Roar Before the 24 Report: The Crew Step Up.

On the surface, a sixteenth place finish in the GTD Pro AM Class of Sunday’s Rolex 24 Qualifying race does not look like a major accomplishment. The fact that the #66 Invest Cayman/Visit Cayman/Unit Nutrition Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 made the starting grid at all is absolutely remarkable.

The #66 Invest Cayman NSX lines up prior to Sunday’s Qualifying race

The Roar Before the 24 test at Daytona International Speedway is the annual curtain-raiser for global sportscar and endurance racing. For Gradient Racing it provides an invaluable opportunity to gather data from both the car and drivers.

Friday’s opening was trouble free and all four drivers had the opportunity to sample the 3.56 mile, 12 turn road course at the World Center of Racing. Turning laps with 60 other cars on track was described as “chaos” by Mario Farnbacher. The 29 year old German went on to say that it is up to the drivers to “look for those little gaps and be smart with your movements.”

2021 FR Americas champion and HPD GT3 Academy graduate, Kyffin Simpson felt like last season’s training program with HPD was a significant help in the early sessions. “I feel like the things I learned last year were put into use in those laps”, explained the 17 year old resident of the Cayman Islands. “We worked on dealing with traffic so being on track here with this huge field was less of an issue than it could have been,” he added.

Mario Farnbacher (left) and Kyffin Simpson swap seats during Friday’s opening session.

Saturday morning’s colder conditions and intermittent rain brought a new set of challenges and the teenage Rookie, Simpson, was first out on track. The wet track caught him out and the NSX GT3 struck the barrier on the outside of Turn 5 resulting in significant damage to the right rear corner. “I went through Turn 5 nice and easy, but the rear still snapped and that was pretty much it. Thankfully we didn’t hit anyone else as we spun across the track, and it did allow me to slow the car down a lot before we found the wall. It was just on the edge of the barrier at low speed but we hit it in such a way that the car took a lot of damage.”

The initial inspection revealed damage to the frame rail as well as multitude of other smaller issues ruled out any chance of the car competing in the afternoon’s qualifying session or night practice. It became a race against time to rebuild the car for Sunday’s 2pm qualifying race.

The stricken NSX GT3 Evo22 returned to the Garage area on a trailer. (Photo Credit - Jon Bennett https://jcrbphoto.com)

Remarkably, the Gradient Racing crew were able to strip the car down, remove the engine, source parts, repair the chassis and rebuild the #66 Acura in time for the start of Sunday’s event, an absolutely remarkable effort which Team Manager, Andris Laivins was quick to recognise. “I can't imagine asking anything more of them. We had about 36 hours to completely rebuild the car, including adding new frame rails. Everybody did everything they could with the time we had. We were trying to make the morning warm up but didn’t, which is okay, but the car ran flawlessly in the race. So we are more than satisfied.”

The crew worked late into Saturday night to have the car ready for Sunday’s Qualifying Race

Simpson was first aboard the Acura and he too was in awe of the work done by the crew of the #66 car. “The team have worked incredibly hard to fix the car. Getting the engine out, everything rebuilt, back in again and running in one night. The fact that we lined up for the race at all is a huge achievement.”

Kyffin Simpson took the Green Flag on Sunday in a field of 61 cars.

Starting the 100 minute race 19th in the GTD Pro Am Class, Simpson ran a trouble free stint setting extremely encouraging lap times, working his way through the field before handing the car over to Till Bechtolsheimer who brought the car home in 16th position.

Kyffin Simpson (left) pre-race with teammate Marc Miller.

“I feel quite happy with how the race went,” Simpson explained. “We were starting far back so we had quite a lot of traffic, and we knew we had the pace to get by the guys ahead quickly. Passing is quite difficult here though, and I had to get accustomed to racing around other GT cars as it's the first time I’ve really had to do that,” he added.

For Till Bectolsheimer, the additional seat time was more important than the finishing position. “The big positive is obviously that we got to go racing today, got the car finished in time for the race, and ran without a hitch for an hour.” The Miami-based Englishman believes there is significantly more to come next week. “We have a very old diffuser on the car and lots of pieces that we put on knowing we were going to take them off again time in time for the 24 hours. So I think the next time we take the car out, it's going to be a very different car.”

The crew of the #66 Invest Cayman/Visit Cayman/Unit Nutrition Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 now get a well earned rest before preparing the car for Rolex 24 Hours itself next weekend. They know they have earned it.