Results :

The First PCA Club Race at Daytona was a big and much anticipated event.  PCA has been working for years to add Daytona to the calendar.  Many Club Racers had the opportunity to run the track at the Rennsport Reunion II in 2004, but for many, this was the first chance to run on the famous Rolex 24-hour circuit.

We showed up to Daytona with 11 customer cars running in 3 race groups.  In the Yellow run group, we had Michael Branning and Russell Williams both competing in the huge F class.  Russell qualified a strong 16th in class, and Michael started 27th.  Michael had a good run, and coupled with an unbelievable restart, he moved up 12 positions in class to end up in the top 15.

Rick Brownyard and Harrison Murray were competing in the Blue run group in E class.  Rick was consistently in the top 4 in class during practice.  He qualified 4th and turned the 3rd fastest lap in the class.  Harrison had a good race and finished a respectable 11th in class.

At the front of the Red run group was Leh Keen.  His ’02 GT3RS was the fastest car on course by at least 3 seconds per lap.  He qualified on pole and lapped all but the top 13 cars in the group.  Cory Friedman started in 4th overall and lost a few positions in the melee of a start but fought his way back up to challenge for 2nd overall at one point.  By the end his tires were fading and he ended up just missing the overall podium.  Bransen Patch started 4th in class and should have finished 6th overall, but some confusion regarding a double yellow/black flag put him a few positions back.  Mac McGehee had a good battle, starting inside the top 10 and moving up to 7th position in GTC3.  This was Forrest’s first race in GTC3, and he started and finished 13th.  Kim Linville and Anthony Jernigan were also entered in the group.  Kim had an unfortunate incident during the race, and Anthony had a family emergency.

It is difficult to determine the actual outcome of any of the enduro races.  Because of adequate room on pit lane, competitors were allowed to make their mandatory stops under a full-course caution.  This combined with Race Control’s decision to turn every yellow into a black flag situation ruined any chance of these being races.  The black flag effectively counted as every car’s 5 minute stop, so any car that stopped under the yellow lost a lap to the field.  Despite the confusion, Branning finished in the same position he finished the sprint, 15th.  Cory started the enduro in Rick’s car and turned some blindingly fast times.  He was running with the top C class cars and pulled a lead well over a minute over his E class competition.  Cory came in under a yellow flag and turned the car over to Rick.  Black flag again, and when the field finally got rolling, there was only about a half-lap of green before the caution that ended the race.  Somehow, we managed to not only loose our lead, but also a full lap in the process.  The madness continued in the final enduro.  Cory started 2nd overall and maintained that position until a GT2 blew past the field.  Cory turned the car over to Leh during the yellow/black, and when the field got rolling, it was apparent that our 997 was way too far back in the field.  Still, Leh went on a charge and passed every car in front of him, but still the checkers went to another car well back in the field.  Again, no one is really sure how that came about.  Cory was pulling double-duty in this race, so when he got out of the 997, he jumped right into Bransen’s 996 Cup.  Friedman burned off the fastest laps of any 996 with a Cup engine and finished up 5th overall and 2nd in class.  Slightly back in the field, Mac had what appeared to be a great battle for 2nd and 3rd in GTC3, but he also lost a lap and ended up a still-respectable 5th.

The weekend was not without issues, but we had some amazing results and everyone had a great time on the banks of Daytona.  We’d like to congratulate all of our customers, and thank them for their continued support.  It was disappointing to see the enduros end what was otherwise a great weekend on a sour note, but as a whole Florida Crown did a great job running what was one of the largest PCA races this season.  We thank them for their efforts, and look forward to next year’s race.