Grand-Am

Daytona 24: CITGO/SAMAX preview

personal best The drivers of the No. 7 CITGO Pontiac-powered Riley Mk XI turned their personal-best laps at Daytona International Speedway during official testing for the 2006 Rolex 24 At Daytona. They hope to repeat their fast performance during ...

Edited: Jan 21, 2006, 3:27 AM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

personal best

The drivers of the No. 7 CITGO Pontiac-powered Riley Mk XI turned their personal-best laps at Daytona International Speedway during official testing for the 2006 Rolex 24 At Daytona. They hope to repeat their fast performance during the race on Jan. 28 and 29.

Milka Duno of Caracas, Venezuela, Dario Franchitti of Nashville, Tenn., Marino Franchitti of Bathgate, Scotland and Kevin McGarrity of Belfast, Ireland, each recorded their best lap on the 3.56-mile infield road course in Daytona Beach, Fla., during the Jan. 5 to 7 test. The fast times were a result of track resurfacing and effective car preparation by the SAMAX Motorsport crew.

Duno believes the test results bode well for the 24-hour race.

"We had a very good test and there's great synergy between the team and the drivers," she said. "I like the new Riley very much and feel that we have a good chance for a strong finish. The CITGO/SAMAX crew are in top form and I'm really looking forward to the green flag."

synchronous style

Although Dario Franchitti competes in open-wheel racing and Marino Franchitti in sports cars, the brothers share an uncannily similar driving style. "It's almost scary, our styles are almost identical. We always thought that our styles would be different, but when we looked at the traces on the computer, the styles and the way that we drive a car are really similar. When we did feedback maps, they were almost identical," Marino Franchitti said.

Their co-drivers Milka Duno and Kevin McGarrity also like the same car setup, eliminating compromises that impede performance during a long race. "We all want the same thing out of the car," McGarrity confirmed. "Every time Milka jumped in after we'd made adjustments at the test, she loved it and went faster and faster. I think we're in for a good race."

Close in height and build, the three men also use the same driver seat, which makes for speedy driver changes. As McGarrity noted, "With a 24-hour race and a lot of traffic, it's not how fast you can go, it's how much time you avoid losing in the pits that counts."

For more information about Milka Duno, please visit www.milkaduno.com. Additional information about Dario Franchitti is available at www.franchitti.com, Marino Franchitti at www.marinofranchitti.com and Kevin McGarrity at www.kevinmcgarrity.com.

CITGO, based in Houston, Texas is a refiner, transporter and marketer of transportation fuels, lubricants, petrochemicals, refined waxes, asphalt and other industrial products. The company is owned by PDV America, Inc., an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A., the national oil company of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. For more information on CITGO visit www.citgo.com.

-c/s-

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article SunTrust's Taylor, Angelelli invited to IROC

Next article Daytona 24: AJR/Emory Motorsports preview

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Barcelona set to host IndyCar race in 2027 under multi-year deal

IndyCar

Indy IndyCar 3 h

Barcelona set to host IndyCar race in 2027 under multi-year deal

Winners and losers from a Chase-altering NASCAR Cup race at Phoenix

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Phoenix II

5 h

Winners and losers from a Chase-altering NASCAR Cup race at Phoenix

Heart of Racing rules Valkyrie GTP step next year ‘too soon’ for IMSA standout Barrichello

IMSA

IMSA IMSA 5 h

Heart of Racing rules Valkyrie GTP step next year ‘too soon’ for IMSA standout Barrichello

Sergio Perez: Debut Cadillac season "without a doubt one of my best years"

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

United States GP

5 h

Sergio Perez: Debut Cadillac season "without a doubt one of my best years"

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts