Daytona Red Bull - KTM - FKG 04/02/2001   Red Bull Porsche Last Year   TotalMotorSport will be covering the adventures of the Red Bull / KTM / FKG Porsche 911 GT3R at the 39th Rolex 24. Daily reports will begin on January 31 as the team complete preparations for the track action, which commences on February 1. The Porsche runs as #17 this year, piloted by Luca Riccitelli / Dieter Quester / Hans-Jörg Hofer / Marc Duez. Readers who followed last year’s coverage of the team at Daytona, Sebring and Silverstone will be familiar with the first three names, while the fourth really needs no introduction to sportscar fans. All four are highly experienced, and their target is a simple one – to win the GT category at Daytona. Luca, Dieter, Phillip Peter, Hans-Jörg and Hans Willems came very close last year. Their race week was rather more incident-packed than they would have liked though. It began with Luca setting fifth GTU best time in Free Practice, then third best time in Qualifying, but Friday also saw contact with two other cars, a Viper and a Cadillac. “I think the problem was I was trying to control the temperature and was paying attention to the gauges,” explained Hans, after the Cadillac moment. “There was a white BMW who passed me and the Cadillac was right behind him and I couldn’t see him in my mirror. It is stupid, but that’s racing together with saloon cars and prototypes. I think that is a problem here at Daytona.” That neatly sums up what it’s like racing on a relatively short track with over 80 cars on it. Incidents are always possible, and the winning car is often the one that has the fewest. A broken wheel was easily replaced, but a water hose subsequently came loose, ‘cooking’ the engine. The mechanics fitted the spare on Friday evening. “The engine we put in is running very smooth. The car is perfect!” said Luca after his opening stint in the 38th running of the race. The car was nicely positioned in the top four in the class (renamed GT for 2001), Dieter Quester then deliberately losing a little ground: “I didn’t take any risks. It is too early in the race to take chances.” The first real problem manifested itself when the car wouldn’t drain the last 20 litres in the fuel tank. Pit-stops had to be more frequent, and after seven hours, they were seven laps down on the class leaders. No problem. A broken left rear driveshaft after nine hours was more serious. Half an hour was wasted replacing it, leaving #7 17th in class, 33 laps down. Hans-Jörg: “The driveshaft cost us about 26 laps. They had to tow Phillip Peter in. The driveshaft breaking destroyed the radiator for the gearbox. They had to fix all those things...." Race effectively over? No way. Three hours later, they were back up to 11th – still 33 laps down. So they were lapping at front-running pace. "Luca did laps of 1:55 and 1:56. He was the fastest of the Porsches during the night. He was very fast!" With five hours left, it came down to five cars – the Alex Job, Larbre, Aspen Knolls, Haberthur and Red Bull Porsches. First to fifth were separated by 25 laps now, with the demise of the Barbour entry, but there was drama galore to come. The first three all faced new car problems, Porsche having been hit by a spate of water pump and valvetrain difficulties. #7 was second, chasing the black, Haberthur GT3R. “We will try hard and do everything that is possible but I don’t think we have enough time left to catch them,” said Hans-Jörg. That proved to be correct, but a mere two laps down after 24 hours was amazing after the car’s troubles. One year on and the GT3R is tried and tested, the ideal 24 hour car. There are likely to be 30 or more of them in the 39th running of the Rolex 24 at Daytona. Watch out for #17 this time, driven by Riccitelli, Hofer, Quester and Duez. Red Bull link KTM link FKG link Copyright ©2000-©2023 TotalMotorSport