Troy Flis, “Yeah, it is a bit of a change this year, but we hope to be able to improve upon our championship run from last season. It’s going to be an interesting year for us. Like everybody else, we’re currently racing for a championship, all while we’re looking at next season and also into the future.”
“Part of bringing in both Marc (Goossens) and Ryan (Dalziel) is looking towards the future. They both have strong P2 experience and we’ll be able to leverage that in establishing where we end up. We’ve established strong relationships with partners through the years running the DP and we’d like to be able to continue those relationships, but there may be better opportunities out there that we need to look at.”
Running the Corvette Prototype over the years, Troy and the VisitFlorida Racing team has established a strong relationship with GM as well as other suppliers, but starting in 2017, it is an all new game. It is known that GM will be announcing their P2 program soon and while some aspects of it are still to be formalized, expect it to happen. At this point it is not known yet if that program will be a V8 or a turbo program. While that may be one option for the team moving forward, Troy did indicate that he has been in discussions with multiple manufacturers. “We intend to be racing in 2017 both here and hopefully at Le Mans. I’m going to Le Mans this season to see what it is all about as we hope to be racing there. Realistically, I’d say that announcements should be coming forth in the next few weeks and we’d hope to be testing our new car by mid-summer. That said, we have no intention to be racing in P2 this season, out full commitment is towards our Corvette and chasing the championship here in IMSA.”
But before those decisions are to be made, the regulations still need to be sorted. Both the ACO and IMSA need to fully complete their regulations in order for the teams to be able to make their decisions. It is those teams that will be making some very large investments in order to be moving forward.
As far as the early morning session, a rather fresh looking Marc Goossens indicated that he had not yet been in the car. “No, I didn’t go out at all. Ryan (Dalziel) was being selfish and wanted the car all to himself. Even though it was wet, the session was good for us, as we’d had a gearbox issue at the Roar and we were able to resolve it here in this session.”
Marc is well known for his ability not just as a fast driver but also as a development driver. When he was announced as a driver for the team this season, it was pretty obvious the direction the team was taking. “I’ve known Troy for awhile and we started discussions back around Road America. I’m still fast and I know there are faster drivers out there, but I also know that I’m here to help move the team to the future. Yes, I have some obvious connections with Riley, but that is not to say that we will end up with a Riley/Multimatic in the future. That is simply one of the options. Part of my job, besides winning races is to help with the future direction of this team.”
Ryan indicated that the car was running quite well and that the earlier gearbox issues have been exorcised. “Considering everything, it was a good session for us. While we were only the 4th fastest Prototype, we were the fastest of the DP cars. I’m not sure the field is balanced quite right yet as it appears that it has swung in the favor of the P2 cars, but we’ll see. I just hate to see us having to race, waiting on the P2 cars to drop out in order to have a chance to compete.”
With Ryan racing the full WEC schedule with ESM, he knows the P2 class and has known it for quite some time, having won the 2012 WEC championship with Starworks. “We know that the P2 cars have not had the greatest success here in the past. I believe the new HPD motor may be a bit more reliable though as the 3.5 is much less stressed than the old 2.8, due to lower boost/rpm levels. That in theory should make it more durable. Back when we won the championship in 2012, the HPD was quite competitive, but it has been passed up by the Nissan motor. I guess we’ll have to wait to see how it holds up here.”
“And as far as me hogging the car, not my fault. Marc was still sleeping.”
This far the VisitFlorida Racing Corvette has been strong in both wet (and GTLM dominated) sessions thus far.
Garry Horrocks
