Scots duo denied Daytona winposted in MSPOR29 | 01 | 2012
SCOTS SPORTSCAR DUO Allan McNish and Ryan Dalziel were controversially denied victory in the 50th running of the Daytona 24 Hours by just 5.198seconds, after a record 761 laps. American AJ Allmendinger, partnered by England's Justin Wilson, denied the Scots in his Riley-Ford.
Wishaw-born Dalziel, who started from pole position at the 3.56-mile circuit in Florida, led the race through its early stages before his Starworks Motorsport car (pictured) hit trouble.
Having dominated the opening stages, German driver Lucas Luhr took the car for an offroad excursion during the night. The damage to the rear of the car caused by the incident affected the handling of the Riley-Ford for the remaining seven hours of the race.
Yet with 2hrs 40mins of the race remaining, McNish, the 42-year-old from Dumfries and a double Le Mans 24-Hours winner, had taken the Starworks car back into the lead. In fact the No8 Riley-Ford led the race for 295 laps, more than any other car in the field.
But Allmendinger controversially barged his way to the front, battering McNish — who drove for eight of the 24 hours — out of the way at 180mph as they rejoined the steeply banked circuit after the tricky infield section.
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"I was alongside AJ and he moved up into me at 180mph," McNish, who miraculously walked away unscathed from a 170mph crash at Le Mans last year in his Audi and whose second place finish at Daytona was the third of his career, said afterwards.
"Personally that's not something I would do, but hey, that's obviously how he thinks racing should be.
"It was a clean fight up until that moment, but I was disappointed by that manoeuvre to be honest. I've been long enough in this game to know that could have ended up in a pretty big one."
The Starworks car lost further time when Luhr surprisingly took over from McNish, and by the time Dalziel — who won the race in 2010 — replaced the German for the final stint, with 76mins remaining, the gap to Allmendinger had opened to 6.5secs.
"It's disappointing, but we did everything we could during the race," a disappointed Dalziel admitted.
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"But considering the fact we only took delivery of the car 10 days ago, to finish second in the second toughest 24 hour race in the world is a major achievement.
"Everyone in the team worked their socks off this weekend, and to miss out on the win by just six second is both a disappointment and an achievement.
"Of course we would rather have won, but we've proved we're going to be a force for the rest of the Grand-Am season."
Scot Dario Franchitti's Ganassi Racing Riley-BMW had to settle for fourth, despite losing two laps overnight while its crew fixed a gearbox problem.
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Jim McGill