FEBRUARY 3, 2021

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Felipe Albuquerque (No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Konica Minolta Acura ARX-O5 DPi/Michelin) was able to withstand intense pressure from Renger van der Zande (No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac DPi/Michelin) in the last 30 minutes of the Rolex 24 on Sunday, until van der Zande suffered a puncture in his right rear tire with just 7 minutes and 50 seconds left in the race. van der Zande's misfortune allowed Albuquerque to go on to the win the 59th running of the Rolex 24 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race at Daytona International Speedway. Albuquerque and co-drivers Ricky Taylor, Alexander Rossi and Helio Castroneves delivered the third straight win for Wayne Taylor Racing (and fifth overall) in America's longest endurance race. It was also Acura's first win in the Rolex 24. Kamui Koboyashi, Simon Pagenaud, Mike Rockenfeller and Jimmie Johnson finished second in the No. 48 Action Express Racing/Ally Cadillac DPi/Michelin), and Oliver Jarvis, Harry Tincknell and Jonathon Bomarito (No. 55 Mazda Motorsports Mazda RT24 DPi/Michelin) finished third overall. The No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac - with van der Zande and co-drivers Kevin Magnussen and Scott Dixon - ended up fifth overall. As we've come to expect, this race was a flat-out sprint for the entire 24 hours, and if not for the puncture in the No. 01 car, the race was going to come down to the very last lap on the 3.56-mile road course. “I was always looking in the mirrors,” Albuquerque said. “He was fast. He was faster than me, obviously. But I thought there must be tire trouble. Physics tells you that. When you push too hard, something happens. When you go off track as well, something goes bad. I was not expecting that to happen, obviously, but I was expecting some trouble with (van der Zande’s) performance.” (Thank you to Jeff Olson/IMSA Wire Service) 
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Paul-Loup Chatin (No. 18 Era Motorsport ORECA LMP2 07/Michelin) put the finishing touches on a 19.513-second victory in the LMP2 class over the No. 8 Tower Motorsport ORECA/Michelin co-driven by John Farano, Gabriel Aubry, Tim Buret and Matthieu Vaxiviere. Chatin co-drove the No. 18 with Ryan Dalziel, Dwight Merriman and Kyle Tilley. “It’s amazing,” Merriman said. “I’m really proud of the team. It really is a team effort to win in endurance racing, especially when you get to these super-long ones. It’s just so hard to win, even if you’re good. It requires all aspects of the program to be good.” (Thank you to Jeff Olson/IMSA Wire Service) 

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Spencer Pigot, Gar Robinson, Scott Andrews and Oliver Askew (No. 74 Riley Motorsports Ligier JS P320/Michelin) delivered a three-lap victory in the LMP3 class. LMP3 was making its WeatherTech Championship debut and the cars were racing for 24 hours for the first time. "It was a pretty smooth race, to be honest,” Pigot said. “We kind of stayed out of trouble and did our own thing. That was our plan all along. Nobody knew how reliable these LMP3 cars would be. I don’t think they’d ever run a race this long. One thing we knew is that we’d have the best-prepared car in the paddock, and I think we showed that today.” The No. 33 Sean Creech Motorsport Ligier/Michelin co-driven by Joao Barbosa, Lance Willsey, Wayne Boyd and Yann Clairay finished second in the LMP3 class, followed by the No. 6 Muehlner Motorsports America Duqueine D08/Micehlin shared by Moritz Kranz, Laurents Hoerr and Kenton Koch. (Thank you to Jeff Olson/IMSA Wire Service)
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Jordon Taylor, Antonio Garcia and Nicky Catsburg (No. 3 Corvette Racing C8.R/Michelin) won the GTLM class in the Rolex 24 At Daytona on Sunday afternoon. "It was an amazing day, I think,” Jordon Taylor said. “All 24 hours in this class are always intense, and I think every year you forget how intense it is until it starts again. All the cars were pretty much within 10 seconds all race long, so no one could make a mistake. Any little mistake would put you on your back foot.” Taylor drove an inspired final stint to rally from a slow pit stop hours earlier that dropped the car from contending for the win to fourth place at the time. The hard work and inspired drive through the field secured Corvette Racing’s first Rolex 24 victory in five years – by a 3.519-second margin over the team's No. 4 Corvette C8.R/Michelin driven by Tommy Milner, Nick Tandy and Alexander Sims. “It’s great for Corvette to get their first endurance win with the C8.R,’’ Jordan Taylor said. “Last year, we obviously won six sprint races and the championship, but the one that was missing was the endurance win, so to start out 2021 with the Rolex 24 win is amazing, and to do it with Nicky and Antonio. It was our first win as a trio so that’s definitely special and definitely makes us more hungry to win Sebring 12 Hour next." The No. 24 BMW Team RLL BMW M8 GTE/Michelin driven by John Edwards, Jesse Krohn, Augusto Farfus and Marco Wittman finished third. (Thank you to Holly Cain/IMSA WIre Service)
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Russell Ward, Philip Ellis and Indy Dontje (No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3/Michelin) won the GTD class by 16.329-seconds over the No. 75 Sun Energy 1 Mercedes-AMG/Michelin driven by Raffaelo Marciello, Kenny Habul, Mikael Grenier and Luca Stolz. Andrea Calderelli, Bryan Sellers, Madison Snow and Corey Lewis finished third in the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3/Michelin. It was a spirited battle in the GTD class including some physical racing with a little more than four hours remaining. The Winward Mercedes made hard contact with the No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3/Michelin while battling for the class lead. The Ferrari hobbled back to the pits for repairs and was taken out of contention, while the Mercedes raced on. "We had been battling with the (No.) 21 car probably for a good sixteen hours, probably the whole race we had been going at it with the guys," said Philip Ellis, who was driving the No. 57 at the time. “It was always very hard racing but fair racing. That’s the way we like it and the way we want to see it, and we think the spectators want to see it as well. Both of us came out of the pits on cold tires just after pit stops, and I think he just saw an opportunity to make a move early and the tires weren’t quite there yet. And I think he just misjudged it, took a bit too much risk and squeezed me off a little bit which was enough to upset the car. Unfortunately, I hit him and corrected the car. It’s very unfortunate for the (No.) 21 car. You don’t want to see battles end this way. Unfortunately, it did this time.” This was the inaugural Rolex 24 victory for all four drivers on the winning GTD team and first Rolex 24 win for Mercedes-AMG in five tries. In fact, it’s the first major victory by Mercedes at Daytona International Speedway. (Thank you to Holly Cain/IMSA Wire Service)