DAYTONA BEACH, FL -- (Marketwired) -- 01/25/15 --
- Two top ten finishes for Audi R8 LMS race teams at Daytona 24 hour race
- Paul Miller Racing and Flying Lizard Motorsports finish 6th and 10th respectively
- Valiant effort by pit crews and drivers to finish the race strong
The Audi R8 LMS race teams and drivers performed well from the start of the 53rd running of the Daytona 24 hour race. The teams were in the hunt for the podium with Paul Miller running much of the race in the top three and Flying Lizard showing strong pace. Valiant efforts by both teams and drivers yielded two finishes in the top ten. Paul Miller Racing (#48) finished 5th and Flying Lizard Motorsports (#45) finished in 10th place.
The 53rd running of Daytona 24 hour race saw the Audi R8 LMS teams running strong with Paul Miller Racing's #48 Audi R8 LMS finishing 5th and the Flying Lizard Motorsports #45 finishing in 10th place. Following a clean start, the teams were running between 4th and 12th, changing positions amongst the field depending on pit stop timing. Paul Miller Racing's Christopher Haase (Germany), Bryce Miller (USA), Dion von Moltke (USA) and Rene Rast (Germany) improved to run in the top 3 throughout the night, avoiding several spins of other competitors and recovering from a spin as the temperatures cooled lowering tire grip. Despite a three minute penalty, the team managed to stay in reach of the podium when a gearbox issue caused the team to slow to 6th position. With lap times 2-3 seconds off of the other competitors, Christopher Haase was able to gain one more position to finish the race in a respectable 5th place.
Flying Lizard Motorsports, which took 2nd in last year's race, qualified in 6th place and was performing well from the start with Markus Winkelhock at the wheel. The race was going well when Satoshi Hoshino had an unfortunate spin on the track. Sadly, the clutch was damaged while getting back on the track requiring the team to take the car into garage. The clutch replacement in the paddock took approximately 45 minutes in total setting the team 33 laps behind the lead GTD car. In spite of the setback, Tomonobu Fujii (Japan), Satoshi Hoshino (Japan), Robert Thorne (USA) and Markus Winkelhock (Germany) continued to push throughout the race finishing 10th in the GTD class when Robert Thorne (USA) crossed the finish line.
After twenty-four hours of racing the Audi R8 LMS teams achieved the following results:
#48 Paul Miller Racing
- 5th place finish
- 695 laps
- drove 2,474 miles
#45 Flying Lizard Motorsports
- 10th place finish
- 670 laps
- Drove 2,385 miles
The next TUDOR United SportsCar Championship race will be held at Sebring International Raceway on March 18th - 21st.
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