This weekend’s 62nd annual Rolex 24 at Daytona, the season-starting race for IMSA’s WeatherTech Sportscar Championship, came down to the final half-hour. Following a final caution period – of 15 – with just over half an hour remaining in the race, the battle was royal.
That final half-hour, with a distinct fight between the second-year Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 and the 2023 GTP championship-winning No. 31 Whelen Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series.R was so typical of Daytona, with two great teams, two great manufacturers fighting to the cherished twin checkered flags – and the winners’ Rolex watches.
When it was over, Roger Penske’s team earned their first overall victory in this race in 55 years! It’s been since 1969 that Penske took the overall win at Daytona, and this achievement marked only the master’s third time taking victory in this tough contest. Third place went to the No. 40 Acura ARX-06 of Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti, while the second, No. 6 Porsche Penske 963 was fourth and the independent No. 5 Proton Competition Mustang Sampling Porsche 963 earned fifth place.
The balance of the top 10 featured the second independent No. 85 Porsche 963 of JDC-Miller MotorSports, followed by both BMW M Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 entries, the No. 25 ahead of the No. 24, with the winning LMP2 No. 18 ORECA LMP2 07 of Era Motorsport in ninth place, hounded by the No. 04 Crowdstrike Racing by APR ORECA rounding out the top 10.
Where were the balance of the GTP cars? Well, the initial GTP retiree led much of the first half of the 24-hour race, as the No. 01 Cadillac looked prime to take Chip Ganassi Racing to the top of the Mobil 1 Victory Lane podium, but was halted after coming together with another car in the early night-time hours; it finished 47th around the 3:30AM mark. The second No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti had electrical woes that stopped it with just over three hours to go. Both GTP retirees had looked strong earlier in the event.
This 96th sports car victory for Team Penske, and its 19th overall win in sports car competition, came just months after Team Penske earned its 19th Indianapolis 500 with Josef Newgarden – who was part of the No. 7’s winning team – and had The Captain elated at his squad’s performance.
Porsche Penske Motorsports helped the German marque to its 23rd overall win, the most recent coming in 2010 as a Riley chassis held a Porsche motor in the former Daytona Prototype (DP) class, fielded by Action Express Racing, the same team that fields this year’s second-place Cadillac.
Felipe Nasr, the Brazilian who drove the final leg, was first out of the pits after making his final stop, ahead of Tom Blomqvist in the Cadillac and the Swede wasn’t able to close the gap with traffic throughout the 3.56-mile Daytona International Speedway road/oval circuit. (Blomqvist was part of last year’s winning effort for Meyer Shank Racing and their Acura ARX-06.)
Nasr, together with Newgarden, making only his second Rolex 24 at Daytona start, fellow American Dane Cameron (winning in his 15th attempt) and Australian Matt Campbell were focused on reliability for the Porsche 963, which on debut in 2023 had electrical issues set both cars back. The new GTP cars debuted the hybrid era of IMSA racing in 2023 and all of them improved throughout the season, with BMW, which had minimal pre-season testing, probably showing the most concerted change.
“When you think about 1969, when we won here with a Lola (and Mark Donohue), things were a lot different in those days,” Roger Penske reminisced. “Just to see the competitiveness, where six or seven tenths of a second was the difference after 24 hours of racing, it’s unbelievable. I’ll tell you,” he said, “this goes down as one of the biggest wins we’ve had.” That’s quite a statement from the team owner who won the Indy 500 and the NASCAR Cup Series championships with Ryan Blaney in 2023.
Era Motorsport’s LMP2 victory came as many in this class faltered. Still, five cars remained in contention to the close. The No. 18 took control over the final four hours, leading 132 of the last 136 laps, with incoming NTT INDYCAR SERIES racer Christian Rasmussen taking control over the final four hours. “It’s awesome,” Rasmussen said. “It’s huge bucket list item for me. We were just strong all race; we kept improving and we knew we had the pace, we knew we had the strategy just right. I’m over the moon,” he crowed.
Another long wait came to fruition for the winners of the GTD PRO category, when Risi Competizione’s No. 62 Ferrari 296 GT3 earned their commanding 34-second victory over the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R (992). With Daniel Serra of Brazil bringing the red Ferrari home 18th overall, team owner Giuseppe Risi, whose team is based in the Houston, Texas area, earned its second class win, having a 2002 victory in the SRP II class of the Grand-American Road Racing Series in a Lola B2K/40. Mr. Risi has a long relationship racing Ferrari cars with the team of Serra, Davide Rigon, James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi earning their coveted Rolex watches.
Race engineer Rick Mayer summed up the accomplishment: “This year was the 62nd running of the Rolex 24 with the 62 car, so that was a special thing for Giuseppe. We had four fantastic drivers; the crew prepared a great car, we had some luck and things went our way. Sometimes that’s what it takes to win. I’m happy for Giuseppe because he’s wanted to win this race again for a very long time,” he said.
GTD class honors went to the No. 57 Winward Mercedes-AMG GT3, earning victory for the second time in four years. While 12 different cars took the lead among the 23 GTD entries, the Winward Mercedes came from 17th place to claim victory. For Canadian Daniel Morad, it was an emotional win after a difficult 2023 season. The team led 123 of the final 134 laps and a series high 383 laps altogether.
“I’ve won it before sitting on the sidelines,” Morad said, “and now I’ve won it in the seat of the car. I almost crashed on the in-lap (after the checkered flags flew), I was crying so much. My voice is gone.” Ferrari claimed second through fourth places in this tough class after the pole-sitting No. 12 VasserSullivan Lexus RC F GT3 stopped on-course with a smoke-filled engine compartment in the final hour.
This 62nd Rolex 24 at Daytona took place under warm and mostly clear skies with just a droplet or two of moisture. With the weather not playing much of a part in the festivities, aside from being warmer than most expected, it was up to the drivers, their cars and the strategists to make it to the checkered flags. With 59 cars starting, the enthusiastic crowd had plenty to see over the course of the full day’s competition; only 19 cars in this race were classified as non-finishers.
There was a glitch at the finish as the white, final lap flag was shown with just under three minutes remaining and the No. 7 Porsche 963 received the checkered flag with 1:35.277 still remaining, just short of the full 24 hours. “Based on Article 49 of the 2024 IMSA Sporting Regulations and Standard Supplementary Regulations,” the series stated on Monday afternoon, “should the checkered flag be inadvertently or otherwise displayed before the leading car completes the scheduled number of laps or before the prescribed time has been completed, the race is nevertheless deemed ended when the flag is displayed”
The 36 Hours of Florida resumes with the WeatherTech Sportscar Championship undertaking the Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring March 13-16. This historic competition at Sebring International Raceway in central Florida marks the second of five rounds of IMSA’s Michelin Endurance Championship.
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