Grand-Am Rolex Series: Rolex 24 at Daytona

Topics:  Rolex 24 at Daytona

Andrew Davis
Hurley Haywood
Leh Keen
Marc Lieb
January 29, 2012

DAYTONA BEACH, FLORIDA

HERB BRANHAM:  We're joined by the third place team, No.59, Brumos Company's Porsche GT 3R co‑drivers Leh Keen, Hurley Haywood, Andrew Davis and Marc Lieb.

Q.  Question to Hurley, you have so much experience in Porsche cars, especially in GTs.  Is there anything you can teach the young kids here?
HURLEY HAYWOOD:  No, I don't think so.  That's why these guys are driving with us.  They seem to know it all.  You know, this was such a hard race.  We were so lucky to have a good car underneath us, and these guys did a great job of driving it.
You know, I did a stint during the night and then turned it over.  That was for my 40th start, and hopefully the Rolex that we would have gotten, but we got it stolen away from us right at the end.  These guys did a great job.

Q.  Hurley, you mentioned that it was stolen away.  Was it because of your gas calculation?  Was it losing the splitter?  It seemed like everything was flawless for a while.
HURLEY HAYWOOD:  Well, basically we made the mistake of pitting out of sequence.  We should have followed the leader and ‑‑ when the leader came in, we should have followed them.  And what that caused us to do is basically we ran up 15 minutes short on fuel.  If we would have done that sequence, pitted when they all pitted, then everybody would have been faced with the same scenario, and that's where we sort of fell apart.
And then Marc had some problems with the power steering in the end.  He was doing a Herculean job of driving the car with the power steering coming in and out, so that's very difficult because you never know from corner to corner if you're going to have power steering or if it's going to be manual, and the manual is about five times more difficult than regular manual steering, so that was challenging.
But in all, we really ran a trouble‑free race until that last stint.

Q.  What did it mean, not just this race but the other races you've been with Brumos, to be with a man like Hurley and knowing that this was it, and how much did you really want to give him a win on his final race?
ANDREW DAVIS:  Well, I think obviously there's a lot of kind of monumental things about this event, being the 50th anniversary.  But for us as Brumos drivers to be able to share the car with Hurley Haywood and his storied history at this track, not just here but everywhere, yeah, we wanted to bring him a win and we wanted to win for ourselves, as well, just as a team and for every crew member at Brumos Racing.  It looked a little bad there toward the end of that last stint.  We were worried we weren't going to get up on the podium.  We're still happy to be able to share the podium step with Hurley and share the car with Hurley and show everyone in the GRAND‑AM Series and worldwide that Brumos Racing wanted to continue on our success from last year in the GT program.

Q.  Leh Keen, just following up, because it was somewhat symbolic of the racing from start to finish of this race that you guys had that rather tight pass there with Andy Lally.  Can you talk about it from your perspective, how that went for you?
LEH KEEN:  Well, it didn't go as good as I would have liked, I guess.  Yeah, got caught up in a little bit of DP traffic and a guy was running quite off‑pace after the caution there.  We had a quick car, they were quick all race, as were we, and we were battling.  It was just a battle, which it was for all 24 hours.  It just happened to be right there at the end.
I am looking forward to battling with the mag news group and Andy all year.  I think there's going to be a lot more racing, good racing, to go.

Q.  Marc, can you talk about your final stint and how the car was driving considering the splitter damage?
MARC LIEB:  Yeah, not really easy.  The power steering just didn't work in a few corners and then just kicked in again, so for three corners you had no power steering, sometimes even in the banking, so it was pretty hard to drive.  The last two hours weren't really easy.
Because we lost the splitter, the car had a lot of unsteadiness, as well, and was really difficult to drive then.  It's just really, really disappointing because you look at the race and we were 22 hours fighting for the lead and then at the end we were lucky to finish on the podium, and it's just really disappointing because I think the whole crew, all the drivers did a fantastic job, but this tight competition you make one small mistake and it keeps you away from the top step of the podium.
ANDREW DAVIS:  Just to add for Marc, it was a stellar performance for him.  All the Porsche drivers are amazing drivers, but Marc adds a lot to our program and we're always happy to have him.  He had a great triple stint in the early morning hours that was amazing and really put us in a good spot.  And in the end there, he had to push with a car without power steering which isn't very easy around here, especially on the banking, so thanks to you, Marc.
HERB BRANHAM:  Congratulations.  Thank you.