Rolex 24: Meyer Shank Racing wins again, leads Acura 1-2

Blomqvist crossed the finish line 4.1 seconds clear of the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing ARX-06 of Filipe Albuquerque, Ricky Taylor, Brendon Hartley and Louis Deletraz in a nailbiting finish to the 61st running of the Florida endurance classic, which was punctuated by 14 caution periods.

After a long stretch of green-flag running in the morning hours, a series of full-course yellows kept the top four cars – the two Acuras and Chip Ganassi Racing's pair of Cadillac V-LMDhs – separated by just a handful of seconds in the closing stages.

The yellows helped the WTR Acura, which had dropped three laps off the pace in the night to replace an oil filler bracket, back onto the lead lap, and Albuquerque was able to pass both Ganassi Cadillacs to move up from fourth place to second.

However, Blomqvist was unstoppable aboard the MSR Acura after taking over for the final 90 minutes or so, surviving three restarts with his lead intact to deliver a second consecutive Rolex 24 triumph for the team owned by Jim Meyer and founder Michael Shank, and a third in a row for Castroneves.

The two CGR Cadillacs couldn't keep pace with their Acura rivals when it mattered, albeit engaging in a spirited battle of their own for third.

In the end it was the IMSA full-season #01 entry of Sebastien Bourdais, Renger van der Zande and Scott Dixon that came home for the final spot on the podium, followed by the #02 car of Richard Westbrook, Alex Lynn and Earl Bamber that will contest the FIA WEC this season.

 

Action Express Racing was fifth with its Cadillac driven by Pipo Derani, Alexander Sims and IMSA debutant Jack Aitken, but 12 laps down on the leaders owing to gearbox issues during the night.

BMW brought home the best of its new M Hybrid V8s in sixth, another three laps in arrears. The #24 car shared by Augusto Farfus, Philipp Eng, Marco Wittmann and Colton Herta had already fallen off the lead lap when it was hit by hybrid issues in the morning hours, and then lost further ground due to a brake change.

The sister #25 BMW of Connor De Philippi, Nick Yelloly, Sheldon van der Linde and Herta was the first GTP runner to hit trouble in the opening hour, which required a change of MGU to solve. The car finally finished 131 laps down.

While BMW lacked the pace to contend for victory, Porsche was well in the mix with its pair of new 963s until both cars hit technical issues.

First to fall off the pace was the #7 car of Matt Campbell, Felipe Nasr and Michael Christensen, which lost 35 laps due to a battery change.

 

The sister #6 car of Nick Tandy, Mathieu Jaminet and Dane Cameron was well in contention until a spin the morning hours for Tandy. Subsequent caution periods allowed the Briton to recover to one lap behind the leaders when the car expired in a cloud of smoke.

Tandy coaxed the car back to the pits on electric power, but the car did not re-emerge and was finally classified 83 laps down.

LMP2: Proton beats APR in photo finish

Proton Competition stole the LMP2 win in a sensational finish, as James Allen's #55 Oreca 07 beat the #04 Crowdstrike Racing by APR machine of Ben Hanley by a scant 0.016s.

Hanley looked like he had done enough to take the win in the car he shared with George Kurtz, Matt McMurry and Esteban Gutierrez when he repelled the #35 TDS Racing machine of Job van Uitert at Turn 1.

But Hanley didn't reckon on a late charge by Allen, who arrived on the tail of the APR machine at the start of the final lap and regrouped after an attempt to pass around the outside at Turn 1 was firmly rebuffed.

Allen stuck close to the tail of his rival and drafted by on the run to the finish to steal the win by the slimmest of margins for himself and teammates Fred Poordad, Francesco Pizzi and Gianmaria Bruni.

 

AF Corse completed the podium in third with its Oreca driven by Francois Perrodo, Matthieu Vaxiviere, Julien Canal and Nicklas Nielsen ahead of the TDS machine of van Uitert, Josh Pierson, Francois Heriau and Giedo van der Garde.

