By Jason M Close on 2025-01-22
Prestanda NOMAD took to the biggest sim racing special event of the year over the weekend, the Daytona 24 hour. NOMAD had 6 entries in 2025 and, with 24 drivers in the event, it was the biggest attendance NOMAD has had. The team competed in the main 12pm GMT timeslot and had been preparing for this event in the weeks leading up to the event. The team had completed over ten thousand laps in preparation for the event, including one of our drivers (Chris Thacker) completing almost two full 24 hour races worth of laps practiced in his GT3, getting close to 1000 laps in the lead up to the event. A race report of each car is below.
Drivers: Jason Dilworth, Jason Close, Pablo Arteaga
Team SOF: 5,460 – Split #2
Driving the only Porsche GTP in the first five splits, 561 put themselves into the 24 hour race with a significant disadvantage before the race had started. The Porsche was not strong prior to the event, but despite this, the guys stuck with the car and proceeded to work on it prior to the event. Getting into split 2 was a big achievement, and 561 knew that stepping into this split, which was one of the toughest and most competitive splits the NOMAD team had ever entered, they needed to be strategically smart and keep the car in one piece, survival was going to be critical.
Jason Dilworth (JD) started the car and, after qualifying in P19 out of 22, the drivers were immediately humbled into realising that they were going to need to take every opportunity they got, given the outright speed from other cars in the race. A smart start from Jason got them into P15 and quickly into the draft of the cars in front, fuel saving at every opportunity until the GT3 traffic had its impact. Once traffic hit, it didn’t take long to separate the field, and through smart and concise driving, Jason got us to p13. For the next 4 or 5 hours, Jason D and Pablo kept the car safe, madly fuel saving and strategising our way into a fuel advantage, knowing that weather was coming.
Rain hit with Jason D in the car, and he handled a tricky track with slick tyres until it was too wet for slicks, ducking into the pits and getting Jason Close into the car, in position 8. Jason Close then drove the car through the wet period, returning the car to JD in position 6 in drying conditions, despite going onto slicks; the track was still in a half wet / half dry scenario which meant care needed to be taken.
Unfortunately, one of the last places to dry was the fast left hand kink before the second horseshoe, and JD was forced to pass a car off line with his slick tyres, causing the car to spin and go into the barrier. Luckily for 561, minor damage only and continued on while carrying some damage they planned to fix over the coming hours.
Upon entry to the pits, on a dry track but extremely treacherous and wet pit lane entry, JD entered pit lane and aquaplaned straight, meaning he had to go around the track to enter pits again, unfortunately not having enough fuel to make it and having to tow. Jason continued until the next stint when Pablo hopped in the car.
Lap 394, Pablo was hit hard from behind when he was avoiding a major crash in front, causing a bent wheel and 4 minutes of repairs. After getting fixed, 561 continued circulating in P6 for a few hours.
Rain hit again with 8 hours to go, and JC was circulating at the time, handling a tricky transition to full wet tyres. Arguably staying on the slicks for too long, they finally pitted to hand the car to Pablo in the full wet conditions; however JC slightly missed pit lane entry which gave them a 40 second penalty. 561 knew that given their disadvantage with the BOP, rain was going to be the really crucial time to make in-roads on the rivals, and it was during this time, the team found itself in P3, avoiding crashing in heavy rain, where rivals were consistently crashing and spinning. After over 3 hours of rain and horrendous conditions, 561 found itself in 3rd place with 2 hours to go, with Jason Close completing a triple to finish the race and confirm the podium finish. Proving the difficult conditions of the race, was that only 9 of the 22 GTP’s finished the race, with 25 cars of the 60 starters, also greeting the chequered flag. This result was one of NOMAD’s biggest and best ever results, achieving a podium in split 2 (which ranked them 9th of all GTPs in iRacing's ranking system) of the biggest sim racing event of the year, proving just how important staying clean and straight is in an endurance race.
Drivers: Aidan Shadbolt, Alessandro Torchio, Chris Chadderton, Mathias Wodschow
Team SOF: 5,039– Split #5
Our lead GT3 team entered this event with encouraging speed and four very consistent and fast drivers. Unfortunately the race went pear shaped for them, only 13 laps into the event. In the second pass through with a mixture of GTP, LMP2 and GT3’s, unfortunately 562 was collected from behind in a big group at the bus stop, ending their race early whilst running in P12. A disappointing result for a team with a lot of promise and speed for the race. They would prove to bounce back in the next timeslot (more on that later).
Drivers: Håkon Lindmo, Kevin Roelandt, Liam Doyle, Ryan Hamilton
Team SOF: 4,220 – Split #5
563 headed into the event with a bit of a mixed lead in, initially entering with LMP2 before deciding to switch to GTP a week before the event. This move, despite giving them limited preparation, seemed to work for them. They qualified in position 10 in a tough split, meaning they had a solid position to set themselves into a strong start to the race.
A smart passive start to the race saw them avoiding trouble and settling into a rhythm, around p12 heading into the first round of traffic. A bad run through traffic meant they lost a couple more positions, but importantly had a straight and damage free car.
