Oryx Racing will use the near nine-week break before the second round of the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series to evaluate important data collected from the team’s series debut and first race with the Audi R8 GRAND-AM at Daytona (US State of Florida) this weekend (28-29 January).
Having taken delivery of its Audi a little over a month ago and with less than 1,000-miles on the clock before the annual race began on Saturday afternoon (1530hr local), the 50th running of the Daytona 24 Hours was always going to be a steep learning curve.
Issues with the near standard clutch, unique to the GRAND-AM specification Audi R8 making its US race début, ultimately cost valuable time and the prospect of a top maiden U.S. result.
Ultimately the #74 Oryx Racing Audi R8 GRAND-AM of Steven Kane (GB), Humaid Al Masaood (UAE) and Saeed Al Mehairi (UAE) registered 32nd in GT having completed 432-laps but Oryx Racing can comfort itself from learning a great deal about the Audi, the “control” Continental tyres and GRAND-AM racing in general – all of which can be put to good affect for the remainder of the season.
Kane gave a glimpse of what the Audi, which has recorded 118 worldwide race wins and 13 championship titles since 2009, is capable of when the Ulsterman comfortably ran inside the GT class top-10 early on. In the closing stages on Sunday afternoon the Oryx R8, which set the faster race lap of the two Audi sports cars competing, was recording laps comparable with the top-six GT cars around the 3.56-mile, 12-turn speedway road course.
The Rolex 24 At Daytona marked the first race in the GRAND-AM Series for Oryx Racing – contesting its third-ever twice-around-the-clock race – which achieved a praiseworthy fourth in the 2011 American Le Mans Series’ LMP1 Team Championship.
The second round of the 14-race GRAND-AM series is staged at the Barber Motorsports Park at Birmingham (US State of Alabama) on 31 March and will see Team Principal Al Masaood and Kane piloting the Audi.
Source : Audi Sport UK