CGR-I Do Borrow Post-Daytona Report

Earlier in the month of January the CRG-I Do Borrow team accomplished a number of goals with their #44 I Do Borrow/A&C Properties Honda Civic Si at the Roar Before the 24 test.  With that in mind, and inclement weather to start the race weekend at Daytona, the team opted to go the safe route and not participate in wet weather practice and qualifying sessions knowing the race would be run in near perfect weather conditions.  This would mean that Sarah Cattaneo would have to start at the rear of the field by not setting a qualifying time, but the team had confidence in their set-up and their drivers to make the run through the Street Tuner (ST) field at Daytona International Raceway. 

This would mark the first race for the newly renovated Speedway, and the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge field would put their mark with a great race to the finish.  Cattaneo would start in the 29th class position at the drop of the green flag, and would quickly start her way up the grid.  She would turn the car over to Owen Trinkler in the ninth position, and provide Trinkler a clean car to make his run.

“It was awesome to be able to come through the field, the crew did a great job giving us a fantastic car, and it shows in the results.  We really couldn’t be happier with this kind of start to our season” states Cattaneo.

Trinkler would run as high as fifth in class, and would take the checker flag in seventh for a good points’ day to start the season.  The result is nine positions ahead of where they started one season ago at Daytona, a season that would see them finish fifth in the 2015 Championship standings, well within sight of the class leaders. 

“Our goal coming into this weekend was to come out of here with a Top-10; we finished 16th here last year, and that hurt us down the stretch points wise.”  Trinkler continues, “Sarah drove a great first stint, did exactly what was asked by keeping the car clean and moving up the field.  Jim Haaser (Engineer) made a great call in the race that allowed us to leap-frog some of our competitors and come out of here in seventh place.  The decision not to run in the rain in qualifying, and start at the back was a group decision, and were confident we could make the spots up in the race. Overall we had a great weekend.”

The Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge BMW Performance 200 at Daytona can be viewed on Fox Sports 1 on February 13th, 2016 at 8:30 am EST.