Eight hours in, and in a sharp contrast to last year, not only have none of the GTP contenders had to have any meaningful repair, but all but one are still on the lead lap. Only the No. 85 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche 963 has fallen a lap down. …
Eight hours in, and in a sharp contrast to last year, not only have none of the GTP contenders had to have any meaningful repair, but all but one are still on the lead lap. Only the No. 85 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche 963 has fallen a lap down.
Pipo Derani took the lead from Josef Newgarden early in the eighth hour and has kept the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing V-Series.R as Newgarden tumbled down the order to fifth. But Derani still has a Porsche chasing him, now the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 with Kevin Estre at the wheel. Filipe Albuquerque has been moving up in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06, and has it up to third.
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1406]
The GTD PRO and GTD cars continue to be intermixed, the top two in GTD PRO followed by the top two in GTD, then back to GTD PRO. Sheldon van der Linde leads GTD PRO in the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 with Davide Rigon in the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296.
Aaron Telitz is at the front of the GTD field in the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F, with Philip Ellis following in the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes AMG. The No. 32 Korthoff Preston Mercedes AMG that had been battling at the front is currently in third, Mikael Grenier having taken over from Maxi Goetz.
“It’s still too early to say if you’re battling for a win, but I guess the package we have is good,” said Goetz. “My teams are fully committed and also the teammates. Now, Mik is doing his first stint so he gets also taste now, and then I think we already for the second half of the race.”
Goetz added that he is more used to races where the GT3 cars are the quickest rather than the slowest, so he finds himself looking backwards as much as forward.
Class leaders after eight hours
GTP: Pipo Derani, No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing V-Series.R
LMP2: Alex Quinn, No. 99 AO Racing ORECA 07
GTD PRO: Sheldon van der Linde, No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3
GTD: Aaron Telitz, No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT
A 16-minute caution period for the LMP2 No. 33 Sean Creech Motorsport Ligier marked the seventh hour of the Rolex 24 At Daytona. The car had sat in the Turn 7 runoff for several minutes, allowing some cars to anticipate the yellow and pit before the …
A 16-minute caution period for the LMP2 No. 33 Sean Creech Motorsport Ligier marked the seventh hour of the Rolex 24 At Daytona. The car had sat in the Turn 7 runoff for several minutes, allowing some cars to anticipate the yellow and pit before the caution was called, including the No. 24 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8, both Cadillacs and the leading No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963.
Josef Newgarden took over the No. 7 from Matt Campbell, and maintained the lead after the restart that came five minutes before the seventh hour ended, pursued by Pipo Derani in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing V-Series.R And Renger van der Zande in the No. 01 Cadillac.
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1406]
Campbell felt that as it cooled down, it might be better for the No. 7 Porsche.
“I think it’s come to us a little bit,” Campbell explained. “We need to see in early morning where we stack up as the weather condition changes and see track evolution, but for sure it’s come to us a little bit more maybe compared to others. But in saying that, you know being out in front having the clean air, I think it maybe looks a little bit better than it actually is, because you can manage the car, manage traffic a lot easier. I think that really helped us in those first few stints for myself. So I feel like we’re not necessarily standing out in these conditions, but it’s just helping with our restarts.”
The LMP2 No. 99 AO Racing ORECA has found it way to the front with Alex Quinn at the wheel, leading Jakub Smiechowski in the No. 51 Inter Europol with PR1 Mathiasen Motorsport ORECA and Ben Keating, running his first stints in the No. 2 United Autosports ORECA after doing a stint in the No. 85 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche 963.
The buffer that the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW (pictured, top) had to its GTD PRO pursuers has disappeared, but Sheldon van der Linde still maintains the lead with Daniel Serra in the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 behind. Aaron Telitz has the GTD polesitting Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F back in the lead, with Korthoff Preston Racing’s Maxi Goetz pursuing int eh No. 32 Mercedes AMG.
A couple of the GTD PRO cars have had issues and made multiple trips behind the wall. The No. 75 SunEnergy1 Mercedes AMG and the No. 60 Iron Lynx Racing Lamborghini Huracán.
Another factoid, courtesy of Michelin: Each Michelin Pilot Sport race slick carries an embedded RFID tag. Tires are scanned and tracked when mounted and are read by the Michelin RFID scanners located at pit exit.
