{"id":2905,"date":"2021-01-27T21:56:42","date_gmt":"2021-01-27T21:56:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/?p=2905"},"modified":"2021-01-27T21:56:42","modified_gmt":"2021-01-27T21:56:42","slug":"kevin-doran-looks-for-more-daytona-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/2021\/01\/27\/kevin-doran-looks-for-more-daytona-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Doran Looks for More Daytona Success"},"content":{"rendered":"
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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla (27 January 2021) \u2013 Kevin Doran will be looking to add to his impressive resume in the Rolex 24 At Daytona when he returns to the opening IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race of 2021 in a brand-new role.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Doran will be on the team radio, working on strategy and engineering for the No. 33 Sean Creech Motorsport Exelixis\/iMonza Ligier JS P320 Nissan driven by Jo\u00e3o Barbosa, \u00a0Lance Willsey, Wayne Boyd and Yann Clairay.<\/div>\n

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Based in Lebanon, Ohio, Doran has built one of the top car preparation and management organizations in the country. Doran\u2019s accomplishments are legendary in endurance sports car racing.<\/div>\n

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Doran won the Rolex 24 five times in various roles. Coming to the event for the first time in 1985 as a crewman for Holbert Racing, he helped guide Al Holbert, Derek Bell and Al Unser Jr. to back-to-back Daytona victories in 1986 and 1987. He won as team owner\/crew chief for Gianpiero Moretti in 1998 and Fredy Leinhard in 2002. An original Daytona Prototype constructor, Doran became the first DP car builder to win the Rolex 24 overall in 2004.<\/div>\n

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\u201cThis is such a huge event,\u201d Doran said. \u201cI was so young when I came here for the first time with Al Holbert, I was amazed by the status of the event, and how it\u2019s continued to grow over the years. It goes well beyond a race. It\u2019s a mega-event, and in the end, those are the races I like: the Rolex 24, Sebring, Le Mans, Indy 500. I\u2019ve done them all; they\u2019re the top four events. The energy from the crowd and all the excitement of the international gathering. Hopefully, it will have all of that this year despite all this COVID mess!\u201d<\/div>\n

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Doran has accumulated a warehouse full of memories from his Daytona experiences.<\/div>\n

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\u201cThe first victory had special meaning with Holbert,\u201d Doran said. \u201cWe led for around 21 hours in 1985 but finished second to Preston Henn. To come back and flip the tables in \u201986 was something. Henn\u2019s guys led a lot of that one, and we came from behind to win.\u201d<\/div>\n

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The following year, Holbert took over the role of team manager and added Chip Robinson as driver. With the drivers suffering from overheating issues due to fumes in the cockpit, Holbert drove a critical stint to preserve the second-consecutive victory for the No. 14 L\u00f6wenbr\u00e4u Special Porsche 962.<\/div>\n

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In 1989, Doran prepared a former Holbert 962 as a second entry for Jim Busby, driven by Indy car legends Mario and Michael Andretti.<\/div>\n

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Doran made his debut as a car owner in the 1993 Rolex 24, entering a Nissan NRTI-90 for a driver lineup including Gianpiero Moretti, Derek Bell and John Paul Jr. Coming back from a 32-lap deficit, the team was leading by two laps when the engine let go with less than two hours remaining.<\/div>\n

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Doran and Moretti moved to the new Ferrari 333SP in 1995. After coming close many times, the veteran Italian finally broke through in 1998 with a popular victory shared with Mauro Baldi, Didier Theys and Arie Luyendyk.<\/div>\n

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\u201cProbably the most fun and exciting one was when Gianpiero won in \u201998,\u201d Doran recalled. \u201cHe tried so long and so hard to win that race, to be able to go to victory lane with him was really memorable.\u201d<\/div>\n

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\"\"Doran won with Leinhard, Theys, Baldi and Papis in 2002 in a Judd-powered Dallara. Two years later, Bell Motorsports took the Doran-manufactured Pontiac Doran to victory with Christian Fittipaldi, Terry Borcheller, Andy Pilgrim and Forest Barber.<\/div>\n

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\u201cI\u2019ve run this race with everybody,\u201d Doran said. \u201cI\u2019ve had such a cool history at the Rolex 24, through the heyday of sports car racing. I got to race with a lot of my heroes.\u201d<\/div>\n

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Next weekend, Doran is looking to add to that history when he returns to the Rolex 24 in a new role with Sean Creech Motorsport.<\/div>\n

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\u201cSean\u2019s put together a stellar lineup,\u201d Doran said. \u201cJo\u00e3o is a super-star on my list since the early 2000s. I remember him at Le Mans, driving by the Audis in a privateer Dallara-Judd that was similar to the one we won with at Daytona. I was super-impressed, and he\u2019s someone I\u2019ve always wanted to work with.<\/div>\n

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\u201cI worked with Yann three years ago in LMP3 with the Extreme Speed team, and he helped us win the championship with Kris Wright. He\u2019s a great driver, and super familiar with the LMP3. Everybody on the team is on top of it; it\u2019s a stacked group, and it would be super-cool to win it one more time.\u201d<\/div>\n

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Official practice for the 59th Rolex 24 At Daytona will begin Thursday, Jan. 28, with the\u00a0 twice-round-the-clock classic taking the green flag at 3:40 p.m. on Saturday.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla (27 January 2021) \u2013 Kevin Doran will be looking to add to his impressive resume in the Rolex 24 At Daytona when he [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2906,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2905","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=2905"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2910,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2905\/revisions\/2910"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}