After losing the 2023 GTD series championship to Champion Motorsports in the final round of the season last year, Screeching Moose Motorsports is off to a perfect start to the 2024 season, in their quest to leave no doubt and secure the title this year.
The Maple Ridge, British Columbia team was running in fifth position and at the tail end of the lead lap when with just over one hour to go, the eleventh and final caution period interrupted the racing action.
GT AM class leaders at the time, the #93 Digital Chicane Ferrari led the GT AM field to pit lane under caution but consequently lost the lead when #5 Screeching Moose Motorsports took no tires and completed their pit stop in only 17 seconds opposed to the former race leaders 16 seconds longer to complete their final service, that included four fresh tires for the final hour of the race.
On the restart, the two cars were placed directly behind each other, setting up a scenario in which the #5 Screeching Moose Motorsports Mercedes and Lukas Santos had the lead, but older tires and second-place runners the #93 Digital Chicane Ferrari with Ryan Koprowski had four fresh tires but worse track position.
Once the green flag waved, sending the field back under way for the final 45 minutes of the season opener, dramatic scenes unfolded on the restart when Nick Dawson-Lathan in the #100 Rookie Esports LMP2 spun in turn one to trigger a major incident that forced several cars to evade the situation by going into the grass, including Ryan Koprowski.
While the 23-year old Virginia Beach native managed to escape the chaos unharmed, the incident cost the Digital Chicane driver precious time and a gap of about 1.5 seconds opened up between him and the #5 Screeching Moose Motorsports machine of Santos, that grew to two full seconds by the end of the lap, with more faster-class traffic coming through from behind.
Ultimately, track position proved to be the difference maker as Koprowski and Santos ran nearly identical lap times for the majority of the closing laps, each facing busy traffic with the goal of losing the least possible amount of time in the process.
And thus after 741 laps and 24 hours of racing, it was Lukas Santos and the #5 Mercedes taking the checkered flag to earn Screeching Moose Motorsports and his team-mates Taylor Parsons, Makena Deane, Phillip Forrester and Anthony Bill victory in the 24 Hours of Daytona - the team’s first ever points race win in VSCA competition.
Arriving at Daytona’s victory lane, Santos said: “I’m not going to lie, I was in a waterfall of tears coming across the line.”
“This has been something in the making for so long. To win this race, damn this feels good.”
“Every day and night, the team has been working their butts off making sure the setup was to their liking and that they knew the mission that we’ve always had since the creation of the team - bring the car home in one piece.”
“The car had incredible pace throughout the race. Those last 40 minutes were the most stressful minutes I’ve ever driven. It wasn’t because of the hot tires, more so that I’ve never been in that position in forever. There was a lot of pressure to just bring the car home.”
“I’m incredibly thankful for the effort for the team and how much effort we keep putting into every race weekend.”, said Santos to close his winner’s interview.
With a gap of 2.589 seconds, Ryan Koprowski brought home a strong second-place finish for Digital Chicane and team-mates Ethan Swan and Chris Scarr after leading a race-high 248 laps, marking the 24 Hours of Daytona an overwhelmingly positive first outing for the team in VSCA competition.
Rounding out the podium finishers was the #296 Ferrari of Fusion Simsport with Mark Stevenson, Chris Yettito, Robert DeLoach and Murphy Nichols, who introduced themselves to the series with a no less remarkable debut, leading 96 laps and posting the fastest lap time in the entire GT AM class at 1:43.923.
Digital Chicane’s second entry, the #80 Ferrari with Paolo Calvo, Matthew Oravecz and Quinn Mitchell finished fourth, leading 80 laps before taking the checkers 22 seconds behind the race winners.
All-Dutch MMTQ Racing and their #161 Ferrari with Michiel de Zeeuw, Max Baaijen and Timo van Gemert led one lap en route to a fifth-place finish.
Series veterans Daniel Avery, John T Jones, Sean Hatfield and team-mate Erik Haag in the #29 Firestorm Motorsport Mercedes led 98 laps, but had to deal with an ill-timed end-of-line penalty during the final full-course yellow of the race that hurt the team’s chances. Still, the Twin Busch machine battled back to a respectable sixth-place finish, as the final car to finish on the lead lap of GT AM.
