DeltaWing: Weather forces a strategic decision

Daytona Beach, Fla. – Panoz DeltaWing Racing’s Tim Keene has decided to play the longer game today by limiting on-track time to the minimum necessary given the rain and the wet conditions. The team completed five laps across the first two practice sessions, with the data and information gained proving valuable in helping Keene make the informed decision not to qualify.

“Strategy is everything when it comes to an endurance race, especially one that is 24 hours,” Keene said. “It’s not just the race strategy that counts but it’s the whole preparation. The most important thing for us today was to get a couple of laps in to make sure everything’s set up correctly and working well. For us, it’s our reliability that is key to our success and running the car in today’s conditions might have affected this.”

Panoz DeltaWing Racing intend to be back out for tomorrow’s practice session with all four drivers having the opportunity to drive. On Saturday it’s anticipated that Katherine Legge will start the race with Sean Rayhall, Andy Meyrick and Andreas Wirth joining Legge to drive stints throughout the 24 hours.

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Andy Meyrick: “Really looking forward to the race this weekend. The team has done a great job on preparing the car and it looks like it’s going to be better weather from tomorrow onwards which is great news for us. No one should take today’s lack of on-track time and speed as an indication of how we believe the race will go and I remain very optimistic for the weekend.”

Katherine Legge: “I don’t think the decision not to qualify will affect us. The Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona is a long race and by the time we get our first yellow it should have all sorted itself out. I think we have a really fast car for the race and I’m super excited to prove what the DeltaWing can achieve and reward the team for all their hard work.”

Panoz DeltaWing Racing