Thursday night kicked off the 2017 FRL racing season with the Rolex 24 One-Off Challenge. Eight cars took the track by storm as the Porsche and Mazda prototypes of yesteryear fought for 24 laps on the Daytona night circuit. Turn 1 of the first lap produced a fair amount of trouble for several drivers. Travis Bilingsley took advantage and opened an early lead.
Paul Maestri and Drew Dilbeck tangled, with Drew coming out ahead and holding 5th position for some time. Ethan Maestri and Andrew Steppat worked the early laps to make ground on Travis in P2 and P3 respectively. At about the mid-point of the race, Ethan would overtake Travis for the lead. After a short battle, Travis would pit. Ethan would come in on the next lap, giving the lead to Andrew Steppat. Ethan would hang with Steppat for several laps before coming into Turn 1 too hot and ruining his chance at passing the Rothman's Porsche 962.
The Mazda die-hard's of Matthew Smith and Nicholas Hargrove spent the early laps in mid-pack, but could not keep pace with the high speed German marque, eventually falling back to the rear of the field. Tony Tyree kept a fairly good pace for most of the race, holding P4, but eventually fell a spot to the Momo Porsche driven by Paul Maestri.
In the end Andrew Steppat scored the first One-Off win for 2017. Followed by Ethan MAestri in P2 and Travis Billingsley in P3.
Result and One-Off 2017 Points
P1 - Andrew Steppat - 25
P2 - Ethan Maestri - 18
P3 - Travis Billingsley - 15
P4 - Paul Maestri - 12
P5 - Tony Tyree - 10
P6 - Drew Dilbeck - 8
P7 - Matthew Smith - 6
P8 - Nicholas Hargrove - 4
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