Sunday
Jan302022
FEBRUARY 2, 2022
Sunday, January 30, 2022 at 10:28AM 
(Michelin Motorsport)
Helio Castroneves kept the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-05 ahead of the field during the final 30 minutes to lift MSR and co-drivers Tom Blomqvist, Oliver Jarvis and Simon Pagenaud to victory Sunday in the 60th anniversary of the Rolex 24 At Daytona. “It sounds cliche, but it’s all about believing,” Castroneves said. “I believe in them, they believe in me. This is exactly what is happening with this group here. With Simon, with Tom and with Oliver – we all believed that we could do it.” It was Castroneves’ second consecutive Rolex 24 victory. Last year, he won the race as part of Wayne Taylor Racing. This time, Castroneves fought off the No. 10 WTR Acura and driver Ricky Taylor to win, then stopped at the start-finish line and climbed the catch fence. “That was absolutely incredible,” he said. “I’m so happy for the entire group. Everyone did their job. At the end, I said, ‘Put me in, Coach.’ It was great.” The victory ended Wayne Taylor Racing’s bid to win the race for a record fourth consecutive time. As the Meyer Shank Racing celebration moved from the fence to the pits, Wayne Taylor was among the first to congratulate his former driver. The trip to the top of the podium continued the resurgence of the career of Castroneves, 46. After winning last year’s Rolex 24 with WTR, Castroneves went on to win the Indy 500 with MSR, tying A.J. Foyt, Al Unser and Rick Mears for most Indy 500 wins in a career. “It’s priceless,” Castroneves said. “In my case, I’m still very passionate about it and learning every day … and improving my driving skills. That’s what makes me a better driver. That’s why I enjoy it. That’s why when I go out there I push as hard as I can.” Ricky Taylor finished 3.028 seconds behind Castroneves for WTR teammates Filipe Albuquerque, Will Stevens and Alexander Rossi. The 1-2 Acura sweep came 18 hours after both cars fell off the lead lap and trailed the five Cadillacs in the Daytona Prototype international (DPi) class. Loic Duval brought the No. 5 JDC Miller MotorSports Cadillac DPi-V.R in third place with teammates Tristan Vautier, Richard Westbrook and Ben Keating. (Thank you to Jeff Olson/IMSA WIre Service)
Helio Castroneves kept the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-05 ahead of the field during the final 30 minutes to lift MSR and co-drivers Tom Blomqvist, Oliver Jarvis and Simon Pagenaud to victory Sunday in the 60th anniversary of the Rolex 24 At Daytona. “It sounds cliche, but it’s all about believing,” Castroneves said. “I believe in them, they believe in me. This is exactly what is happening with this group here. With Simon, with Tom and with Oliver – we all believed that we could do it.” It was Castroneves’ second consecutive Rolex 24 victory. Last year, he won the race as part of Wayne Taylor Racing. This time, Castroneves fought off the No. 10 WTR Acura and driver Ricky Taylor to win, then stopped at the start-finish line and climbed the catch fence. “That was absolutely incredible,” he said. “I’m so happy for the entire group. Everyone did their job. At the end, I said, ‘Put me in, Coach.’ It was great.” The victory ended Wayne Taylor Racing’s bid to win the race for a record fourth consecutive time. As the Meyer Shank Racing celebration moved from the fence to the pits, Wayne Taylor was among the first to congratulate his former driver. The trip to the top of the podium continued the resurgence of the career of Castroneves, 46. After winning last year’s Rolex 24 with WTR, Castroneves went on to win the Indy 500 with MSR, tying A.J. Foyt, Al Unser and Rick Mears for most Indy 500 wins in a career. “It’s priceless,” Castroneves said. “In my case, I’m still very passionate about it and learning every day … and improving my driving skills. That’s what makes me a better driver. That’s why I enjoy it. That’s why when I go out there I push as hard as I can.” Ricky Taylor finished 3.028 seconds behind Castroneves for WTR teammates Filipe Albuquerque, Will Stevens and Alexander Rossi. The 1-2 Acura sweep came 18 hours after both cars fell off the lead lap and trailed the five Cadillacs in the Daytona Prototype international (DPi) class. Loic Duval brought the No. 5 JDC Miller MotorSports Cadillac DPi-V.R in third place with teammates Tristan Vautier, Richard Westbrook and Ben Keating. (Thank you to Jeff Olson/IMSA WIre Service)
(IMSA)
Oliver Jarvis, Tom Blomqvist, Helio Castroneves and Simon Pagenaud celebrate their huge win at Daytona.
Oliver Jarvis, Tom Blomqvist, Helio Castroneves and Simon Pagenaud celebrate their huge win at Daytona.
(IMSA)
Eric Lux, Colton Herta, Pato O’Ward and Devlin DeFrancesco (No. 81 DragonSpeed USA ORECA LMP2) rallied from five laps down to win the LMP2 class at the Rolex 24. Despite freezing cold conditions overnight at Daytona International Speedway, the group of highly-inspired young drivers were blazing fast come Sunday sunrise. Armed with youthful enthusiasm and great racing talent, DragonSpeed’s roster of longtime friends overcame fast competition, pit road challenges and uncharacteristically cold weather to claim the team’s first ever victory in the season-opening IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race. DragsonSpeed experienced problems right away - a technical glitch hampered pit road visits resulting in multiple speeding penalties that put it behind early. But the team finally got the system righted and it was go-time by nightfall. Lux, Herta, O’Ward and DeFrancesco kept making up ground in the class before Herta took over the car for the closing laps to bring home the victory. The team led more than a 100 consecutive laps Sunday morning before getting passed by the No. 8 Tower Motosport car on a re-start with only 30 minutes remaining. But Herta – driving multiple consecutive stints – pursued. Even going down by almost a full second before catching the No. 8 in the Le Mans Chicane. Contact as they raced tightly sent the No. 8 off course briefly and Herta re-took the lead. For good. Ultimately, DragonSpeed claimed a 7.089-second victory over the No. 29 Racing Team Nederland car co-driven by Frits van Eerd, Giedo van der Garde, Dylan Murry and another IndyCar driver, Rinus VeeKay. Tower Motorsport rallied from the off-track excursion to complete the LMP2 podium with drivers John Farano, Louis Deletraz, Rui Pinto de Andrade and Ferdinand Habsburg-Lothringen. Even after 24 hours, four LMP2 Class cars finished on the lead lap. (Thank you to Holly Cain/IMSA WIre Service)
(IMSA)
Gar Robinson - last year’s LMP3 driver champion - joined Felipe Fraga, Kay van Berlo and Michael Cooper in the No. 74 Riley Motorsports LMP3 to claim the class win once again in the Rolex 24 at the Daytona International Speedway. "There isn’t one race on the schedule that’s easy to win,” Robinson said. “But when you do it with the team like we have, with Bill Riley and all the guys back at the shop, and all the prep we do, it does generate the results. We did some old-school endurance racing last year, where you have to watch what is going on, take care of the car and bring it back to pit road the best we could. These LMP3s are amazing cars. This race felt more like a sprint race for 24 hours. We were all pushing.” The winning car turned 723 laps over Daytona’s 3.56-mile road course with a margin of victory of one lap. The No. 74 went into the lead for good at the 20-hour, 28-minute mark (612 laps) with van Berlo at the wheel. The No. 33 Sean Creech Motorsport Ligier JS P320 driven by Joao Barbosa, Seb Priaulx, Lance Willsey and Malthe Jakobsen finished second, and Jon Bennett, Colin Braun, George Kurtz and Nic Jonsson (No. 54 CORE Autosport Ligier JS P320) came home third. The No. 54 was heading toward a second-place finish, possibly challenging for the lead, but was penalized with a drive-through penalty after passing under the yellow flag with about 30 minutes left on the clock. The penalty allowed the No. 33 car to move up to second place. The No. 54 finished two laps behind the class winner. The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season resumes March 16-19 with the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts at Sebring International Raceway. (Thank you to Godwin Kelly/IMSA Wire Service)
(IMSA)
