Triple Top-Ten in 24 Hours of Daytona

The „World Center of Racing“ invited fans and teams alike on a sunny but chilly January day for the first big endurance crown jewel of the new year.

Entering three cars, Fischer Motorsport approached the Florida endurance classic with full force, hoping for a repeat of its victory from two years ago.

Leading the charge was the organization’s No. 14 Dallara P217 in the P2 Prototype class with drivers Kyle and Jason Birnie, David Koopmans and Niclas Pedersen, running under the banner of Fischer Motorsport USA based out of the team’s race shop in California.

The team had previously opened the new race shop last year, when it first announced its Prototype program, expanding from previously running GT sports cars only.

Marking the start of a new era, the team’s two GT teams in the 24 Hours of Daytona featured the Porsche 911 GT3R, after running the Porsche 911 RSR GTE in the previous three years.

Manuel Mayer, Nelson Eberth and Benjamin Fischer teamed up in the No. 84 Porsche. Mayer and Fischer both were drivers when the team won the event in 2020 while Eberth made his first start for the organization replacing Nathan Manning, who was out due to COVID-19.

„Obviously it’s a shame Nate can’t be with us here. I know how much this race means to him and how much he was looking forward to being back with us on the race track. We’re in touch with him and I’m texting him a bit here and there to check in on him and see how he is doing.“, Fischer said.

„It wasn’t easy, but we feel like we found a very solid replacement on short notice, with Nelson. Nelson has plenty of endurance experience and has run the 24 Hours of Daytona before. And after working with him the past few days, we’re very impressed with how quickly he got up to speed.“

Rounding out the team’s lineup for the big race, Pascal Theis, Tobias Abel and Marton Tihanyi from Hungary shared the seat in the No. 85 Porsche.

In VSCA GRID Pole Qualifying the P2 class Prototype team with Kyle Birnie struggled to find pace and placed the car twelfth on the starting grid.

„It wasn’t my best run. I just couldn’t put together the perfect lap today. We were hoping to be a bit closer to the front, but it’s a long race. We’ve got plenty of time to get there.“, Birnie said.

Manuel Mayer qualified the No. 84 Porsche ninth in GT3 class while Pascal Theis ended up only 25th in the No. 85 Porsche.

Saturday at 1:45 pm local time, the green flag finally waved and a 53-car grid rushed through turn one for the first time. All three Fischer Motorsport cars had solid starts and found a way to avoid trouble early on.

Kyle Birnie made up for a disappointing qualifying session, quickly working his way into the top-five of the race by the time he finished his opening triple stint and handing over the car to his brother Jason.

Running the same type of strategy in the the team’s leading GT car, Manuel Mayer in the No. 84 Porsche started on a triple stint. However it was cut short when during his third stint, early in the third hour of the race, when electrical issues slowed him in turn seven only to get hit by a P2 class prototype.

The team had to come in for a repair stop and lost several laps to the leaders, that despite seven full-course cautions, the team wasn‘t able to recover from over the course of the rest of the race, despite a strong couple of night triple stints by Benjamin Fischer and Nelson Eberth.

In the end the No. 84 Porsche finished the race in P8, nine laps down from the leaders, after a couple more issues early Sunday morning, involving a crash into the barriers when Fischer lost control over his car on cold tires on an outlap, going through turn five.

„Overall just too many mistakes. We didn’t put together the best of races as a team this weekend. But I’m proud how we kept at it and brought home a solid top ten.“, Fischer said.

Tobias Abel in the No. 85 Porsche experienced a scary moment during the night hours, when he was involved in a collision with another GT3 class car between turn five and turn six, after Abel had just been passed aggressively by a P2 class prototype in the previous corner.

Marton Tihanyji competed in his first 24 Hours of Daytona for Fischer Motorsport and had a lot of fun.

„We battled hard all race long, to make up some of the laps we lost and I thought our pace was awesome, after we got all the repairs done. But at the end, we still needed another caution or two, to get back to the lead lap, which we didn’t get. Maybe next time. I had a blast anyway. The 911 is so awesome, especially at this track. It was an incredible experience.“, Tihanyi said.

The No. 85 Porsche 911 GT3R team completed the 24 Hours of Daytona in seventh place, one ahead of its sister car.

David Koopmans and Niclas Pedersen carried the No. 14 Dallara P217 P2 Prototype team through the early Sunday morning hours.

Despite a couple of penalties by race control for incidents involving other cars, the team showed that it had the pace to run in the top-five. During the night hours, the team even led 20 laps.

„That was a lot of fun. I think we showed everybody that we’re not just here to participate but to compete. Hopefully we can lead a little more than twenty laps next time and bring it home one of these days.“, Jason Birnie said.

With just over six hours remaining, at around 7:30 am local time on Sunday morning, David Koopmans held the second position in the race and the team was looking to play a role in the final stages of the race, when the Spaniard lost control in turn two, spun and hit the Armco guard rail hard, giving the Fischer Motorsport Dallara P217 front-end damage that took quite some time to repair on pit road.

The team dropped from second to eighth place and was now scored five laps down from the leaders.

“This was the first time I crashed at Daytona in this corner. I am still not sure what exactly happened, whether it was just distraction or lack of focus. It’s definitely disappointing, as it was a key moment in our race.”, Koopmans commented on the incident.

Despite the crash, the team would make up one lap before race’s end and gain two more positions to finish sixth, on a day that could have ended a lot worse, all things considered.

With the 24 Hours of Daytona now in the books, the No. 14 Dallara P217 team sits in sixth place in the official VSCA SportsCar team championship standings. The No. 85 and No. 84 Porsche teams hold P7 and P8 respectively in the GT3 class championship standings.

The next round of the VSCA SportsCar Championship will take place at Sebring International Raceway on March 26th.