The #8 Tower Motorsports car shared by IndyCar stars Josef Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin, as well as Kyffin Simpson and John Farano, was fifth and two laps down after suffering a loss of power on the very opening lap of the race that put them eight laps down.

GTD: Mercedes, Aston Martin victorious

GT Daytona honors were split between Mercedes and Aston Martin in the GTD Pro and GTD categories respectively.

First car home was the GTD class-winning #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of Roman De Angelis, Marco Sorensen, Ian James and Darren Turner, which was locked in battle until the closing stages of the race with the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3.

 

The Winward car, rebuilt around a spare chassis after Lucas Auer's crash in practice, was running second in the closing stages when Phillip Ellis hit the barriers exiting Turn 1 - the same point where Auer had his accident - during the restart following the 13th FCY period.

Winward's demise cleared the way for an Aston Martin 1-2 in GTD, as the Magnus Racing car of John Potter, Andy Lally, Spencer Pumpelly and Nicki Thiim beat the Inception Racing McLaren 720S GT3 of Brendan Iribe, Frederik Schandorff, Ollie Millroy and Marvin Kirchhofer to second.

Heart of Racing had looked good for the GTD Pro win at one stage, but the #23 Vantage of Alex Riberas, David Pittard and Ross Gunn lost a wheel in the night due to a rare wheel-hub failure.

That set-up a three-way dice between the #79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3, the solo factory Corvette C8.R and the #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 heading into the closing stages.

Maro Engel pulled off what turned out to be the race-winning move when he passed the Lexus of Jack Hawksworth into Turn 1, a move that gave the WeatherTech car also driven by Jules Gounon, Dani Juncadella and Cooper MacNeil crucial breathing space going into the closing stages.

 

Engel finally beat the Corvette shared by Garcia, Jordan Taylor and Tommy Milner by 3.9s, while the #14 Lexus took third, a further seven seconds down.

Fourth in GTD Pro was the Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2 shared by Romain Grosjean, Andrea Caldarelli, Mirko Bortolotti and Jordan Pepper, which finished on the lead lap but never had the pace of the leading trio.

Porsche and Ferrari also had weekends to forget with their new GT3 models, which struggled with an unfavorable Balance of Performance.

Best of the new 992-type Porsche 911 GT3 Rs was the Pfaff Motorsports example, which finished fifth in GTD Pro and 12th of all the GTD cars, while newcomers Triarsi Competizione was the first Ferrari squad home, 10th in GTD and 15th in the combined GTD Pro/GTD order.

In LMP3, the #17 AWA Duqueine of Anthony Mantella, Wayne Boyd, Nico Varrone and Thomas Merrill survived a race of attrition to claim the win, taking advantage of a lengthy delay for the long-time leader, the #33 Sean Creech Motorsport Ligier, which suffered a gearbox problem.

The car shared by Lance Willsey, Joao Barbosa, Nico Pino and Nolan Siegel finished a distant second in class ahead of the #38 Performance Tech Motorsports Ligier of John De Angelis, Christopher Allen, Connor Bloum and Cameron Shields.

Rolex 24 at Daytona - race results:

