24H. of Daytona – Successful first for Jules Gounon

In a GTD category making up half of the field for these 24 2017 Hours of Daytona, victory took shape at the very end of the race, in a pattern almost similar to that seen in Prototypes and GTLM.

Beaten to the wire by the Porsche 911 GT3 R from Alegra Motorsports, Christopher Mies, Connor de Phillippi, Jeffrey Schmidt and Jules Gounon and their Audi R8 LMS GT3 from Land Motorsport almost brought a second consecutive class victory to the brand with the rings in Florida after the success of Magnus Racing last year.

“It was my first time on this event, and the first time that I confronted the American rules, explains the Frenchman. The show for the fans is incredible, and personally, I have never felt so much adrenaline.

The route is atypical. On the oval, it's a bit unusual at first, but with practice, you get used to it. Daytona remains difficult in the sense that if you put a wheel on the grass, which is often wet, and without large clearances, the mistake pays for itself. You also have to manage traffic well. »

Still well placed in the GTD category standings, where the Acura NSX GT3s from Michael Shank Racing also stood out, Gounon and his teammates thought they had lost big in a puncture in the early morning, before chasing victory until the end.

“I thought it would be complicated, but with four hours to go we were leading the category, recalls the former Porsche Carrera Cup France driver. The end of the race was very stressful, because there was a Safety Car at the start of the last hour. We entered the pits first, and we left 3rd, but we were short of fuel to go to the end.

Fortunately, another safety car gave us enough laps to save fuel, and in the end we finished two tenths behind. It was a bit hard to digest though because we led for over 100 laps, while the Porsche led for a little over twenty laps. They had more top speed, and to overtake in the last laps it was impossible. »

Building on this top performance, Jules Gounon is now waiting to know what his 2017 season will be like, having distinguished himself in the ADAC GT Masters last year with the Callaway Competition Corvette C7 GT3. “For the moment, nothing has been decided. I hope this will help me support certain issues for the season. » concluded the native of Aubenas.

Find the full report and analysis of the 24 Hours of Daytona, produced by our special correspondent in Florida, in issue 2099 of AUTOhebdo, available now in digital version and on newsstands.