Class leaders after seven hours:
GTP: Josef Newgarden, No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963
LMP2: Alex Quinn, No. 99 AO Racing ORECA 07
GTD PRO: Sheldon van der Linde, No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3
GTD: Aaron Telitz, No 12 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F
The Rolex 24 At Daytona is a quarter over, and crossing the six-hour mark has triggered the first round of Michelin Endurance Cup points. When the last caution ended 15 minutes into the sixth hour, Matt Campbell pushed the No. 7 Porsche Penske …
The Rolex 24 At Daytona is a quarter over, and crossing the six-hour mark has triggered the first round of Michelin Endurance Cup points.
When the last caution ended 15 minutes into the sixth hour, Matt Campbell pushed the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsports 963 into the lead, and even stretched it a bit over the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing V-Series.R with Tom Blomqvist at the wheel. After a round of pit stops just prior to the end of the sixth hour, Campbell led Derani in the No. 31 after he took over from Blomqvist and Renger van der Zande in the No. 01 Cadillac, who had just taken over from Alex Palou.
With many teams double stinting early in the race, they’re losing time not only to the tire degradation, but also because they have to be more cautious in traffic.
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1406]
“You need to be more careful — we are quite struggling on the brakes to stop the car,” said Mathieu Jaminet after his stint in the No. 6 PPM Porsche 963. “You arrive very fast, so some moves becomes impossible when your tire drops, like going outside Turn 1, outside [Turn] 5 by the end is pretty much impossible to GT cars … even in the Bus Stop I wasn’t quicker than GTD towards the end. You need to adjust and be for sure more cautious because you don’t want to hit someone, so you lose a bit more time in traffic on top of the [time you lose because of the] tires but that’s the way to go. It’s not a moment of the race where you need to be aggressive. That’s the moment where you keep it one piece.”
The GTD race is heating up, with Kenton Koch in the No. 32 Korthoff/Preston Motorsports Mercedes AMG battling with Antonio Fuoco in the No. 47 Cetilar Racing Ferrari 296. Fuoco led Koch at the hour, both pursued by Ollie Millroy in the No. 70 Inception Racing McLaren.
Six GTD cars received drive-through penalties in the last yellow for initiating pass-around early – No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911, No. 78 Forte Racing Lamborghini Huracán, No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari 296, No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG, and the No. 86 MDK Motorsports Porsche. Also penalized was the GTD PRO No. 60 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracán.
Bryan Sellers had the GTD PRO No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 in a good spot, five GTD cars between him and his closest pursuer, Mike Rockenfeller in the No. 64 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Mustang.
The No. 22 United Autosports ORECA 07 has retired from the race.
Class leaders after six hours:
GTP: Matt Campbell, No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsports 963
LMP2: Malthe Jakobsen, No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR ORECA 07
GTD PRO: Bryan Sellers, No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3
GTD: Antonio Fuoco, No. 47 Cetilar Racing Ferrari 296 GT3
The Rolex 24 At Daytona has entered its night phase, and the drivers face another 12 hours of darkness before they might see the sun again. The fifth hour ended with a restart after an extended yellow for the No. 33 Sean Creech Motorsports Ligier …
The Rolex 24 At Daytona has entered its night phase, and the drivers face another 12 hours of darkness before they might see the sun again. The fifth hour ended with a restart after an extended yellow for the No. 33 Sean Creech Motorsports Ligier stopped on track, Tom Blomqvist leading the field to the green as he drove his first race stint in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing V-Series.R.
Unfortunately, the caution flew again almost immediately. Jordan Taylor, trying to catch the field after leaving the pits in the No. 40 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06, had contact with the GTD No. 023 Triarsi Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 in the Le Mans chicane, Onofrio Triarsi at the wheel. The Ferrari had to pit for new rear bodywork, the debris left behind in the collision the reason for the yellow.
The No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 was assessed a drive-through penalty for “failure to adhere to controlled powertrain parameters,” likely meaning the car exceeded the 500kW power limit. It’s the first such penalty applied for the infraction since the advent of this GTP class, although warnings have been issued before.
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1406]
The No. 40 had experienced a power steering failure that sent it down a lap, but recovered back to the lead lap with the cautions.
The No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports McLaren 720 S GT3 Evo has returned to the track after the wheel bearing repair, but James Hinchcliffe is 21 laps down to the GTD PRO leader, Laurin Heinrich in the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R. The AO Porsche, though, is third among the GTDs, with Roman De Angelis in the No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo leading the GTs overall, followed by fellow GTD competitor Russell Ward in the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes AMG GT3.
The LMP2 No. 88 AF Corse ORECA 07, which went behind the wall to diagnose a loss of power, never re-emerged and has been officially retired, bringing the number of retirements to two.
Class leaders after five hours:
GTP: Tom Blomqvist, No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing V-Series.R
LMP2: Ben Hanley, No. 2 United Autosports ORECA 07
GTD PRO: Laurin Heinrich, No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R
GTD: Roman De Angelis, No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo
The GTD PRO Pfaff McLaren 720S Evo went to the garage during the fourth hour, the crew working on the right front to repair an apparent hub failure. Pfaff had little testing with the car before it arrived at the Roar Before the 24. Two LMP2s also …
The GTD PRO Pfaff McLaren 720S Evo went to the garage during the fourth hour, the crew working on the right front to repair an apparent hub failure. Pfaff had little testing with the car before it arrived at the Roar Before the 24. Two LMP2s also ended the hour in the garage — the No. 88 AF Corse ORECA, the crew trying to diagnose a problem with the electronics after it lost power; and the No. 20 High Class Racing ORECA, which sat in the garage unattended by the crew. The No. 20 had been involved in a crash early in the race and been repaired and sent out, but returned to the garage in short order.
Several cars used a caution for a spin-and-stall early in the hour to pit, and as a result there are two separate sequences among the GTP cars. The No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing V-Series.R was one of those, and Jack Aitken led Nick Yelloly in the No. 25 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8, with the No. 24 BMW next with Philipp Eng at the wheel. Eng was on the alternate sequence, though, and would soon need to pit.
LMP2 is so far looking like a three-way fight between United Autosports’ No. 2, CrowdStrike Racing by APR and Riley Motorsports. Nico Pino led at the end of the hour in the No. 2.
The LMP2 No. 11 TDS Racing, in which Steven Thomas had an impact with the wall, has been officially retired.
Michelin has provided some interesting facts about the race, including that the 59-car field includes drivers from 34 different countries. In the GTP field alone, 16 countries are represented.
Hour three saw both GTD PRO Ford Multimatic Motorsports Mustang GT3s suffer the same affliction, a loose trunk lid. Both appeared to have come loose at the front and then blown back with the airflow and broken. Each car required unexpected visits to …
Hour three saw both GTD PRO Ford Multimatic Motorsports Mustang GT3s suffer the same affliction, a loose trunk lid. Both appeared to have come loose at the front and then blown back with the airflow and broken. Each car required unexpected visits to the pits to replace the lid.
Louis Deletraz led much of the hour in the No. 40 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06 after going off-sequence with the rest of the field and staying out for track position, but at the end of the hour it was Philipp Eng in the No. 24 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8 leading as the GTP field was cycling through pit stops. The real race leader, however, was the No. 01 Cadillac with Scott Dixon at the wheel, and the two Cadillacs looked solidly in control of the pace.
“It’s quite hot outside and it’s very hot in the cars,” said Deletraz after his stint. “But I think we [are maximizing] everything so far. We’re trying to keep it clean and go long. The strategy now is way out of what will be in the end, so just running, seeing how the car behaves and try to see where we are with the competition. And I think the last stint was pretty good, too, out front. But I feel our competitors are strong and we’ll have to fight this out.”
The No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F rolled out of the garage eight minutes into the third hour after repairs from the collision with the No. 20 High Class Racing ORECA in the first hour, Mike Conway at the wheel. The car is 26 laps down from the GTD PRO leader.
IMSA has provided a new tool to help follow the race, live telemetry from the GTP cars. It includes energy level and usage, as well showing when the car is regenerating energy, the gears and brake and throttle application, and speed. It can be found at https://www.imsa.com/gtp-telemetry/.
It didn’t take long for Ricky Taylor to get his No. 10 Acura dispatched from the lead, and after a raft of driver changes in green-flag pit stops Scott Dixon took over the No. 01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R from Sebastien Bourdais after Bourdais put …
It didn’t take long for Ricky Taylor to get his No. 10 Acura dispatched from the lead, and after a raft of driver changes in green-flag pit stops Scott Dixon took over the No. 01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R from Sebastien Bourdais after Bourdais put it into the lead early in the hour. Dane Cameron is running second in the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsports 963, followed by Jack Aitken in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing.
“We knew we were going to have a fight in our hand and we do,” said Bourdais after his opening stint. “I think the car shows that it’s got plenty of pace, which we’ve never been in doubt of that. But when it comes down to interacting with the other cars, we really have to outbrake ourselves to get by because we are barely keeping up in the straights. It’s good we’re leading and we can definitely put on a fight, but it’s the hard way. It is what it is. We knew we had a strong package as far as optimizing the performance level we have at our disposal, but it won’t be easy if it comes down to a drag race in the last 30 minutes.”
The hour ended under caution after Steven Thomas made heavy impact with the wall exiting the Le Mans Chicane in the No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA LMP2 car. The car suffered a lot of damage, but Thomas walked under his own power to the waiting response vehicle. He was evaluated and released from the care center.
Marvin Kirchöfer has pushed the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports McLaren 720S GT3 Evo into the GTD PRO lead, followed by the two Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Z06 GT3.Rs. GTD leader Parker Thompson in the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 is separating the Corvettes and the McLaren.
Many teams are double-stinting tires in the early part of the race in order to have fresh sets at the end; the challenge is that the temperatures are as high as they will likely see in the race.
“It’s bad. It’s hard to [single-stint] at the moment, a set of tires,” said Nick Tandy, freshly out of the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963. “I think even after the first stop there were cars obviously on a double. The No. 10 stayed out, and you see what happens – it’s not tenths, its seconds in the end. Whether you do two tires or four tires, you’ve got to start doubling tires because, simply, if we have 30, 35 stints, we have 21 sets of tires. So if you want to have three nice sets for the end, or even more, it has to be done. Looking at the forecast, it doesn’t look like it’s going cool down particularly much at night, if the cloud comes over and keeps the temp in the track. It’s tough, but I mean, the good thing is that Michelin has opened up the window for when we can use the medium and the soft tire so it’s more up to the teams. If the conditions are hot, then you can perhaps get away with a little bit more.”
Tire strategy will play a huge part in the 62nd Rolex 24 At Daytona as always, and that’s become even more true as the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship has made efforts to minimize tire usage. GTP cars have 21 sets for qualifying and race. …
Tire strategy will play a huge part in the 62nd Rolex 24 At Daytona as always, and that’s become even more true as the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship has made efforts to minimize tire usage.
GTP cars have 21 sets for qualifying and race. With 24 hours of racing and approximately 50-minute stints, that’s roughly eight more stints than they have sets of tires, so some double stinting will be required. That discounts cautions or significant periods of rain, since rain tires don’t count against the allocation. LMP2 cars have 23 sets. GTD PRO and GTD have 25 sets for the entire event, and not a specific amount for the race. That could play into the hands of teams that chose to forego the final practice, such as AWA and Heart of Racing (or Pfaff and Vasser Sullivan, which sat out the night practice), or did very limited running.
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1406]
GTD PRO and GTD teams have an extra consideration: Michelin has recommended to the GT teams that they not double stint right-side tires, due to the nature of Daytona International Speedway, the load placed on the tires on the banking and the fact that the GT3 cars have stints closer to an hour under green. That will create some interesting situations for teams and drivers when they either double stint lefts and go out with fresh rights, or perhaps even putting used rights on the left side in order to have enough tires for the race.
Several drivers have reported that the new Michelin Pilot Sport Pro GT H1 tire the GT cars are using is a little less sensitive to temperature fluctuations than the previous tire, although some report seeing no improvement.
As important as how many tires a team has is what type of tires. Depending on the time of day, GTP teams have a choice of two different compounds, usually referred to as medium and soft. From 7pm Saturday until 8am Sunday, the soft tire is an option. However, depending on temperature — and the low is only expected to dip into the mid-60s F — many of the GTP teams feel the cars work better on the mediums.
“We’ve saved a lot of mediums,” reveals Ricky Taylor, driver of the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06. “We don’t know what other people have been doing in practice, but we have a lot of medium tires, which seems to be preferred. We’re hoping to use that for track position in the last four hours.”
This weekend, Mathieu Jaminet and Laurens Vanthoor are racing together in an attempt to bring home a Rolex 24 At Daytona victory for Porsche in the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsports 963. Two years ago, however, they were locked in an intense battle …
This weekend, Mathieu Jaminet and Laurens Vanthoor are racing together in an attempt to bring home a Rolex 24 At Daytona victory for Porsche in the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsports 963. Two years ago, however, they were locked in an intense battle for the inaugural IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTD PRO victory on two different teams, and it produced one of the most memorable fights in Daytona history.
Jaminet was driving the 911 GT3 R for Pfaff Motorsports along with Matt Campbell and Felipe Nasr. Vanthoor was in the KCMG Porsche 911 GT3R with Patrick Pilet, Dennis Olsen and Alexandre Imperatori. For the final two hours, the battle between Jaminet and Vanthoor raged, with Jaminet ending up in front for the final stint and trying to hold off Vanthoor.
Two laps from the end, Vanthoor attacked Jaminet on the outside in Turn 1, cut back inside at Turn 2, got alongside in Turn 3 and finally, after several incidents of contact as the two Porsches went side-by-side in the Kink, took the lead. Jaminet wasn’t done, however, as he attacked in Turn 3 to take the lead back on the final lap.
As they headed into the Le Mans chicane, Vanthoor pulled alongside again and the two had side-to-side contact with Vanthoor getting the worst of it and going into a half-spin. Jaminet continued to take the victory for Pfaff. Had they tangled more intensely, though, victory would have been handed to the Risi Competizione Ferrari.
“Those last two hours have been maybe the most stressful of my life,” Jaminet said at the time. “I mean, what a crazy fight with Laurens. We all know how good he is — one of the best GT drivers out there in the world. We had a great fight. It was sometimes on the limit, maybe even over.”
What Jaminet remembers now, though, is the moments after the checker.
“[I remember] the celebration afterwards coming into the into the pits, because, honestly, crossing the line, I didn’t know I won,” he recalls. “I was exhausted from the battle. I wasn’t sure if I had a penalty — I didn’t even know it was the last lap at the time, I had no radio. [Then] I realized we won, but I wasn’t sure it was really happening. So all the emotions and tension really came out, when I came into victory lane and I parked the car and then I saw all my teammates shouting.”
Teammates Matt Campbell and Felipe Nasr hoist a still disbelieving Mathieu Jaminet in victory lane at Daytona in 2022. Motorsport Images
Vanthoor jokes that he remembers “crying like a baby on the in-lap,” but going on, he says he recalls everything in detail.
“It’s probably one of the most intense hours I’ve done in the race car, which in the end was not how I would have dreamed of it, but which I — and I think many other people — remember,” he says. “On one hand, it still kind of hurts. But on the other hand, what we’re doing here is putting on a show. I think we did quite well.”
In Porsche’s operation room at the track, Porsche engineers and management were about to have a heart attack as they saw the possibility of two of their drivers taking each other out and throwing away a victory.
“If Porsches are fighting, we don’t need any touches or risking cars, and especially if our drivers are racing for customers,” remembers Sebastian Golz, project manager for Porsche 911 GT3 R. “We already feared that there was a little bit of heat in between the two because both had the possibility to win. They were fighting for the victory and both driver wants to have the best for them for the team. And also it was showing, ‘I am the better one.’ They were pushing hard and everybody in the room was shouting, the heart attack was coming, and we were reaching the engineers to calm the drivers down.
“We want to have the victory, there was no question, but we need to have it in in a way that we do not risk a car. They were in the heat, they were full of fire and we have to say we are happy that we reached the result, but it could have been a different situation. But it was, I think, one of the most important fights I’ve ever seen. It was incredible.”
After the race, Vanthoor was one of the first to congratulate Jaminet. A year later, Vanthoor was in the No. 9 for Daytona with Pilet and Klaus Bachler. Today the two Porsche factory drivers today will seek victory together, along with Kevin Estre and Nick Tandy. Should they win, any lingering bitterness from that battle of two years ago will be well and truly forgotten.
The 62nd Rolex 24 At Daytona takes the green flag at 1:40pm ET, with 59 cars slated to start the kickoff to the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season. The opening hour will be broadcast live on NBC. Polesitters Qualifying took place last …
The 62nd Rolex 24 At Daytona takes the green flag at 1:40pm ET, with 59 cars slated to start the kickoff to the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season. The opening hour will be broadcast live on NBC.
Polesitters
Qualifying took place last Sunday during the Roar Before the 24 weekend. Pipo Derani was the top qualifier in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing V-Series.R with a new record of 1m32.656s as Cadillac locked out the front row. Ben Keating, who is also scheduled to drive the No. 85 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche 963 during the race, took the LMP2 pole in the No. 2 United Autosports ORECA 07. AO Racing will lead the GTs to the green in a split start after Seb Priaulx claimed the GTD PRO pole in the No. 77 Porsche 911 GT3 R. Starting on the inside of the second row of GTs will be the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 after Parker Thompson set the top qualifying time for GTD.