The new GTD PRO class of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship got off to the most spectacular start possible. Mathieu Jaminet and the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R emerged from a door-banging clash Sunday afternoon with the similar No. 2 KCMG Porsche driven by Laurens Vanthoor through Daytona International Speedway’s Le Mans Chicane on the very last lap of the Rolex 24 At Daytona. The two factory Porsche drivers waged an intense duel over the final two hours of the 60th running of North America’s longest endurance race. The action ramped-up in the closing five minutes, as Vanthoor’s constant pressure finally paid off and he gained the lead and held it for three intense laps leading to the white flag. But Jaminet fought back. The Pfaff driver repeated Vanthoor’s pass around the International Horseshoe hairpin to regain the lead on the final lap before vigorously defending the position into the newly renamed Le Mans Chicane on the backstretch of the Daytona oval. The two Porsches negotiated the initial left-hander side-by-side before coming together as they entered the next right-hander. Both skirted the grass to the inside in a synchronized drift; Jaminet maintained control while Vanthoor skidded to a stop before quickly resuming. By the time they reached the finish line of the 3.56-mile road course less than a minute later, Jaminet had a 2.185-second advantage over the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GT3 driven by Alessandro Pier Guidi. Vanthoor claimed third place, 4.687 seconds behind the winner. “This was crazy!” marveled Jaminet, a 37-year-old Frenchman who was a GT Le Mans class winner with Porsche last year at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts and Motul Petit Le Mans. “It was difficult to realize what happened on the last lap – actually the last two hours. I was just driving for my life for these two hours. “Even when he passed me, I thought, ‘I’m not going to give this thing,” Jaminet added. “It was too much hard work for one hour and 55 (minutes) to let it go in the last few laps. I had to give it everything and just go for it.” Jaminet shared the winning car with Matt Campbell and two-time Daytona Prototype international (DPi) champion Felipe Nasr, who made a victorious debut as a Porsche factory driver. Eight of the 13 GTD PRO entries led laps over the course of the 24 hours, and it wasn’t until the final quarter of the race that the Porsches truly separated themselves from the field. It was a difficult GTD PRO debut for two-time defending GT Le Mans class champions Corvette Racing. The Nos. 3 and No. 4 Corvette C8.R GTDs encountered delays and finished sixth and 10th in class. Similarly, the first race for BMW Team RLL’s new M4 GT3 model was not trouble-free, resulting in a seventh-place finish for the No. 25 car and ninth place for the No. 24. (Thank you to John Oreovicz/IMSA Wire Service)
The new GTD PRO class of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship got off to the most spectacular start possible. Mathieu Jaminet and the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R emerged from a door-banging clash Sunday afternoon with the similar No. 2 KCMG Porsche driven by Laurens Vanthoor through Daytona International Speedway’s Le Mans Chicane on the very last lap of the Rolex 24 At Daytona. The two factory Porsche drivers waged an intense duel over the final two hours of the 60th running of North America’s longest endurance race. The action ramped-up in the closing five minutes, as Vanthoor’s constant pressure finally paid off and he gained the lead and held it for three intense laps leading to the white flag. But Jaminet fought back. The Pfaff driver repeated Vanthoor’s pass around the International Horseshoe hairpin to regain the lead on the final lap before vigorously defending the position into the newly renamed Le Mans Chicane on the backstretch of the Daytona oval. The two Porsches negotiated the initial left-hander side-by-side before coming together as they entered the next right-hander. Both skirted the grass to the inside in a synchronized drift; Jaminet maintained control while Vanthoor skidded to a stop before quickly resuming. By the time they reached the finish line of the 3.56-mile road course less than a minute later, Jaminet had a 2.185-second advantage over the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GT3 driven by Alessandro Pier Guidi. Vanthoor claimed third place, 4.687 seconds behind the winner. “This was crazy!” marveled Jaminet, a 37-year-old Frenchman who was a GT Le Mans class winner with Porsche last year at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts and Motul Petit Le Mans. “It was difficult to realize what happened on the last lap – actually the last two hours. I was just driving for my life for these two hours. “Even when he passed me, I thought, ‘I’m not going to give this thing,” Jaminet added. “It was too much hard work for one hour and 55 (minutes) to let it go in the last few laps. I had to give it everything and just