Pasin Lathouras is pleased to announce that he will take part ‘Rolex 24 at Daytona’ (‘24 Hours of Daytona’) one of the world’s most prestigious sportscar endurance races, which takes place from 24-25 January at Daytona International Speedway, Florida.
It will be Pasin’s biggest challenge to date, coming as he continues to push forward with his career and start his second season racing outside his native Asia. It will also be his second sportscar race in the United States as he contested the 10 Hour Petit Le Mans last September.
The 21-year-old Thai driver will join AF Corse for the 53rd edition of the world famous race and that will represent the start of his third year of association with this leading Italian race team.
Pasin, who will be supported by NaRaYa, Enigma and Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), will drive a Ferrari 458 Italia in ‘GT-Daytona’ (GT-D), likely to be the numerically strongest and most competitive category in the race.
He will share the AF Corse entry with three other drivers, Matt Griffin (Ireland), Rui Aguas (Portugal) and Michele Rugolo (Italy). While this will be Pasin’s first time at the 24 Hours of Daytona, his three teammates have all taken part in this race previously, thus bringing plenty experience of this circuit to the lineup.
As well as being regarded as one of the toughest sportscar races in the world, the 24 Hours of Daytona is also the first round of the 2015 IMSA United SportsCar Championship.
Daytona will bring to a conclusion a two race U.S. schedule, slotted in between his main 2014 and 2015 programmes, which kicked off with Petit Le Mans last October where Pasin shared the Spirit of Race-entered Ferrari 458 Italia with two of his team mates for this month’s race, Matt Griffin and Michele Rugolo.
Pasin will in fact get his first taste of the 5.73 km, 12 turn permanent course, which includes banked sections of up to 32-degrees, this coming weekend (9-11 January) when he takes part in the official three day duration pre race test (known as the ‘Roar Before Daytona’).
Pasin Lathouras: “To get the opportunity to drive at Daytona just a year after I left Asia to race in Europe is really amazing and I’m happy that everything is moving on. I really enjoyed racing at Petit Le Mans a few months ago and now Daytona is another huge opportunity for me, I can’t wait to get out on this track. I want to thank everyone that has helped make this happen and especially to AF Corse, to be back with this team is fantastic for me and I feel they really helped me develop as a driver over the last two years. But I know now I have to raise my game again, work really hard, stay out of trouble and with such proven teammates in the car I have to contribute to us getting a strong finish.”