TRG Daytona 24H hour 12 report

Halfway Home and TRG Teams are Still in the Hunt for a GT Class Win

#67 TRG Porsche GT3: Steven Bertheau, Jeroen Bleekemolen, Marc Goossens, Wolf Henzler, Spencer Pumpelly

Photo by: Eric Gilbert

Daytona Beach, FL, January 29, 2012 - As the 50th edition of the Rolex 24 at Daytona came to the halfway point, three of the TRG teams remain in the hunt for GT class honors. While the top three cars have fallen one to three laps behind the current GT, the Brumos Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car, they are all within striking distance"

"We are still sticking with our original strategy," said TRG Major Domo, Kevin Buckler. "The guys have done a pretty good job of staying out of trouble and keeping the mistakes to a minimum. Again, I don't think this race will be decided until the last four hours."

"We have had a few setbacks, but the nature of the race is such that you can recover because you don’t know what the ‘real’ damage is as far as position goes. The 66 car, which had been consistently running in front of the GT pack, had to pit three times to have its front splitter replaced. That was at the seven hour mark. Now they are only two laps behind the GT class leader. So anything can happen at Daytona."

As for the TRG crew, he has nothing but praise. "This team started working on these cars in early November. It would be 10:30 at night and they would still be in the shop like it was midday. Guys were singing, whistling. It's a great bunch of guys in support of an excellent group of drivers."

Car Number 64: Started the race 34th.

The car, driven by the team of Salazar, Ardagna,Costabal, Orjuela and DiGuida, has continued to progress up through the field, holding 22nd place in the GT class

Car Number 65: Having started the race in 38th place in the GT class, the team of Hedlund, Cox,McCarthy, Michaelian and Castellano found themselves in 26th place in GT, a drop of one slot from their eight hour position

Car Number 66: Continuing to grind away after their three pit stops to replace the front splitter, the Farnbacher, Pilet, Keating and Simonsen team has worked their way back up to seventh in class after having fallen as far as twelfth

Car Number 67: Driven by Bertheaud Goossens, Henzler Pumpelly and Bleekemolen had run at the head of the GT pack for 17 laps, but finished the eighth hour in sixth place. At the halfway point it had clawed its way back up to second

Car Number 68: The Faulkner, Cumming, Estre, Gomez and Keating car has settled in to twelfth for the time being. Having started 44th in the GT class, it is only three laps behind the class leader and thus still in the hunt for a victory.