Winning teammates Alex Koreiba and James French drove the No. 25 Wolf Motorsports Ligier JS P320 to a series-leading third Historic Sportscar Racing Prototype Challenge presented by IMSA overall and Pro-Am race win Friday night at Daytona International Speedway. The 90-minute race set the stage for the start of this weekend’s HSR Classic Daytona 24 Hour Presented by Mission Foods which is currently in its final hours of competition at DIS.
Round five of the inaugural six-race HSR Prototype Challenge presented by IMSA season, Koreiba and French added the convincing victory at Daytona to earlier triumphs this season in the HSR Mitty at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta and at the HSR Watkins Glen Classic 6 Hour weekend in June.
Koreiba started from the pole and lost some ground early with a balky shifter issue, but he rebounded to retake the lead. He joined French in taking control of the race for the final hour, although their nearest championship rivals, John Reisman and Eric Curran in the No. 74 Hudson Historics Ligier JS P320, typically kept the pressure on until the end. Curran was closing on French in the race’s final minutes, but the Wolf Motorsports driver withstood the pressure for a 2.536s margin of victory.
“I was thinking at the start that we were going to have to go to Sebring to win a championship with our shifting issue. All confidence went out the window when I went into Turn 1 and I couldn’t get out of sixth gear,” said Koreiba. “I just did everything I could in the car, was even doing heel-and-toeing at one point trying to make a downshift, but when we got some temperature in there the problem cleared itself in a way. The plan was to run as long as possible to give James the best car he could have at the end with fresh sticker tires and low fuel. Wolf Motorsports has given us an unbelievable car. It’s hard to believe it’s our first year in an LMP3 car. They have absolutely mastered this car. I can’t thank the team enough for all that they have done.”
Third in Pro-Am and overall went to the sister Hudson Historics No. 47 Ligier JS P320 of Bob Neapole and Guy Cosmo who matched their season-best finish after previously securing a third-place showing at The Glen in June.
While Koreiba, French and the Wolf team have won three of the year’s five Pro-Am races to date, PC Challenge parity has been the order in the Am division. The fourth different winner of the season emerged at Daytona with veteran and versatile road racing driver Mirco Schultis co-driving to the class win and fourth overall with Lucas Lasserre in the the No. 70 Mishumotors Ligier JS P320.
“This was our first time in Prototype Challenge and we just came here to have fun and to look into next season,” said Schultis. “It was a night race, here in Florida and we had to do it. I like the championship a lot. It’s a nice format.”
The victory came in the PC Challenge series debut for Schultis and his Mishumotors team while their teammate Lasserre had a successful first visit to Daytona in just his second career race in the United States. A native of France, Lasserre is a winning competitor in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series. His only previous racing appearance in the U.S. was 15 years ago when, as a multiple European stock car champion, he earned an invitation to compete in the Toyota All-Star Showdown stock car race at Irwindale Raceway in California.
Second in Am and completing the overall top five was the duo of Gary Ball and Nigel Greensall in the in the No. 73 Ligier JS P320. Greensall took the checkered flag one spot ahead of the No. 86 One Motorsports Ligier JS P3 of Dave House and Mikel Miller, who were sixth overall and third in Am.
Am championship leaders Tobias Lutke and Travis Hill in the No. 22 TWOth Autosport Ligier JS P3 finished fourth in class at Daytona but join only the Pro-Am leaders Wolf Motorsports as multiple race winners this season. Both class points leaders will go into next month’s season-ending race at Sebring International Raceway with “champion-elect” status after garnering enough points at Daytona to secure the titles in both divisions.
The Sebring three-hour season finale takes place Sunday, December 8 as a feature race that is part of the year-end Mission Foods HSR Classic 12 Hour Pistons & Props, Presented by Allen Jay Automotive Network.