The Daytona Prototype team had a successful event this past Sunday at Laguna Seca finishing in the top 10 for the second straight event. Highlights of the event included Bill Lester moving up from his P12 qualifying position into 4th place! Usually the event at Laguna runs for with numerous full-course yellow / caution periods. 2 came out within the first 30 minutes, which usually means there are going to be many more. Fortunately the team took a splash of fuel on the 2nd caution, and was able to run without another fuel stop for over 1 hour without another caution period and making it only 1 additional stop to finish the race. But unfortunately, the yellow came out after we had a full service pit stop (changing Driver, Tire, Fuel Fill, Drink Bottle, and Cool Suit Ice).

The longer stop and bad timing of the third yellow of the race locked us down 1 lap. Team Manager Peter Baron was quite upset over the timing. "It was terribly disappointing. With the lack of cautions, we were planning 2 total stop to finish the race due to the lack of yellows. If we could go back in time, we would have opted for three stop strategy. Had we stopped 20 minutes earlier, we  could have had the longer service stop, and been on the tail-end of the lead lap. There were plenty of yellows at the end of the race to take a splash of fuel to get to make it to the chequer, and catch back up to the front under the pace car. Darren was a passing machine in the race. Despite being a lap down, he managed to pass numerous cars on the lead lap and almost get our lap back. In NASCAR, it is quite common to go down a lap while pitting under green, but there you get "Lucky Dog's" which allow you to go back on the lead lap. Pit Stop strategy is educated gambling. As soon as the checker flag waves in a DP race, you know exactly which strategy worked and which didn't. If the race would have gone just a little longer without another yellow, we would have had a solid shot a a top 5. But in wasn't in the cards for us which resulted in a top 10 finish, and a top 10 is quite respectable in this field". 

The next outting for the DP team will be the 6 Hours of Watkins Glen June 6th. The team team might add a 3rd driver for this event, so we will keep you updated as to what we decide. Last year we had the fastest car in morning warm up, so look for us to contiune our speed and hopefully land the 1st podium of the year!