Daly Learning “Totally Different Driving Style” in GT3

Conor Daly says he has had to adapt to a different style of racing joining Random Vandals Racing for Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS, describing the BMW M4 GT3 as “a fun car to race” ahead of his Indianapolis 8 Hour debut.

The Indiana native will pilot the No. 99 BMW alongside team regular Kenton Koch and BMW factory driver Connor De Phillippi for Saturday’s eight-hour race, which serves as the season finale for both Fanatec GT America as well as the Intercontinental GT Challenge.

Daly made his racing debut at the wheel of the BMW during the penultimate round of the season at Barber Motorsports Park, notably leading a chunk of Race 2 before a late unplanned fuel stop cost the team a likely win.

While the 32-year-old is best known for his exploits in the NTT IndyCar Series, taking part in more than 100 races since 2013, he has some degree of sports car racing experience.

He holds eight race starts in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s LMPC class with RSR Racing, Performance Tech Motorsports and Starworks Motorsport, most notably competing in the Rolex 24 at Daytona twice and finishing on the podium in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.

Additionally, he did a season of Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America with Precision Performance Motorsports in 2019.

Even with that experience, Daly admits that the challenge of competing in GT3 has required a significant amount of adaptation compared to his single-seater roots.

“Honestly, it’s just a totally different driving style,” Daly told Sportscar365.

“I’m glad we got to do some testing. We did a test at VIR, and we tested here. Because it does take time to adjust using the ABS, using the traction control.

“The way you attack the corners is much different because of the way the car stops and because of the the weight transfer.

“That takes a little bit of time, like it took me a little bit of time in the Super Trofeo.

“Definitely I’m glad we got some testing in because once we got at least like a day or two in, then I could finally be at the same times as Kenton and Connor and we were all kind of similar.

“Then once we got to Barber, it was a good race for us there. Obviously we should have won one race there, which I assume means that we’ve done a good job.”

In addition to adapting to the driver characteristics of the heavier, closed-cockpit GT3 car, Daly said the style of racing also took some getting used to.

“It is interesting because it’s quite high-tech and it’s very nice inside,” he said.

“There’s air conditioning and traction control and all kinds of flashy lights and stuff, but a fun car to race I would say.

“At Barber, that was the first time in a long time where for an entire stint there was just a car directly behind me and a car directly in front of me.

“In IndyCar sometimes, it just kind of spreads out. You wear out your tires [faster] than others, but [here] really the whole time you’ve got to be on it.

“You’ve got to be defensive, you’ve got to be on the attack mode getting through traffic and stuff like that so it’s kind of cool.

“Definitely, the toughest part is the fact that everyone can brake at the same point because everyone’s got ABS. That becomes more challenging.

“For sure that’s kind of tough, especially when you’re trying to navigate through traffic. But it is what it is.

“You’ve got to work with it. It makes it tougher, but motorsport has never been easy so you’ve just got to do it.”