Auer: Racing Gods ‘Were Not On Winward’s Side’

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA

Lucas Auer said the “racing gods were not on our side” after Winward Racing rebounded from a seven-lap deficit to come within striking distance of a second consecutive Rolex 24 at Daytona class win, only to lose out due a poorly timed caution.

Auer, Russell Ward, Indy Dontje and Philip Ellis finished fourth in GTD with their No. 57 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, 6.759 seconds behind class winners AWA.

The top-five finish came at the end of a rollercoaster race for the Texan squad, which entered the event both as defending Rolex 24 class winner as well as reigning champions in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

The No. 57 Mercedes-AMG lost significant ground early on, going behind the wall with a throttle pedal issues that initially took it out of contention.

However, Auer explained that Winward made use of the race’s various caution periods to return to the lead lap, steadily bringing the team back into the mix of things.

“Actually, it worked quite quickly,” Auer told Sportscar365.

“We were seven laps down after two hours, and I think in Hour 13 or something, we were already [lead] lap again.”

Another setback then followed when the team received a drive-through penalty on Sunday morning for improper pit protocol, which dropped it back down the order.

After climbing back up the order again, Winward hopes of a third GTD class win received a major blow when the team was forced to pit for emergency service when the No. 45 Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 stopped on track and triggered a caution in the final hour, which Auer described as “just bad luck.”

After that, Auer’s charge back up the pack was halted when the Austrian was spun around by the No. 50 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3.

“Always when you start racing here, you don’t know how competitive you are,” said Auer. “Because you see the true pace in the race, but gosh, the team a mega job.

“The race just never came to us. We were seven laps down, we gained it back then we had a drive-through and just a lot of things happening.

“At the end of the day, I think today you can really say the racing gods were not on our side.

“We were leading, and most of the time we were actually in the top three. And it’s just a shame because we had our strong parts and weak parts, but I think at the end of the race I could have done something.

“So this was a bit of a shame. But I mean, [to] come home P4 is good points for the team.”

Auer’s feelings were echoed by Silver-rated driver Dontje, who said he ‘never had that amount of setbacks in a race in my life.’

“I think Luggi had the pace to win the race,” he said. “We were quick. I think everyone was quick. There were a lot of guys who could win this race, but we were one of them.”

The Dutchman revealed the team was also struggling with power steering issues, which required them to regularly top up fluids during pitstops.

“Our windscreen was full of oil every time,” Dontje said. “It was really annoying. Especially in the [Le Mans Chicane], the power steering went really off and then it was really tough from right to left.”