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Daytona

Rolex

04/02/2001

GT Pace

A Tight Fight

©Andrew S. Hartwell

It is a race to the finish, but the gladiators involved in the spectacle respect one another’s qualifications to be on the battlefield.

At the nine-hour mark, the GT race-within-the-race has seen some tight fighting between the #31 White Lightning Porsche and the Jet Motorsports BMW M3, with both cars running on the same lap. Hans Stuck isn’t surprised by the status of either car; “The new car has more power. The race is going much better than we expected. But we knew #31 would be good because they have 4 strong drivers in the car.”

With #31 in the lead at 247 laps, the rest of the GT field is stacked up as #54, then the #86 – Freisinger Motorsports Porsche at 244 laps, followed by the #56 Seikel Motorsports Porsche with the all-Italian line up. Gabrio Rosa: “A few minutes ago I made a little spin and do some damage to the radiator. We changed it and now we are OK. The BMW is very fast today. And I think the White Lightning team is the best team in the Rolex.”

Terry Borcheller got out of the BMW a short time ago. He reports the car is running as well or better than anyone had hoped. “We hoped that the car would be this strong. To have the right car, in the right class, at the right time with the right team…well, you just have to have a good combination and I just hope it all falls our way this weekend.”

And Borcheller has a healthy measure of respect for the talent piloting the #31 Porsche. “We knew they would be strong. You got Pobst, Fitzgerald, Lohr and Menzel. There just is no slacker in the group. And that team prepares a good car too, so we knew they were going to be tough.”

Repeating Randy Pobst’s comment to me at the start of the race, (“We don’t want to jinx it but I think we are seen as the lead car in this class.”), Borcheller commented, “There were a lot of unknowns for us. This is a brand new car and we are merging two teams to do the effort so, yea, I could say that they would be the favorites.”

“This is the first race for Jet Motorsports. Basically they are here to help with the development of the car because they built it. So for the rest of the year Jet Motorsports will run it.”