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GRAND-AM
GRAND-AM: Conquest P2 Car Completes Daytona Test
Martin Plowman turns historic first laps around Daytona International Speedway in modern-day Le Mans Prototype...
Martin Plowman turned his first laps around Daytona International Speedway Tuesday in Conquest's Morgan-Nissan P2 car. (Photo: Brian Cleary/GRAND-AM)
While 20 cars from the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series were on hand testing, the star of the show Tuesday at Daytona International Speedway was a lone P2 car from the American Le Mans Series, which took part in a historic first test on the Florida high banks.
Conquest Endurance rolled into the paddock, unloaded its Morgan-Nissan and went to work this morning, with Martin Plowman handling driving duties of the ACO-compliant prototype contender.
It marked the first public test between ALMS and GRAND-AM cars, which are set to merge into a single sports car championship in 2014.
“We were like the black sheep of the paddock,” Plowman told SPEED.com. “It seemed that everybody came over and was staring at us. I guess I now know what it was like to be the DeltaWing at Road Atlanta! Everybody was just so curious.”
With the majority of the paddock looking on in anticipation, Plowman completed more than 50 laps between the morning and afternoon sessions, setting an unofficial best time of 1:40.569. It was unofficially 0.765 seconds faster than Joao Barbosa’s Action Express Racing Corvette, which set the pace among the Daytona Prototypes in action.
Tuesday’s test, however, was not about finding the full potential or outright speed of the P2 car, but rather going through a checklist of verifications, according to Richard Buck, GRAND-AM’s managing director of competition.
“This was really a test of the validation of the simulation information,” Buck explained. “We've got a lot of instrumentation on the car and some different configurations. This was absolutely not a comparison test; we're not looking at speed or anything.
“We've put a pretty rigid plan in place coming here and have not had to deviate from it from any unknowns. That in itself is pretty good. We're very pleased with the simulation and data we have and the direction we're headed.”
Running in the Morgan’s high-downforce package used in the ALMS (minus front diveplanes), Plowman and the team concentrated on adapting the cost-capped prototype to Continental’s Daytona Prototype-spec tire in the morning, before being able to fine-tune the car in the afternoon, where the quickest laps were set.
“The entire morning, we were working on the setup of the car and adapting the setup to the tires,” Plowman explained. “We worked pretty hard and ended up with a very, very different setup than what we ran all year. But after lunch time, we were 95 percent happy with the car and were getting down to the nitty gritty of getting it down to the last three or four tenths.”
Despite some initial concern over the adaptation to the GRAND-AM spec tire, both Plowman and team owner Eric Bachelart praised the Continental DP rubber, which held up better than expected and didn’t provide significant drop-off in grip.
“The tires performed beautifully,” Bachelart said. “They were very consistent and we could do a lot of changes on the chassis. The car responded very well to the changes and the track was very consistent so we could read the changes very well.”
While Tuesday marked a major step in the unification process, it also saw the first public display of officials and representatives from GRAND-AM and ALMS working together.
Buck indicated additional tests could be planned in the future, while it remains their objective to announce the 2014 class structure by the end of this year.
“It's a big family [now],” Bachelart said of ALMS and GRAND-AM. “We got a really good welcome from all the guys at GRAND-AM here. It's been a very nice collaboration between everybody. We're all working towards the same direction.
“There was a mix of people from Continental and GRAND-AM and ALMS. It was very interesting to see. GRAND-AM showed the car to all of their safety guys. It's very exciting to be in Daytona here with an LMP2 car.”
Plowman added: “I'm positive that they're going to make solutions and everyone's going to be happy with it and it's going to be a strong series. There's still a lot of questions to be answered but... we have to trust in the management and the way they are going to see this out. Hopefully I'll be there driving one of those cars in the future.”
While Conquest's test wrapped up Tuesday, Rolex Series teams will continue tomorrow for the second and final day, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET.
John Dagys is SPEED.com’s Sportscar Racing Reporter, focusing on all major domestic and international championships. You can follow him on Twitter @johndagys or email him at
Conquest Endurance rolled into the paddock, unloaded its Morgan-Nissan and went to work this morning, with Martin Plowman handling driving duties of the ACO-compliant prototype contender.
It marked the first public test between ALMS and GRAND-AM cars, which are set to merge into a single sports car championship in 2014.
“We were like the black sheep of the paddock,” Plowman told SPEED.com. “It seemed that everybody came over and was staring at us. I guess I now know what it was like to be the DeltaWing at Road Atlanta! Everybody was just so curious.”
With the majority of the paddock looking on in anticipation, Plowman completed more than 50 laps between the morning and afternoon sessions, setting an unofficial best time of 1:40.569. It was unofficially 0.765 seconds faster than Joao Barbosa’s Action Express Racing Corvette, which set the pace among the Daytona Prototypes in action.
Tuesday’s test, however, was not about finding the full potential or outright speed of the P2 car, but rather going through a checklist of verifications, according to Richard Buck, GRAND-AM’s managing director of competition.
“This was really a test of the validation of the simulation information,” Buck explained. “We've got a lot of instrumentation on the car and some different configurations. This was absolutely not a comparison test; we're not looking at speed or anything.
“We've put a pretty rigid plan in place coming here and have not had to deviate from it from any unknowns. That in itself is pretty good. We're very pleased with the simulation and data we have and the direction we're headed.”
Running in the Morgan’s high-downforce package used in the ALMS (minus front diveplanes), Plowman and the team concentrated on adapting the cost-capped prototype to Continental’s Daytona Prototype-spec tire in the morning, before being able to fine-tune the car in the afternoon, where the quickest laps were set.
“The entire morning, we were working on the setup of the car and adapting the setup to the tires,” Plowman explained. “We worked pretty hard and ended up with a very, very different setup than what we ran all year. But after lunch time, we were 95 percent happy with the car and were getting down to the nitty gritty of getting it down to the last three or four tenths.”
Despite some initial concern over the adaptation to the GRAND-AM spec tire, both Plowman and team owner Eric Bachelart praised the Continental DP rubber, which held up better than expected and didn’t provide significant drop-off in grip.
“The tires performed beautifully,” Bachelart said. “They were very consistent and we could do a lot of changes on the chassis. The car responded very well to the changes and the track was very consistent so we could read the changes very well.”
While Tuesday marked a major step in the unification process, it also saw the first public display of officials and representatives from GRAND-AM and ALMS working together.
Buck indicated additional tests could be planned in the future, while it remains their objective to announce the 2014 class structure by the end of this year.
“It's a big family [now],” Bachelart said of ALMS and GRAND-AM. “We got a really good welcome from all the guys at GRAND-AM here. It's been a very nice collaboration between everybody. We're all working towards the same direction.
“There was a mix of people from Continental and GRAND-AM and ALMS. It was very interesting to see. GRAND-AM showed the car to all of their safety guys. It's very exciting to be in Daytona here with an LMP2 car.”
Plowman added: “I'm positive that they're going to make solutions and everyone's going to be happy with it and it's going to be a strong series. There's still a lot of questions to be answered but... we have to trust in the management and the way they are going to see this out. Hopefully I'll be there driving one of those cars in the future.”
While Conquest's test wrapped up Tuesday, Rolex Series teams will continue tomorrow for the second and final day, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET.
John Dagys is SPEED.com’s Sportscar Racing Reporter, focusing on all major domestic and international championships. You can follow him on Twitter @johndagys or email him at
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