British GT front-runner Seb Morris sampled his first taste of Daytona International Speedway earlier this week (Tuesday and Wednesday) as part of his prize for winning this year’s Sunoco Whelen Challenge.
The Welshman, who finished third in his debut season of GT competition alongside Team Parker Racing co-driver Rick Parfitt Jnr, tested Action Express Racing’s all-new Cadillac DPi-VR sports-prototype ahead of January’s Daytona 24 Hours.
Getting to grips with his new environment in double-quick time, the 21-year-old delivered an expectedly professional and assured performance as the 6.2-litre V8 Whelen Engineering backed Cadillac was put through its paces around the awesome 31-degree banked course.
Joining vastly experienced championship-winning team-mates Eric Curran and Dane Cameron, as well as Toyota factory LMP1 driver Mike Conway, Curran actually went on to set the fastest lap of the test on the second day. His best of 1m37.797s was a third of a second quicker than the sister Action Express machine.
“It was such fun – really, really special”, said Morris, “We had a few technical issues early on day one but everything went well after that and I had about 20 or so laps in the car. When you get onto the banking for the first time, words can’t really describe what that feeling is like.
“The Cadillac is mega quick, I likened it to a World Series [Formula Renault 3.5] car with the acceleration but without the aero drag so the car keeps pulling and pulling. You’re in sixth gear within 16 seconds and you look at the readout and see you’re doing 200mph, that’s something I’ve never done and one of the things I’ve always wanted to achieve ticked off the list.”
Following the Christmas and New Year break, Morris will return to Daytona for the ‘ROAR before the Rolex 24’ on January 6-8 when the Action Express team will make final preparations for the blue riband Daytona 24 Hours on January 28/29.
“I’m really looking forward to being back at Daytona for the ROAR, we’ll work to get a good base level set-up there and hopefully use the weekend to find a solid platform for the Rolex 24”, added Morris. “The experience has been amazing so far, huge thank you to Sunoco and Whelen for such an incredible opportunity and, of course, to the guys at Action Express Racing.”