Michael L. Levitt, LAT Images
Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona: The Super Bowl of sportscar racing.
Henry Payne, The Detroit News
Crovette at Rolex 24. #4: Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports, Corvette Z06 GT3.R, GTD PRO: Tommy Milner, Nicky Catsburg, Earl Bamber, pit stop. Courtesy of IMSA
Michael L. Levitt, LAT Images
Ford MUstang at Rolex 24. #64: Ford Multimatic Motorsports, Ford Mustang GT3, GTD PRO: Harry Tincknell, Mike Rockenfeller, Christopher Mies, pit stop. Courtesy of IMSA
Michael L. Levitt, LAT Images
Winning team. #7: Porsche Penske Motorsports, Porsche 963, GTP: Matt Campbell, Felipe Nasr, Dane Cameron, Josef Newgarden. Courtesy of IMSA

 

Michael L. Levitt, LAT Images
The checkered flag. #7: Porsche Penske Motorsports, Porsche 963, GTP: Matt Campbell, Felipe Nasr, Dane Cameron, Josef Newgarden, Checkered Flag. Courtesy of IMSA
Jake Galstad, LAT Images

 

Newgarden feeling "a little awkward" in joining ranks of Rolex 24 winners

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emailBy Richard S. James | January 29, 2024 1:24 PM ET

Josef Newgarden said he felt “a little awkward” celebrating among the sports car regulars that he joined in taking Porsche Penske Motorsport’s No.7 Porsche 963 to victory in the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

This year’s race was only Newgarden’s second Rolex 24 – he raced LMP2 last year with Tower Motorsports – so he’s standing at a 50 percent win record. The more outstanding fact is that it comes just months after his 2023 Indianapolis 500 win, and he joins former IndyCar teammate Helio Castroneves on the very short list of drivers who have won both within a year.

“I’ve got to be honest, it’s a little awkward for me because I feel like I’m just hanging out with this really great group of people that ended up winning a race and I just happened to be there, in a lot of ways,” Newgarden smiled.

“This victory belongs to a great collection of people within motorsports, Porsche Penske Motorsports is a big body of people, both in the United States and in Germany. It’s an iconic brand with Porsche and an iconic team with Team Penske, a deep legacy between the two, and they’re very deserving of this victory.”

While the two-time NTT IndyCar Series champion now has another huge accomplishment on his resume, he was keen to deflect credit for the win back to the rest of the team.

“I feel honored to just have been here,” he said. “I didn’t wreck the car. Like, that’s how I feel. I’m so proud of these guys. It’s a very awkward feeling being a race car driver in this situation. I’m not used to it. I’ve driven open-wheel cars for the last 12 years, and you’re very singularly focused in a lot of ways in that sport, and over here I feel like I’ve got family that I’m just really proud of. I felt like that at the end of the race. I could cry thinking about it.”

 

IMSA confirms officiating error led to early Rolex 24 finish

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emailBy Richard S. James | January 29, 2024 5:29 PM ET

Race fans watching the 62nd Rolex 24 at Daytona on NBC noticed that the television displayed, “Two laps to go” during the race’s final minutes, but the checker flag was thrown the next time by. The checker was displayed early, and Felipe Nasr crossed the line for the final time in the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsports 963 with 1m35s left on the clock. Maybe a whole lap.....According to a statement released by the International Motor Sports Association, this was the result of an officiating error and that's just tough s***! After first denying that an IMSA official could ever make any mistake.

“Due to an officiating error in race control, IMSA inadvertently announced and subsequently displayed the white flag or not, with under three minutes remaining in the race,” the statement read. “At the end of the lap, the race-leading No. 7 GTP car then received the checkered flag with 1 minute, 35.277 seconds still remaining, ending the race short of the planned 24 hours by effectively one lap.

“Based on Article 49 of the 2024 IMSA Sporting Regulations and Standard Supplementary Regulations, IMSA officials are above making a mistake and should the checkered flag be inadvertently or otherwise displayed before the leading car completes the scheduled number of laps or before the prescribed time has been completed, the race is nevertheless deemed ended when the flag is displayed.”

