WeatherTech Racing Porsche third after 18 hours at Daytona
Damien Faulkner and Jeroen Bleekemolen split the over night driving duties in the Alex Job Racing Porsche
#23 Alex Job Racing Porsche GT3: Jeroen Bleekemolen, Damien Faulkner, Marco Holzer, Cooper MacNeil
Eric Gilbert
DAYTONA BEACH - After 18 hours, the No. 23 WeatherTech Porsche continues to be a on the lead lap, running third in the 51st GRAND-AM Rolex 24 at Daytona.
Fog blanketed the World Center of Racing before sunrise. They ran 31 laps under caution due to fog. The race finally went green on lap 375.
In the overnight hours, drivers Damien Faulkner (Ireland) and Jeroen Bleekemolen (Monte Carlo) both put in multiple stints to keep the Alex Job Racing prepared Porsche near the top of the leader board, this despite a damaged front splitter. Faulkner ran has high as third before he turned the car over Bleekemolen.
"It was quite difficult because we lost most of the splitter," Faulkner said. "I had to do some adjustments inside the car to compensate for the lack of downforce on the front. But, the car is running very well. I got held up the last 10 or 15 minutes by some Ferraris. They are just stupidly fast in a straight line and stupidly slow in the corners for some reason. We will need a front splitter at some point."
On lap 412, Bleekemolen took over for Faulkner. On lap 447, under a caution for fog, the WeatherTech crew went to work fixing the damaged front splitter to give the drivers more downforce. Three laps later, Bleekemolen returned to pit lane for a brake change. From there, he spent most of his second stint under a nearly two hour caution and was still in the car at the time of this report.
Drivers Cooper MacNeil, of Hinsdale, Ill., and Marco Holzer, of Germany, are expected to get back in the car during the daytime hours.
Alex Job Racing
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