British racer Calum Lockie claimed a finish in the Rolex 24-hour at Daytona (25/26 January) after a challenging race in The Racer’s Group Aston Martin V12 Vantage in the GTD category.Calum and his team mates were aiming for a top 10 finish in the very strong category, but two problems in the race cost them many laps and left them racing for a finish over the second half of the race. Support for the race came from Ferrari racer David Mason OBE from MacConnal-Mason Gallery, which specialises in fine paintings. “It was just brilliant to be back at Daytona,” said Calum ahead of his 17th 24-hour race. “The guys put a new engine, new gearbox and four new corners on the car in the build up to the race. They just did a brilliant job and it looked fantastic when they put it all back together.“We got going with testing, but there was just so little time before the race. I only got 10 or 11 laps before qualifying and I thought it was the better idea to let Jonny Adam do qualifying because he’d had so much time in the car. He qualified us 11th out of the 29 in our class. Then there were a couple of post-qualifying technical infringements, so we were promoted to ninth.”Adam duly made a good start to run in the top 10 but then a little gearbox niggle developed in the first stint. “I then did the second stint but then there was a huge shunt and I spent a long time sitting in the car after the red flag. We were stationery for about 45 minutes.“It was now going towards the evening and we were working with spotters, which was a first for me. They were reporting a bit of smoke from the car, but I couldn’t smell or see anything. We carried on for a couple of laps and then going through Turn 4, the fifth-gear kink onto the infield at about 130mph, I had a right front puncture and simultaneous power steering failure. It just wouldn’t make the corner and I ran off onto the grass. I managed to slow it down and get back to the pits all in one piece.“The puncture was probably caused by debris from the earlier shunt and the power steering hose had burnt through on the exhaust. Once that was replaced we were running 14 laps down, but certainly not out of the mix. “But after midnight a downshift issue developed, and at the speeds we were doing you really need the downshift to get it stopped from 190mph coming off the oval. The car went back to the garage and the guys worked away to rectify the problem. I eventually went back out and the gearbox was perfect.“By then we were 145 laps down and just concentrated on getting it to the finish. I did the last 45 minutes and ran to the flag. It was really nice to see the flag at Daytona because I’ve never been in the car at the finish. That was really cool! The whole team put such a massive effort in and didn’t get the reward, but we did finish. Big thanks are due to Kevin Buckler and his team for all their hard work.”Trade support for Calum Lockie comes from Grand Prix Racewear, Dunlop, Miller Oils, Brian James Trailers, VBox, Quaife and Porsche Centre Silverstone.