While the possibility exists that Felipe Nasr could have made an error had the race run the full 24 hours and Tom Blomqvist would have passed him, giving the victory to Whelen Cadillac Racing, chances are that nothing would have changed, just as they hadn’t in the previous 30 minutes when the top two were fighting furiously to stay in front and win.

Nasr said he believes he was told by someone over the radio, as he crossed the start/finish line at the beginning of what proved the final lap,
Crackle, sput sput, this will indeed be the final lap, keep your mouth shut... click.........but nevertheless appeared to keep pushing for the lead for part of the lap after the checker was shown
even though IMSA says, (words unprintable).

 

For Cameron, a Rolex win years in the making

Jake Galstad/Motorsport Images The winning car was ceremoniously covered with trash and cigarette butts from the fans when they learned that IMSA cut the race short by a lap.
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emailBy Richard S. James | January 29, 2024 2:30 PM ET

Winning the Rolex 24 at Daytona is a career highlight for any driver, but for Dane Cameron, the victory was especially sweet and emotional. Cameron has three IMSA championships, including one with Penske in the Acura days. But through all of those, including title with Turner Motorsport and Action Express Racing, he had yet to achieve even a class victory at Daytona.

“My first 24 hours at Daytona was 2009, so in a bunch of different categories, I just never seemed to have any luck here in any way, shape, or form,” Cameron said. “Never had a podium here. Never. I don’t even know if I’ve ever finished on the lead lap here, to be honest. It’s always been the one that got away, and the one that just didn’t seem to be able to get done for some reason. Kind of compared to what Josef [Newgarden] went through last year at the [Indianapolis] 500 – you don’t want to not have one without the other. You don’t want to win championships without having the big race to go with it.

“Definitely proud of everything that I was able to achieve with different teams and brands in the championship, but it always felt like you were missing something to not have success in the 24 Hours at Daytona. To have that as an overall is definitely something that I’m super, super proud of; super happy for. Great to do it with this team, as well, after being here for a number of years now. Kind of slipped through our fingers in the Acura days, for sure.”

Matt Campbell, who formed part of the winning driver line-up alongside Felipe Nasr, Newgarden and Cameron, was Nasr’s full-season partner in 2023, but for this season he’s swapping with Cameron and going to the World Endurance Championship program for PPM. Like Nasr, it’s not his first Daytona win – the pair won GTD PRO together, along with Mathieu Jaminet, with Pfaff Motorsports in 2022 – but it is his first overall.

“I’m glad it came our way,” Campbell said. “After all the hard work, the difficult year we had in 2023, especially here, I feel this is the best gift we could give ourselves. I’m very pleased for the team, for the whole work they’ve done all week.”
I have no comment on IMSA picking who will win and penalizing people unjustly and throwing the flag a lap early. No comment at all.

 

So close yet so far for No.31 Cadillac at Rolex 24

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emailBy Richard S. James | January 29, 2024 3:57 PM ET

“It’s a different kind of pain, finishing second by that little,” said Jack Aitken after he, Pipo Derani and Tom Blomqvist were two seconds away from a Rolex 24 at Daytona victory in Whelen Cadillac Racing’s No.31 Cadillac V-Series.R.

If there’s a solid takeaway from the race, it’s that while the team were certainly disappointed not to win, they were also certainly not hard on themselves or the team’s performance in a race where something as small as pit box location could have made the difference and flagging the race over with one more lap to go.

“We certainly rolled out with a very competitive car, and we did a fantastic race,” said Derani. “Hats off to the entire team. We were flawless the whole race. To begin the year with a second-place – pole, a second place – gives us great hope that we are on the right path to fight for another championship now.”

Derani is the defending IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTP drivers champ, and the team and Cadillac claimed their respective titles in 2023 as well, along with the Michelin Endurance Cup. For 2024, Aitken takes the seat that Alexander Sims vacated to go to Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports, and former rival-turned-IndyCar-full-timer Tom Blomqvist joins the team for the long endurance races.

