After the 24-hour race, Gianmaria Bruni reached Daytona airport for the long journey home. A very zealous customs officer did not miss the ‘Rolex’ box in the hand luggage, and immediately asked for the receipt.
“I don’t have it”, replied the Roman, and after seeing the very serious expression of his interlocutor he clarified: “I just won it in the 24 hours, it’s the Daytona reserved for winners”. Handshake, congratulations, and off to boarding.
Despite two sleepless nights and the long journey that brought him back to Europe, ‘Gimmi’ enthusiasm is sky high, and it couldn’t be otherwise after a victory obtained in the sprint by just 16 thousandths of a second.
After four successes at Le Mans, he can now finally put the American classic in his palmares, a victory obtained at the wheel of the Oreca LMP2 of the Proton Competition team together with James Allen, the 58-year-old gentleman Fred Poordad and the very young Francesco Pizzi.
Just an accident that happened to the eighteen-year-old Roman, in his first experience not only at Daytona but in the Endurance world, forced the team to change plans, a story that Bruni himself tells.
#55 Proton Competition ORECA LMP2 07: Fred Poordad, James Allen, Giammaria Bruni, Francesco Pizzi
Photo by: Richard Dole / Motorsport Images
“Before the route I had many doubts. After Pizzi’s accident on Thursday, the team literally had to rebuild the car, the mechanics slept three hours a night and late Saturday morning they were still fighting against the clock to be ready.”
“I have a photo taken at 11.45 in which the car is still without the gearbox and with all the set-up work to start. Then on Friday they brought us another not the best news”.
Or?
“Because of the accident we were unable to take part in the night session, so Francesco, having never raced before, was not allowed to drive in the time slot from 6pm to 7am the following morning. To have the qualification you need to cover at least three laps launched in the evening free practice session, but our car was destroyed. At Le Mans this slot is six hours while at Daytona it is thirteen, so we had to review all the plans.”
Fred Poordad has been called to overtime…
“Initially he was only supposed to drive four hours during the day, but Allen and I asked him if he felt like doing some night shifts, and he agreed. It’s not easy with the LMP2, because you have to pass about ten GTs in each lap, you’re always under tension, then you have to manage the cold tires, a real trick at night. I said: ‘Fred, when you come out of the pits at a crawl, don’t forget!’. He ran into Castroneves’ mistake, but Fred didn’t, he was very good ”.
#55 Proton Competition ORECA LMP2 07: Fred Poordad, James Allen, Giammaria Bruni, Francesco Pizzi
Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images
Pizzi then made it up to you…
“He’s a great guy who I know well. When it emerged that he couldn’t run during the night, I told him: ‘Go back to the hotel, rest and come back fully charged tomorrow’. And so he did, he was very good, his contribution was decisive. After the race I reminded him that despite having entered the roll of honor of the 24 Hours of Daytona he is not yet qualified to race in the night slot, so if he comes back here next year he will have to complete the fateful three laps in the tests of the Thursday! The rule is clear.”
When did you realize that there could be a chance to aim for victory?
“Before leaving, I thought it was impossible to do well. I was worried about reliability, as the car has been rebuilt, and we had done very little lap. To give you an idea, we hadn’t had the opportunity to try the driver change as well, because after the accident on Thursday the car was ready again just before the start. But we took everything calmly, and when the race started I saw that we were always in the Top4 with good speed on the straight, and with the latest Safety Cars, the whole remaining group compacted”.
Where did you see the final laps?
“After my session I went to turn 3 a bit. Then for the last few laps I went back to the pits, I saw that we were very fast on the straight, the lap before the checkered flag Allen had passed Hanley then he slipped back into second place, but always staying very close. I said to myself: if in the last lap he comes out again in the same way, he passes. Hanley is an expert, he did the 500 miles, and I was afraid he would close it, but it didn’t happen. In the back podium he then explained to me that coming out of the last corner he pinched the limiter losing a bit of speed, and when it comes to thousandths that becomes crucial ”.
#55 Proton Competition ORECA LMP2 07: Fred Poordad, James Allen, Giammaria Bruni, Francesco Pizzi
Photo by: Art Fleischmann
Did you take a load off?
“To think that I took part in Daytona with Ferrari and Porsche, and even though we prepared everything in the best possible way, in the end we always had unexpected events, something always happened. In the end I did it in a year in which the car was still disassembled three hours before the start, in a car with which I only completed twenty laps in free practice and with a team that was in its first experience in Endurance after thirty years in GT”.
Now a little rest, then?
“No rest actually, today my bike awaits me! I will continue with Proton, it is a group that I really like, highly professional people in a very familiar context. The participation in Daytona and a few races in the ELMS series were supposed to be a sort of dress rehearsal for the team in view of the arrival of the Porsche LMDh expected in June, but in the meantime the victory at Daytona arrived! Now we hope that Porsche will deliver the car to us between May and June, so that we can be on track starting from the Monza race, that would be the right place to start this cycle”.
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