Second Straight GTD Pro Win “The Big Aim” for Engel, Gounon

Maro Engel says it’s “the big aim” for he and Jules Gounon to secure a second consecutive GTD Pro class win at the Rolex 24 at Daytona after last year’s triumph with WeatherTech Racing.

The pair of Mercedes-AMG factory drivers took top honors in the class twelve months ago alongside Cooper MacNeil and Daniel Juncadella and have remained together even as they move to a different team.

As first reported by Sportscar365, Engel and Gounon join Luca Stolz and Bronze-rated team owner/driver Kenny Habul aboard the No. 75 SunEnergy1 Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.

The 75 Express stable, which runs the SunEnergy1 car, debuts in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship this weekend after previously racing in the Lenovo Gulf 12 Hours and was the only GTD Pro entry at Daytona with a Bronze driver until the No. 60 Iron Lynx Lamborghini moved classes last week.

Even amidst the WeatherTech Championship’s expanded GTD Pro class, which has grown to 13 entries compared to ten a year ago, Engel maintains that the goal for the team is to give Mercedes-AMG a second straight class win.

“Obviously, that’s the big aim,” Engel told Sportscar365.

“We feel like Kenny’s put together a really strong package with Jules, Luca, Kenny and myself on the car. Very experienced engineer and, mechanics on the car who know the Mercedes-AMG GT3 really well and have a proven track record and we feel like we’ve put together a very strong team.

“We’ll have to wait and see sort of how the week pans out, plays out, how competitive we are. Obviously, IMSA did put in place a new Balance of Performance process.

“So we’ll have to see, I think after the race, just to really see how well it worked. In the lead up, obviously, from our side, we’ll have to wait and see. We’ve got to prepare as well as we can do.”

Gounon added: “I just like the way [Kenny] does it, which is all in, no matter what. Also as a driver, every time you go in the car and if we are fighting, he would tell you, ‘Look, if you crash, it’s win it or bin it.’

“This is a good feeling because when you are fighting for such big races and you are not in play for the championship, where some other car can win the championship, like Daytona is so important in term of points, that sometimes it gives you a little extra to know that your team boss, no matter what, will back you up and you can go all in, which is cool.”

Even with Habul’s Bronze-rated status, Engel and Gounon agree that the No. 75 Mercedes-AMG will be a serious player, both because of the U.S.-based Australian’s speed as a Bronze-rated driver and the nature of WeatherTech Championship races.

“First of all, Kenny is one of the strongest amateurs in the world,” Engel said.

“He’s proven that. Especially around here in Daytona, I have to say, he’s been very impressive. So I do expect him to have good, strong pace.

“Obviously, it’s a big task up against the best pros in the world in the GTD Pro class in general. We can surely expect Kenny to get his drive time in early and it’s going to be a long race, [and] going to be an open race.

“As we know, IMSA racing is always really exciting until the finish, so it might not be decided until the very last lap.

“Last year we managed to pull it off with Cooper MacNeil. He’s obviously Silver graded, but I would say not too dissimilar [of a] scenario. That’s the aim, to do that again.”

Gounon pointed to a concrete example, his 2017 defeat to Alegra Motorsports while driving for Montaplast by Land-Motorsport, as proof that Daytona can sometimes produce surprises.

“I remember we finished second in GTD with Connor De Phillippi, Christopher Mies and Jeffrey Schmidt against the De Quesada Porsche, with Michael Christensen,” Gounon said.

“They won, we finished second at two-tenths [short]. But at one point in the race I remember seeing that Porsche [multiple] laps down and I was like, ‘Yeah, whatever, they are done.’

“They recovered laps from the cautions and they won the race at the end, so it shows this race is never done.

“Also compared to Spa, Le Mans and so on, where if you have a small issue, you are done, here it’s not like that, you never give up and sometimes you’re back where you really didn’t expect to be. Which is unusual.”