Slipstream Autosport's esport team shocked the world by winning the iRacing 7am GMT top split Daytona 24 Hour event on debut.
The 2024 special events on iRacing kicked off with the Daytona 24 Hour. Over 100,000 drivers tried to win this race. Our team competed in the 7am GMT top split, with a driver line up of Josh Purwien, James Paschalis, Tom Katsidonis, Ivan Vantagiato plus reserve driver Alex Spinozzi.
Tom Katsidonis qualified the team then drove the first three hours, setting a consistent pace. Those first three hours were tough. Early contact twice saw us finish the opening hour in 14th place, a long way off the leaders.
Over the next eight hours James and Josh put in a faultless performance to bring us back into contention, at one stage running third. At 5am Adelaide time Ivan Vantagiato took the wheel of the Slipstream Autosport Porsche GT3, holding a consistent pace until lap 437, where it went wrong. With GTP cars lapping him he moved to the inside but did not see a car coming out of the pits. The crash cost over three minutes of repairs, dropping us two laps down and back to fifth.
The team worked its way back. With an hour to go we were third again, which would already have been an achievement worth having. Then with 55 minutes left the leading car crashed, taking a pitstop that dropped it to fifth.
The new leader was more than 30 seconds up the road. It was brilliant work by Josh Purwien in the final stint that reeled that gap in and won the race.
It was the most epic final 55 minutes of an endurance race any of us have been part of. We cannot wait to see what this team does at future events.