Cla	Class	Num	Driver	Chassis	Laps	Gap
1	GTP	60	Tom Blomqvist Colin Braun Helio Castroneves Simon Pagenaud	Acura ARX-06	783
2	GTP	10	Ricky Taylor Filipe Albuquerque Louis Deletraz Brendon Hartley	Acura ARX-06	783	4.190
3	GTP	01	Sébastien Bourdais Renger van der Zande Scott Dixon	Cadillac V-LMDh	783	9.630
4	GTP	02	Earl Bamber Alex Lynn Richard Westbrook	Cadillac V-LMDh	783	11.176
5	GTP	31	Pipo Derani Alexander Sims Jack Aitken	Cadillac V-LMDh	771	12 Laps
6	GTP	24	Philipp Eng Augusto Farfus Marco Wittmann Colton Herta	BMW M Hybrid V8	768	15 Laps
7	LMP2	55	Fred Poordad Francesco Pizzi James Allen Gianmaria Bruni	ORECA LMP2 07	761	22 Laps
8	LMP2	04	George Kurtz Ben Hanley Matt McMurry Esteban Gutierrez	ORECA LMP2 07	761	22 Laps
9	LMP2	88	François Perrodo Matthieu Vaxiviere Julien Canal Nicklas Nielsen	ORECA LMP2 07	761	22 Laps
10	LMP2	35	François Heriau Giedo van der Garde Josh Pierson Job Van Uitert	ORECA LMP2 07	761	22 Laps
11	LMP2	8	John Farano Scott McLaughlin Josef Newgarden Kyffin Simpson	ORECA LMP2 07	759	24 Laps
12	LMP2	51	Eric Lux Devlin DeFrancesco Austin Cindric Pietro Fittipaldi	ORECA LMP2 07	758	25 Laps
13	LMP2	52	Ben Keating Paul-Loup Chatin Alex Quinn Nicolas Lapierre	ORECA LMP2 07	757	26 Laps
14	GTP	7	Matt Campbell Felipe Nasr Michael Christensen	Porsche 963	749	34 Laps
15	LMP3	17	Anthony Mantella Wayne Boyd Nico Varrone Thomas Merrill	Duqueine D08	737	46 Laps
16	GTD	27	Roman De Angelis Marco Sorensen Ian James Darren Turner	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	729	54 Laps
17	GTD PRO	79	Cooper MacNeil Daniel Juncadella Jules Gounon Maro Engel	Mercedes AMG GT3	729	54 Laps
18	GTD	44	John Potter Andy Lally Spencer Pumpelly Nicki Thiim	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	729	54 Laps
19	GTD PRO	3	Antonio Garcia Jordan Taylor Tommy Milner	Corvette C8.R GTD	729	54 Laps
20	GTD PRO	14	Jack Hawksworth Ben Barnicoat Mike Conway	Lexus RC F GT3	729	54 Laps
21	GTD	70	Brendan Iribe Frederik Schandorff Ollie Millroy Marvin Kirchhofer	McLaren 720S GT3	729	54 Laps
22	GTD	66	Sheena Monk Katherine Legge Mario Farnbacher Marc Miller	Acura NSX GT3	729	54 Laps
23	GTD	12	Aaron Telitz Frankie Montecalvo Kyle Kirkwood Parker Thompson	Lexus RC F GT3	728	55 Laps
24	GTD PRO	63	Andrea Caldarelli Mirko Bortolotti Jordan Lee Pepper Romain Grosjean	Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2	728	55 Laps
25	GTD PRO	9	Klaus Bachler Patrick Pilet Laurens Vanthoor	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	728	55 Laps
26	GTD	93	Ashton Harrison Danny Formal Kyle Marcelli Ryan Briscoe	Acura NSX GT3	727	56 Laps
27	GTD	78	Mikhail Goikhberg Loris Spinelli Benja Hites Marco Mapelli	Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2	726	57 Laps
28	GTD	1	Bryan Sellers Madison Snow Corey Lewis Maxime Martin	BMW M4 GT3	726	57 Laps
29	LMP3	33	Lance Willsey Joao Barbosa Nicolas Pino Nolan Siegel	Ligier JS P320	725	58 Laps
30	GTD	16	Ryan Hardwick Jan Heylen Zacharie Robichon Dennis Olsen	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	723	60 Laps
31	LMP3	38	John DeAngelis Christopher Allen Cameron Shields Connor Bloum	Ligier JS P320	721	62 Laps
32	GTD	023	Onofrio Triarsi Charles Scardina Alessio Rovera Andrea Bertolini	Ferrari 296 GT3	719	64 Laps
