Wayne Taylor Racing Scores Historic Rolex 24 Victory

Filipe Albuquerque suspected something was amiss with his closest competitor near the end of the race. He was right.

Albuquerque watched in his mirrors and heard his team’s reaction over the radio Sunday when Renger van der Zande was forced to pit with a flat right rear tire with 7 minutes, 50 seconds left in the race, allowing Albuquerque to sail to victory in the 59th Rolex 24 At Daytona. The historic race opened the 2021 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season.

Albuquerque drove the No. 10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-05 DPi to the finish line 4.704 seconds ahead of the No. 48 Action Express Racing/Ally Cadillac DPi-V.R driven by Kamui Kobayashi. It was Albuquerque’s second Rolex victory in the past four years and the third consecutive Rolex victory for Wayne Taylor Racing.

WTR joined Chip Ganassi Racing as the only teams to score three consecutive overall victories in the Rolex 24. The Ganassi team went back-to-back-to-back from 2006-2008.

As van der Zande filled his mirrors during their battle late in the 24-hour race, Albuquerque noticed him charging hard and occasionally getting his tires off track, especially in the Bus Stop, a left-right-left chicane that breaks up a portion of the backstretch on the Daytona International Speedway superspeedway oval, much of which is used 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.”

The No. 10’s victory, shared with co-drivers Helio Castroneves, Ricky Taylor and Alexander Rossi, was the first in the Rolex 24 for Acura, which moved from Team Penske to WTR and Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian during the offseason.

It also was the fifth overall Rolex 24 victory for Wayne Taylor Racing, which previously won in 2005, 2017, 2019 and 2020.

This one, though, was made more gratifying by the effort that went into it. During a short offseason, WTR changed manufacturers – moving from Cadillac to Acura – and revamped its driver lineup.

“So much went into this,” said Ricky Taylor, who scored the second overall Rolex victory of his career. “It was definitely a test of trust and a testament to preparation and sticking to a plan. … We skipped all of the offseason testing because the guys needed time to do everything properly. They know how to win this race. I feel like we were all lucky to be a part of it.”

Van der Zande – who drove and won the Rolex 24 for WTR the past two years – was pressuring Albuquerque and at times closing in sharply during the final minutes of the race, before the cut right rear tire on his No. 01 Cadillac Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R in the last of 12 turns on the Daytona road course.

“He nearly passed me, but then he was kind of steady for four of five laps,” Albuquerque said. “He was not really getting in there. I was just counting. ‘One more lap. One more lap in the lead.’ When he blew, we were lucky. But there is nobody who has ever won Daytona or any championship without luck.”

Following Kobayashi (who was also chasing a third straight Rolex 24 win) and the No. 48 Cadillac co-driven with Jimmie Johnson, Simon Pagenaud and Mike Rockenfeller was the No. 55 Mazda Motorsports Mazda RT24-P shared by Oliver Jarvis, Harry Tincknell and Jonathan Bomarito.

The Ganassi crew replaced the tire on the No. 01 car, but – without time to catch the field – van der Zande and his teammates had to settle for a fifth-place finish.

In the Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class, Paul-Loup Chatin put the finishing touches on a 19.513-second victory by the No. 18 Era Motorsport ORECA LMP2 07 over the No. 8 Tower Motorsport ORECA 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.”

Spencer Pigot drove the final stint of a three-lap victory in the Le Mans Prototype 3 (LMP3) class by the No. 74 Riley Motorsports Ligier JS P320 he shared with Gar Robinson, Scott Andrews and Oliver Askew. 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 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 shared by Moritz Kranz, Laurents Hoerr and Kenton Koch.

The No. 10 Konica Minolta Acura in DPi, the No. 8 Tower Motorsport entry in LMP2 and the No. 74 Riley Motorsports LMP3 scored the most points in IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup competition, which pays points at regular junctures of the WeatherTech championship’s four endurance races: the Rolex 24, Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts, Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen, and Motul Petit Le Mans.

Driving his No. 3 Corvette C8.R across the Daytona International Speedway finish line to earn GT Le Mans (GTLM) class victory in the Rolex 24 At Daytona on Sunday afternoon, Jordan Taylor completed a rare “family sweep” of this legendary event. Moments earlier, Taylor’s brother Ricky and father Wayne had secured their own winning Rolex watches.

