The Rolex 24 at Daytona is always a difficult race to win. A victorious group must have a great team, a great car and great luck. There’s always going to be eventualities that can set back even the most competent entries. And with a new prototype class for this year’s 61st race, it was completely unknown if the hybrid power plants fielded by Acura, BMW, Cadillac and Porsche were up to the task at hand.
Couple with that the fact that each manufacturer’s entry had a different type of engine: Acura stayed with the V-6 twin turbos it’s employed in both IMSA’s WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES; BMW and Porsche are using V-8 turbos of diverse output while Cadillac is the sole manufacturer using a naturally aspirated V-8 engine. All are mated to a Williams/Bosch hybrid system and, for 2023, IMSA is using renewable fuel.
There were a ton of variables present for this year’s race, but the group that made its way to Ruoff Victory Lane at the close of 24 hours of racing around Daytona International Speedway’s 3.56-mile road course that uses parts of the Speedway’s oval circuit was the same team that vanquished all comers in last year’s 60th rendition.
It took Meyer Shank Racing (MSR) ten years before earning an initial win in the 50th Rolex 24; another ten years passed before MSR took the 60th edition’s victory of this midwinter twice-around-the-clock contest, but only one year transpired for this Acura team that gave Acura and its motorsports arm, Honda Performance Development a second straight win and initial bragging rights in the new, LMDh era of IMSA racing. The sanctioning organization decided to brand these prototypes as GTP cars, hearkening to an earlier time when manufacturer competition was its calling card, just as it is today.
Mike Shank and Jim Meyer have built a great Ohio-based team and hired exceptional drivers, including four-time Indianapolis 500 champion Hello Castroneves, of Brazil, who earned his fourth Indy 500 victory driving for MSR. French 2019 INDYCAR series and Indy 500 champ Simon Pagenaud joined his INDYCAR teammate Castroneves. They were placed with full-season drivers Tom Blomqvist of England and American Colin Braun, the latter making his first start for MSR. This was the team’s 16th IMSA victory and the third consecutive Rolex 24 for both Acura and Castroneves. The only other driver to win three straight 24-hour races here was Peter Gregg, who accomplished the feat in the mid-1970s.
As always, luck played a significant part in the winner’s success. “Our car had a gearbox problem all night,” Shank confessed. “I mean, all night, and we could not fix it. We decided just to run it until it blew up. It didn’t blow up,” the former driver who adapted well to team ownership said. Since Jim Meyer joined the team in 2018, there’s really been few downsides; in IMSA, they’ve been at the sharp end of most grids and were on pole position for this 24-hour endurance contest, and they’ve performed exceptionally with Acura power. On this day, MSR led 365 of the 783 laps contested over two 12-hour periods.
Towards the close of the race, following a final, 14th caution period with only a half-hour remaining in this enduro, the MSR team was in contact with their closest rivals and fellow Acura ARX-06 campaigners Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport (WTR/A). “We knew we had issues going on, but we had a really fast race car. So did Wayne the No. 10 car, We wanted to make sure we had something for the last hour you saw there, which was really difficult for our car because we had little things. If you watch the race, we were in the pit lane probably more than anybody,” Shank said.
The second Acura team, WTR/Andretti was second to the checkered flags, a scant 4.190 seconds behind Blomqvist at the checkered flags, with Chip Ganassi Racing’s No. 01 yellow and black Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-LMDh prototype came home third and fourth with the No. 02 blue and black machine. The top four cars were separated by 11.176 seconds! Despite losing three laps in the night hours, this team fought back for its fifth consecutive podium and ninth top two since 2013.
It was Pagenaud’s triple stint towards the end of the race that helped his teammates stay on course and it was a boon for the team. Shank told the Frenchman, “I think that is the best thing I’ve ever seen you do, certainly with us, on either side of the aisle. He drove – once we got new tires on – he did a triple stint there right at the end, and if you look at his average numbers, I think he’s third overall quickest driver from the race. He just put in qualifiers for I don’t know how many laps in a row and I love that! Simon is so mental about everything, that he will take that to Palm Springs next week and will do two days with the Indy car!”
Braun, who earned his first overall win, is the team’s newest driver and has been known to get a bit ahead of himself in the past. He had some aggressive moments during the race but kept his head down and performed as needed. “I guess, for me, I didn’t think it was crazily aggressive.” As for Blomqvist, who came to the team from the German DTM series, placed the No. 60 ARX-06 on pole position during the Roar Before the Rolex 24 a week earlier and then drove it to the checkered flags. He thanked the team “for putting the faith in me for both of those parts. My life was made easier with the car I had under me today and all week, really, this car has been great.”
The LMP2 category winners of this race were the No. 55 ORECA/Gibson of James Allen, Fred Poordad, Francesco Pizzi and Giammaria Bruni, all taking their first victories in this race. LMP3 went to the No. 17 AWA Duqueine, the team’s first victory in this race, while drivers Thomas Merrill, Wayne Boyd, Anthony Mantella and Nico Varrone each earned their victories in this tough event.
In the two sports car classes, GTD PRO and GTD had emotional winners, particularly in the GTD PRO division, where WeatherTech Racing’s Cooper MacNeil earned his first victory in the race in his 13th and final try, racing the No. 79 Mercedes-AMG GT3 to the win. MacNeil has planned to exit his driving career and devote more time and energy to the family business. He shared the white WeatherTech Mercedes with Mark Engel, Daniel Juncadella and Jules Gounon. The Heart of Racing took their No. 27Aston Martin to an historic first win in the pro/am GTD class, the reigning GTD champions Roman De Angelis, Ian James, Darren Turner and Marco Sorensen made it to the checkered flags before the GTD PRO winners with Aston Martin, which took its initial Rolex 24 at Daytona victory since arriving at this track in 1964!
It was the prototypes who took most the attention and why not? A new class, four manufacturers and the unknowns of racing a new car for 24 hours made the plot ever more intriguing. While the Cadillac entries managed well, Penske Porsche had issues that held it back from early in the going and BMW, which only started its program just 18 months ago, suffered battery issues early on that required changing the complete hybrid system. The BMWs were sixth and ninth in the nine-car field, while Penske Porsche were seventh and ninth.
IMSA’s 36 hours of Florida resumes next month with the Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring, a race weekend it shares with the World Endurance Championship’s Hypercars.
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