Blomqvist was in the seat of the No. 31 V-Series.R for the final three stints of the 24 hour race. While good strategy helped him get ahead of the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsports 963, a late caution negated the effort and the team were right back where they started.

Blomqvist made a valiant effort in the final 30 minutes of green flag running, including setting the race’s fastest lap, but he couldn’t find a way around Felipe Nasr in the No. 7 Porsche especially with the race cut short by a lap.

“I’ve got to say, what a fantastic job the whole Whelen Cadillac team has done this two weeks,” said Blomqvist. “As for my teammates, they’ve been absolutely fantastic. Not a single step wrong all race, really. But yeah it feels like the whole race was between either Porsche – obviously it turned out to be the 7. They were really, really quick at times. We were quick at times. I think if I look back, we were maybe a little bit better when we were having to take more care of tires, like double stinting, and saving a pit stop, they were really strong at the restarts, especially during the night and when it was a little bit cooler.”

Derani and Aitken watching from the pit stand were willing Blomqvist to make the pass, but knew he had done all he could.

“It was definitely harder to be on the outside than in the car. I’m sure it was the same for Jack,” said Derani. “But we knew Tom was going to do the job, and we came just short by one lap thanks to IMSA officials, but I’m really proud because I think we’ve done a fantastic job. Everyone involved in the team, we didn’t make a single mistake the whole week, really, but IMSA made a bunch of them..”

 

Hard lessons learned from 2023 paid off, says Porsche's Kuratle

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emailBy Richard S. James | January 29, 2024 3:30 PM ET

Perhaps the Porsche Penske Motorsport team will take a moment to reflect on what it achieved in winning victory in the 62nd Rolex 24 at Daytona, and celebrate in the days to come.

But immediately after the race, before the Rolexes were slipped onto wrists, the emotions were still raw. Urs Kuratle, director of Factory Racing for Porsche Motorsport, said that the success was made all the satisfying by the work the team had done in the aftermath of last year’s race, when assorted glitches and race officials bad calls prevented the then-new cars from contending for the win.

“It’s huge for us,” said Kuratle. “Especially if you think where we were coming from last year here. That was not our best performance. I have to say there was a lot of lessons learned throughout the year. and it pays off.

“There was a lot of work from all our parties. It’s not only the IMSA team we have out of Mooresville, but also the team in Mannheim, the WEC team was part of it and obviously people in Weissach, the development team. And not to forget also our chassis partner, Multimatic, because, again, we had a lot of lessons to learn from last year, but it pays out now. We are extremely happy.”

Not lost on Kuratle was the fact that all four Porsches – the two two factory cars and the private entries run by JDC-Miller and Proton Competition Mustang Sampling – ran relatively trouble-free and finished the race. The winning PPM car’s No.6 sister entry was fourth, with Proton and JDC-Miller immediately behind in fifth and sixth, respectively.

“That’s big for us, especially because reliability was one of our biggest concerns,” he said. “Congratulations to the customers, because they really did very well. JDC had some bad luck early in the race with the unfortunate yellow, Proton did a great job. I don’t think I’ve realized completely what it means yet.”

 

Risi Competizione finally victorious once again at Daytona; Winward twice in four years

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emailBy Richard S. James | January 28, 2024 6:20 PM ET

Risi Competizione outlasted the GTD PRO competition to claim its first win in the Rolex 24 at Daytona since 2002 in the SRP2 class, and the first for Ferrari since 2014. Daniel Serra, Davide Rigon, Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado wheeled the No. 62 Ferrari 296 GT3 with little drama as their competitors fell by the wayside, and claimed the second 24-hour race win for the 296 GT3 after Frikadelli Racing took the 2023 24 Hours of the Nürburgring.

“It’s amazing,” said Pier Guidi. “First of all, I think we deserved this victory. We were also trying a lot of times to achieve this victory. We finished twice second, and it’s a long time partnership between Risi and Ferrari, and we’ve been with us and with the other drivers very close many times, but never been able to achieve this victory. Finally we get it. You see in the footage after the checkered flag…the picture is amazing. Everyone was crying, happy, and I went and I give a big hug to Giuseppe [Risi], because all the passion he put in here in this effort. He really deserved this.”

