{"id":2932,"date":"2021-01-29T23:57:45","date_gmt":"2021-01-29T23:57:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/?p=2932"},"modified":"2021-01-30T16:14:26","modified_gmt":"2021-01-30T16:14:26","slug":"sean-creech-motorsport-ready-for-rolex-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/2021\/01\/29\/sean-creech-motorsport-ready-for-rolex-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"Sean Creech Motorsport Ready for Rolex"},"content":{"rendered":"
DAYTONA, Fla. (29 January) \u2013 Navigating the sheer number of unknowns is the name of the game for Sean Creech Motorsports (SCM) this week, as the team plans to take its No. 33 SCM Exelixis Ligier PS320 to the front of the field in this weekend\u2019s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship seasons opener, the Rolex 24 At Daytona.<\/div>\n
While plenty of challenges await the team as they ready the car to race for 24 hours, one is for certain: one of the stoutest driver quartets in the LMP3 field \u2013 four-time Rolex 24 winner Jo\u00e3o Barbosa, 2020 ELMS LMP3 champion Wayne Boyd, Yann Clairay and Lance Willsey \u2013 will be up for the challenge, and they have a very strong roster of support from pit lane.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
2021 full-season SCM drivers Barbosa and Willsey paired up for last Sunday\u2019s Motul Pole Award 100, the race for qualifying positions in the Rolex 24. Barbosa put the Ligier into the lead and midway through his stint, had broken away from his competitors by nearly a lap and a half. But with 30 minutes remaining, a loss of fuel pressure ended what might have been a winning run. But the team knows that the pace is there, job one now is to make sure the car can take the fight for 24 hours.<\/div>\n
\u201cWe need to get the car to be reliable, that\u2019s first and foremost,\u201d said team principal Sean Creech. \u201cThe crew work is good, the drivers are good, we just need to keep the car on the track and the rest will fall into place. We had the pace in the race last Sunday, we just need to get it to the finish.\u201d<\/div>\n
Few drivers in the field know exactly what it takes to finish the twice-around-the-clock battle at the front better than Barbosa, with four prized Rolex Cosmograph Daytona timepieces in his collection. The Portuguese-born Ormond Beach resident understands the total team effort required to capture victory at Daytona.<\/div>\n
\u201cIt takes a strong team to win this race \u2013 the crew, the drivers, everyone,\u201d said Barbosa. \u201cThis is such a team sport, so if one of those pieces doesn\u2019t work, you won\u2019t get a result in a 24-hour race. The team has done a really good job and obviously they\u2019re working to correct the issues we had last Sunday. Mechanical issues are always the last thing you want to have happen in this race, so we\u2019ll work hard to avoid that. I\u2019m glad it happened last weekend and not this one!\u201d<\/div>\n
Willsey took the green flag in last Sunday\u2019s race, and the urologic oncology physician, who has competed in 11 previous Rolex 24 events, acknowledges the sheer number of unknowns as they prepare for the endurance classic.<\/div>\n
\u201cThe best thing about the Roar was coming away with the knowledge that we were close to where we need to be to run up front,\u201d said Willsey. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a fascinating race, first of all to see the LMP3 cars go for 24 hours, then add in the challenge of racing hard but not being too hard on the car. We don\u2019t really know what to anticipate in regard to the potential pit falls, so it will be a fine line between pushing hard and taking care of the car to be there in the end. The crew has worked tirelessly to get this car prepped and I am blessed to share the car with three of the best drivers in the paddock, so now, it\u2019s just about the uncertainty. As always, the only fear right now is fear of the unknown.\u201d<\/div>\n
Boyd, from Northern Ireland, won three of five races to capture the 2020 European Le Mans Series championship in the LMP3 class, and he appreciates the opportunity to make his 24-hour race debut in the prestigious event.<\/div>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really happy to be here, it\u2019s a great opportunity for me,\u201d said Boyd. \u201cThis will be my first 24-hour race and it\u2019s one of the most famous races in the world, so that\u2019s a good place to start! I\u2019m going to spend the next few days looking at video and honestly, trying to chill out a bit and rest. I\u2019ve spoken to a lot of drivers who have experience in 24-hour races, to see what I need to be doing now, so I\u2019ll make sure I\u2019m ready! We had some issues at the Roar but our pace was strong, so<\/div>\n
hopefully we\u2019ll get everything resolved and be ready to go.\u201d<\/div>\n
Frenchman Clairay has both experience in the LMP3 car (winning an IMSA Prototype Challenge race in 2018 with a Creech-led ESM) and in 24-hour races and emphasizes the need to take care of the car above all else.<\/div>\n
\u201cThe most important aspect of this weekend will be managing the car over the entire 24 hours,\u201d said Clairay. \u201cWe have a lot of experience with the car, so this week is about checking everything, especially after the issues we had on Sunday. It\u2019s a long way to ask the car to go, so we\u2019ll closely monitor the car throughout the race. And it\u2019s the same for the drivers, we\u2019ve been preparing for the past month. The track is not that difficult for the drivers, so the key is to have confidence in<\/div>\n
the car, try to keep a clean line so you can either overtake or avoid incidents ahead of you. But I\u2019m ready for this, and I really appreciate the chance to be here. It\u2019s a great opportunity.\u201d<\/div>\n
Note: the LMP3 teams are required by IMSA to make an eight-minute pit stop within the first 22 hours to change brakes.<\/div>\n
The 59th Rolex 24 at Daytona takes the green flag at 3:40 p.m. Saturday live on NBC. The race will be broadcast in the U.S. between the NBC and NBCSN networks (check local listings) while international viewers can watch via IMSA.tv. IMSA Radio will also be available at IMSA.com.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DAYTONA, Fla. (29 January) \u2013 Navigating the sheer number of unknowns is the name of the game for Sean Creech Motorsports (SCM) this week, as the [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2933,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,9,54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-feature","category-sean-creech-motorsports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2932","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=2932"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2932\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2944,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2932\/revisions\/2944"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}