33	GTD	77	Alan Brynjolfsson Trent Hindman Max Root Kevin Estre	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	719	64 Laps
34	GTD PRO	53	Mark Kvamme Trenton Estep Jan Magnussen Jason Hart	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	717	66 Laps
35	LMP3	13	Orey Fidani Matthew Bell Lars Kern Moritz Kranz	Duqueine D08	717	66 Laps
36	GTD PRO	23	Ross Gunn Alex Riberas David Pittard	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	716	67 Laps
37	LMP3	85	Till Bechtolsheimer Tijmen van der Helm Luca Mars Mason Filippi	Duqueine D08	715	68 Laps
38	GTD	19	Raffaele Giammaria Franck Perera Claudio Schiavoni Rolf Ineichen	Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2	714	69 Laps
39	GTD	57	Russell Ward Philip Ellis Indy Dontje Lucas Auer	Mercedes AMG GT3	710	73 Laps
40	GTD	80	PJ Hyett Seb Priaulx Gunnar Jeannette Harry Tincknell	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	710	73 Laps
41	GTD	32	Mike Skeen Mikael Grenier Kenton Koch Maximillian Goetz	Mercedes AMG GT3	709	74 Laps
42	GTP	6	Mathieu Jaminet Nick Tandy Dane Cameron	Porsche 963	700	83 Laps
43	GTD	91	Alan Metni Kay van Berlo Jaxon Evans Julien Andlauer	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	699	84 Laps
44	GTD	96	Patrick Gallagher Robby Foley Michael Dinan Jens Klingmann	BMW M4 GT3	695	88 Laps
45	GTD PRO	64	Ted Giovanis Hugh Plumb Matt Plumb Owen Trinkler	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	674	109 Laps
46	GTD	83	Rahel Frey Sarah Bovy Michelle Gatting Doriane Pin	Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2	659	124 Laps
47	GTD	21	Mann Simon Luis Perez Companc Miguel Molina Francesco Castellacci	Ferrari 296 GT3	655	128 Laps
48	GTP	25	Connor de Phillippi Nick Yelloly Sheldon Van Der Linde Colton Herta	BMW M Hybrid V8	652	131 Laps
49	LMP2	20	Dennis Andersen Ed Jones Anders Fjordbach Raffaele Marciello	ORECA LMP2 07	646	137 Laps
50	GTD PRO	95	Bill Auberlen Chandler Hull Bruno Spengler John Edwards	BMW M4 GT3	635	148 Laps
51	LMP3	87	Yu Kanamaru James Vance Serravalle Antonio Nicholas Boulle	Duqueine D08	618	165 Laps
52	LMP2	18	Dwight Merriman Ryan Dalziel Christian Rasmussen Oliver Jarvis	ORECA LMP2 07	510	273 Laps
53	LMP3	36	Jarett Andretti Gabby Chaves Dakota Dickerson Rasmus Lindh	Ligier JS P320	371	412 Laps
54	LMP3	43	Sebastian Alvarez Danial Frost James French Guilherme de	Ligier JS P320	368	415 Laps
55	GTD	42	Robert Megennis Jaden Conwright Kerong Li Alessio Deledda	Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2	356	427 Laps
56	GTD PRO	62	Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado Daniel Serra Davide Rigon	Ferrari 296 GT3	349	434 Laps
57	GTD	92	David Brule Alec Udell Andrew Davis Jeroen Bleekemolen	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	278	505 Laps
58	LMP2	11	Thomas Steven Mikkel Jensen Scott Huffaker Rinus van Kalmthout	ORECA LMP2 07	249	534 Laps
59	GTD	75	Kenny Habul Luca Stolz Fabian Schiller Axcil Jefferies	Mercedes AMG GT3	233	550 Laps
60	LMP3	74	Gar Robinson Felipe Fraga Glenn van Berlo Josh Burdon	Ligier JS P320	89	694 Laps
61	GTD	47	Roberto Lacorte Giorgio Sernagiotto Antonio Fuoco Alessandro Balzan	Ferrari 296 GT3	44	739 Laps
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