With a successful three days of testing at the Daytona International Speedway a week and a half ago under his belt, Pasin Lathouras is now set to face the biggest challenge of his career so far as he prepares to take part in this weekend’s 53rd running of the Rolex 24 at Daytona (‘24 Hours of Daytona’) one of the world’s most famous endurance races.
The twice round the clock race is scheduled to run coming weekend, 24-25 January. Free Practice (including the mandatory night session) and the official Qualifying session take place today (22 January) as the event gets underway.
The 21-year-old Thai driver will drive the #49 Ferrari 458 Italia entry in the highly competitive GT-D (‘GT-Daytona’) class. Matt Griffin (Ireland), Rui Aguas (Portugal) and Michele Rugolo (Italy) will join Pasin in the car, which is entered by AF Corse. All three of his teammates have previously raced at Daytona and are experienced sportscar drivers’ meaning a strong line up is in place for this grueling event.
It’s certainly going to be the biggest challenge to date for the young Thai driver who is now entering his second full year in FIA GT3 level cars. After graduating from ‘formula’ cars, Pasin was the 2012 Ferrari Challenge Asia Pacific Vice Champion before he went one better to become the 2013 Champion.
Last year he left his native Asia to progress his career upwards, switching his university studies from Bangkok to London to allow him to take part in the British GT Championship as well as late season selected rounds of International GT Open.
He also has some endurance racing experience to call upon, having contested the MMER Sepang 12 Hours twice, while at the end of last season he took part in his first race in the United States, the 10 Hour Petit Le Mans.
The 53rd Rolex 24 at Daytona isn’t just one of the world’s most prestigious races, it’s also the opening round of the 2015 IMSA United SportsCar Championship – and that all means the best drivers, cars and teams in the world will be in action over the next few days.
Pasin has always said he wants to measure himself against the best, reckoning that’s the only way he can prove himself and progress. Looking at an entry list packed with factory drivers and factory cars on the bumper 53-strong entry list he’s certainly going to fulfill that wish this weekend.
The GT-D class is the numerically strongest in the race with 19 entries, which means more than a third of the cars in the action will be up against the #49 Ferrari. Other top brands represented in GT-D, aside from the Prancing Horse, include Porsche, Audi, Aston Martin, BMW and Dodge. It’s shaping to be the most competitive class.
It’s shaping up to be a huge test – but one Pasin is relishing. The 24 Hours of Daytona was first held in 1966 and takes place annually at the Daytona International Speedway. The course configuration is 5.73 km with 12 turns and it incorporates sections of the banking that makes up the traditional oval layout used by NASCAR’s Daytona 500. That means he’s set to experience banking of up to 32-degrees.
Pasin, who will be supported by NaRaYa, Enigma and Tourism Authority of Thailand, enjoyed his first track time at Daytona during the official three day pre race test, known as the ‘Roar Before the 24’, which took place a week and a half ago.
With eight sessions in total the young Thai was able to learn the track and get acclimatized to the unique banked sections, a totally new experience for him. With cold and damp conditions in the early mornings and evenings as well as heavy rain on the final day, Pasin also got a real snapshot of the prevailing weather that’s the hallmark of Florida during January.
The official action at the Daytona International Speedway gets underway today (Thursday, 22 Jan) with two Free Practice sessions, the first will be held at 0925-1025 and the second at 1320-1350 (all times are local U.S. Eastern Time), for all competitors across the four classes. The qualifying session, reserved for GT-D cars, will take place during the afternoon from 1600-1615. It’s going to be a very a busy opening day as there will also be a third free practice session, once again for all cars, from 1830-2000. That closing session of the day will allow all the drivers to notch up the mandatory laps that must be run in the dark.
Tomorrow (Friday, 23 Jan) sees a fourth and final free practice session from 1125-1225, coming during a day when teams will be making final adjustments and preparations for the race. Saturday (24 Jan) will see the pre race festivities getting underway from early morning with the racecars going to the grid just after midday. The 53rd Rolex 24 at Daytona will get the green lights at 1410 for 24 hours of running.
Pasin Lathouras: “It feels like a very short close season as I was only racing at Macau last November, but my first start in the Rolex 24 is a great way to get the new season going. I really enjoyed the test a couple of week’s back, which was my first time at Daytona. The track is quite straightforward to remember but really hooking together a good lap takes time and the banking is like nothing I have experienced before. The team was satisfied with how the test went and so I think we are in good shape and just a few minor changes to the car will be necessary, other than that we are pretty well prepared. For sure my teammates are really strong and they all know this race well so it’s going to be down to me to raise my game and focus hard on playing my part in delivering a pace that can set us up for a good result, but I thrive on pressure and I’m ready for this. Hardly needs saying that I’m excited for this weekend.”