ENDURO ELITE 4: Eight Hours to Victory

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Sunday at Shannonville Motorsports Park could hardly have looked more different. Saturday’s bright sunshine and oppressive heat had vanished beneath a solid blanket of grey cloud, while weather radar showed a massive storm marching east from Windsor toward Belleville.

Before the cars even rolled, DriveTeq team principal Rick made his position clear: the No. 822 could win this race.

The reason was bolted onto the BMW.

A fresh set of Bridgestone Potenza RE-71RS “R-compound” tires had transformed sister car No. 821 on Saturday, and the team believed they could finally unlock the speed missing from ‘Marilyn.’ This time Daniel Demaras would take the green flag, tasked with immediately pressuring Saturday’s dominant Porsche 911 and forcing its driver either into a mistake or a GT1 breakout.

Starting sixth, Daniel wasted no time. Approaching Turn 1, he dove inside and grabbed three positions in one move. At Turn 2 he attacked the RC Racing Subaru BRZ and took another place. The No. 821 tried to follow him through, but the gap vanished at the apex and contact followed. Two corners into the opening lap of an eight-hour endurance race, the action was already getting considerably more aggressive than anyone might have expected.

By the end of Lap 1, the No. 822 was already filling the mirrors of the green Porsche. At Turn 4 Daniel launched another attack, slipped inside and took the overall lead. Then he disappeared. With clear track ahead, the BMW consistently circulated in the 1:59 range without breaking out of GT1.

By Lap 10, Daniel had reached the tail of the field and began carving through slower GT3 traffic.

What followed was one of the most dominant stints DriveTeq had produced all season.

After roughly an hour, Daniel caught the Porsche that had seemed untouchable only 24 hours earlier. With his family watching from pit lane, he passed it through the Turn 13-14 complex and put Saturday’s winner a full lap down. Before his 1-hour, 45-minute stint ended, Daniel also lapped the second-place Audi TT.

Then came the rain. DriveTeq executed the first driver change with choreographed efficiency, putting Erik into the BMW and filling the tank with high-octane fuel. The stop was quick enough that the No. 822 returned to the circuit two laps ahead of its nearest rival.

Moments later, the approaching storm finally reached Shannonville and transformed the race yet again.

Rain is motorsport’s great equalizer, reducing grip and changing the circuit from one lap to the next. The conventional racing line can become treacherous, standing water appears without warning, and every braking zone carries consequences

Yet Erik, Anthony and George handled the worsening conditions with remarkable consistency. Rather than merely protecting Daniel’s early advantage, they continued building it through pace, discipline and clean pit work.

There would be no sandbagging and no cruising toward the finish. Everyone remembered Mosport, where a late tire failure had nearly erased an enormous advantage in the final minutes.

This time DriveTeq kept pushing. Through the rain, driver changes and seemingly endless hours, the gap grew until the No. 822 held a five-lap lead over its nearest competitor.

Big brother George finally brought ‘Marilyn’ across the line first overall, giving the team its second GT1 victory in consecutive Enduro Elite weekends.

After Saturday’s struggles, Sunday’s turnaround made the celebration sweeter. And with endurance racing never guaranteeing that the same four drivers will share the car again, the moment carried extra weight. One possible last hurrah, enjoyed properly.

In four weeks, Enduro Elite returns to Mosport for the fifth and final round of 2026.

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