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I wouldn't put too much into individual driver performance at the Roar -- the teams were doing a lot of different things (in all classes), and the driving duties were far from equally distributed among all the cars. There's a such a big effect from going out in traffic (typically driver changes done during red flag periods, of which there were many) and if they only got a few laps then times would not be representative of performance. Also, very few teams ran all drivers through equal tire allocations. For instance, I did two 3-lap runs over the first 2 days to learn the new GT3R and both runs were on tires that were 1 stint old. My last run was 12 laps to close out the last session on Sunday and the tires had passed 2 stints before I was done.
Either way, there isn't enough information available to the public to know yet who is strong or who is weak -- for drivers or cars. The series might and I think inside the individual classes the competitors keep a bit closer of an eye on their competition (when people go out on stickers, who's driving when, etc).
Anyway, it looks pretty competitive across all the classes IMO and I think it'll lead to a good race. It'll be interesting to see how the new GTD cars come out of the box... if they play the long game for the season and don't go "too fast" or if they say "f*ck it, let's win Daytona!" -- I'd guess the factory teams in it for the season will do the former, and everyone else will do the latter. :-)
And thanks Maelochs! It's really fun to be driving with my co-driver from the RSR last year (Henzler) and my old ALMS co-driver (Heylen). With 3 real Am's in the car it's going to be hard for us to compete with the all Pro lineups, but if we can avoid trouble and give Wolf and Jan a car to fight with for the last couple stints... I think we can be up there.
If any Tenthers are at the race feel free to stop by and say Hi if you see me!
-mike
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