The Ruby Tuesday Racing team remained in contention for honours as the Rolex 24 at
Daytona reached the half-way point, although the early race leaders have dropped down to sixth place at the twelve hour mark.
Joey Hand had built a 40 second lead in the rain and led 25 laps before turning the #23 Ruby Tuesday Championship Racing Team Porsche-powered Crawford Daytona Prototype over to teammate Bill Auberlen. Auberlen led 27 of his 33-lap stint. Combined, Hand and Auberlen led 52 laps.
I made a little mistake, but it ended up working out for us, Hand said of his second stint. I got forced off by a Porsche and it knocked some of the splitter off. So, we came in to check it out and we took some tyres.
When we went back out, we ended up in front of the leaders. Mike [Evans] and Alex [Job] made the call that it was going to rain and decided to take a chance and put on rain tires. When it went green, we came in and put on rains. And, sure enough it started to pour down rain. It was the right call.
I've had a lot of practice in the rain from go karts to Formula Mazda to the American Le Mans Series. So, I felt pretty comfortable in the rain. I took my time and found a line. I kind of like the rain. I took off and got a 40 second lead. It was pretty cool. My dad, my wife and all my friends back home watching got to see me lead the Rolex 24 Hour for a good hour or so.
On lap 220, Patrick Long began his second stint in the #23 machine not feeling well. But, he was not going to let that stop him from keeping his Porsche Crawford out of the top three during his 41-lap stint.
I wasn't feeling well when I got in the car, he said. But, I actually felt fine once things got started. The challenge for me that stint was a lot of yellow flags with warm tyres. The car seemed to react differently with the warm tyre on the restart. I think we were getting a little bit of pick up. So, that was something new. But, other than that, I think the guys made a great call on the aero change.
