DAYTONA OUTING BRINGS HO-PIN TUNG FIFTH PLACE AFTER 24 HOURS WEAR BATTLE

Jackie Chan DC Racing x JOTA completed its debut in Rolex 24 at Daytona 24 hours satisfying with both cars to take the flag, but was eager for more than a fifth place in the close competition.

The Chinese-flagged team operated by JOTA Sport competed in the iconic endurance race at Daytona International Speedway for the first time fielding two potential winning-contender driver line-ups. The line ups  featured Lance Stroll, Felix Rosenqvist, Robin Frijns and Daniel Juncadella at the wheel of the number 37 Oreca-Gibson, with Ho-Pin Tung, Alex Brundle, Antonio Felix Da Costa and Ferdinand Habsburg sharing the 78 sister car. When their teammates encountered bad luck, Ho-Pin Tung and his colleagues, after having qualified on the sixth row, managed to overcome an unexpected rear wing change after suffering a collision at the early stages of the race and tyres punctures  charging to fifth place and completing 803 laps when the 56th edition concluded.

Ho-Pin Tung reflected: “Fifth place for our #78 car for 24 hours of Daytona. I am happy to have made finish in another iconic 24-hour race. I think as a team we are maybe a little spoiled by the fantastic wins we celebrated together last year. So definitely 5th is not something which we are happy with. On the other hand, the team did a great job preparing the cars as we had no technical issues throughout the race. We did suffer a lot of tyre punctures, which really cost our contention for the win. We struggled a lot with straight-line speed compared to the DPi cars in prototype class which we were competing. All of all, another strong race for the team but unfortunately not the result we all deserved”.

Sam Hignett, director of JOTA Sport looked back at an extreme 24 hours: “Although the result isn’t what we came here for to have two cars finish Daytona- one in fifth and one in 11th, it’s still a great achievement and something the whole team should be very proud of. Hats off to the crew for putting two cars on the grid that ran faultlessly and for keeping on top of all the bodywork repairs during the race, in the main due to tyre failures. All the drivers did a great job and were a pleasure to work with. Ultimately numerous punctures thwarted our run to the podium, something we will be discussing in detail with tyre supplier”.

Daytona, 28 January 2018