Ryan Dalziel, Starworks expect to shine at Mid-Ohio

THE PLOT: On-form Ryan Dalziel reckons it is game on for Starworks Motorsport in their push for the Grand-Am title.

#8 Starworks Motorsport Ford/Riley: Ryan Dalziel, Enzo Potolicchio

Photo by: Art Fleischmann

Ryan was delighted to hear on Tuesday that Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series chiefs had agreed to let the Fort Lauderdale-based team run more aero on the #8 Ford Riley.

Now Ryan and Venezuelan team-mate Enzo Potolicchio hope they can shine as they bid to increase their championship lead, starting at the Emco Gears Classic at Mid-Ohio on June 8-9.

Ryan — from Windermere in Florida, but originally from Lanarkshire in Scotland — is keen to consign damage limitation days like their last Grand-Am Rolex outing in the Chevrolet Grand-Am 200 at Belle Isle, Detroit, to history.

Their fighting sixth-place finish get them a point ahead of the field going to Ohio.

After the race, Ryan and Enzo will be back in the air to Paris — for the second week running. They will be taking part in the famous Le Mans 24-Hours, along with Tom Kimber- Smith, as part of their FIA World Endurance Championship bid.

By the time he returns to Florida, Ryan will have clocked up a staggering 18,777 miles — and that is without counting the laps he does during the races.

THE QUOTES: RYAN ON GRAND-AM: “The positive we can take from Detroit is that we are still in the points lead for the championship.

“We knew we would struggle for pace. Since then Grand-Am have agreed and given us a little bit more aero for Ohio — that is what we have been after. It is not as much as we hoped but it is a step in the right direction. It will be a sizeable difference to what we had and we are certainly more confident than we have been in the last few races. We just don’t know the full effect of it yet.

“They only announced it on Tuesday so we had to make the parts and ship them to Ohio. We had a test yesterday and we will get it figured out pretty quickly, but the main thing is to see whether it is enough or if we need more.

“At least we are in a position where we can fight. Recently, we have been back-markers to the Corvettes — now we have something to work with.

“We will just get our heads down and treat it like the start of a new season. We have to get in the car and get working.

“Even if we had been on a level playing field, we should aim to take whatever points are on offer. If the wins are there, we have to take them — that is the only way that you can guarantee you will score more points than the other cars. So the objective is to win.

“But, if it is like Detroit, then we will look to score solid points.”

RYAN ON THE LE MANS TEST: “It went really well. It was definitely worth going out and doing a few laps because I had forgotten a fair amount of the track.

“Enzo got his rookie laps sorted out so we accomplished everything we wanted to. I think we ran as high as the top three in both sessions and we feel pretty confident in the speed of the car.

“I have known Tom for a couple of years. He is a good addition to the team, he won his class at Le Mans last year so we have the best person we can and we are definitely happy to have him.”