While their GTP class team-mates celebrated winning the race, for the #34 Mayer Simspeed Performance Mercedes of Aaron Beaver, Ryan Steinhoff and Thomas Baker finishing seventh, three laps down felt like a disappointment after leading 39 laps but later on finding trouble in an incident in turn one.
One lap further back, it was the #83 Off in the Esses Racing Ferrari of Michael Garrone, Joseph Okopien, Jonathan Duncan and Patrick Boilard taking P8, followed by the second Mayer Simspeed Performance GT AM entry, the #33 Mercedes of Will Robertson, Tamer Elbaga, Kyle Potter and Gabriel Albano.
In a curious instance of an officiating error, tenth-place finishers #16 Dangler Performance Mercedes with Theo Taylor, Paul Romaninsky, Mark Romaninsky and Jim McGill lost one lap during the second-to-last full course yellow of the race, when the team was serving an end-of-line penalty and did not receive the wave-by from Race Control. VSCA officials later acknowledged the error and said an internal investigation was going on, how full-course yellow procedures could be improved before Long Beach, to address the issue.
Julia Cervone, Jeff Gross, Tyler Tucker, Geoffrey Miller and Patrick Lindsey in the #119 Trading Paints Racing Ferrari took eleventh place in the official results, but had to overcome one of the more scary incidents in the race on lap 517, while running in sixth position.
Going into turn one, Patrick Lindsey and the #992 Porsche of Nelson Narciso made contact, carrying top speeds of around 173 mph (280 kph), sending both cars into the wall. Only through a miracle, the #992 Porsche sustained minimal damage and was able to recover and even go on to win the race but it was a different story for the #119 car, who lost twenty minutes in a lengthy repair stop.
Full Send Racing and David Sluiter, Carl Felver, Coy Haseleu and River Hays in the #94 Mercedes finished P12, ten laps down. The team out of Grand Junction, Colorado lost several laps in an incident at the exact same spot, going into turn one just past the 11-hour mark of the race and making contact with the #100 LMP2 car of Rookie Esports, which sent the #94 Mercedes hard into the inside concrete wall.
The two final points-scoring GT AM class entries to finish the race #312 Real Pixel Motorsport Lamborghini with drivers Wolfgang Wildenauer, Ronald Gross and Marcel Unger and the #531 Ferrari of Yellow Submarine Squad - Sim-Labl’s Björn Klaassens, Josh Toothman, Simon Wander and Roy Vermeer finished P13 and P14, respectively.
Screeching Moose enjoys spot in the sun after season opener
By way of winning the season opener, #5 Screeching Moose Motorsports enjoy a comfortable points lead in the VSCA SportsCar Championship standings, after Round 1 of 10.
“We need to keep looking for ways to be ahead of our competition. The confidence is there, the pace is there, and the chemistry within the entire team is there, now it’s just to keep pushing ourselves further than ever and be in front of the competition.”, said Screeching Moose Motorsports driver Lukas Santos.
With a gap of 63 points, Digital Chicane’s #93 Ferrari sits second, with #296 Fusion Simsport breathing down their neck right behind.
Firestorm Motorsport didn’t get the result they were looking for, but are in a spot to contend in fourth place, 81 points behind the leaders.
Rounding out the top-five is the #80 Ferrari of Digital Chicane, as the local hometown hero team out of Daytona Beach, Florida placed both its entries in the top-five to start off the season.
Screeching Moose and Digital Chicane tied for Endurance Cup points lead
Both entries leaving Daytona with 16 points, the #5 Screeching Moose Motorsports Mercedes and #93 Digital Chicane Ferrari are tied for first place in the Endurance Cup championship, putting a five-point gap between them and #29 Firestorm Motorsport in third place.
The Digital Chicane #80 Ferrari is fourth, tied with the #296 Ferrari of Fusion Simsport.
Long Beach up next in February
While Screeching Moose Motorsports are celebrating their win in the biggest race of the season, the series already looks forward to the next championship round at Long Beach in February.
Broadcast live again on GreenFlag TV, the MV Skinlab Grand Prix of Long Beach will be the lone street circuit on the calendar and provide an entirely new challenge for teams and drivers to master.
Will Screeching Moose Motorsports continue their strong season start or will another team jump at the new opportunity to get to the top of the GT AM class? Fans and competitors alike will find out when the green flag waves on February 17th at 16:00 GMT.
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