Bulletin
2 . . .
Jan Lammers at
the wheel of the Crawford SSC2K gave the Crawford team a good start to the
Daytona 24 Hours which started at 1.05pm Florida time. At the flying start
Lammers maintained his third place but dropped back to fifth in the early laps
as he kept to the target speed of 1m 46sec.
The lead was
immediately taken by Didier Theys in the Doran Racing Dallara. After the opening
Theys pulled away from Werner Lupberger in the Ascari-Judd, with James Weaver
third in the R &S Ford and Lammers fourth. After running third early on the
Risi Ferrari 333SP dropped back to fifth place.
Team boss Max
Crawford deciding on a conservative first pit stop and the Crawford was one of
the first to make scheduled pin stop number one.
Johnny Mowlem took
over the car and after fuel and fresh Goodyears, the car returned to the track
after 57 secs in 7th place. Mowlem soon settled into race pace and
the car quickly moved back to 4th place.
After the first
round of pit stops the order was Theys, Elliot Forbes-Robinson in the second
Dyson car, van de Poele in the Brabham and then the Crawford with the Ascari
dropping to fifth.
A fancied runner in
trouble as the race started was the Champion Lola Porsche which came into the
pits instead of taking the start and lost 25 mins and 11 laps before the engine
problem was sorted.
Before the start
there was a lot of media interest around the the Crawford and particularly Tony
Stewart. Amongst the well wishers was former F1 driver and Indy 500 winner Eddie
Cheever.