The special event calendar for 2025 has kicked off in iRacing with the first event, the “ROAR Before the 24” placed at sunny Daytona. This event kick starts a busy couple of weeks, with the main event being the 24 hours of Daytona this upcoming weekend.

Prestanda NOMAD was quite involved in the Roar over the weekend and some solid results came from the race. Some team members even managed to do multiple splits and races! LMP3 was featured heavily in the roar but we also had some members in GT4.

Jason Close ran in the last timeslot in top split, which ran with strength of field (SOF) of 5.2k. After qualifying in p7, Jason’s race start was less than ideal, being shuffled to the back end of the top 15. Slowly working his way through the field, with some fuel strategy, Jason crossed the line in P5, however was shuffled back to p6 with an incident limit penalty on the last lap from car contact. Jason was disappointed to have missed out on a top 5 in such a competitive split, but p6 was a solid result given the start of the race.

Pablo Arteaga also ran in the 2nd last timeslot in top split (SOF 5.7k), Pablo managed to qualify in p12, in a very competitive split. After a quiet start to the race, Pablo settled into his rhythm and found the race to be clean with no real on track battles right until the end. After working with Jason Dilworth to complete some fuel saving, Pablo came out of his last stop in a hard battle with another competitor, eventually getting across the line in front of the battle, in P10. A great top 10 result in a competitive field.

As mentioned above, Jason Dilworth also ran in this split, and despite very limited practice, still managed to qualify in p14. After limited practice, Jason wasn’t expecting much from the race, but despite this, found himself in the back end of the race working well with Pablo to be looking at a top 10 finish. Unfortunately this was not meant to be, some unpredictable traffic meant that Jason found a wall with only 5 laps remaining, meaning he had to settle for p13.

Matthew Wright jumped into his LMP3 in the first timeslot of the weekend, and in split 3 of the weekend, he had high hopes for a good result. Matthew qualified in P9, so needed a strong start of the race to get higher into the field. Plenty of mistakes were made early in the race from the other drivers which benefited Matt and got him into the top end of the field. A curveball was thrown and rain started coming down, the water was not settling on the track to make tyres a clear cut choice and some drivers chose to pit, whilst others stayed out. Matt stayed on slicks and with 25 minutes remaining, was sitting in p3, until making an unfortunate mistake on a damp track and going into the wall, ending his podium hopes. Matt ended up P11.

Ryan Hamilton was one of our GT4 members who took to event in the midday slot on Saturday, running in split 3. After qualifying in 11th, Ryan ultimately took to the line in 21st place, 5 laps down on the leader. Ryan had started the race strong, until he was unfortunately in the wrong place at the wrong time with a car in front losing it in T1 on the brakes and hitting the wall, bouncing back in front of Ryan, leaving him no where to go. Ryan continued the race despite the significant damage, taking to the pits for repairs and continued driving, hoping to nab some spots from retirements. Ultimately, Ryan’s pace was strong, but just an unlucky race.

Academy driver and streamer Mark Cripps was one of our members who attempted multiple timeslots in the LMP3, having some solid results including a P14, P6 and a P3. A very well deserved podium for Mark.

Some other from our Academy team jumped in and had a run in this event as well, with Terje Saeterhaug running in the event. Despite a solid qualifying run in P12, unfortunately Terje race ended in the barriers from a wet race track, climbing to P16 at the end of the race after a lengthy repair.

This weekend is the big 24 hour race at Daytona, where Prestanda NOAMD has 4 main team entries, and 2 academy team entries. With the team completing plenty of practice laps, we are expecting some good results from the weekend.