McNish: Hungry for Daytona success

Allan McNish is back at the Daytona 24 Hours after four years away. There's no surprise there, perhaps, given the dusting of star names right through the entry list. Except if you were present for his parting statement back in 2008: "If I ever talk about coming back to Daytona, please shoot me."

The Audi driver, who is making his return in the lead Starworks Riley-Ford Daytona Prototype, didn't have a great time on the last of his six appearances at the 24 Hours. There were any number of reasons why it wasn't a great experience for him, not least that the SAMAX Riley he was driving wasn't fully competitive, was beset by problems through the race and went out early with engine failure.

That disappointment was quickly forgotten, McNish now reveals. So much so that he has signed up with the same team owner he drove for in '08. Peter Baron returned to team ownership with Starworks in 2010 after a year on the sidelines in the wake of the demise of SAMAX.

"I subsequently found out after Daytona in 2008 that a lot of the things that happened that shouldn't have happened weren't Peter's fault," explains McNish.

McNish last attempted the Daytona classic in 2008 with SAMAX... © LAT

"I've actually been quite close to doing the race a couple of times since, including with Krohn Racing one year."

The reason he hasn't made it back to the Daytona International Speedway since is more down to scheduling than anything else.

"The race has always clashed with something, either an Audi test or our pre-season training camp," he says. "I just haven't been free to do the race."

The call to return to Daytona came from fellow Scot Ryan Dalziel, who will be racing for Starworks over the full Grand-Am season in 2012, and stole a march on the rest of the field by taking pole position during qualifying on Thursday.

"We ran into each other at a Scottish Motor Racing Club event in December and it just so happened that my schedule had been freed up a few days before," recalls McNish. "He asked me if I was interested, and it went from there."

McNish hasn't found himself a berth in one of the pre-race favourites, but he concedes that was never going to be possible.

"Ganassi are always the favourites; you only have to look at their record at Daytona. Think back a couple of years ago, they were able to change gear ratios in the race, and they still came back and won," he says. "As an Audi driver I can't drive a car with a BMW engine for obvious reasons. Racing a Chevrolet-engined car would also be a bit difficult, which only leaves Ford."

McNish is happy that Baron will this time given him a more competitive car than in 2008.

...but returns this weekend with the Starworks squad - and starts on pole too

"It's a different team these days," says McNish, who points out that there will be a few familiar faces in his pit from his successful campaigns in the American Le Mans Series in 2006-07. "There are actually quite a few guys who moved across from Champion Racing when it closed down."

McNish is going into the 50th anniversary Daytona 24 Hours with realistic aspirations. He admits that he would be happy with a podium, but knows that anything is possible.

"The nature of the race with all the yellow flags means that a lot of cars can remain on the lead lap right to the end," he says. "If you are one of the five or six cars in that group going into the final hour, you have a chance."

McNish doesn't seem too concerned about the presence of two non-professional drivers in his Starworks entry. Along with Dalziel and former Audi team-mate Lucas Luhr, he shares the team's brand-new Riley DPG3 MkXXVI with Venezuelans Enzo Potolicchio and Alex Popow.

"No bullshit, I was very impressed with them when we tested, especially Enzo," he says. "It would be wrong to classify either of them as gentleman or amateur drivers. They are much more serious than that."

McNish has mixed emotions about the Daytona Prototype class.

"I don't enjoy driving the cars the same, but I do enjoy racing them," he says. "Pulling a lap out of a Daytona Prototype isn't as satisfying as pulling a lap out of an Audi R18, but when you are out there racing, there's no difference. You don't think about it, and the racing is very close in Grand-Am."

So he doesn't like the cars and admits that he's probably not going to win the race, so why is McNish competing at Daytona again? He admits that a significant part of the motivation for his return was to get some all-important racing miles under his belt before the start of the new FIA World Endurance Championship at the Sebring 12 Hours in March.

McNish intends to use Daytona as a warm-up for his WEC season with Audi © LAT

"It is a brilliant way to blow the winter cobwebs away," he explains. "It will get me into the racing mindset ahead of Sebring. We are now racing for a world championship, so it will be important to make a good start. I want to be as sharp as possible when I get there.

"Daytona is an excellent warm-up. You get a lot of miles and you are having to deal with traffic all the time. That's going to be the case at Sebring as well, with 64 cars starting the race."

There's also the little matter of the Rolex Daytona timepiece awarded to each of the overall and class winners of the race by the event sponsor. McNish claimed a class victory with his second-place overall on his Daytona debut back in 1998 at the start of his first full season as a Porsche factory driver. That was one year before the practice of giving class winners a watch was instigated by Rolex.

McNish desperately wanted one a dozen or so years ago, which goes some of the way to explaining his presence at Daytona with the Risi Ferrari team in 1999-2001. These days, he says he's not too fussed because he was given one of the watches for his second Le Mans 24 Hours victory in 2008.

With a watch would come a much bigger accolade. McNish would join the select group of drivers who have claimed overall victory in the 24-hour enduros at Le Mans and Daytona and the Sebring 12 Hours. So far only nine drivers are members of that exclusive club.

"I didn't realise it was so few," he says. "It would be fantastic to win Daytona, but I won't lose any sleep over it if I don't."

McNish has bigger fish to fry in 2012. He wants to become a world champion and he reckons racing in the Daytona 24 Hours can help him on his way.