The Banner Racing Team recovered to finish 4th from a pit lane collision during the late night hours and a broken muffler, that threatened to light up the right rear tire, and that dropped them out of the top three for the second time.
To finish in the top four Collins, Edwards, and Magnussen drove nearly flat out for 24 hours to try to maintain pace with the Porsches and Mazdas who have a significant top speed advantage on the big Daytona banked track.
We ran as hard as we could go for the entire race, there was nothing left,” said team owner Leighton Reese. “We just don’t have the speed here and it is very, very frustrating but we had a hard fought fourth and these Banner Racing guys should be proud of that. Of course we want to win but the alternative is to wind up in the garage and today we won some good championship points so it was a strong effort from everyone on the team.”
“Oh, yeah, very happy with a fourth place finish,” said Paul Edwards. “Considering that we were in the garage twice and the guys turned around the car faster than anyone else out here could do it. They knew exactly what they were doing at all times. When I came in (with the broken exhaust) they knew what was wrong and what they needed to do before I got there. We had two 8 minute turnarounds to two 20 minute jobs.
“Considering the contact we had in the pits, which is unforeseeable, and the exhaust problems and a couple of little problems that put us into the garage twice, fourth is a fantastic finish,” said driver Kelly Collins. “Particularly considering that at any given time we were racing a car that was between 12 and 16 miles an hour slower than the cars that won the class. Fourth is better than the seventh we had here last year when we won the championship so we have this one under our belt and we are on our way to trying to defend our championships. The car is in one piece so that is always a good deal.”
But for team drivers Collins and Edwards who will try to repeat their Grand-Am championship run from 2008 in 2009 the crew were the stars of the 4th place finish of the Banner Racing Pontiac GXP.R.
“Totally hats off to the Banner Racing crew,” said Edwards. “They took care of our sore car and kept us out on the race track as much as humanly possible. Of course we would all like to win but everything considered, a fourth here at Daytona is a pretty good thing and it keeps us in the championship race.”
Leighton Reese echoed that sentiment saying, “The drivers and crew did an awesome job today, and night come to think of it. We have good camaraderie and the kind of team work necessary to run well in races like this where everything isn’t necessarily going to go your way. I also have to thank our great sponsors like Pontiac, GM Racing, Mobil1, Shock Doctor and Las Vegas BikeFest.”
“It looked like we were going to be strong 4 or 5 hours in,” said Leighton Reese. “We held a pretty commanding lead for awhile but this is a long tough race and so many things can happen. We had that accident on pit road with the Mazda and we lost four laps fixing that deal but the crew did an awesome getting the car to the garage and back and only losing five or six laps. We managed to work our way back up to 3rd when the exhaust system exploded.”
Paul Edwards, Kelly Collins and Jan Magnussen raced the Banner Racing Pontiac GXP.R for 2,453 hard miles (689 laps) in a little over 24 hours and the Banner Racing crew kept the Pontiac GXP.R running and the pit stops short and that is how a team finishes and finishes well in the Rolex 24-Hour race at Daytona.
Text: leightonreese.com
Photogrpahy: grand-am.com