go for it.” Jaminet shared the winning car with Matt Campbell and two-time Daytona Prototype international (DPi) champion Felipe Nasr, who made a victorious debut as a Porsche factory driver. Eight of the 13 GTD PRO entries led laps over the course of the 24 hours, and it wasn’t until the final quarter of the race that the Porsches truly separated themselves from the field. It was a difficult GTD PRO debut for two-time defending GT Le Mans class champions Corvette Racing. The Nos. 3 and No. 4 Corvette C8.R GTDs encountered delays and finished sixth and 10th in class. Similarly, the first race for BMW Team RLL’s new M4 GT3 model was not trouble-free, resulting in a seventh-place finish for the No. 25 car and ninth place for the No. 24. (Thank you to John Oreovicz/IMSA Wire Service)
(IMSA)
Jan Heylen, Ryan Hardwick, Zacharie Robichon and Richard Lietz (No. 16 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R) owned the last hours of GT Daytona (GTD) action at Daytona International Speedway on Sunday, winning by 12.542 seconds over the No. 44 Magnus Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3. Heylen drove the lengthy final stint, warding off bids from the Aston Martin and the No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3. “It’s just so hard to win any race, let alone a 24-hour race,” Heylen said. “At the end with two or three hours to go, we had a good lead and I was sure in my mind that it wasn’t going to be that easy. We had good speed in the car and we just had to control our race and not worry about the GTD PRO cars. We’ve come here many times and tried, so to finally be on the top step is an amazing result.” The Wright Motorsports drivers methodically worked their way to the front from the 11th starting position in GTD. They didn’t lead until more than four hours into the 24-hour race. The car came alive overnight and controlled the late stages, leading 120 of the last 125 laps. (Thank you to Mark Robinson/IMSA Wire Service)
(IMSA)
Porsche made a conspicuous North American debut in the Grand Sport (GS) class of the BMW M Endurance Challenge on Friday, the opening round of the 2022 IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge season. Stevan McAleer, (No. 28 RS1 Porsche 718 GT4 Clubsport), stalked Owen Trinkler’s identical No. 64 Team TGM Porsche 718 GT4 Clubsport for several laps as the final 30 minutes of the four-hour race unfolded, finally edging past in the famous tri-oval section of Daytona International Speedway with just under 13 minutes remaining. From there, McAleer eased the Porsche he shared with Cocoa, Florida, native Eric Filgueiras to a 4.631-second margin of victory over the No. 64 718 GT4 co-driven by Ted Giovanis. It was the 10th Michelin Pilot Challenge victory for McAleer, a 37-year-old Scotsman, and the first for Filgueiras in his first IMSA race of any kind. It was also Porsche’s first win in any form of IMSA competition at Daytona since 2018, also delivered by RS1 in the Michelin Pilot Challenge. McAleer said he encountered a gearbox glitch about 30 minutes into his stint that required him to recycle the Porsche’s electronics. After that, the car was flawless and fast – albeit, no longer in the lead. “It was frustrating watching cars passing me left, right and center,” McAleer said of the moments when he slowed and had to reboot the car. “We had a little bit of work to do, but the car was utterly fantastic. It shows how good the new Cayman GT4 platform is because so many teams have moved forward with this car.” (Thank you to John Oreovicz/IMSA Wire Service)
(IMSA)
After a flurry of lead changes in the Touring Car (TCR) class, Tim Lewis (No. 5 KMW Motorsports with TMR Engineering Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloce TCR) gapped the field in the closing laps and drove on to the class victory. Lewis, who shared the car with Roy Block, won by 9.524 seconds over the reigning TCR champions, Michael Lewis and Taylor Hagler in the No. 1 Bryan Herta Autosport with Curb-Agajanian Hyundai Elantra N TCR. Lewis took the lead for good with a half-hour remaining when he passed Stephen Simpson (No. 54 Michael Johnson Racing with Bryan Herta Autosport Elantra N TCR). It led to Block’s fourth Michelin Pilot Challenge win and the third for Lewis, who delivered Alfa Romeo a pair of breakthrough victories in 2021. Lewis said attrition was a factor. Friday’s race is one of just two on the