Although Tower Motorsports was able to repair its damaged Oreca following a shunt for John Farano in qualifying for January’s Rolex 24 at Daytona, the team suffered mechanical issues in the opening half-hour of the race that left McLaughlin, fellow Penske IndyCar ace Josef Newgarden, Farano and Kyffin Simpson having to play catch-up.
Over the course of the race, they clawed their way back to fifth in class, just two laps down, but were left rueing what might have been. The team is now determined to deliver at IMSA Round 2, the 12 hour race around Sebring’s full 3.74-mile course.
“We’re all incredibly motivated to bring home a good result, and our focus is set on achieving exactly that at Sebring,” said Farano. “Our team never gives up, and we’re concentrating all our efforts on this upcoming race and the season ahead.
“I’m looking forward to returning to Sebring. It is a very unique track that tests everyone’s limits and I believe we have what it takes to come out on top.”
Stated McLaughlin: “We have some unfinished business to take care of at Sebring. Our race at Daytona didn’t start the way we had anticipated, but everyone on the team pushed through the setback and worked hard to recover as much as possible.
“Throughout the race we showed that we had the pace to be at the front of the field. We’ll be looking to carry those positives into the next round and use that momentum to fight for the win at Sebring.”
Simpson, who races in Indy NXT for HMD Motorsports, said: “I’m excited to get back in the LMP2. It was a lot of fun racing the Tower car in Daytona, so I can’t wait to see how the car handles the bumps at Sebring. John, Scott and the team are great to work with and I’m looking forward to racing with them again.”
Rick Capone, team manager added: “We learned a lot from Daytona and have gained some valuable knowledge and experience going into the next race. I’m proud of the way the team rallied together to overcome the obstacles we were faced with.
“I have full confidence that we’ll come back stronger in Sebring and put on a great show. This track is very challenging and I think we have a great chance at picking up a strong result.”
McLaughlin is one of five current IndyCar Series drivers in the race, along with Scott Dixon (Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-Series.R) and Helio Castroneves (Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06) in GTP, and Kyle Kirkwood (Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F) and Romain Grosjean (Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan) in GTD Pro.
Former IndyCar/Champ Car racers in action at Sebring include Sebastien Bourdais (Ganassi Cadillac) in GTP; Ben Hanley (Crowdstrike Racing), Ryan Dalziel (Era Motorsport), and Ed Jones (High Class Racing) in LMP2; Tonis Kasemets (Ave Motorsports Ligier) and Gabby Chaves (Andretti Autosport Ligier) in LMP3; Jack Hawksworth (VS Lexus) and Franck Perera (Iron Lynx Lambo) in GTD Pro; and Jan Heylen (Wright Motorsports Porsche) in GTD.
Katherine Legge (Gradient Racing Acura NSX) straddles the two categories, since although she last raced an IndyCar in 2013, she is set to race for Rahal Letterman Lanigan at this year’s Indianapolis 500.
