In the absence of AJ Foyt, twice winner of the 24 Hours of Daytona, suffering from the after effects of a knee operation, it was Jackie Stewart, treble Formula 1 World Champion, who had the honour of giving the command to start engines at the fiftieth edition of this legendary race (today the Rolex 24).
Nowadays endurance events are tending to turn into 24 hour sprints, which makes them particularly trying for men and their machines, as evidenced by the five seconds separating the first two, AJ Allemendinguer and Ryan Dalziel, both driving a Riley-Ford. This name is unrelated to the former English make Riley, but is that of Bob Riley, founder of Riley Technologies, maker of racing car chassis. It is also he who supplied the tubular chassis of the two BMW M3 GTs entered at Daytona by Turner Motorsport, one of the most renowned BMW tuners in the United States.
At Daytona, Turner Motorsport, for which Motul is a technical partner, entered two of these very special BMW M3s fitted with the fearsome V8 S62 produced by the Bavarian make. The better of the two cars, with the team Auberlen / Dalla Lana / Marsal / Müller and Werner, clinched a very honourable sixteenth place in the GT standings, out of 46 contenders.
The other team supported by Motul was APR Motorsport, the first team to have taken the decision to enter an R8 in Grand-Am whose regulations are very different from GT3 specifications. At the Florida circuit, despite a few teething problems and a collision with a prototype, the team nevertheless managed to reach the arrival in an honourable 31st place in the GT category. And of course it's fairly obvious that Audi, which closely supports its clients, will help APR to make the car progress so that it will rapidly reach the rank it deserves.
Bowled over by the show both on the track and in the pits – open to the public as is the tradition in the USA – fans of the four rings make will soon be able to check out this progress on 30 March, at the Rolex Grand Am race at the Barber Motorsports Park circuit in Birmingham (Alabama).
Watch the video of the APR Motorsport Team on YouTube.
