The Visit Florida Racing team got their 2017 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season underway as they put their new Riley-Gibson through it’s paces.
Crewed by Marc Goossens, Renger van der Zande and Rene Rast, the team made the most of the Roar Before the 24 at Daytona to get the distinctively liveried Visit Florida car set up for it’s first competitive session.
Running in the top five for the majority of the test sessions, the team managed to get through a chunk of what they needed to prior to the season opener in two weekends time.
“The test went well and I am happy we were able to get some time on the car,” said Visit Florida Team Owner Troy Flis. “Some of the issues we saw at the December test were vastly improved and we were glad to see the progress there. There is a lot of positives that came out of the Roar. With this being such a brand new car, we just didn’t have enough time to run through our whole test plan. Even if we ran every lap on offer, it wouldn’t have been enough time. We just have to do the best that we can and go back and prepare the best that we can for the race here at the end of the month.”
For Rene Rast, the lack of testing time wasn’t a major concern, pointing out that everyone is in the same boat: “It was quite an interesting test since everyone was new with their cars. Every session that we went out we made steps forward but we still have a lot of work to do. That pace itself is not too bad, we are only about one second to the leaders which is nice. The pace and potential is there and the car feels good to us drivers. Now we just need to work on all of the small details.”
The Rolex 24 at Daytona takes place on January 28 and 29, with The Checkered Flag providing flag-to-flag coverage.
