Nick Boulle and Stefan Wilson Improved Four Positions in the No. 99 GridRival/GNARLY Jerky/de Boulle Porsche 911 GT3 R During the Session While Gathering Experience for Next Week With Rob Ferriol, Katherine Legge
DAYTONA BEACH, Florida (January 23, 2022) – Hardpoint’s Nick Boulle and Stefan Wilson combined for a 14th-place finish in the GT Daytona (GTD) class on Sunday at Daytona International Speedway and the No. 99 GridRival/GNARLY Premium Jerky/de Boulle Diamond and Jewelry Porsche 911 GT3 R will start next week’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season opener, the Rolex 24 At Daytona, in the same position.
Boulle and Wilson will be joined by season-regulars Rob Ferriol and Katherine Legge for the motorsports classic that begins next Saturday, January 29 at 1:40 p.m. EST. Sunday’s 100-minute qualifying race followed three days of testing and qualifying for all 61 cars entered in the race. The Rolex 24 At Daytona can be seen beginning at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, beginning on NBC and then throughout the NBC family of networks, including USA Network, and in its entirety through the Peacock streaming service.
Boulle began the qualifying race in 18th position in his first start with the team, piloting the machine through an opening stint of 50 minutes before the green flag stop. Though his starting position was forced by contact with a barrier during pre-qualifying, Boulle cycled as high as eighth in the run before his start before passing the car to Wilson with a clean pit stop.
“We’ve improved every session this week,” Boulle said. “In the race itself today the whole name of the game is moving forward but taking zero risk. There’s nothing to be gained from any risk, even if it pays off and we did that. Stef had an awesome stint and I think we accomplished what we needed to. We’re starting higher up than we did after qualifying when we made a mistake, and we’ll move on and try to keep on moving up.”
Wilson rejoined the race running 15th after the pit stops cycled through and made up one final position before the 100 caution-free minutes expired. Wilson turned the team’s quickest lap of the race under the checkered flag as he continued to grow his comfort level in the car for the first time.
“The name of the game is just learning as much as possible this weekend and using it as a test session,” Wilson said. “I’ve got three days back in the car and got to shake off some rust, it’s been a long time since I’ve been racing and it’s good to constantly improve. We didn’t have any incidents on track and we were able to maximize our track time and figure out what we need to extract from our Porsche 911 GT3 R. It was a pretty lonely race, I didn’t get to battle anyone but I’m really excited to get into the Rolex weekend for the 60th running.”
The race completed the aptly-named Roar Before the 24 weekend, complete with four practice sessions, the qualifying and the race. The team saw progress in each session as they began to gel together, bringing in new drivers Boulle and Wilson in addition to new partners Cusick Motorsports, Meridian Veterinary Capital, Neptune Systems, Dallas Auto Exchange and Lohla Sport in preparation for next week’s season opener.
“I’m really excited to see how the team is coming together,” Hardpoint driver and team owner Ferriol said. “We’ve got a few new components and they’ve integrated really well into the team. We have Nick and Stef who have integrated really well and they did a great job today. We learned a little bit more about the car, piling on to what we already learned this week and so we’ll go into next week a bit smarter and hopefully a bit faster.”
The team returns to on-track activity on Thursday, January 27 at 11:05 a.m. ET for a 90-minute practice, as the WeatherTech Championship has four additional practice sessions in advance of the race on Saturday, January 29.
About Hardpoint:
Hardpoint was founded by Rob Ferriol in 2018 with the vision of combining his experience as a successful entrepreneur with his passion for racing. Headquartered at VIRginia International Raceway, the team captured the 2021 Porsche Carrera Cup North America Pro-Am championship in its inaugural season and competes full-time in the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship in a Porsche 911 GT3 R with co-drivers Ferriol and Katherine Legge. More information on Hardpoint can be found at www.hardpoint.com or through its strong social media presence on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
