Jack Aitken Instagram – Golly that one hurts. 2nd by just a couple of seconds in the Rolex Daytona 24. Nearly 24 hours of fighting for inches of tarmac, gathering energy for ‘one’ more push, willing your teammates on with all your heart, trying not to think about the end result whilst only thinking of how to get there. Coming that close means all the hope that crept up on you in the final stages gets crushed, and it stings. But we had a good race.
Those who missed it, we were circulating in the top positions nearly all race long, and everyone in the team was flawless. Pipo and I pulled longer stints during the night hours as we tried to rest up Tom for the final sprint, let him sleep as we worked to keep the car healthy and near the front. It looked to work perfectly, as he pulled a beautiful move on the #7 Porsche with just over an hour to go for the lead. We thought that was the win right there. Sadly, a caution came out shortly after. We are the first pit box in pitlane, which means our rivals can watch us and ‘short’ their fuel stop to jump ahead of us. They then simply have to save a touch more fuel, and hold that position. This is exactly what happened, and we felt powerless watching on, despite Tom putting in a heroic effort to try and pass again.
2nd at Daytona is not to be sniffed at, and it bodes well for the year ahead. A huge thank you to Pipo, Tom, Whelen Engineering and Cadillac Racing for creating this awesome crew. And hats off to Porsche Penske and their drivers, it was a heck of a battle.
#BeIconic #CadillacRacing
@bcpix @alelbuth 📸 | Posted on 29/Jan/2024 22:59:47
