{"id":2880,"date":"2021-01-25T14:51:38","date_gmt":"2021-01-25T14:51:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/?p=2880"},"modified":"2021-01-25T14:51:38","modified_gmt":"2021-01-25T14:51:38","slug":"scm-shows-race-pace-at-daytona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/2021\/01\/25\/scm-shows-race-pace-at-daytona\/","title":{"rendered":"SCM Shows Race Pace at Daytona"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Fuel pickup issues prevent the team from taking the Motul Pole Award 100 win, but plenty of positives from the Roar Before the 24<\/em><\/p>\n

DAYTONA, Fla. (24 January 2021) \u2013 A solid run at the front of the LMP3 class field in Sunday\u2019s Motul Pole Award 100 showed the Sean Creech Motorsport team that its No. 33 Ligier PS320 has the race pace to contend, as attention now turns toward next weekend\u2019s Rolex 24 At Daytona.<\/p>\n

The driving quartet of Jo\u00e3o Barbosa, Lance Willsey, Wayne Boyd and Yann Clairay put the new car through its paces through three days of testing at Daytona International Speedway\u2019s 3.56-mile road course. The quickest time of the weekend came during night practice Saturday, a 1:43.764-second lap that bodes well for next weekend\u2019s race. Willsey and Barbosa, the team\u2019s two full-season drivers, were tapped for Sunday\u2019s qualifying race. The 100-minute sprint is a new event on the IMSA calendar, with the results of the race being used to set the grid for the start next Saturday.<\/p>\n

Sunday morning\u2019s warm up saw warming temperatures, but a sudden shower just one hour before the green flag meant that Willsey would start the race on Michelin rain tires. Taking the green in fifth and moving into fourth at the start, Willsey made a good move through the grass to avoid cars spinning in the wet conditions.<\/p>\n

A pair of restarts saw the nearly 50-car field scramble through the tight turn one as the drivers fought for both position and grip on the changing track surface. Willsey was able to make progress in concert with the rapidly drying surface ahead of turning the car over to Barbosa as the race neared the halfway mark.<\/p>\n

In short order, the four-time Rolex 24 winner had placed the car in the lead \u2013 by nearly a lap and a half. But the run out front came to an early end as a fuel pressure problem caused a significant loss of pace. With the big focus being on the 24, the team made the call not to risk the engine as Barbosa took to the garage before the checkered flag flew.<\/p>\n

Despite the setback, the entire team leaves the Roar knowing they have the pace to keep the car up front.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe start went as close to perfect as it could have,\u201d said Willsey. \u201cI got by six or seven cars in the first few corners, but there was a multi-car incident ahead of me in Turn Six and I had to roll through the grass to get by safely. The car was good throughout the stint, the strategy was good, but it was hard to find standing water for the rain tires, so it was good to pit and get Joao in the car. He went to P1 in no time, but we ran into some electrical problems with the fuel pump system and had to retire out of the lead, which is very frustrating \u2013 but, better now than next week.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe weekend was a series of ups and downs, working through the characteristics of the car, as this is a new car for us, but (engineers) Kevin (Doran), Mark (Schomann), Sean and the team worked through it and gave us a good car last night and today,\u201d said Willsey, who is making his 10th Rolex 24 campaign. \u201cThe car felt pretty solid\u00a0 for a long run, and that bodes well. I have full confidence that the team will get this sorted out \u2013 we\u2019re close to where we need to be to run up front next weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always tough when you don\u2019t finish the race, but obviously it\u2019s good that it happened now,\u201d said Barbosa. \u201cThe team did a super job on strategy, but we have an issue with fuel pickup or engine that we haven\u2019t had before, and we need to figure that out. It\u2019s a shame, because the car was running so well, and we were in a strong position to win. I know the team will figure it out and hopefully we\u2019ll have a smooth race next weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n

The list of new items for the team includes getting everyone as familiar with the systems and feel for the all-new Ligier machine ahead of the big race next weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s disappointing to have a finish like that in the qualifying race,\u201d said Boyd, \u201cBut for me, I try to stay positive \u2013 and it\u2019s better happening now than next week! Our pace has been strong so hopefully we\u2019ll get this ironed out. The team worked hard on the setup all weekend, and it\u2019s\u00a0a\u00a0comfortable to drive for the distance of the race. We worked through a lot of things this weekend, so I believe we look quite strong for next week.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe car was pretty strong by the end of the weekend,\u201d said Clairay. \u201cWe had some problems with the balance early,\u00a0 but we worked through that and found a good car. I think we have the car to win the race, but we have to figure out the technical problems we encountered today. It\u2019s better to win the race when you are leading, but the qualifying race is not the real race. It\u2019s not far from last to first over 24 hours, we just need to stay problem-free.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a few issues early in the run as the track began to dry,\u201d said Team Owner, Sean Creech. \u201cBut the strategy was good. Joao did a great job to put the car out front, but then we got let down by the car in the end. We had an issue this morning and changed everything \u2013 the pumps, the filters, the regulator, everything in the fuel system, and it came back. It\u2019s obviously something else, but we\u2019ll dig into it and fix it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Rolex 24 at Daytona \u2013 race one of the 2021 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season \u2013 takes the green flag at 3:40pm Eastern next Saturday, live on NBC. The race will be broadcast live in the U.S. between NBC and NBCSN (check local listings), while international viewers can watch via\u00a0IMSA.tv<\/a>. IMSA Radio will also be available at\u00a0IMSA.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sean Creech Motorsport
\nTeam leader Sean Creech has competed in a multitude of sports car series from 1990 until the present day, including Group C, IMSA GTP,\u00a0WTSCC, Grand-Am,\u00a0SRO World Challenge, and IMSA. SCM moves to the WeatherTech Series in 2021 with Joao Barbosa and Lance Willsey.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Fuel pickup issues prevent the team from taking the Motul Pole Award 100 win, but plenty of positives from the Roar Before the 24 DAYTONA, Fla. [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2881,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-sean-creech-motorsports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2880"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2880\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2882,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2880\/revisions\/2882"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}