Dyne Podiums at Daytona; Sandell Fastest on Weekend

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For the first time this year, the Red Bull Global Rallycross series contested a double race weekend at the “world center of speed”, the legendary Daytona International Speedway.  Saturday and Sunday would feature complete Red Bull GRC qualifying and points races. 

From the time it rolled off the trailer, the Kobalt Tools #18 of Patrik Sandell was the class of the field.  Sandell took the pole on Saturday, and swept every heat and semi-final leading up to the feature… 

Racing on the purpose built GRC track was aggressive all weekend, especially at the start of Saturday’s feature race. The result was hard contact between Sandell and the #43 car, resulting in major transmission damage to the #18 car and an early retirement. 

Saturday night would be a defining moment for the Bryan Herta Rallysport team.  Working through the night, the mechanics and lead fabricator, Tom Wilson, welded and combined three different sections of gearbox parts together to get Sandell back into Sunday’s race. On very limited miles, Sandell rewarded the team with making the feature event through the Last Chance Qualifier. Unfortunately, the high Daytona temperatures and high stress of GRC racing took a toll on the #18 car and forced an early retirement from Sunday’s feature race.

Patrik Sandell on Daytona Double: “When it comes to performance and things I can control from the steering wheel, it’s been the best weekend in my Rallycross career.  Everytime we were out there, the Kobalt Tools car was the fastest car on the track. Then it was to bad we had the gearbox problem yesterday.”
“The BHR guys did a fantastic job trying to repair it, working all night. We got all the way into the final for the second race of the weekend, unfortunately it (the gearbox) did not hold together through the race. But, we will be back and stronger than ever!”

The Castrol Magnatec #14 of Austin Dyne had a career best feature finish on Saturday.  This was also the first podium finish for the new BHR team. Dyne carved his way through the chaos and challenged eventual winner Tanner Foust all the way to the finish. 

Sunday was looking promising for Dyne as well, easily making the feature and confident heading into race. Hard early contact resulted in a broken exhaust manifold and a loss of power.  Dyne still managed to finish seventh, and strengthen his top five points position as the fight for the Supercar title moves to the next race on a U.S. military base. 

Austin Dyne on 2nd Place on Saturday in Daytona: “Feels pretty good! We’ve had little things all weekend, just kind of adjusting to the driving style I needed to be fast on this track and learning a lot from Patrik.  Obviously, it was a pretty good final.” 

“A lot of stuff happened up in front of us on the first few laps. I saw a clear lane and I took it. I did get hit in my right front pretty hard, which made me have to hand brake on right hand corners. But we finished second, so it was an awesome job!

In GRC Lites, the River Racing driver, Collete Davis, showed strong progression all weekend and capped it off with a solid 8th in Sunday’s feature event. Davis pushed the car and herself, gaining time every session and improving the car every session; Davis is quickly proving she belongs in GRC. 

On Saturday, Davis barely missed the final as an electrical problem with the series mandated ECU robbed valuable HP. After that problem was found and corrected, Davis significantly improved her lap times and showed her competitiveness on Sunday.  
 

Collete Davis on Daytona Double:  “It was a tough weekend. I learned a lot, and I think the team learned a lot.  We finally got the car perfect by the final on Sunday, and were able to hang in the fight with the lead pack. So things are definitely looking up, and on to the next race!”
Adam Sinclair
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