Racer Cory Friedman has put his hands to the steering wheel of a number of Porsche’s greatest race cars over the years, but he may have had the best drive of his life at Daytona during last month’s season-ender PCA Club Racing event. He normally races a 2015 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, and in fact had already qualified quite high for this GTA3 class event, but when Shannon Herford offered Friedman the chance to race the ex-Ben Barker and Andrew Baker Gulf Racing UK GT3 R used in the Road To Le Mans series of events, he jumped at the chance. Even if that meant throwing away his qualifying time and starting from dead last on the 43 car grid.
Now, in order to retain his lead in the points championship, Friedman needed to finish in second place. Luckily the GT3 R has significantly more power, aero, and grip than the Cayman GT4s and GT3 Cups found throughout the GTA3 class, which allowed him to make some pretty slick maneuvers. When you have more grip and a higher top speed than the competition, Daytona is exactly the place you want to be. The first few laps are like playing Forza on easy, as he patiently tiptoes through the scrum. Once the pack starts to spread out, however, you can see his focus change to more long-range racing. Setting up passes strategically to cause the least damage to his lap times.
The 16 lap sprint has Friedman passing an average of 2.5 cars per lap. And that doesn’t include lapped traffic!
Settle in, because this 10,000 RPM 170 MPH romp is a classic for the ages. Check it out.
