	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

IMSA WEATHERTECH SPORTS CAR CHAMPIONSHIP: ROLEX 24 AT DAYTONA

January 28, 2018

Dayton Beach, Florida

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by our third place finisher in a Prototype class today, the No. 54 car from CORE Autosport ORECA LMP2, drivers Jonathan Bennett, Colin Braun, Romain Dumas and Loic Duval. Gentlemen, go down the line and talk about the race today.
COLIN BRAUN: Great race obviously for CORE Autosport. It's our first event with the ORECA LMP2 car. And really proud of my guys. They did a nice, nice job in the offseason getting it all dialed in and trying to make all four of us happy. And you know we had a great race not really any issues. We had good pit stops and it was fantastic. It was nice driving with Romain, Loic. And John and I have obviously done quite a lot of these together.
So really just proud of the whole group. Definitely a team effort. And, yeah, really excited about it.
JONATHAN BENNETT: I agree with Colin, it's amazing to have our new car, the ORECA Gibson, and sort of jump in the deep in and in the top category and, quite honest, you always start these events with the greatest of hopes. But there was no mistaking we were in some very talented company.
So it was a pleasure to share the car with Romain and Loic and Colin again obviously for the let's see five or six years anyway. So and then to have a finish that is strong is it's a good way to get the new car started, for sure.
ROMAIN DUMAS: I think for everything it was a nice race. We did not expect this result at the start. The first I think 30 minutes when we saw it was more DPI race and we're all a little bit far.
But, yeah, after we made our own way, own race, no mistakes, very good team, good atmosphere. And I think this podium it's very good for everybody and we take it and hopefully next year we'll be a little bit more on top of the podium.
LOIC DUVAL: Yeah, it was a good race. I think we had the most reliable car this weekend when you see where we came back from. And we had good fun, the four of us, it was a pleasure to join the team and to race with Colin, John and Romain. And at the end it's a great effort. It's a nice reward for the team, the first race with this car. But in the other end when you are so close and when you come back so close to the leader and you're finishing the same lap, we had, I would say, a weird race this year, when you see we had only four yellows or something like that.
Maybe it could have been a different race if we had more. But at the end it's a great effort from all of us, and we are really proud of this result.

Q. Colin, last year you weren't in this PC category which is not a six anymore, the Prototype Challenge. Now you go to the top class with the ORECA car, is this a big challenge engineering‑wise, is that some engineering help from ORECA? And the question directly for Romain, as far as I know you're still under contract by Porsche. How is the situation how long you can drive for this team when Porsche's maybe calling you back and giving you a cockpit?
COLIN BRAUN: That sounds like a good question for Romain. Mine sounds easier to answer. Engineering‑wise ORECA is great. We got a lot of support from them. Our setup that we started off with when we first got the car was directly what they told us to start with.
And so they've been a great partner. I think their customer support is first class and really helped us get up to speed quite quickly. The whole team of ORECA from everyone on that side has done a fantastic job helping us get our car sorted out. And I think it proves that they've done a nice job with our result.
We've done literally this is the third time we've run this car. We came to the December test and the ROAR, and then here. So I think to be able to get one of these cars and show up in your third time running it and get a podium result at Daytona is a big testament to how well they've designed the car and engineered the car and support the car.
And then obviously the CORE Autosport has done a great job to take all that information and make it work. So definitely a team effort. But they've been fantastic.
ROMAIN DUMAS: Concerning Porsche, actually my next weekend I'm in (indiscernible) with the factory to do the first intercontinental race. So this year I'll have 17 races with them. (Indiscernible) Le Mans, No. 24, spot 24. So a lot of race. I will do the four long race with the team. Yes.

Q. Romain and Loic, obviously you're both regulars of formerly, in the case of Romain, the World Endurance Championship, with the lack of cautions, this kind of felt like from here it kind of felt like a World Endurance Championship race, is that how it felt from your perspective?
LOIC DUVAL: Even though it felt like that, you go through the race but you know that you cannot take any risk because you might come back with the yellows but at the end they didn't come to us.
But, yeah, I would say closer to the end, when we saw that the Cadillac was, they were having a bit of troubles with starting to push a little bit more and try to put some pressure on them. But before that I remember on Friday we had a meeting and we were thinking about 20 yellows.
So for sure the strategy that we had, it was a bit different, but again at the end having again I think with the record most reliable car it helped us quite a lot and we tried to put some pressure on the guys but it was a bit too late. They were a bit too far ahead. But even, though, I think we were always pushing, pushing a little bit but I would say 80percent.

Q. John, you've been looking at making this prototype move for a couple of years now. Tell me about starting off with a podium on your debut, the work put in by Morgan Brady, et cetera, and to be looking at a lot of DPIs in your rearview mirror?
JONATHAN BENNETT: Yeah, there's a lot of ways to look at it. You could look at it like a kid and everyone wants to have the fastest car. But then again the category is clearly not for kids. It's only for professionals. And so do you really want to jump in after spending a lot of years starting and running a business, do you want to jump into the ring with a bunch of full‑blooded professionals.
And you eventually get to the point where the calendar is not necessarily your friend and it's time to go and it's time for us to go. And we went. That's how we're here.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297