{"id":4066,"date":"2022-01-24T18:11:24","date_gmt":"2022-01-24T18:11:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/?p=4066"},"modified":"2022-01-24T18:11:24","modified_gmt":"2022-01-24T18:11:24","slug":"sean-creech-motorsport-to-start-60th-rolex-24-in-fifth-position","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/2022\/01\/24\/sean-creech-motorsport-to-start-60th-rolex-24-in-fifth-position\/","title":{"rendered":"Sean Creech Motorsport to Start 60th Rolex 24 in Fifth Position"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stellar lineup of veterans and rookies ready for the endurance challenge next weekend<\/em><\/p>\n

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (24\u00a0January 2022)<\/strong> \u2013 Sean Creech Motorsport (SCM) came into the
\nRoar Before the 24 \u2013 the preview event for next weekend\u2019s legendary Rolex 24 at Daytona \u2013 with one goal in mind: ensure that all four drivers were up to speed and ready to contest one of the world\u2019s most grueling sports car races in the world.<\/p>\n

Four-time Rolex 24 winner Jo\u00e3o Barbosa has 20 starts in the legendary event, while Dr. Lance Willsey is right behind with 12 starts. But the pair of youngsters joining the team at the Roar and the Rolex, 18-year-old Malthe Jakobsen and 21-year-old Sebastian Priaulx, showed\u00a0<\/em>this weekend that they could make\u00a0<\/em>their own marks on the endurance racing scene.<\/em><\/p>\n

The No. 33 SCM Ligier JS P320 led two of the four practice sessions of the weekend ahead of Sunday\u2019s 100-minute race to set the Rolex 24 grid. The race saw non-stop action throughout the five classes and more than its share of skirmishes. The No. 33 Ligier took a significant hit from behind in the kink on lap two and a trip through the grass to avoid a separate incident mid-race to take the checkered flag in fifth position.<\/p>\n

Barbosa, Willsey and Priaulx shared the first session on Friday, working on car setup and getting Priaulx up to speed in his first stint in a prototype. Barbosa, Priaulx and Jakobsen split the afternoon, with Jakobsen setting the quickest lap of the day for an LMP3 car on the final lap of the session. Priaulx set the quick lap of the Saturday morning session until persistent light rain sent the team back to the garage.<\/p>\n

Priaulx and Willsey then headed to the IMSA Prototype Challenge grid, as the pair also contested the three-hour season-opener for the series. Starting 10th after a run-in with the Turn Five tire barrier in morning practice limited their track time, Willsey took the green flag behind the wheel of the Ligier JS P320 in treacherous conditions, as the earlier light rain had turned steady and cold. Willsey survived an opening lap bump from behind and spin in the Bus Stop to keep the car in contention. Priaulx took the wheel midway through the race (his first stint in the car) and made calculated passes to reach the leader and unlap himself, getting back on the lead lap with 40 minutes left to finish in sixth position.<\/p>\n

Willsey headed straight from the IPC transporter to pit lane, jumping into the No. 33 for Rolex 24 qualifying. He laid down a lap of 1:46.053 to put the car sixth on the starting grid and took the green flag to start the race on Sunday afternoon. His adventures began very shortly thereafter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got by one car at the start and things were falling into place when a GTD car locked up going into Turn Six and hit me in the rear,\u201d said Willsey. \u201cThat spun me, and sent me behind a barrier, so it took a while to get going again, and that really cost us. I\u2019m thankful the car is okay. Big picture, I think we\u2019re in a very good place for next week. I\u2019m thrilled to have the co-drivers that I do and we have a great team, but it\u2019s endurance racing, so anything can happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve learned a lot this weekend and that will set us up as we head to the Rolex 24,\u201d said Barbosa. \u201cWe\u2019ve had the chance to test for a few days and to race, to see how the car reacts in a long stint during race conditions, which is good prep. We have the speed, the team is doing a great job, and we got all the drivers comfortable with the car \u2013 it\u2019s not about the one lap speed, it\u2019s being consistent and staying out of trouble, so we\u2019ll reiterate that with Seb and Malthe, and ourselves as well. We\u2019ll work on a few things between now and next weekend, but I think we\u2019ll be in good shape.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d only driven 10 laps here before this weekend, so the track was still quite new,\u201d said Jakobsen. \u201cI used the first few laps Friday to get used to it \u2013 I didn\u2019t want to crash the car on the first lap! I have a lot of experience in this car and I know how it feels, but the track is new to me, though it wasn\u2019t hard to learn \u2013 as long as I know the limits of the car, it\u2019s super easy for me to learn a new track. It wasn\u2019t even that difficult at night, with all the lights. I didn\u2019t get a lot of laps, but we have much more track time next weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe IPC race was good experience for me ahead of the Rolex 24,\u201d said Priaulx. \u201cA good two hours in the car and a good bit of fighting, so that was quite valuable. This weekend has gone exactly how I wanted it to go. It\u2019s quite different from what I\u2019ve done, this is the real time big stuff. It\u2019s not just about going quick. And learning to share the car is important as well! Night practice was the biggest challenge for me \u2013 it felt really quick and everything comes up to you so much quicker. You have to manage the cars in front and the cars coming up behind you, especially when you don\u2019t know if they\u2019re a GT car or a DPi.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew going in that we had a solid lineup,\u201d said Creech. \u201cWe tested a few young drivers and Malthe and Seb really impressed us \u2013 we knew they\u2019d be the best fit, and that\u2019s been shown the past few days. We tested here late last year, and we knew what the problems were with the car last year so we\u2019ve handled all those issues. We have the speed; we just need a little luck. The car is good, we just need to make it better.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Rolex 24 at Daytona takes the green flag next Saturday at 1:40 p.m. Eastern. The race will be broadcast live in the U.S. on the NBC family of networks (NBC, USA and streaming at Peacock TV), while international viewers can watch via IMSA.tv. IMSA Radio will also be available at IMSA.com.<\/p>\n

# SundayGroupManagement #<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

About SCM<\/strong>
\nSean Creech has competed in a multitude of sports car series from 1990 until the present day, including\u00a0Group C, IMSA GTP,\u00a0WTSCC, Grand-Am,\u00a0SRO World Challenge, and IMSA. SCM moved to the WeatherTech Series in 2021 with\u00a0Jo\u00e3o<\/em>\u00a0Barbosa and Lance Willsey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stellar lineup of veterans and rookies ready for the endurance challenge next weekend DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (24\u00a0January 2022) \u2013 Sean Creech Motorsport (SCM) came into the [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4067,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sean-creech-motorsports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4066","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=4066"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4068,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4066\/revisions\/4068"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}