Roles 24 Hour 4: Bomarito leads in #55 Mazda

Bomarito

Jonathan Bomarito has moved the #55 Mazda Motorsports entry to the lead as darkness has fallen on the 54th Rolex 24 at Daytona. Currently, the race is under caution as the DeltaWing crashed into the back of the #8 Starworks Motorsport machine which was stopped in the middle of turn 1. With significant damage to the front bodywork, it was a disappointing turn of events for the #0 Panoz DeltaWing Racing entry which had led during the early stages of the race.

Jonny Adam sits second in the #31 Action Express Racing Corvette with Max Angelelli third in the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette.

Tommy Milner continues to lead the GTLM category in the #4 Corvette, while the #52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Machine has moved to the front of the Prototype Challenge Class. The #28 Lamborghini currently piloted by Lance Willsey leads the way in GTD.

Corvette Driver Quotes

JAN MAGNUSSEN, NO. 3 CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R: “I took it very easy to begin with. I didn’t want to risk the car; I really wanted to find the balance and see where we were compared to everyone else. It wasn’t great at first. I was struggling with top speed, plus I had a little too much understeer. We made an adjustment to the car, which made it a lot better. It was very well-behaved and fast. I was able to charge. Things are quite good and I’m very happy. Calm and collected is the strategy for the next 20 hours, I think."

OLIVER GAVIN, NO. 4 CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R: “That was good fun. As always in our class it’s good, hard racing. At the start of a 24-hour race, you always think about taking it easy but it was obvious that there was going to be none of that early on. But that’s what makes this fun. It was difficult picking my way through traffic with some of the slower GTD cars. We had a bit of a scary moment with a tire puncture; I was in NASCAR 4 when the pressure alarm came on, and it was dropping like a stone. I knew I needed to get into the pit box but had to get around a GTD car to dive into pit lane. It was tough trying to get it stopped with a tire going down. It all happened so fast that the crew didn’t have time to get ready when I came into the pit box. We unfortunately got a penalty as well. But we got back out there and made some time up. I think we’re in pretty good shape. Our Corvette is handling well. We have to see how things develop into the night."

RICKY TAYLOR, WAYNE TAYLOR RACING NO. 10 KONICA MINOLTA CORVETTE DP: “The conditions were much harder than I expected. The track was pretty greasy and I haven’t driven in the dry since the test so it was a little bit to get used to that, but the car is okay. I think as it gets colder, the car is going to come to us but yeah, just trying to work on getting through the stint. Everyone is being super aggressive and I was just taking it very easy and waiting to get to tomorrow morning."

THINGS ARE WORKING WELL? “We are running quite smoothly. Whenever a P2 car comes up on us, we don’t give them a big fight because they are pushing really hard. We are just kind of settling in and everything is running smoothly."

JORDAN TAYLOR, WAYNE TAYLOR RACING NO. 10 KONICA MINOLTA CORVETTE DP: “It was good and it was uneventful. I mean it was my first dry laps of the weekend so it was tough to get up to speed in race conditions. I guess guys are out there already running fast laps so I think we held our own and we were running second or third for most of the stint. At this point of the race, you are just conserving the car and waiting for the end. So far we have had a strong car compared to half the field. Some of the cars are way quicker but we just have to run our own race at this point and see where we come out tomorrow."

HOW DO YOU FEEL PHYSICALLY? “Yeah, I felt fine. Obviously it will be a bigger worry to see how I feel over a longer run because I only had five laps of practice. I felt normal in the car and just happy to do a full stint and do my part in the car."

DANE CAMERON, ACTION EXPRESS RACING NO. 31 WHELEN ENGINEERING CORVETTE DP: “That was a nice way to open the Rolex 24. We have a strong Corvette DP. We might lack a little bit of overall pace to some people but we have a very comfortable car. It’s very consistent when we push hard. We’re going to continue to do that. The Action Express crew in the pits have done a great job. We worked our way up through the field from the start. I was very comfortable in the stint. Traffic is a little different now with the quicker pace of the GTD cars. It was a matter of getting a feel for that. Always your first couple of stints are a little more intense than normal because you’ve been itching to get back in the car after so long. It was nice to get out there in competition and work my way through traffic. Jonny (Adam) is out there now and is doing a great job out there. We’ll see what happens from here."

“In general with the race schedule, all the legwork is done at the Roar. We were pretty sure where we were going to run the car for race trim. We were confident we had a good setup there. With the lack of dry running Thursday, it kind of forced our hand to run what we knew. The track is different that what we had from the Roar. It will be ever-evolving like it always is. Right now, it doesn’t quite suit our car 100 percent but hopefully things will be better from here."

Brian C. reporting for AutoRacing1

Hour 4 Standings