Inishowen sports car driver Damien Faulkner and his Viper Exchange team have taken a podium position at the Daytona 24 hours in Florida. The gruelling race is part of the United SportsCar championship, the primary sports car series in North America.

The No. 93 “Don’t mess with Texas” #TeamTexas ViperExchange.com Dodge Viper GT3-R was driven to a hard-earned third-place finish in the GT Daytona (GTD) class in last weekend’s Rolex 24 At Daytona.

Faulkner was made an honorary member of the Lone Star State for the Rolex 24 by his four Texas teammates. He proved deserving of the honor with a competitive and flat-out run to the finish in the race’s final hours.
“To be honest, to be fair to the team, they just let me get on with the job at hand,” said Faulkner who pulled a two pit stop “triple stint” in the run to the checkered flag. “We saved a bit of fuel on the second to last stint so after the final stop the crew told me I could go flat out. They nailed the calculations and I went to reserve fuel on the last lap. I am sure the car wouldn’t even start right now, it is empty. If we had been given this podium before the weekend we would have taken it.  Hats off to my teammates, Eric, Jeff, Gar and Ben, they drove flawlessly.”

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A native of Moville, on the Inishowen peninsula, Damien Faulkner has been racing for almost 20 years. He won his first race the next year and his first Championship at 19, and soon went on to a string of early wins, including 1994 Champion Irish Formula Ford, 1995 Champion British Formula Vauxhall Junior W. Series, 1997 Champion British Formula Renault Sport Winter Trophy and 2000 Champion European Formula Palmer Audi Series. He divides his time between the US, Donegal and Dublin, where he and his wife Laura have an apartment.