Chamberlain Motorsport, with their Chrysler
Viper GTS-R, were the only British team to participate in the Rolex 24 at Daytona 1999.
Car number 81 was driven by:
Christian Glasel, Germany
Brian Hornkohl, America
Chris Gleason, America
John Hugenholtz, Holland
Qualifying took place on Thursday 28th & Friday 29th January. John Hugenholtz
qualified the car with a time of 1 min 54.9 secs. This put Chamberlain 32nd on the
grid, 9th in GT2. Following qualifying, a new race engine was fitted.
Chris Gleason started the race and things progressed relatively smoothly with driver
changes aproximately every hour during daylight. Chris Gleason brought the car into
the pits on lap 114 after being hit by one of the Porsches. The car was hit on the
front left hand side. The left hand front wheel was changed and the brakes bled before
sending the car back out.
On lap 196, with Christian Glasel driving, the car stopped out on the circuit and was subsequently towed back to the garage. It was found that the battery was flat due to an alternator failure. The alternator was replaced and the team took the opportunity to replace the front brake discs, pads and the air filters before sending the car back out driven by Brian Hornkohl.
On lap 219 the car was hit in the rear and brought into the pits for any damage to be assessed. Fortunately it was only minor bodywork damage and, after changing tyres and refueling the car was then sent back out.
Things progressed smoothly from then on. John Hugenholtz had a spin on lap 265 which this caused no problems but, on lap 296 and after 1053 miles, Chris Gleason lost control of the car and ended up spinning backwards into a tyre wall at speed. He managed to bring the car back to the pits but the damage was extensive and it was necessary to retire the car.
Hugh Chamberlain, Managing Director says "it was a good start to our season although we had a little bad luck. The car, team and drivers worked well and its a good sign for the season ahead. We are looking forward to the FIA GT series opener in April."
