VICI Racing Daytona test preview

VICI Racing will be at the Daytona International Speedway this week for the annual Daytona Test Days

VICI Racing will be at the Daytona International Speedway this week as they take part in the annual official Daytona Test Days (January 4-6). The Miami, Florida-based team will run the #18 Porsche-Fabcar in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Special Reserve 24 Hours of Daytona on 25-28th January.

At present VICI Racing's international team of personnel is currently being reconfigured to include staff highly experienced with the 24h of Daytona and 24h of Le Mans. The team's new #18 Porsche-Fabcar will have its first roll-out during the test which starts tomorrow morning. 28 DP cars are expected to attend the three day official tests, out of a provisional 67 car entry.

"This will be our first track session with the Porsche-Fabcar," says VICI Racing Team President Ron C. Meixner. "We have only finished building the Porsche-Fabcar in the last few days so the test sessions will present us with invaluable track time as well as a chance to evaluate several drivers. Five drivers - who present an international blend of youthful pace and long experience - are earmarked to drive the #18 VICI Racing Porsche-Fabcar around the 3.56-mile road course Daytona International Speedway this week: Uwe Alzen, Gaston Mazzacane, Robert Renauer, Terry Borcheller and Nicky Pastorelli.

Uwe Alzen, a former Porsche Carrera Cup and Porsche Supercup champion, is a veteran racing driver who brings a wealth of long-distance hour sports car racing experience to the equation, having finished on the podium in both the Le Mans and the Nurburgring 24 Hour races. The German, who has also driven in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM), International Touring Car Championship (ITC) and the German STW Supertouring series, has spent much of his professional racing career driving Porsche race cars. Gaston Mazzacane is Argentina's most recent Formula 1 driver having competed in 21 Grands Prix for Minardi (2001) and Prost (2002) teams. In 2004 he crossed the Atlantic to race in Champ Cars. The second German driver in the line-up is Robert Renauer who has recently raced in the Porsche Supercup series; the youngster has a growing reputation for being very quick.

Terry Borcheller began racing professionally in 1991. The American has vast experience in US sports car racing and has six important drivers' titles to his name. These include three Grand-American Rolex Sports Car Series titles: GTO (2000), SRP II (2002) and Daytona Prototype (2003). His other championships are the IMSA Speedvision Cup, Grand Sport (1998), the T-1 class of the SCCA SPEED World Challenge (1998) and the IMSA American Le Mans Series, GTS class, (2001). He has also won the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona (2004).

Nicky Pastorelli is another promising young driver. The 23-year-old Dutchman shot to prominence by winning the 2004 European F3000 Championship, before testing for the Minardi F1 Team and being signed as official Jordan F1 driver in 2005. Last year Pastorelli drove in Champ Car as well as being third driver for Midland F1.

"We believe these drivers will bring exactly the right blend of pace and experience to the test, and each one is individually proven," adds Ron, "add this mix to our more than two decades knowledge of racing Porsches worldwide, and we are confident that the #18 Porsche-Fabcar can be a highly competitive package for the Rolex 24 at the end of the month.

A definite drive line up and sponsorship of the #18 VICI Racing Porsche- Fabcar will be announced after the Daytona Test Days.

-credit: vici racing