Millville: Spirit of Daytona race report

Spirit of Daytona Racing Closes Rolex Season out on strong note at New Jersey; Porsche V8-Coyote quick on brand-new circuit

MILVILLE, NJ 31 August -- Spirit of Daytona Racing had a strong return to Rolex Sports Car Series competition with the No. 09 Porsche V8-Coyote in the debut event at New Jersey Motorsports Park this weekend for the penultimate round of Rolex competition. Guy Cosmo and Marc Antoine Camirand shared the driving duties in the two hour and forty-five minute Supercar Life 250 sprint event as the duo showed the strong form of the Coyote-Porsche combination.

The weekend got off to a good start, as the flat-out fast sections of the 2.25-mile circuit gave the V8 Porsche the chance to stretch its legs as the Coyote aero package kept the car stable in the high-speed corners.

After Camirand posted a strong seventh in qualifying, Spirit of Daytona Racing focused on finding better levels of grip on the second half of the track, which features more technical corners and slower speeds. A raceday morning warm-up on Sunday gave one more shot at adjustments before the race went green for the historic event later in the day. The team was hoping that the combinations penchant for finding good traction in low-grip situations would play well on the 2.25-mile circuit, but the equation wasn't perfect as a pair of spins in the heat of battle set the effort back as Camirand opened with a strong lead-group run before turning the Daytona Prototype over to Cosmo, who brought the No. 09 home in eleventh.

"We were up there with the lead pack and in this mix here today and probably could have been a top five car," said team owner Troy Flis. "But there was no grip out there, and the guys were both pushing really hard-that's why we have them here, to push this car as hard as we can and learn as much as possible. We were hoping to come out of here with a better result, but we are at least leaving with a whole bunch of data and a very clear vision of what the next steps are for this program to keep moving forward," continued Flis. "We want to be out there racing week in and week out, and we are just working on putting a program together that will allow us to do that because we feel like we are on the right path and every lap we have we get more ammunition for progress, so we just want the chance to keep raising the game for this combination."

The team will return to home base just down the road from Daytona International Speedway and immediately begin preparations for the 2009 Rolex 24 At Daytona.

-credit: sod