SA’S SIMPSON WANTS ANOTHER DAYTONA – Stephen keen to add to his Rolex collection

South Africa’s US IMSA WeatherTech sports racing star Stephen Simpson is relishing the chance to win the Rolex Daytona 24 again 28-29 January, with a keen eye on adding to his Rolex collection over the weekend. The winners of the Rolex 24 take a sunning Rolex Daytona wristwach home as part of the spoils and 2016 Production Challenge winner Simpson is keen to go one better this year.

Stephen and teammates Misha Goikhberg, Jim Miller and Mathias Beche have stepped up from last year’s Production Challenge racer to challenge for overall honours with the JDC-Miller team’s brand new top class IMSA Prototype ORECA-Gibson 07 this year and Simpson is champing at the bit to get racing. “I’m looking forward to getting back to Daytona and having another shot at adding to my watch collection!” the Indianapolis-based Capetonian suggested.

“Winning the 2016 Rolex 24 at Daytona in the Prototype Challenge class was a big achievement and winning a Rolex Daytona was nice, but I want another one! “This year will be challenging though, as we are up against some big manufacturers with good teams and strong driver line ups. “But 24 hours is a long time and I feel very confident we are up for the challenge.

“JDC Miller Motorsports has been working very hard preparing the race car and getting ready for all that a 24 hour race throws at you.”

Simpson also races the Continental Tire Sports Production 4-hour at Daytona on Friday. “On the CTSCC side, I am looking forward to our race as we had a good ROAR test and my team mate, Michael Johnson did a very good job.

“We have prepared well for the race and with the increased length to 4 hours, that will make a big difference in how we approach this race compared to the typical length races and I am looking forward to a tough race and to bringing home a great result for JDC Miller Motorsports.”

Both races will be live streamed on www.imsa.com throughout the weekend, while www.motorsportmedia.co.za will carry regular updates too.