TRG-AMR North America began its campaign for the 2014 Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge title with fifth- and 12th-place finishes from its 09 and 07 Aston Martin Vantage GT4 entries in the GS class of the BMW Performance 200 on Friday, Jan. 24 at Daytona International Speedway.
Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge rookie Joel Janco took the wheel of the 09 entry at the drop of the green flag from the 23rd starting position. Janco and co-driver James Davison methodically climbed through the field during the two-hour, 30-minute race to place fifth.
“I think we’ve got to be very happy with that result,” Davison said. “We were the first non-BMW M3, so we were definitely the best of the rest. Here at Daytona with what we had today I’m very happy. Joel did a great job, handing the car to me on the lead lap in one piece, and we went on from there.”
Janco kept a cool head throughout his first outing with TRG-AMR in a chaotic race slowed by five caution periods.
“The race went great from my perspective,” Janco said. “Thanks to TRG-AMR for giving us a car that was excellent because we didn’t experience any issues at all. I brought the car in safely to my co-driver James Davison, and he brought the car up through the field. We finished fifth, and we’re delighted with that result.”
TRG-AMR’s 07 Vantage GT4, co-driven by Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge rookies Max Riddle and Kris Wilson, started 14th and finished 12th.
“We started the race in 14th place, and there was some crashing at the start that I was able to avoid,” Riddle said. “I had a great battle with a few cars and just kept on running. There was a yellow flag about an hour into the race, which is when I pitted and handed the car off to Kris Wilson. He did a good job of keeping the car close to the lead pack.
“The Aston Martin Vantage GT4 car is fantastic, and I’m excited to be driving it. The car is only going to get better and better from here, and I know we’ll go faster every time we’re on the track this year.”
Wilson is ready to fast-forward to the next race, March 13-14 at Sebring International Raceway at Sebring, Fla., to see how much progress he and TRG-AMR can make.
“We’ll take what we can get here at Daytona and move forward,” Wilson said. “We have quite a bit of work to do before Sebring with learning the car, but we got away from this one unscathed, which is great since there were a ton of cautions today.”