DAYTONA DRIVER’S BLOG: RYAN EVERSLEY

Success! I ended up crossing the line in third after a big battle with a Nissan and a BMW. Starting off the season with a podium is not bad and really good for the championship for Kyle Gimple and I.

As the banking flattens out after NASCAR turn 4 I swung to the outside but so did the BMW, I immediately reacted to the block by going low but was met by the 81's bumper again and that killed the run I had. We crossed the line 2nd and 3rd (out of 36) nose to tail separated by 1 tenth of a second. Really close!

Any day that finishes with you in victory lane at Daytona is a good day!

I don't believe we are allowed to block but Greg's a buddy of mine and was just trying to keep me back there on the last lap and I wasn't gonna wreck him for 2nd place. At least not in the first race of the year. Mostly joking!

This was Kyle's first race with C360R and he did a great job. If he keeps qualifying and racing like this, I think we'll be on more podiums in 2013 for sure.

All kidding aside I'm really happy with how our team performed in the midst of running 5 cars and having a driver get sent to the hospital we still managed to get 3 cars into the top 10 and Kyle Gimple,my co driver, got his first Grand-Am podium!  We now head to Austin for our 2nd of 11 races and I  have the most points that I've ever had after the first race!

The Daytona weekend was amazing - and this wasn't the only time I got to be on the podium. Stay tuned for my next blog to see why!

Stay tuned for the next installment where I'll go over the Rolex 24 hour side of the weekend. Cheers!

This blog was originally published on the MotoIQ website.