Ganassi likes his chances
Although much of the spotlight has been on the sister Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing entry that will start from pole, the No. 01 V-Series.R run by Chip Ganassi Racing has been quick as well, and will start on the outside of the front row.
“By looking at practice and qualifying, you would say that we’ve come here, for the first time in a few years, and I think we have a real shot at the thing. So it’s just a matter now of doing the obvious things right,” said team owner Chip Ganassi, who expects to see everything that might happen in a whole season in the Rolex 24. One thing he hopes not to see: “Some sort of plan you’ve been on for eight or nine hours getting negated by a poorly placed yellow.” But, he added, it’s part of the deal and you just roll with the punches.
WTRAndretti weighing its strategy
The two Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06s have not shown great pace throughout the Roar and race week. Team co-owner Wayne Taylor makes no bones about believing the fact that the Acuras carry the most weight — 42kg more than the lightest car in the GTP field — contributes to that. So the team has had to come up with tactics to overcome that in the race.
The Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti crew plot the strategy for their two Acura ARX-06 GTPs. Richard Dole/Lumen
“We do have two cars this year — there were two Acuras in the field in years past, but it wasn’t a situation where you could split strategies and play that game,” said Ricky Taylor, driver of the No. 10 WTRAndretti ARX-06. “We’ve got that card. There are so many yellows, you can work a lot with strategy to get track position. And then with two cars, it kind of magnifies that so we can hold people off for a while, and who knows what happens. The wind changes here a lot and our car’s very sensitive to wind. Little things like that could add up to where we could have a good day.”
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1406]
Disaster-times-two mentality
Every team hopes nothing goes wrong during the 24 hours of the race, and that their fortune comes down to driving, engineering and strategy. But when things do go wrong — a GT car that doesn’t see you coming, over-aggressive racing, or even just plain old driver error — the old “Be Prepared” Boy Scout motto comes into play.
“We make what our team refers to, and I think most do, as a fight bay,” explained Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing Team Operations Manager Chris Mitchum. “So if things go pear-shaped and you have a problem during the race, our garage will be set up with spare front corners, spare components, spare back half. We have a very limited number of repairs that we will do in pit lane, and those parts are in the pit lane. Everything else is staged in the garage. And you go so far — as I’m sure every team here will do about the same — you have a set of bodywork sitting in your garage and a set of bodywork in your pit lane. You work from a disaster-times-two mentality and you try to be as prepared as you can.”
Fittipaldi to sub for injured Novalak at Inter Europol
Pietro Fittipaldi will replace Clément Novalak in the LMP2 No. 52 Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA for the race. Novalak sustained a leg and hip injury in a pitlane incident in the practice session; while the injury is not serious, he will not be able to participate in the remainder of the event. Fittipaldi will instead join Nick Boulle, Jakub Śmiechowski and Tom Dillmann in the No. 52. He is well known to the Inter Europol Competition crew, having raced the ORECA 07 with the team in the European Le Mans Series in 2022.
As Novalak’s injury occurred in the final practice, Fittipaldi will have his first at-speed laps in the car during the race.
Heritage Display grows
One of the highlights of the Rolex 24 for racing history buffs is the Heritage Display in the Fan Zone, along with the Saturday morning 20-minute on-track exhibition for participating cars. Highlights include the Dauer 962 LM that won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1994, a Mazda RX-7 GTO car, the NASCAR Garage 56 Project car that ran at Le Mans last year, and a BMW CSL that won at Daytona in 1975.
Jenson Button snaps a fan photo of the Garage 56 Camaro he raced at Le Mans last year. Richard S. James photo
Drive times
Minimum drive times for GTP and GTD PRO are two hours. For LMP2 and GTD, the minimum drive time is 4h30m. No driver may drive for more than 13 hours, and no more than four hours in any six-hour period.
How to watch/listen
The entirety of the Rolex 24 At Daytona will be carried live on NBC’s Peacock streaming platform. Sixteen-and-a-half hours will be on television, with the start and finish on NBC. USA Network will carry the race from 2:30 to 8pm ET, and 10pm to midnight ET. Sunday coverage begins at 6am ET on USA, continuing to noon ET. NBC will carry the finish of the race from noon ET until 2pm.
In addition, IMSA Radio will be broadcasting for the duration of the event.
Weather
This will be the warmest Rolex 24 in several years, with temperature on Saturday peaking at 78 degrees F right around the race start. Overnight temperatures are only expected to drop into the mid-60s, and Sunday morning brings a small chance of rain, with conditions expected to be partly cloudy and in the low 70s when the checker falls.
