DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Kellymoss with Riley’s Riley Dickinson, Michael McCarthy and Brady Golan managed to be the only team to make their fuel last to the end Friday (Jan. 26) in Daytona. Dickinson took the lead at the white flag and held on to win the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge BMW M Endurance Challenge.
Kellymoss by Riley’s margin of victory was 1.936 seconds over Winward Racing’s Daniel Morad and Bryce Ward. TeamTGM’s Matt Plumb and Owen Trinkler were third, then Turner Motorsport’s Dillon Machavern and Robert Megennis. Robby Foley and Francis Selldorff in the second Turner BMW were fifth.
CarBahn Motorsports with Peregrine Racing’s Sean McAlister started from the pole in his BMW after having dominated the weekend. However, practice is not the race. McAlister’s chances at victory didn’t last long.
In the opening 10 minutes, McAlister was forced to make an unscheduled stop that dropped him way back. Later on, the right front suspension failed on the BMW M4 GT4. Debris from the car brought out the first caution of the race.
For Bubba Wallace, the race was always going to be a tough one. The Smooge Racing team was found to have worked on Wallace’s car during qualifying. That is forbidden and cost Wallace his qualifying times.
Wallace had to start 27th as a result. In the race, he ran well early to move up into the top 15. However, on the first restart, he ran into JMF Motorsport’s Jesse Webb under braking for the International Horseshoe. The contact resulted in a flat tire for Wallace. The pit stop put the team a lap down.
While John Hunter Nemechek and Corey Heim ran competitively in their Toyota GR Supra GT4, they were never able to make up the lost lap. They ended up dropping out late with mechanical issues and were classified 19th in Grand Sport, 27th overall.
As the race continued on, Turner Motorsport’s BMWs came to the front. Machavern and Selldorff ran one-two for a significant amount of the race.
The Turner teammates led until Robert Wickens suffered a significant issue under the hood of his Hyundai to bring out the yellow with 100 minutes to go. The pit strategy split, putting JMF Motorsport’s Michai Stephens in the lead.
On the restart, Random Vandals Racing’s Kenton Koch was able to go from fourth to second with a three-wide move on the backstretch. A lap later, he took the lead away from Stephens, then held off the Turner BMWs.
Greg Liefooghe was up to second overall…
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