Derani Was “Having Fun” Testing DXDT Corvette in Daytona

Pipo Derani says he was “having fun” testing DXDT Racing’s new IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship-bound Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R at last weekend’s sanctioned test at Daytona International Speedway after the Brazilian sports car star made a surprise appearance to turn laps for the team.

Derani, whose future racing plans have yet to be announced, told Sportscar365 that his test with the David Askew-led team came about as a result of his relationship with DXDT general manager Erin Gahagan, with whom he worked closely with at the now-defunct Tequila Patron ESM.

Gahagan previously worked as team manager for the Patron-backed Extreme Speed Motorsports team, while Derani spent time piloting both the American squad’s LMP2 and Nissan Onroak DPi cars in the FIA World Endurance Championship and WeatherTech Championship before joining Action Express Racing in 2019.

“At the moment, I’m just having fun in a test with Erin,” Derani told Sportscar365. “Erin used to work at Patron and I’ve always kept in contact with her and we’ve always gotten along very well, so she invited me for the test and I was happy to come.

“At the moment, it’s just a test. It was something that I wanted to do, to get back into a car that Erin was involved with, and so she made it happen.”

Sharing the car with the team’s recently-announced Michelin Endurance Cup GTD drivers Salih Yoluc, Charlie Eastwood and Alec Udell, the two-time IMSA champion set DXDT’s best lap time across the five allotted test sessions for GTD and GTD Pro cars.

“It’s nice to get my feet in a GT car,” said Derani. “I haven’t done it in a while, so it’s nice to have a taste of the other side of the spectrum.

“[It was] nice to take myself out of my comfort zone and try something different and change the way you drive and the driving style to adapt to something new.”

Despite not having competed in GT machinery since driving in Risi Competizione’s Ferrari 488 GTE Evo at the 2019 24 Hours of Le Mans, Derani said he felt ‘good’ during his laps aboard the Pratt Miller-built GT3 car.

“The car is actually very good,” he said. “I was positively surprised with how the car reacts to changes and how many changes we made. The car actually gives good feedback.

“The ABS is actually quite good. The way you work with the brakes, it’s very different to [a] prototype, but I was expecting it to be harder to adapt to the ABS since I hadn’t driven [a GT car] in five years’ time or more, but everything was smooth, and it’s quite nice.”

Derani was also complimentary of DXDT’s efforts in preparation for its upcoming IMSA GTD class debut after a breakout season in Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS, which saw eight consecutive Pro class victories en route to a second-place points finish for Udell and Tommy Milner, despite not completing the full season.

“The whole group here, they are a really good and solid team,” he said. “
They’ve shown so much performance in SRO this last year, winning eight races in a row.”

“So it’s quite nice that I was able to come here at this test and see how they operate. Despite being a small team, it’s very well run and I’m positively surprised with the operation.”