No. 85 Porsche runner-up, comes up just short in 24 Hours of Daytona

Originally scheduled to start Saturday 2:40 pm, there was a five-hour delay because of heavy rain and flooding at the track coupled with technical race control difficulties by iRacing.

After the rain stopped and the technical problems were resolved, a field of 55 cars finally took the green flag at 7:09 pm.

Hectic opening phase and lucky close calls for No. 84 Porsche

Kyle Birnie started from third position in the No. 84 Porsche and quickly established solid position in a lead pack of four GTE cars. Shortly after he had to overcome a first big scare when a LMP2 prototype completely missed their braking point entering turn five and almost took out Birnie in the process. Only thanks to amazing reflexes Birnie was able to avoid damage on the car.

© 2021 Fischer Motorsport Kyle Birnie qualified the No. 84 Porsche third on the grid, avoided several potentially big crashes and established the team in second position in his opening double stint

“That first hour was pure insanity. The stuff some of these LMP2s pulled was the worst I’ve seen in a while. Absolutely unbelievable.”, explained Birnie.

After problems in Qualifying, the sister car No. 85 Porsche and Pascal Theis were faced with the reality of having to start the 24-hour race from last place on the starting grid of the GTE class.

Incredibly enough, it only took Theis 40 minutes to make it into the top ten, after a very good start and a number of teams ahead getting into trouble and crashes.

Soon a breathtaking sunset dipped Daytona Beach, the Daytona International Speedway and the nearby sand beach that Daytona Beach is also famous for, in a golden, fiery play of colors.

In the night hours, things went according to plan for the time being and Manuel Mayer even took the lead in the No. 84 Porsche, as the No. 92 Porsche of Orange Mecanic proved to be the top competitor in the race.

Equally impressive of a run was put on by the No. 85 Porsche. After entering the night hours, Jason Allen proved his talent. The newly signed Fischer Motorsport driver kept pushing , after previously taking over from Niklas Solle who also made his debut with the team and immediately impressed by driving all the way into the top-five.

“Jason is in the car now. It’s looking really good so far. We knew we have a great package here. But running in the top-five after just four hours, that is pretty incredible, considering we started from last place.”, said Solle with a grin on his face following his first double stint in the Porsche 911 RSR GTE.

I had so much fun out there. The sunset, the racing, the engine sound. When you are out there on the track, just you and the car, that really is an incredible feeling.”

Later in the night, thanks to an aggressive pit strategy, the No. 85 Porsche team was able to close the gap to its sister car, the No. 84 Porsche. In total the team ran six stints on one set of tires and thus it came to happen that Nathan Manning and Benjamin Fischer raced through the night for many laps, in team formation, also to help each other save fuel.

Hignet, No. 84 Porsche crash during night

At four o’clock in the morning, shortly after the halfway mark of the race, the No. 84 Porsche was involved in a decisive scene that would change the course of the race for the team.

© 2021 Fischer Motorsport With less than 12 hours to go: Yannick Hignet crashes into the barrier after a hard punt by the No. 420 LMP2 Prototype of Montreal SimRacing

Running in third position, Y. Hignet took the inside line into turn five and keeping the door closed, forcing a LMP2 prototype directly behind to slow or pass on the outside.

The No. 420 LMP2 prototype of Montreal SimRacing did not react but instead ran into the rear of Hignet’s car and sent him hard into the fence, leading to significant damage.

Uninjured but visibly angry the Frenchman climbed out of the car to inspect the suffered damage. After a track vehicle transported the car back to the pits, the pit crew now feverishly worked on repairing the car as best as possible.

“There was nothing I could do. The LMP2 driver must have been asleep, I guess. I got to say, some of these LMP2 do not belong out on a racetrack. They should have to give up their licenses. I can’t remember how many close calls we had in the first half of the race, simply because some LMP2 doesn’t have a clue how to race. Now it finally caught up with us and our race is done.”, commented Hignet after walking back to the pits.

In the end, the No. 84 Porsche was able to resume the race after a 16-minute repair stop, but was now scored in P8 and a full ten laps down from the GTE leaders.

Despite some damage that the team could not repair, the team managed to end the race in fifth place and by that gave Fischer Motorsport a somewhat-consoling result.

No. 85 Porsche with lucky break after Allen crashes at night

Nathan Manning and Jason Allen dominated the night hours in the No. 85 Porsche and for a while posted the quickest lap times in the entire GTE field.

