Patrick Fogel said “Some colorful language on the team radio, believe me.” when he was recently asked, what went through his head when he came oh-so-close to winning the 24 Hours of Daytona, missing out on victory by just 0.041 seconds - a VSCA all-time record.
The 33-year old from Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, along with team-mates Daniel Keane, Doug Buchanan, Axel Bijker and Charlie Ryan gave 2022 series champions Kinetic Racing and the No. 67 Porsche a serious challenge to win the biggest race of the year, with Fogel using his experience from last season when he ran for now-defunct DRG Racing.
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| Lap 587: With five hours to go, Doug Buchanan had a big scare when the No. 11 Dallara LMP2 of Vision 1 Motorsports slowed for a wrecked GTD class car ahead and the two cars collided, resulting in a bent steering column - © 2023 VSCAracing.com / Benjamin Fischer |
Keane had a spirited battle with Wade Hays in the No. 67 Porsche during the night hours and got the MAD Sim Racing machine back in it, following an error by Hays on a full-course yellow restart.
Buchanan experienced a big scare on lap 587, with just four hours remaining in the race when the Vision1 Motorsports No. 11 Dallara LMP2 directly in front of him abruptly slowed for a crashed GTD class car ahead at the exit of the bus stop chicane.
The two cars made contact and the MAD Sim Racing Mercedes sustained some damage and a bent steering column, but Buchanan somehow was able to nurse it to the next caution period, to keep the No. 393 team in contention.
Things stayed interesting for the team, staying on the tail of the Kinetic Racing Porsche throughout the late stages of the race and even leading some laps.
Fueling and pit stops were a big difference between the MAD Sim Racing Mercedes and Kinetic Racing Porsche, with the latter being able to go an extra lap on fuel or two, but also spending two seconds less on pit road.
During the final full-course period of the race, with Fogel behind the steering of the No. 393 Mercedes, the team had another big scare as the No. 127 EastSide Motorsport Mercedes of Paddy Miller shot out of their pit stall, just as Fogel was passing by in the fast lane.
Fortunately, no damage resulted from the contact, but the No. 127 car had now moved in between the two contenders, creating a 6-second gap for the Kinetic Racing Porsche.
During the first half of their final stint in the race, the No. 393 Mercedes team decided to save fuel, while continuing to trail the leaders by six seconds. But eventually the team made the call to go for it and push, to get closer to Aedan Campbell, the closing driver in the No. 67 Kinetic Porsche.
When Campbell got into some traffic on track, the gap came down to 2.5 to 3 seconds, setting up a great 24 Hours of Daytona finale between the two cars that dominated the majority of the race in GTD class.
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| The No. 393 MAD Sim Racing Mercedes AMG GT3 and No. 67 Kinetic Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R with drivers Patrick Fogel and Aedan Campbell put on a show in the closing laps of the 24 Hours of Daytona - © 2023 VSCAracing.com / Benjamin Fischer |
With just six laps to go, the gap had shrunk to just 0.5 seconds. Coming to the line with just four laps to go, Fogel moved to the outside of the No. 67 Porsche to give his team the lead, but Campbell wouldn’t give it up easily and the two cars slightly touched going into turn one.
With the biggest victory of the year on the line, the gloves were off and race fans were offered some of the best racing in the new VSCA season yet.
Campbell, thanks to talent and the good traction of the Porsche out of turn one, retook the lead, but it was now clear to everybody that this race, while just three laps away from its conclusion, was far from over.
Each lap, Fogel would creep close in the slipstream and both cars cross the start finish line side by side.
On the final lap, the two cars banged doors, going into turn one side by side, and Campbell nearly lost control of his Porsche 911 GT3 R, with Fogel this time taking advantage of the outside line and completing the pass that just a few laps earlier had not worked out for him.
Only 0.61 seconds separated the two going into the bus stop chicane for the final time, after 24 hours, two minutes and four seconds of racing and 743 laps, equaling 2,554 miles (4,257 kilometers), which is almost the same as the distance from Los Angeles to New York City.
Campbell, using all of his skills that made him a VSCA champion in 2022 was able to get within 0.43 seconds coming out of the bus stop chicane and now set his eyes on Fogel’s Mercedes AMG GT3.
Just about one hundred yards from the finish line, Campbell closed the gap thanks to the slipstream, moved to the outside and the two cars crossed the finish line with the No. 67 Porsche ahead by 0.041 seconds.
While coming up just short of winning the most prestigious race VSCA has to offer, MAD Sim Racing still had plenty of reason to hold their heads high and feel upbeat about an incredible series debut.
Patrick Fogel: “Obviously on the way we finished second, it was definitely heartbreak. That last lap was very exciting. Coming back to the oval, heading to the bus stop, I really thought we had it, even with the potential draft.”
“Then we just ran out of fuel, right at the finish line. Obviously, we got beat to the line, but overall we were obviously one of the top two cars the whole race long, so it’s not like we lucked into it. I’m definitely proud of everybody we had on the team for the whole 24 that we did.”
On what it was like to battle the reigning GTD class champions for the win, Fogel added:
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| The Finish: Aedan Campbell in the No. 67 Kinetic Racing Porsche takes victory in the 24 Hours of Daytona by 0.041 seconds over MAD Sim Racing No. 393 Mercedes driver Patrick Fogel - © 2023 VSCAracing.com / Benjamin Fischer |
“So obviously, with my experience last year, I sort of figured Kinetic would be the team to beat, especially with the speed that I saw from the Porsches.”
“For the most part, I thought we were pretty equal. There were a couple sectors of the track where I felt like we had the advantage, a couple of sections where they had the advantage. Honestly, I felt we were so evenly matched that a lot of it came down to pit strategy and refueling.”
On account of earning more bonus points than the race winners, the No. 393 MAD Sim Racing Mercedes AMG GT3 now sits atop the championship standings after Round 1 of 11.
Patrick Fogel: “Definitely we couldn’t ask for a better start to the season. I know going into the year it took us a while to get the group together. Our goal with putting the team together was to have all drivers fairly equal, based on speed. I feel like especially for the Endurance events, that is extremely important.”
“I think that was big for us, an advantage, that all five of our guys were equal on speed. Obviously, we were able to keep the car safe, in one piece, we weren’t getting the offtracks, which I was reminding all the guys of, since even if they only ran Daytona, we’re still competing for a championship.”
“Definitely proud of everyone for keeping it on the track.”, Fogel closed his remarks with a smile on his face.
The next round of the VSCA SportsCar Championship will take place at Sebring on March 25th.
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