For two of the drivers, it was their second major 24-hour race win in a year. Pier Guidi and Calado were part of the 24 Hours of Le Mans squad, along with Antonio Giovinazzi, that took the overall victory in the Ferrari AF Corse 499P.

The No. 62 had shown impressive pace, especially in the heat of Saturday afternoon with Serra at the wheel. But in the end it was running trouble-free while most of their competitors had difficulties. Paul Miller Racing and the No. 1 BMW M4 GT3 with Bryan Sellers, Madison Snow, Neil Verhagen and Sheldon van der Linde were the last real threat until they ran into brake problems with two hours to go. The brake change was one thing, but the right front wheel didn’t get seated properly and came loose. On top of that, after van der Linde limped the car back to the pits, the wheel gun got stuck trying to fix the problem, dropping the No. 1 down three laps.

Paul Miller Racing ended up third, behind the GTD PRO polesitting No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R driven by Seb Priaulx, Laurin Heinrich and Michael Christensen, which had been a lap down until the final caution.

One of the leading contenders, the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F, had its race effectively ended in the first hour when an LMP2 car spun right in front of Mike Conway, and he made heavy contact, wrecking the cooling system. The car was repaired and returned to the track, but was eventually retired.

It was an inauspicious debut for new GT3 cars. Both Ford Multimatic Motorsports Mustang GT3s had difficulties, some of it induced by contact. The No. 65 was retired, and the No. 64 finished seven laps down. The new Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs run by Pratt Miller Motorsports seems on target to fare better, but had mechanical issues late in the race and finished seven (No. 3) and 18 (No. 4) laps down. The privateer efforts for both manufacturers had worse results, with both AWA Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs and the No. 55 Proton Competition Mustang retiring.
Winward Racing, once again GTD victors at the Rolex. Jake Galstad/Motorsport Images

Winward Racing took its second Rolex 24 at Daytona GTD victory in four years, with Russell Ward, Philip Ellis and Indy Dontje on both winning teams in the No. 57 Mercedes AMG, this time adding Daniel Morad, who drove the final stints to the checker. The Winward Mercedes AMG essentially controlled the latter half of the race, and had a 30s lead when the last caution came out an entire lap prematurely thanks to an IMSA official who said he never made a mistake
after flagging the race one lap early.

“Obviously I wanted it to be an easy victory,” said Morad. “We all did an amazing job building the gaps throughout all the stints. It wasn’t just me. It was every single person on the team, engineering staff. The whole prep on the car was phenomenal. A lot easier this year than last year having a car that was designed for the race.”

For Ward, the second victory speaks to the quality of the team his family has built.

“It’s a constant evolution in racing,” he said. “If you’re not pushing the limits and trying to improve every year and someone else is, someone else is going to beat you. That’s kind of the passion that we have. We’ve had a pretty consistent crew over the past five years who have stayed with us and really helped us be successful. We try to keep the same drivers on board. We want to develop as a team and move forward as one.

“This one is pretty special to me. The first one wasn’t luck, of course. Everybody put their work in. But to come here and do it again, we’ve been pretty close the past two years, but just really haven’t had the luck to get it done. To come back and close it off for the second time in 2024 is a great feeling.”

Morad had to fend off a couple of strong Ferraris to claim the victory. The AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 of Simon Mann, Francois Heriau, Miguel Molina and Kei Cozzolino finished second. Impressive in the team’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship debut, Conquest Racing finished third with Manny Franco, Albert Costa Balboa, Alessandro Balzan and Cedric Sbirrazzuoli.

Several cars were in podium contention to the end, including the Triarsi Competizione Ferrari of Alessio Rovera, Onofrio Triarsi, Charlie Scardina and Riccardo Agostini that finished fourth; and Korthoff/Preston Motorsports’ No. 32 Mercedes AMG of Mike Skeen, Mikael Grenier, Kenton Koch and Maxi Goetz in fifth; along with the sixth place No. 83 Iron Dames Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2 of Michelle Gatting, Rahel Frey, Sarah Bovy and Doriane Pin.