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McNish misses out.

Sunday, 27th January 2008

Scot forced to wait for a Rolex for another twelve months.

Allan McNish will be forced to wait another twelve months to try and secure a coveted Rolex watch after his assault on the Rolex 24 at Daytona ended in disappointment.

The Scot, twice a runner-up in the event, joined Mike Rockenfeller, Lucas Luhr and Henri Zogaib in the SAMAX Motorsports team for the event, with the crew one of the cars that started from pitlane after electing to change tyres at the end of the green flag lap.

However, any chances of success disappeared after contact with GT car was followed by a terminal engine issue that left the Pontiac Riley parked up before half distance.

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"At the start, Mike immediately pitted to switch from wet tyres to dry, 'slick' ones so that dropped us down," the Audi factory driver reflected. "In the opening six hours we encountered tyre issues and a wheel nut problem. Nevertheless we were seventh at one stage but then a steering arm broke and then lost more time when we tangled with a slower GT car.

"I changed from third to fourth gear and the engine suddenly dropped a cylinder without any warning so it was game over straightaway.

"It's disappointing – we had a fantastic driver line-up, the car was fast and on the pace, but as in any 24 hour race, reliability issues can cancel out all of the positives."

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