Castroneves Takes Meyer Shank Racing To Rolex 24 Win

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 International Speedway.

The win led to Castroneves’ signature celebratory move of climbing the fence, which he made famous during four Indianapolis 500 wins.

“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, then climbed a fence in Victory Lane. 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.

The key to winning may have been the run by Blomqvist before Castroneves’ finishing run. Blomqvist got the No. 60 car into the lead with a back-and-forth duel with Taylor, then handed it to Castroneves.

“I was speechless after the race,” Blomqvist said. “I’ve dreamt of it. Did I believe? Yes. But you never know. It’s 24 hours of relentless racing. Every time I jumped in the car at moments I felt really comfortable and moments when I was like, ‘Man, I can’t get this car to work. It was just a rollercoaster of a race.”

DragonSpeed USA Flies To LMP2 Victory

In one of the most all-around dramatic Rolex 24 At Daytona races in history, the No. 81 DragonSpeed USA ORECA LMP2 rallied from five laps down to win the LMP2 class of the twice-around-the-clock race. 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.

Sports car veteran Eric Lux and IndyCar Series stars Colton Herta, Pato O’Ward and Devlin DeFrancesco kept making up ground in the class before ultimately handing over the car to Herta in 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.

“He wasn’t really happy with the move, but I thought it was clean, I was alongside of him and two in the bus stop (Le Mans Chicane) just don’t go and I had the inside lane,’’ Herta said of the pass for the win.

“It’s unfortunate. I didn’t want the race to end that way for them, but you know these things happen, I guess. And I’m really happy with how it ended. I got a big five stints there at the end and was able to bring it up into the lead. Congrats to the whole team.”

Riley Motorsports Cruises To LMP3 Victory

The No. 74 Riley Motorsports team continues to own the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship LMP3 class by defending its Rolex 24 at Daytona title Sunday at Daytona International Speedway.

Gar Robinson, who was last year’s LMP3 driver champion, joined Felipe Fraga, Kay van Berlo and Michael Cooper to claim class honors once again.

“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.”

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IMSA introduced the LMP3 class in 2021 and for Robinson it was like a duck to water. He won last year’s Rolex 24 then tacked on four more wins before claiming the inaugural championship. He has a series-leading six career LMP3 wins. Fraga, who took the car to the checkered flag, has five.

“It was a very special day for me,” Fraga said. “They won this race last year and I was supposed to be here, but I couldn’t get into the country because of Covid-19. It hurt a lot for me to stay at home and watch. I’m so glad this year I am here. This has been the best day of my life.”

The No. 74 went to 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 secured second-place honors in this hard-fought battle. Barbosa is a four-time Rolex 24 winner.

Rounding out the podium was the No. 54 CORE Autosport Ligier JS P320 of Jon Bennett, Colin Braun, George Kurtz and Nic Jonsson.

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.

Pfaff Victorious In Slam-Bang Porsche GTD PRO Finish

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 most iconic endurance race. The action jumped off the chart 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 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.

No. 16 Porsche Finds Wright Way To Win GTD Class

Ryan Hardwick watched his Wright Motorsports Porsche race in last year’s Rolex 24 At Daytona from a hospital bed, sidelined with a concussion. The view was much more rewarding this year.

The 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. Veteran driver Jan Heylen drove the lengthy final stint, warding off bids from the Aston Martin and the No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3.

Heylen held strong and pulled away to deliver the first Rolex 24 win for himself, Hardwick, endurance driver Zacharie Robichon, and Wright Motorsports. Porsche driver Richard Lietz earned his third Rolex 24 watch, coming after a 2012 GT win and 2014 GT Le Mans triumph.

“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 No. 16 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.

A critical strategy decision saw the No. 16 crew call the car in for its final pit stop with 52 minutes left in the race, just before a full-course caution for the No. 19 TR3 Lamborghini Huracán GT3 stopped on track. The No. 44 Aston Martin and No. 21 Ferrari had to pit under yellow and were unable to threaten the Porsche the rest of the way, much to the happiness of Hardwick.

“For me, it was a little bit of redemption coming back to this track and not only competing at a high level but ultimately winning,” Hardwick said. “Just blessed to be a part of a great team and exceptional driving by all of these guys, especially through the night and at the end of the race with Zach and Jan really pushing hard when the game was on.”

The next round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship is the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, March 16-19 at Sebring International Raceway.