Having worked themselves into a strong position in the race for the weather, unfortunately they got caught out by heavy rain and slippery track. This resulted in an incident put them out of the race, resulting in a heavily collision and meatball to end their race, ending up P15.
Drivers: Chris Thacker, Matthew Wright, Tim Penny, Tom Stanley
Team SOF: 3,487 – Split #10
564 arguably was the most prepared team heading into the event, with the most prepared man on earth, Chris Thacker, in this car. The team had put Chris into the car to qualify, and in a tough split qualified in p13.
Chris started the car before handing over to Tim to complete his stints. Chris and Tim handled the car early in the race, before handing it through to Matt and Tom to handle the night and wet stints.
Despite some unfortunate accidents that meant the car sustained some damage, they managed to end the event in P7, with damage arguably causing them to miss out on a top 5 result. In such a long event, in the slowest cars, this is a result to be proud of.
Drivers: Dean Timms, Joakim Kjode, Nic Veltenaar, Taylor Lane
Team SOF: 4,005 – Split #6
The first of our academy teams were running in the Porsche GTP, which should be noted as the second highest rated Porsche in the GTP category (561 being the first), showing just how difficult and out of BOP favour the Porsche was. Like 561, 281 did not let this deter them, and they entered the race with strong hopes.
Qualifying in P16, Taylor Lane started the race with a triple stint, driving smartly and saving fuel at every opportunity, managing to save 2 laps of fuel on other competitors, whilst running in p10. A strong start to the race.
Next in the car was Joakim, he settled into the stint with a car that he only purchased 7 days prior to the event. Finding his flow, he put a strong double stint before handing over to Dean. Dean commenced a triple stint in the GTP (also his first time running this car) heading into the wet conditions. Dean navigated the wet track on slicks superbly, and keeping the car alive in P13, handing the car over to Nic. Nic, who is known internally at NOMAD as a setup guru and pretty darn fast in the wet, was the right man to head into the conditions.
Unfortunately during in the in lap of his first stint, Nic found a wet white line which put their car into the wall, clipping the barriers and bouncing back into an oncoming LMP2, this put the Porsche on its roof for a tow. The Iracing gods however, shone brightly upon 281, escaping with 1 minute of optional repairs, a miracle in the words of Nic.
Proving strong to his wet reputation, Nic brought the car back at the end of his triple stint in P4, and pitting to put Joakim back in the car. Slight contact in Joakim’s stint gave the car 6 minutes of optional repairs which dropped the car to p6 at the halfway mark of the race.
The team decided that given the wet and treacherous conditions of the race track, they would dial the speed back a bit to ensure safety and staying damage free, this strategy worked. The team decided to take advantage of Nic’s prowess in the wet and kept him in for a triple, which meant he drove the team into the dry transition.
Dean and Taylor finished the race off in dry conditions and brought the car home in 5th place. Whilst not the perfect race, the Academy team, driven by 3 of 4 drivers who had not drove the GTP in a competitive endurance environment, brought the car home in one piece and a very solid top 5 position with a significant BOP disadvantage, certainly something to be extremely proud of for the 281. A great result!
Drivers: Casey Waters, Mael Gein, Robbert Van Hoorn, Ted Bowerman, Timothy Van Der Broek
Team SOF: 3,401 – Split #11
The second of our academy cars entered the event with high hopes aboard their BMW GT3. After qualifying in P4, only 2 tenths off pole in a really strong qualifying effort, Mael Gain was looking to have a strong start upon his first time starting the Daytona 24 hour race.
In the initial start to the race, Mael worked his way into position 2 and looking extremely comfortable in the opening stages of their race. The team worked Robbert into the car to take over, and driving a strong stint, the team was looking comfortable 4 hours into the race. Unfortunately technical issues in Robbert's stop meant that fuel was not taken aboard his GT3 and he had to tow, losing 4 minutes in the pits, and 2 laps on the leader.
With weather in mind, the team continued with Timothy in the car, knowing they just had to get through the weather and see where they ended up. This proved to be the case, with Timothy and Casey climbing them up the leader board through the weather. Mael hopped back into the car in the wet conditions and continued to gain time on the competitors, lapping fastest on track, getting themselves back into position 2 in GT3, an incredible drive back into contention. Unfortunately issues into pit lane cost them substantial time that just could not be brought back in the race, crossing the line in 15th position after 24 hours of racing. Despite a disappointing end to the race, the 283 team should be proud of the fight they showed, and the position they found themselves in, fighting for the lead of the Daytona 24.
Prestanda NOMAD is extremely proud of all 6 cars that entered the race and it’s nice to head into the special event year with a strong and successful start. Special mention goes to 562 who, despite crashing out of the main timeslot through no fault of their own, put their disappointment aside and attempted the final timeslot. In that race they managed to finish P4 in the top split, a superb effort.
The team now moves its attention to the Bathurst 12 hour, where the team will attempt to conquer the mountain and its unique challenges of driving 12 hours against concrete walls.