taylor, who along with Max Angelelli, has long managed his career.

Briscoe’s teammates for the weekend are five-time IndyCar champion Dixon, one-time Japanese F1 racer Kamui Kobayashi and Dutchman Renger Van Der Zande, who next weekend will be in a Honda NSX at Bathurst with American Dane Cameron.

The latter is partnering Juan Pablo Montoya and last year’s Indianapolis 500 winner Simon Pagenaud in one of Roger Penske’s Acuras at Daytona.

Queenslander Matt Campbell is in the Porsche 911 RSR 19 that Brit Nick Tandy qualified fastest in the GTLM class, while Bamber was only 0.049 seconds slower in an identical car.

Campbell, now a fully-fledged Porsche factory driver, scored a surprise maiden victory for the German marque at last year’s Bathurst 12-Hour but it has never won GTLM at Daytona.

The 911s in that class there this weekend are up against a pair of new 5.5-litre V8 Chevrolet Corvette C8.Rs and two BMW M8 GTEs, with Mostert in the slower of those, as well as a privateer Ferrari 488.

Van Gisbergen is in a Lexus RC F that has qualified seventh among 18 GT Daytona class cars, but will switch to a Mercedes-AMG with Red Bull Supercars teammate Jamie Whincup for the Bathurst 12 Hour.

Reigning NASCAR champion Kyle Busch is in another Lexus at Daytona but it was one of three GTD cars not to record a time in qualifying.

The event is suffering from the absence of Chip Ganassi Racing after the end of the Ford program, with the total field for the 58th running of the classic on the 5.7km road course at ‘World Centre of Racing’ only 38 cars.

Sportscar365 correspondent john Dagys has reported that Australia’s Will Power – as well as his American teammate in Roger Penske’s Indycar squad, Josef Newgarden – “came close to taking part” in the Rolex 24 “but were ruled out due to sponsorship and manufacturer conflicts”.

Hyundai has got the jump in the Monte Carlo Rally that is the start of the new world rally season.

The Korean manufacturer’s established Belgian driver Thierry Neuville leads ‘The Monte’ by almost 20 seconds after the opening two night stages.

Sebastien Ogier, the Frenchman who won six straight world titles until dethroned last year, narrowly took the first stage in dry conditions for his new team Toyota, but Neuville imposed himself in the icy conditions on the longer second stage.

Ogier ended the first leg of the four-day event 19.1 seconds behind Neuville, while reigning world champion Ott Tanak was another six seconds back in his debut with Hyundai after having defected from Toyota.

Welshman Elfyn Evans was just 0.3 seconds behind Tanak in a second Toyota Yaris, while Sebastien Loeb is already 51 seconds behind Neuville and “not particularly pleased” in the third Hyundai i20 Coupe.

Finn Esapekka Lappi is almost 68 seconds off the lead in a Ford Fiesta, but his countryman and M-Sport teammate Teemu Suninen has had transmission failure already.

Rally Chile, scheduled for April 16-19, has officially been cancelled this week because of political unrest.
That reduces the WRC back to 13 rounds, with Australia off the calendar this year at the expense of New Zealand.