Oryx Racing successfully completed its maiden race in the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series, finishing 32nd out of 44 cars in the GT class at the Rolex 24 at Daytona. The UAE-based team, which included Emirati nationals Humaid Al Masaood and Saeed Al Mehairi in its line-up, overcame a number of challenges to finish the world-famous race in the United States, competing against some of the world’s top racing drivers and teams.
The Abu Dhabi-based team took delivery of its Audi R8 GRAND-AM this month and with less than 1,000-miles of testing on the clock before the race, the Rolex 24 at Daytona was always going to be a steep learning curve. The team will now use the nine-week break before the second round of the series to evaluate important data collected from the Daytona race.
Having started in an encouraging 15th place on the grid, the #74 Oryx Racing Audi R8, driven by Al Masaood, Al Mehairi and Brit Steven Kane, experienced a number of technical issues that restricted the team to a total of 432 laps. Problems with the near standard clutch, unique to the GRAND-AM specification Audi R8, ultimately cost valuable time. The team also learnt a great deal about the car itself and the “control” Continental tyres.
Commenting on the race, team principal Humaid Al Masaood said, “I’m really looking forward to the rest of the season. Bearing in mind the lack of testing we did, I’m delighted with what we achieved – the R8 has masses of potential for the remainder of the season. I did just one, very slow lap after taking over from Steven on Saturday evening but the clutch was malfunctioning and I drove the car straight back to the garage. When I got out again almost three hours later the car felt it had a handling imbalance but it was simply a case of not being used to the Continental tyres but we worked at it and everything came together.”
Al Masaood’s teammate, Steven Kane gave a glimpse of what the Audi, which was also making its US race debut, is capable of when the Ulsterman comfortably ran inside the GT class top-10 early on. In the closing stages on Sunday afternoon the Oryx Racing Audi R8, which set the faster lap of the two Audi sports cars competing, was recording laps comparable with the top six GT cars around the 3.56-mile, 12-turn speedway road course.
For Saeed Al Mehairi, this was not only his debut in the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series but also his first appearance for the Oryx Racing team. “It was a tough race and was an amazing all-round team effort. We overcame many problems. I had a ‘long’ brake pedal during my stint on Saturday evening but I quickly adapted to it. I was hit up the rear going in to turn three causing slight rear fender and exhaust damage. We were still having a clutch issue so the team took out the gearbox again and inspected the clutch”, he said.
The Rolex 24 at Daytona was the first race of the season for both the 2012 GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series and for Oryx Racing, which was contesting only its second ever twice-around-the-clock race. The second round of the 13-race series will be staged at the Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham (US State of Alabama) on March 31st.
Motorsport fans can find all the latest news on the Oryx Racing team’s participation in the 2012 Grand-Am by visiting www.oryxracing.com or http://www.grand-am.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment