Porsche, Penske Go Back-To-Back at Daytona
Photo by Michael C. Levitt, courtesy of IMSA/LAT Images)
It took team owner Roger Penske 55-years to record his second overall win at the Rolex 24 at Daytona. It took just one year for Penske to get his third, Sunday, at Daytona International Speedway in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s season-opening race.
Co-drivers Felipe Nasr, Nick Tandy and Laurens Vanthoor brought their No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsports Porsche 963 home first in the GTP class, 1.355-seconds clear of the No. 60 Meyer-Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06 driven by Tom Blomqvist, Colin Braun, Scott Dixon and Felix Rosenqvist. The No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsports Porsche 963 driven by Mathieu Jamminet, Matt Campbell and Kevin Estre finished third just 4.423 seconds back in the 63rd annual twice around the clock sports car classic.
(Photo by Michael C. Levitt, courtesy of IMSA/LAT Images)
The win was the first for Tandy in the Rolex 24 and gave him the distinction of being the driver to achieve overall wins in the four major 24 hour sports car races - Le Mans, Daytona, Spa-Francorchamps and the Nurburgring.
“I mean, to be the first person to do -- ever to do something is -- I mean, it's quite unbelievable, really. I think first of all, you've got to be proud that you've been put in a position to be able to compete in that sort of -- those sort of races, and then be in a car that can compete for the win.
“But yeah, it never really dawned on me about these sort of records and stuff like this until Laurens, when we won at Spa and somebody said, well, you've got class wins in all the four majors now.
“And then you kind of look into it and you see -- there's other people, legendary names on these lists who have won various things but never overall in all four. Class winners, yes.
“But yeah, it's something that since that day in probably 2020, it's something that I've definitely wanted to check off the list.
“Winning Daytona is a massive thing anyway as a standalone event. Don't get me wrong. I'm very proud to be sat here again. Obviously as an overall winner is special.
“But yeah, like you say, to get the big four 24-hour wins -- one would be just an incredible career, so to be able to get four and a few Sebrings and a few Petits is dream come true stuff.”
(Photo by Jake Galstad, courtesy of IMSA/LAT Images)
Tower Motorsports steered clear of the chaos around it to claim the win in Le Mans Prototype 2 in their No. 8 ORECA-07. It was the first win for co-drivers John Farano, Sebastian Alvarez and Job Van Uitert while Sebastien Bourdais took his third Rolex 24 class win having previously taken top honors overall in a prototype in 2014 and in GT Le Mans in 2017.
“Yeah, what can we say? The boys did an amazing job. We definitely didn't have the fastest car, but we kept our heads down and mostly stayed out of trouble.
“Yeah, there was a lot of carnage around us, just a lot of really, really aggressive driving which ended up in contacts.
“I was very surprised, to be honest. I'm not used to that in GTP, and I don't think I have managed to pass someone without someone just hitting me, plain and simple, which I'm not a big fan of that. Really every time I was super happy that the car was still straight and we kept going forward because it was a pretty solid hit.
“Yeah, it was very strange, but thanks to my teammates who really did a great job. It was a solid effort. We looked really strong at night and then kind of faded a bit when it got hotter, which we were kind of afraid of.
“But definitely no better way to start the relationship with Tower Motorsports, and we'll head to Sebring with our heads high and our hopes up.”
(Photo by Brandon Badraoui, courtesy of IMSA/LAT Images)
In the GTD PRO category, it was a classic Ford v Chevrolet battle that came down to the end of the race, with the Blue Oval coming out on top. After 24 hours of tough racing, Dennis Olsen, Frederic Vervisch and Christopher Mies brought their No. 65 Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang GT3 home less than two-seconds ahead of the No. 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Corvette Z06 GT3.R driven by Alexander Sims, Antonio Garcia and Dani Juncadella.
Although he was already well aware of the rivalry between Ford and Chevrolet, Vervisch says the team got its marching orders directly from the top man at Ford.
“Yeah, I think it's quite a struggle, the battle between Ford and Chevrolet. Yesterday we met Jim Farley, and he said whatever you do, you have to be in front of Chevrolet, as a joke, of course.
“No, of course we were aware of this, and I think they're extremely strong, and I think they hide their A game because suddenly they were going a lot faster than yesterday.
Yeah, super proud that we could stay ahead and maybe out-strategy them. I will not say too much, but we did some very ballsy calls I would say in the team, so big congrats to the team, as well, for that.”
(Photo by Brandon Badraoui, courtesy of IMSA/LAT Images)
While the Bowtie brand came up short in the GTP PRO, the No. 13 AWA Corvette Z06 GT3.R won in the GTD class that combines pro and amatuer drivers. Matt Bell, Orey Fidani, Lars Kern and Marvin Kirchhofer all claimed their first Rolex class wins.
“Yeah, we knew we had a good car from the start of the Roar. AWA put in so much work since before the checkered flag at Petit Le Mans, and when we hit the track on Friday two weeks ago we felt we had something underneath us that we could go and take on the competition with.
“So that gives you some confidence. I said this to everybody multiple times, that we were just waiting for the dream to stop, it can't be this good kind of thing.
“IMSA is the hardest championship in the world. Our competitors gave us a hell of a run. I had to work so hard to get on top of those guys but we managed to make it work and bring it home in the last 10 minutes. Thank you to the competition for making it this hard, and thank you to AWA and my teammates to get us over the line.”