© 2021 Fischer Motorsport Pascal Theis put on a show, driving from last place into the top ten during the opening hour of the 2021 iRacing 24 Hours of Daytona

Two hours later Allen found himself having to avoid another hyper-aggressive LMP2 prototype entering the bus stop chicane, that cut off the Las Vegas native’s line.

In the process, Allen lost control and slid into the tire barrier, causing a bit of damage at the right front of the car. But in a lucky break, the team was able to continue the race. However, for the remainder of the race, the team would now no longer have quite the pace to battle for the win.

As sunrise approached Allen now returned the cockpit to Niklas Solle, who would go on to alternative double stints with Theis for the remainder of the race.

The 21-year-old Munich, Germany native proved to be a crucial part of the team in his first-ever 24-hour endurance race.

Exciting finale with perfect strategy

As so often is the case with this race, the 2021 edition of the iRacing 24 Hours of Daytona came down to strategy as well. Besides fast lap times, managing fuel usage was at minimum just as important.

Over the course of the race, Fischer Motorsport proved to have an advantage on strategy, thanks to nearly perfect calculations and striking the needed balance between pushing and fuel saving. In the end the No. 85 Porsche was able to save one pit stop and in the process was able to get closer to the lead.

“We did see that the other teams needed another stop, one more than us. We were right on the limit, but we always kept saving just a bit, without sacrificing too much time. That really paid off for us at the end there. But P1 was too far away for us, unfortunately.”, explained Pascal Theis.

© 2021 Fischer Motorsport The No. 85 Porsche claimed second place in the GTE class (pictured with overall winners No. 2 LMP2 of Hyperion Racing)

Two hours before the end Pascal Theis jumped back into the car to take on his final double stint. In the process, he became the first Fischer Motorsport driver of the last few years, to be opening and closing driver in the same 24-hour endurance race.

The 26-year-old gave it everything once more in the final double stint, but a two-minute gap to the GTE race leaders proved to be too much a margin and thus the Frankfurt, Germany driver crossed the finish line in second place after exactly 24 hours, 3 minutes and 14 minutes.

Orange Mecanic’s No. 92 Porsche took the win in the GTE class while the No. 21 Porsche of BIGGO21 Motorsports rounded out the podium.

Last year’s race-winning car, the Fischer Motorsport No. 84 Porsche crossed the line in fifth place, twelve laps down from the leaders.

Much praise, consoling words from team owner

“I’m so proud of the boys. I’m especially happy for Pascal, after he had a strong start last year and then went through that DNF.”, team owner Benjamin Fischer said.

“The entire team did a phenomenal job. I’m proud of every single one. Jason and Nathan were flying during the night. I think for parts of the race, we had the fastest lap times in the entire GTE field. And Niklas was fantastic as well in the morning hours and a huge part in making this possible. That was perfect team work..”

Not as happy but rather disappointed, the No. 84 Porsche team found consoling words from Fischer, after visiting the famous Daytona victory lane last year, but crashing out of a potential repeat this year.

“I was in the car myself, so I know exactly what this feels like. You want to win so bad and then it all comes differently. We did our job well on the things we can control. We gave it all we had. Sometimes that’s enough, like last year, sometimes it isn’t. That’s how life goes.”

“It’s obvious that in a 24-hour-race you need some good luck. Pace alone and consistency won’t get you there. For me, that’s all the more reason to compliment the team to come back like that after the crash at night. In my opinion that fifth place means as much as anything. It really shows how great this team is.”, Fischer added.

Overall, Fischer Motorsport continues an incredibly successful streak in the iRacing 24 hours of Daytona. After taking second place in 2019 and winning last year, the organization follows up with another second-place finish in 2021.

“I think a lot of teams envy us on that type of sustained success. We’re obviously not the only ones putting a lot of work preparing for this race and hoping for a good result. So I want to congratulate the folks at Orange Mecanic on the GTE win, Hyperion Racing on the overall victory and the folks over at Verve Racing Team (GT3 winners).”, Fischer closed.

For Fischer Motorsport, the next endurance classic is already on the horizon on March 27th when the team again travels to Florida, this time Sebring, for the sixth annual iRacing 12 Hours of Sebring.

© 2021 Fischer Motorsport Official Results: 2021 iRacing 24 Hours of Daytona - GTE Class (Split 13)