Proving early in the season opener at Daytona, that the Porsche teams weren’t going to be the only ones to be reckoned with in the battle for the win, the No. 151 Ferrari of FBP Racing took the lead on lap nine, away from pole setter the No. 158 Lamborghini of RD Simsport.
“Before the race, we feared we didn’t have the pace in the Ferrari, especially in the long run. But in the end that didn’t prove to be true at all.”, explained Dietzold.
“When I took the start, in the first few laps, I felt like I had a lot of more pace in the car than the other cars in the leading group. So, I wanted to be a bit aggressive and take the lead as soon as possible, because I knew I had more pace. I just felt very comfortable. The car felt a lot better than expected.”
Evan Dietzold, who qualified his team’s Ferrari in fourth position, once he took the top spot in GT3, he showed he had no intentions of giving up the lead again anytime soon. The Berlin, Germany driver continued to hold the top spot in the GT3 class until the end of the second hour of the race, when the team made its first driver change and full-service pit stop.
Later on, the FBP Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo suffered a small contact and dropped to the tail end of the lead lap. But the first two full-course yellows helped the team to repair the damage and get back into a competitive spot.
Over the course of the next six hours, the lead changed several times among other teams, but the FBP Racing Ferrari didn’t get back into the lead until lap 270, during Dietzold’s second double stint, with just about 15 hours remaining in the race.
Dietzold was running some of the fastest lap times in the race during the nighttime hours when disaster struck.
Hugging the yellow line while approaching the tri-oval, Dietzold’s Ferrari was hit by the No. 43 Dallara P217 P2 Prototype of Torque Freak Racing that attempted to pass two other P2 Prototype cars on the outside.
The two cars made contact, sending Dietzold straight into the inside retaining safer barrier of the track. The FBP Racing Ferrari was completed destroyed in the process and the race that looked so promising for the team came to an abrupt and brutal end.
“As soon as I started that stint, I felt that the low temperatures suited the Ferrari really well. I was feeling super comfortable in the car. I felt super quick. And I noticed how quick we could run and that felt great, to have this strong pace in the car.”, explained Evan Dietzold.
“We’ve cooled down by now, but I can’t deny there have been some hard feelings at first. It just seemed like a really unnecessary incident, because it happened just after the exit of the last NASCAR turn. We were actually on the straight between the last NASCAR turn and the tri-oval.”
“He (Treavor Vavrosky, No. 43 Torque Freak Racing P2 Prototype), I guess wanted to jump out of the slip stream of the other two P2 Prototypes and thought he was already past me and just misjudged it. So he hit me on the straight and I took a huge hit at 200+ kph there into the wall, which ended our race. It’s definitely bitter, but shit happens I guess.”
For Dietzold and his team-mates, it will be a new opportunity to overcome the Daytona disappointment when the series returns to Florida next month for the 12 Hours of Sebring on March 26th.