Porsche Penske Motorsport’s Felipe Nasr, Nick Tandy, and Laurens Vanthoor won the 63rd Rolex 24 At Daytona in dramatic fashion, giving Penske and Porsche back-to-back GTP and overall victories in the twice-around-the-classic.
The #7 963’s winning margin was just 1.335 seconds after completing 780 laps around Daytona. Nasr’s push to take the lead late on gave Vanthoor his long-awaited first Rolex 24 win, and gave Tandy an unprecedented ‘Grand Slam’ of 24-hour endurance race victories with overall wins at Le Mans, Nurburgring, Spa-Francorchamps, and now Daytona.
Meyer Shank Racing’s Tom Blomqvist, Colin Braun, Scott Dixon, and Felix Rosenqvist denied Penske and Porsche a 1-2 finish, driving the #60 Acura ARX-06 to second place as Blomqvist overtook the #6 sister 963 of Mathieu Jaminet, Matt Campbell, and Kevin Estre with just five minutes on the clock.
In GTD PRO the Ford Mustang GT3 got its first victory in global competition as Ford Multimatic Motorsports’ Frederic Vervisch, Chris Mies, and Dennis Olsen grabbed a closely-fought win aboard the #65 Mustang.
They led an all-American GTD PRO podium with the #3 Corvette Racing Z06 GT3.R of Antonio Garcia, Alexander Sims, and Daniel Juncadella fighting to second place, ahead of the #64 Ford of Mike Rockenfeller, Sebastian Priaulx, and Austin Cindric.
Tower Motorsports’ John Farano, Sebastien Bourdais, Sebastian Alvarez and Job van Uitert ran away with LMP2 in the final 25 minutes, taking the class win after multiple rivals suffered misfortunes.
And Canadian team AWA with drivers Orey Fidani, Matthew Bell, Lars Kern, and Marvin Kirchhöfer, gave the Corvette Z06 GT3.R its first IMSA GTD victory – and AWA’s second Rolex 24 class win in three years.
Just past the top of the hour, the #24 RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 began to bounce wildly down the backstretch. Dries Vanthoor needed repairs desperately to get to the flag.
Seconds later, the #45 Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghini (GTD) of Danny Formal suffered a broken left-rear suspension while running third in class. He pulled off at the exit of Speedway turn four but the Full Course Yellow was deployed once again.
The #120 Wright Motorsports Porsche and #57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 had to come in for an emergency splash of fuel right away, it compromised them as they needed to come in again and dropped down the GTD order.
The GTP leaders took fuel to the end and left in the order they came in with the No.6 Porsche of Matt Campbell in front. But the LMP2 class turned upside down: ERA Motorsport had just brought the #18 ORECA in for a stop just before the yellow, and Paul-Loup Chatin only needed to bring the car in for a splash to jump from fourth to 1st!
Fast pit work from Pratt Miller Motorsports put Nico Varrone’s beaten #4 Corvette up front in GTD PRO – and AF Corse pulled a blinder to get Riccardo Agostini’s #50 Ferrari up to the lead in GTD.
And with 38 minutes left, the Safety Car peeled off and the race came down to its final sprint finish. Vanthoor couldn’t make turn one and let Nasr through into second, and suddenly Tom Blomqvist’s Acura was back in contention.
Dennis Olsen and Laurin Heinrich muscled their way to the front in GTD PRO, and Mattia Drudi likewise took the lead in GTD – before Matt Bell took the AWA Corvette to the lead the next lap!
Vanthoor’s left-front tyre began to rub violently against the bodywork in the Le Mans chicane, and he couldn’t fight off Blomqvist who slipped into third. Eventually, Vanthoor limped the No.24 back to the pits. BMW’s challenge for the overall win at Daytona was done.
Olsen moved clear of a hard-fighting GTD PRO pack as Alexander Sims’ opportunism allowed him to slip up into second place while battling three-wide with Laurin Heinrich and Fabian Schiller!
Heinrich got front-end damage and Rexy’s challenge for the win was extinguished – as the reigning GTD PRO Champion tumbled down the order quickly. Sims’s Corvette wouldn’t let Olsen’s Ford get away as the two American giants were 1-2 – but with a big slide out of the West Horseshoe, Sims was in the crosshairs of Van der Linde.
Nasr and Campbell weren’t in the clear with 30 minutes left – Blomqvist had caught the leading Porsche duo, and Meyer Shank Racing was back in the window for the overall win! Simultaneously, Drudi bumped Bell out of the way at turn one to take the GTD lead, Aston Martin ahead of Corvette as neither driver was willing to give ground.
With 25 minutes to go, Chatin, the Alpine man, was hit and spun by the #52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports car of Mathias Beche. Beche received a drive-through penalty to put Bourdais up in the lead again, this time to stay.
Nasr cranked the pressure up big time on Campbell, as they approached the leading GTD PRO quartet, Campbell got held up in the traffic, allowing Nasr to get a big run through Speedway turns one and two. The Brazilian passed Campbell below the double yellow line on the backstretch – an illegal move in the Daytona 500 – but here in IMSA it was picture-perfect! Nasr grabbed the lead in the #7, and while Campbell made another attempt into the tri-oval, he couldn’t stay ahead through turns one and two.
As Olsen and Sims ran tail-to-nose in GTD PRO, Bell came back at Drudi, and retook the GTD lead for AWA with 16 minutes to go. With 12 minutes left, another BMW vs Corvette flashpoint happened as Van der Linde and Sims banged fenders out of the infield and onto the banking. Sims ultimately held the position but Olsen was driving away.
Just seconds later, Sims and Van der Linde got backed up into turn one, and Nico Varrone hit Van der Linde, spinning the #1 BMW out of podium contention. Varrone picked up a drive-through penalty for spinning Van der Linde.
GTP, GTD PRO and GTD leaders all overlapped with nine minutes left. Campbell lost out, Blomqvist tried a lunge around the outside of Turn 1 with six minutes to go, but the Anglo-Swede couldn’t get a good exit and Campbell held onto second before Blomqvist made the move and made it stick for second the next time by.
It was an absolute thriller, the most dramatic Rolex 24s in recent memory.
There will be more to follow here soon…
Images courtesy of Porsche, IMSA & Jack Webster
