Adam Christodoulou will make his return to the Rolex 24 at Daytona this year as he looks to add another 24 hour title to his racing CV.
The Nürburgring 24 Hour winner will join the Mercedes-AMG Team Riley Motorsports team alongside Mario Farnbacher, Jeroen Bleekemolen and Ben Keating driving the #33 Mercedes-AMG GT3.
“I’m really excited to be given this opportunity at Riley, I’m honoured to be driving for them and representing the new Mercedes-AMG GT3 for the first time at Daytona,” he said.
The 27-year-old previously raced at Daytona in 2011 where he teamed up with Jonathan Bomarito, John Edwards and Sylvain Tremblay in a Speedsource Mazda RX-8.
“It’s great to go back after all these years, especially because I made my GT debut in America back in 2010 and Daytona was also my first experience of 24 hour racing in 2011. I’ve been in the same car as Jeroen previously in the Dubai 24 Hours, so it’s going to be great – we’ve got an extremely strong line-up and I’m looking forward to going back out there and seeing how things have changed. It’s like Christmas has come early!”
Christodoulou’s first test will come later this week when he takes part in the Roar Before the 24 as he gets reacquainted with the car that took him to his Nürburgring victory.
“I’ve been in a variety of races over the last few years, ranging from some of the smaller cars up to GT4s and GT3s, so being on track with faster cars is nothing I haven’t had to deal with before and I don’t believe it should be a problem,” Christodoulou continued.
The biggest difference for Christodoulou is watching out for the Prototype class cars as they make their way through the slower GT field.
“Obviously the prototypes are extremely quick, so it’s just about staying clean and making sure we are on the lead lap in the final few hours. We’ll just be running our own race and making sure we’re in the right position at the right time. With all the safety cars, there’s a greater chance of being on the lead lap by the end of the race compared to some of the 24 hour races in Europe, which should make it very exciting!”
An excited Christodoulou added, “In America the fans are a lot closer and they can interact a lot more, it makes it really fun being involved with all that. One of the other main advantages of Daytona is you can go on the grandstands and pretty much see all of the track, and you really hear the roar of the car echo off all four walls, which creates a special atmosphere that you don’t see anywhere else. I can’t wait to get back there and experience it again.”