Michelin Pilot Challenge schedule to run four hours; the remaining eight are each two hours in length. “Some of the cars I was running with at the beginning had mechanical issues,” Lewis said. “I was hoping we’d have a seat at the table at the end. It was a total team effort. We drove flawlessly, our pit stops were flawless, our strategy was flawless.” Third place continued the inspirational story of the week, with Robert Wickens getting a podium finish in his series debut in the No. 33 Bryan Herta Autosport Hyundai Elantra N TCR. It was Wickens’ first race since he was paralyzed in a 2018 IndyCar crash. He logged nearly 90 minutes in the car before handing off to co-driver and fellow Canadian Mark Wilkins. “Physically, I’m fine,” Wickens said. “I’ve been working hard the last few months just in case I had this opportunity. I could have done another stint and another stint after that. I was just having a blast. It felt really good out there.” (Thank you to Godwin Kelly/IMSA Wire Service)
Porsche made a conspicuous North American debut in the Grand Sport (GS) class of the BMW M Endurance Challenge on Friday, the opening round of the 2022 IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge season. Stevan McAleer, (No. 28 RS1 Porsche 718 GT4 Clubsport), stalked Owen Trinkler’s identical No. 64 Team TGM Porsche 718 GT4 Clubsport for several laps as the final 30 minutes of the four-hour race unfolded, finally edging past in the famous tri-oval section of Daytona International Speedway with just under 13 minutes remaining. From there, McAleer eased the Porsche he shared with Cocoa, Florida, native Eric Filgueiras to a 4.631-second margin of victory over the No. 64 718 GT4 co-driven by Ted Giovanis. It was the 10th Michelin Pilot Challenge victory for McAleer, a 37-year-old Scotsman, and the first for Filgueiras in his first IMSA race of any kind. It was also Porsche’s first win in any form of IMSA competition at Daytona since 2018, also delivered by RS1 in the Michelin Pilot Challenge. McAleer said he encountered a gearbox glitch about 30 minutes into his stint that required him to recycle the Porsche’s electronics. After that, the car was flawless and fast – albeit, no longer in the lead. “It was frustrating watching cars passing me left, right and center,” McAleer said of the moments when he slowed and had to reboot the car. “We had a little bit of work to do, but the car was utterly fantastic. It shows how good the new Cayman GT4 platform is because so many teams have moved forward with this car.” (Thank you to John Oreovicz/IMSA Wire Service)
(IMSA)After a flurry of lead changes in the Touring Car (TCR) class, Tim Lewis (No. 5 KMW Motorsports with TMR Engineering Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloce TCR) gapped the field in the closing laps and drove on to the class victory. Lewis, who shared the car with Roy Block, won by 9.524 seconds over the reigning TCR champions, Michael Lewis and Taylor Hagler in the No. 1 Bryan Herta Autosport with Curb-Agajanian Hyundai Elantra N TCR. Lewis took the lead for good with a half-hour remaining when he passed Stephen Simpson (No. 54 Michael Johnson Racing with Bryan Herta Autosport Elantra N TCR). It led to Block’s fourth Michelin Pilot Challenge win and the third for Lewis, who delivered Alfa Romeo a pair of breakthrough victories in 2021. Lewis said attrition was a factor. Friday’s race is one of just two on the Michelin Pilot Challenge schedule to run four hours; the remaining eight are each two hours in length. “Some of the cars I was running with at the beginning had mechanical issues,” Lewis said. “I was hoping we’d have a seat at the table at the end. It was a total team effort. We drove flawlessly, our pit stops were flawless, our strategy was flawless.” Third place continued the inspirational story of the week, with Robert Wickens getting a podium finish in his series debut in the No. 33 Bryan Herta Autosport Hyundai Elantra N TCR. It was Wickens’ first race since he was paralyzed in a 2018 IndyCar crash. He logged nearly 90 minutes in the car before handing off to co-driver and fellow Canadian Mark Wilkins. “Physically, I’m fine,” Wickens said. “I’ve been working hard the last few months just in case I had this opportunity. I could have done another stint and another stint after that. I was just having a blast. It felt really good out there.” (Thank you to Godwin Kelly/IMSA Wire Service)