Page 18 - at
P. 18
A18
SPORTSMonday 1 February 2016
Scott Sharp’s ESM team wins Rolex as Corvettes thrill crowd
JENNA FRYER Drivers from the Honda Ligier team, from left, Joannes van Overbeek, Ed Brown, Luis Felipe Derani, great drivers,” Speed said.
AP Auto Racing Writer of Brazil, and Scott Sharp celebrate after winning the IMSA 24-hour auto race at Daytona Interna- “It’s rewarding certainly to
DAYTONA BEACH, Florida tional Speedway, Sunday, Jan. 31, 2016, in Daytona Beach, Fla. beat them.”
(AP) — One by one the top Sharp and Derani were
contenders in the Rolex 24 Associated Press joined on the winning
at Daytona fell victim to team by Ed Brown and
the bumps and breaks of Sharp and his Extreme Johannes van Overbeek.
a twice-around-the-clock Speed Motorsports entry It was the 22-year-old De-
endurance race. had Wayne Taylor Racing rani who did the bulk of the
Defending champion Chip covered. work for ESM, driving to the
Ganassi Racing had a Luis Felipe Derani, a lead almost every time he
brake issue that took the Brazilian in his first ca- got behind the wheel.
“star car” out of contention reer sports car race in Jordan Taylor wondered
before the halfway mark. the United States, closed if the Honda package
Michael Shank Racing out the win for ESM with wasn’t the real reason De-
blew an engine while lead- a 26-second victory over rani shined. He noted that
ing the race. Then Action Taylor’s battered crew. Al- Shank’s Honda was lead-
Express Racing headed to though the Taylor entry has ing when it had an engine
the garage while leading completed every lap since failure.
because of a broken axel 2013, the Corvette on Sun-
with just under four hours day lacked the speed that “When I was following (De-
remaining. ESM had in its Honda-pow- rani), he missed quite a few
It left only two cars on the ered Ligier. apexes,” Taylor said. “The
lead lap Sunday and Scott car is strong. It was a strong
Plus, Jordan Taylor’s driv- package this weekend.”
ing duties were limited With so little action in the
because of two infec- Prototype class, the real
tions he’s been battling for race came down to the GT
two weeks. Older brother, Le Mans class and a duel
Ricky, was sick to his stom- between the pair of Cor-
ach at the end of his final vette Racing entries.
stint and Max Angelelli was Corvette gave drivers Oli-
taken to a local hospital af- ver Gavin and Antonio
ter the race for treatment. Garcia the go-ahead to
No details were given race each other hard over
about Angelelli’s issue, but the final 30 minutes. The
the Taylors had thought two yellow Corvettes bat-
fumes were seeping into tled several times side-by-
the car in the waning hours side before Gavin nipped
of the race. Garcia at the finish by .034
seconds.
It led to Scott’s second “It was crazy. Antonio was
victory in the prestigious coming so quickly,” Gavin
event, 20 years after he said. “I knew I was going to
won it — driving for Wayne have a battle on my hands.
Taylor. This win was the first Then when he caught me,
for Honda at Daytona. he tried to pass me around
“Wayne takes his stuff very the outside in Turn 1 and
seriously and puts forth he was almost sideways.
an incredible effort, has I was still trying to get the
spot back. It was as close
as it possibly could get to
us touching.”
The GT Daytona class was
won by Magnus Racing
and the lineup of Andy
Lally, John Potter, Marco
Seefried and Rene Rast in
an Audi R8. It’s Lally’s fifth
class victory.
The Prototype Challenge
class was won by JDC-
Miller Motorsports, which
finished 18th overall. The
team was comprised of
Chris Miller, Stephen Simp-
son, Misha Goikhberg and
Kenton Koch in an Oreca
FLM09 Chevrolet.q
