Daytona 24 Winner Malthe Jakobsen Back in Action in Dubai
LMP2 Win For Young Dane in Florida last Weekend
Two time Asian Le Mans Series Champion Malthe Jakobsen added another important trophy to his collection when he stood on the top step of the LMP2 podium at the end of the Rolex 24 at Daytona last weekend alongside his Crowdstrike Racing by APR teammates George Kurtz, Alex Quinn and Toby Sowery.
The no4 Crowdstrike Racing by APR Oreca-Gibson is back in action this weekend in the 4 Hours of Dubai, with fellow Daytona winner George Kurtz joining the 22-year-old Dane and Switzerland’s Louis Deletraz, who finished 6th in the top GTP class. Alex Quinn is also back in the ALMS this weekend, competing against his fellow Daytona winners in LMP2 for Nielsen Racing.
We caught up with a very happy Malthe Jakobsen to talk about the win in Daytona and to look forward to this weekend’s two races in Dubai after securing two podiums in Sepang last month.
“I think it's the biggest win of my career yet. I don’t want to talk down the ELMS and Asian Le Mans Series, but it's a 24-hour race, and it's definitely, by far, the biggest race I've won. After the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Daytona is probably the biggest in endurance racing and a very special one.
“Obviously, it's still a class win, it's not the overall victory, but to be able to do it in a prototype category is still special.”
Sepang saw two podiums for the no4 Crowdstrike Racing by APR crew, what was Jakobsen’s thoughts on the performance in Malaysia?
“We were very happy with the results in Sepang, and I think that's been part of the how to stay positive leading into the Daytona race as well. Obviously, we wanted a bit more out of it. I think we could have relatively easily finished second in one of them, but it's still solid points, and it's a long championship with very competitive grid this year. So, it's all about collecting the points.
With four races to go, is it too early to be thinking of the championship?
“We have 16 cars on the grid, so it’s very easy you could have one bad race; not even that you need to have a DNF but just by having no pace, you could actually finish outside of the top 10, and all of a sudden you score zero points. So, it's very important to be consistent and collect all the points that's possible.”
“Obviously, after Daytona, it's a huge motivation going into those next couple of weeks here in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and we're going to try to win the ALMS title for the third time.”
And what about the track at the Dubai Autodrome?
“The main thing here in Abu Dhabi are the bumps. It's a bit like Sebring, to be fair, especially all the braking zones into T1 the end of the straight, the hairpin at the end of the back straight, and then T14 as well. So, I think the tyre degradation, because the surface is very old and rough, is probably one of the key things to be paying attention to.
“If I had to mention a favourite corner, it would probably be T3 and T4, the long right hander, which, on a perfect lap, you can nail flat out, and that's kind of cool.”
