Rolex 24 At Daytona-Winning Patrón ESM Team Takes Prototype Class Lead In Tequila Patrón North Ame rican Endurance Cup

Rolex 24 At Daytona-Winning Patrón ESM Team Takes Prototype

Class Lead In Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup

Four-Way Tie For GTLM Lead After First Of Four Patrón Endurance Cup Rounds

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Jan. 31, 2016) – After taking one of the biggest wins in team history last weekend in the 54th Rolex 24 At Daytona, Tequila Patrón ESM drivers Ed Brown, Scott Sharp, Pipo Derani and Johannes van Overbeek took the Prototype lead in the Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup standings after Round 1 of the unique, four-race championship within the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

Points were awarded following each six-hour increment in the Rolex 24. Five points are awarded to the leader of each segment, with four points for second, three for third and two for all other competitors. The other Patrón Endurance Cup rounds are the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida, Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen and the 10-hour Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta.

The No. 2 Tequila Patrón ESM Honda Ligier JS P2 won the second and final segments at Daytona. They scored 16 points, three more than two-time defending Patrón Endurance Cup champions João Barbosa, Christian Fittipaldi, Filipe Albuquerque and Scott Pruett in the No. 5 Action Express Racing Mustang Sampling Corvette DP.

“Patrón has been honored enough to do this for a couple years, and Scott [Sharp] and I said the first year, we’ve got to win one of them,” Brown said. “We just never could scratch it, and we had a chance a couple years ago at Sebring, and it didn’t pan out. It feels great to finally get one and get a jump start. Sebring is our home track, and we look forward to going to Sebring and seeing what this car can do there.”

The GT Le Mans (GTLM) class not only produced the closest class finish in Rolex 24 history; it also heads to the next round at Sebring International Raceway with a four-way tie for the Patrón Endurance Cup class lead.

In the race, Oliver Gavin held off Corvette Racing teammate Antonio Garcia by 0.034 seconds in a nearly side-by-side finish to take the victory. The two Corvette Racing cars (Nos. 3 and 4) join the two Porsche North America entries (Nos. 911 and 912) in a tie for the Patrón Endurance Cup. Twelve drivers each earned 13 points at Daytona.

Gavin, Tommy Milner and Marcel Fässler won the race and final Patrón Endurance Cup six-hour segment in the No. 4 Corvette Racing Corvette C7.R, while Garcia, Jan Magnussen and Mike Rockenfeller took the third segment with a slingshot pass in the No. 3 Corvette C7.R.
Defending GTLM champ Patrick Pilet joined Nick Tandy and Kevin Estre in winning the opening segment in the No. 911 Porsche North America Porsche 911 RSR, while teammates Earl Bamber, Michael Christensen and Frédéric Makowiecki were second in the opening sprint and third in the three remaining segments to also score 13 points in the No. 912 Porsche 911 RSR. The No. 68 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GTE of Alessandro Pier Guidi, Alexandre Premat, Memo Rojas and Daniel Serra captured the second segment and has 11 total points.

The GT Daytona (GTD) race winners also took the Patrón Endurance Cup lead, with John Potter, Andy Lally, René Rast and Marco Seefried capturing the final two segments in the No. 44 Magnus Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 to score 14 points. Second, with 12 points, is the No. 23 Team Seattle/Alex Job Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R of Mario Farnbacher, Ian James, Alex Riberas and Wolf Henzler.

Prototype Challenge (PC) also is tied after the opening round. JDC-Miller Motorsports won the final two segments to tally 16 points for the winning No. 85 ORECA FLM09 of Kenton Koch, Misha Goikhberg, Chris Miller and Stephen Simpson. The defending PC class Patrón Endurance Cup champion, the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports team, won the opening two segments with drivers Tom Kimber-Smith, Robert Alon, Jose Gutierrez and Nicholas Boulle to also score 16 points.

The Patrón Endurance Cup will feature three four-hour segments at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida on March 19.

Contact:
Nate Siebens
Senior Manager, IMSA Communications

(386) 310-6568

nsiebens