“To see Jordan win in the GTLM class, we’re living a dream,’’ Ricky Taylor said of his younger brother, who helped the family team to a pair of prototype overall victories in 2017. Jordan Taylor, meanwhile, was elated but relieved.
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“It was an amazing day, I think,” he 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.”

Certainly, Jordan Taylor drove an inspired final stint to rally from a slow pit stop hours earlier that dropped the car he shared with Antonio Garcia and Nicky Catsburg 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. The No. 24 BMW Team RLL BMW M8 GTE finished third.

The last time Corvette won in class was 2016, sweeping the top two podium positions then as well. This was the first endurance win for the mid-engine C8.R that began competing last year. Corvette Racing also holds the top two positions in the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup standings after Round 1 with the No. 4 squad sitting two points ahead of their teammates in the No. 3 by a count of 19-17.

“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.’’

It was the third Rolex 24 win for Taylor, 29, who has two overall victories in the race in addition to his GTLM victory this weekend. Garcia, 40, has two previous class wins, in 2009 and in 2015 with Corvette. It was the first Daytona victory for Catsburg, 32, of the Netherlands. He finished runner-up in the GTD class in 2016.

Mercedes won in the GT Daytona (GTD) class with German Maro Engel taking the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 to a 16.329-second win over the No. 75 Sun Energy 1 Mercedes-AMG driven at the finish by Raffaelo Marciello. Andrea Calderelli brought the defending Rolex 24 class champion Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 home in third place.

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 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 16 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.

Russell Ward, 31, the lone American on the Winward team, was making his Rolex 24 debut, as was Dutch driver Indy Doutje, 28. British driver Ellis, 28, had competed in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge at Daytona, but this was his first Rolex 24. Engel had competed in three previous Rolex 24 races with a best finish of seventh in 2016.

In addition to the GTD race victory, the No. 57 Winward team also claimed a three-point lead in the Michelin Endurance Cup standings, 16-13, over the No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari tea,

Moments after the race ended, Corvette Racing issued a statement that Garcia had tested positive for COVID-19, a test he took at 9 a.m. ET Sunday in preparation to fly home to Spain after the race. Garcia drove three “double stints” before being isolated following the positive test.

“As part of international COVID travel protocols, all drivers and team members traveling in and out of the U.S. are required to take a COVID test before and after any race activities,’’ the Corvette Racing statement read. “While Antonio Garcia tested negative in preparation for his arrival for the Rolex 24, we have received notice that he has now tested positive in preparation to depart the country.

“He was immediately pulled from competition upon notification of the positive test result and, although he wasn’t experiencing any symptoms, will no longer participate in any additional race activities at the Rolex 24 at Daytona. Upon consulting with IMSA and its Event Operations Protocols, the series determined Corvette Racing met all conditions under the IMSA event protocols that allowed it to compete in a safe and responsible manner.”

IMSA issued its own statement in response. “Following the guidelines outlined in the Event Operations Protocols manual, Corvette Racing alerted IMSA that driver Antonio Garcia tested positive for COVID-19,” it said. “We wish Antonio well in his recovery.”

Both Taylor and Catsburg – who conducted their postrace Zoom media interview outside of victory lane – said they were comfortable that the team took enough precautions throughout the race and that they had only random, limited interaction with Garcia because of the COVID-19 protocol already in place.

“For me, I saw Antonio before the race and that was the last time. And even then, we’re always social distancing and following protocols,’’ Taylor assured. “Definitely disappointing Antonio wasn’t there for the end, but he leads this (No.) 3 car.’’

Taylor added that he will continue to follow protocol, even though that means – in an abundance of caution – missing the traditional post-Rolex 24 pizza dinner his family has enjoyed through the years.

“I’m fine to just go sit at my house for as long as it takes and caress my Rolex (watch) for a while,’’ Taylor said. “I’ll get tested and make sure I’m safe.”

Then he added, “Better to be safe than sorry. ‘’

The WeatherTech Championship season resumes March 17-20 with the Sebring 12 Hours at Sebring International Raceway.