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| | | By Jan Magnussen Presse - Jan Kaiser - 31-01-2010 | | |  | | Jan Magnussen. Photo: Jan Kaiser. | |
Jan Magnussen delivered one of his usual super performances when he took over the Stevenson Motorsport Camaro GT.R just about 4 hours into the race at the 24 hour race at Daytona.
The race started in the rain and Robin Liddell who was the first one to drive the car took it from a 12th starting position into the lead on a soaked track. A magnificent performance that was all but lost when the team pitted at the same time a safetycar was deployed which meant that Andrew Davis who had taken over the car lost a lap to the leading cars. He was even involved in a slight crash at the restart where he was spun round and suddenly the lead was far away.
After 4 hours Jan Magnussen got into the car in 5th place a lap behind the leaders. Superior driving got him on the same lap as the leaders, but when a slower competitor spun his car in front of him, he had to take avoiding action, that brought him a lap behind the leading car again. That happened at the same time as yet another full course yellow that could have brought Jan close to the leading cars. Now he had to start all over again which he initiated as soon as the green flags were shown. He came past the leading car and was now on the same lap. The hunt was on. One of the competitors was reeled in and when Jan Magnussen handed over the car to Robin Liddell it was in a promising second spot.
"There is still far to go" Jan Magnussen said after his stint, "but it was a good way to start the season. It is hard to pass the other competitors because we are lacking topspeed, so there has to be taken some chances. We can get the edge at braking. The car is driving fine, but I’m a little nervous about the gearbox. It is working like it should, so we have to take care of it if it is going to last the race. I was lucky at the last pitstop. If I hadn’t pitted the tyre would have burst. The tirepressure had dropped considerably, so it was about to fail."
At the time of writing there is 17 hours left of the race and the car of Magnussen is in the lead.
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