Nielsen Stays in GT Daytona Lead Despite Disappointing Race at Lime Rock Park - Speedway Digest

Despite a disappointing 11th-place finish for Christina Nielsen and her Scuderia Corsa teammate, Alessandro Balzan, on July 23 at the Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park, the team continues to lead the GT Daytona class in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

During the first hour of the two-hour and 40-minute race, Danish driver Nielsen was at the wheel of the No. 63 Ferrari 488 GT3 when it was hit by a Prototype Challenge (PC) car in the right door while entering Lime Rock Park’s chicane. The car spun into the grass on the right side of the track.

“I looked in my mirror and the PC car was right square behind me,” Nielsen said. “It was yellow, so I figured nobody would make a move. But suddenly, this PC car, who also made contact with us at Watkins Glen, just came smashing into me and took the door off.”

Nielsen quickly brought the Ferrari to pit lane, and the Scuderia Corsa crew assessed the damage and quickly replaced the right-side door.

“Luckily, our crew repaired the car quickly, and we got back in the game,” Nielsen said. “We never got back in the lead lap to catch up and be competitive, but we had good pace. They gave us a good car. We were pushing super hard.”

The car continued to make good lap times despite the damage, and Nielsen and Balzan recovered to finish 11th on the seven-turn, 1.53-mile circuit at Lime Rock Park. They still lead the GTD class by 13 points.

“You always have one of these weekends during the season,” Nielsen said. “We’ve had an amazing season so far, so I just hope that this was it and we’ll go back to having good results.”

Nielsen and the team showed solid speed during qualifying. She started fourth on the grid in the highly competitive GTD class, just .102 of a second away from the pole.

This event marked Nielsen’s fourth consecutive race weekend in two series in three countries. Nielsen has a well-deserved one-week break and then will head to her next IMSA WeatherTech Championship race – the Continental Road Race Showcase Aug. 5-7 at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.

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Adam Sinclair

NHRA, IHRA, Motocross and other forms of motorsports Staff writer
About Me: Adam has been a race fan since the first time he went through the tunnel under the Daytona International Speedway almost 30 years ago. He has had the privilege of travelling to races all across the state of Florida (as well as one race in Ohio), watching nearly everything with a motor compete for fame and glory, as well as participating in various racing schools to get the feel of what racecar drivers go through every week. Adam has spent the last three years covering motorsports for Examiner.com., where he had the opportunity to see the racing world from behind the scenes as well as the grandstands. He invites everyone to follow him on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus, and looks forward to sharing his enthusiasm for all things racing with the readers of SpeedwayDigest.com.Be sure to tune in for his weekly sports talk program, Thursday Night Thunder, where he discusses the latest in motorsports news with drivers, crew members, and fans. The show takes place every Thursday at 8:00 pm EST on the Speedway Digest Radio Network.