Last Run For The Multimatic
At Montreal

January 30, 2003: the maiden event for the all-new Daytona Prototypes. There are only six of them on the entry list – two Brumos Fabcars, the Cegwa Fabcar Toyota, Kevin Doran’s Doran JE4, the G&W Motorsports Picchio and the #88 Multimatic, the Canadian car to be driven by Scott Maxwell, David Brabham and David Empringham.

Qualifying produced a famous Larry Holt quote: “Holy f**k did he go deep in there!”

That was a reference to Scott Maxwell diving into Turn 1 at the ‘World Center of Racing’, the start of a lap which produced the DP pole time, a 1:50.513.

Four and a half years later and a Multimatic is on the entry list for the next Rolex Series event, at Montreal on August 3. Scott Maxwell will be driving again, this time with Gunnar Jeannette.

The purpose of the entry is to comply with Grand-Am’s procedure which will allow the Multimatic to evolve into the 2008 Lola DP car, Proto-Auto LLC (a partnership between Krohn Racing and Lola) having purchased the Grand-Am constructor’s licence from Multimatic.

“I feel really good about our car for the race,” said Larry Holt, on January 30 2003 – and so it proved, the Multimatic going on to win its class first time out – and finishing fourth overall. The winning car that day was Kevin Buckler’s #66 Porsche GT2 car, with Buckler himself joined by Timo Bernhard, Jorg Bergmeister and Michael Schrom. Ralf Kelleners, Johnny Mowlem and Anthony Lazzaro finished second for Risi Competizione – another team in the news this week.

The Multimatic’s aero package was always its weakness, but that will be addressed for 2008. “We are looking forward to assisting with component supply and ultimately competing with the updated car in 2008,” said Larry Holt in March of this year.

Don’t expect the Multimatic to be particularly competitive on its final outing in its original form. That debut win was its only one, wasn’t it?