USCC / NAEC – Oak Racing conquers Daytona

After an idyllic 2013 season which saw him triumph in the Asian Le Mans Series and score a double in LM P2, both in 24 Hours of Le Mans whether WEC, Oak Racing has launched a new challenge. The Le Mans team begins the 2014 financial year with the 24 Hours of Daytona (January 25-26), the opening round of the United SportsCar Championship, a new series resulting from the merger between Grand-Am and ALMS. Last week, in order to best prepare for its first appearance at the start of the Florida double clock, Jacques Nicolet's team lined up its Morgan-Nissan No. 42 at the Roar before the Rolex 24, three days of testing serving as preliminary tests.

There was no shortage of work, since in addition to having to adapt to a new track, the French team had to discover Continental tires, the sole manufacturer of the premier category of the series which mixes LM P2, DP and DeltaWing . At the wheel of the car, we found the home driver, namely the Toulouse Olivier Pla, as well as the Russian Roman Rusinov and the Colombian Gustavo Yacaman. For the event itself, the Frenchman is for the moment the only one guaranteed to be requisitioned.

Tenth best time of the week and second best time of the last session, the French team left Florida with the feeling of accomplishment. Be careful however, the current Balance of Performance, apparently to the advantage of the DPs, should be reviewed before the start of the event. “The tests went very well, underlined Philippe Dumas, new team principal of Oak Racing. We worked well on setting up the car in racing conditions. We will prepare as best we can for this test! The three drivers rode well, the two newcomers (Rusinov and Yacaman. Editor’s note) having been well helped by their teammate Olivier Pla. The whole team had a very good feeling. Roman Rusinov and Gustavo Yacaman very quickly showed their ability to adapt to driving the car and working with the team. »

An appointment is therefore made on January 23 for the first tests. The start of the race will be given on Saturday 25. As a reminder, the last French driver to have won this race was Emmanuel Collard, in 2005. To find traces of the only victory of a French team at the 24 Hours of Daytona, we have to go back to 2000 when Oreca, with its Viper, took advantage of the rout of the prototypes to win overall.