Rolex 24 Rewind part 2
Starting with Prototype, here are some takeaways from a rollicking Rolex 24:
- Barring a dumb move by a GTD driver that put Brendon Hartley's Tequila Patron ESM Nissan Onroak DPi into the wall while running second, there was a very real possibility at least one of the most low-mileage, unproven cars in Prototype would have been on the podium. Although Hartley's No. 22 fell out of contention while repairs were made, the sister No. 2 ESM Nissan still managed to claim fourth, three laps down to the winning Cadillac. If I had to place $100 on whether both Nissans would be parked and covered before midnight or one would almost land on the podium, I'd have gone with the first option without hesitation. After the race, I was reminded why I don't gamble because I'm always wrong...
Considering all the sleepless hours and numerous problems the team endured once the cars arrived just prior to Christmas, and the sheer absence of extended testing time (other than three problem-filled days at the Roar Before the 24), all involved with the program – and especially the ESM crew – deserve a giant congratulations for their achievement.
- Every WEC–spec P2 encountered race-altering problems at the Rolex 24, except for one: the lone Riley/Multimatic Mk 30, which started last among prototypes. On sheer pace alone, the other WEC P2s had it covered; ORECA's 07 was 3.4 seconds faster than the Mk 30 in qualifying, and in the race, the gap was still a glaring 1.8 seconds. The one gap the Visit Florida Racing Mk 30 did not possess, however, was in the reliability department. It might not be a low-downforce rocket like the other WEC P2s at Daytona, but it didn't matter as the Riley/Multimatic led the race and finished third, just one lap behind well-sorted Cadillac DPi-V.Rs in first and second.
As the ORECAs and the Ligier fought all kinds of electronic, engine and mechanical problems, the tank-like Mk 30 continued motoring as the VFR machine kept the Cadillacs honest. This came after blowing its race engine while warning up the car in the shop before heading to the race. As the team demonstrated, reverting to its test motor for the 24-hour was not a hindrance, and it's also interesting to consider how quickly the Mk 30 achieved a high state of reliability with only one WEC-spec chassis in action. At the rate of malfunctions experienced by its WEC rivals at Daytona, and with the next stop on the calendar coming at the 12 Hours of Deadly Vibrations in Sebring, the Riley/Multimatic could be primed for another podium visit
Piggybacking on VFR's result, the consistent stream of reliability woes experienced by all four of the French-built WEC P2s (three from ORECA, one from Ligier) was a astonishing. The Rebellion Racing team encountered a drive-by-wire motor failure, an electronics master relay failure, and dire handling problems at the rear of the car. After looking like a potential race winner at the Roar, the Swiss team finished 50 laps down to the WTR Cadillac. The only Ligier JS P217 in the field came home 75 laps down after the PR1/Mathiasen team (pictured) persevered through gearbox problems and other setbacks. And the race was even less kind to the DragonSpeed team which went through hell to replace a damaged tub on Thursday and Friday. From losing power to losing bodywork, the team's ORECA 07 surrendered 97 laps to new-car problems. Only the JDC-Miller PC team – new to the Prototype class – and its ORECA 07 gave a positive account of its potential in the race by finishing fifth (albeit 13 laps behind the winning Cadillac). Like ESM and VFR, the JDC-Miller team should be more than pleased with its outcome at the Rolex 24.- Heartbreak befell the Mazda Racing team and its new RT24-P DPis throughout the race. Its ultra-conservative plan to run at a reduced pace – well below what it showed at the Roar – to ease the mechanical strain on its Riley/Multimatic-based DPis should have left at least one of its cars in contention for a podium. That well-crafted idea came to naught as an early clutch problem in the No. 70 car grew into a transmission issue that necessitated a complete change of the drive system. With 30 minutes left in the race, a different drive problem manifested that parked the No. 70 for good. The sister No. 55 experienced far fewer problems, yet met a fiery end as an oil line was punctured after chafing against a piece of bodywork. The resulting fire in the engine bay ended its run with four hours to go. Having chosen a measured pace instead of an all-out attack from the start, watching the checkered flag wave without the No. 55 or 70 on track was never a consideration for the team.
- The last nod belongs to Cadillac, which earned all of the headlines for its triumphant return to prototype competition. Its trio of entries went from silly mid-pack pace at the Roar to earning the pole, setting the fastest lap and dominating the entire race. Only an unplanned meeting with a GT car and the wall by Eric Curran in the No. 31 Action Express Cadillac ruined what had been a 1-2-3 run for GM's luxury brand. The No. 10 WTR car and the No. 5 AXR entry had the race covered once the No. 31 made the first of a few trips to the garage, and with most of the other nine cars in the Prototype class being struck repeatedly by the cartoon anvil, it quickly became apparent which brand was destined for glory.
Although some electrical issues were experienced in the Cadillac camp, they paled in comparison to what the DPi-V.Rs endured at the mid-December test and, to a lesser degree, at the Roar. Thanks to completing the most pre-season mileage of any prototype model, the Cadillacs demonstrated the value of that preparation and the outright speed we always knew they had on the way to Victory Lane.
- Cadillac's DPi.V-Rs set 48 of the 50 fastest top speeds in the race. The second-place No. 31 AXR Cadillac won the peak number battle with a 197.628 mph blast across the front straight. The only two non-Cadillac top speeds in the top 50 belonged to Tequila Patron ESM's No. 22 Nissan Onroak DPi, which reached a best of 196.207 mph.
Speaking of cartoon anvils, the universe appeared to settle its bizarre feud with Brent O'Neill's Performance Tech PC team at Daytona. The driver-turned-team owner has seen his No. 38 PC on pole, in the regular hunt for wins, and has been all but assured the victory one more than one occasion since IMSA launched in 2014, but the racing gods continued served O'Neill steaming piles of defeat.
Starting from pole, the No. 38 led almost the entire 24 hours during PC's swansong at Daytona. In the one class where routine disaster is a guarantee in the big races, O'Neill's team bucked the trend, executed a flawless race with no contact, mechanical breakdowns, or costly driving errors. Taking nothing away from the other PC entrants, it felt like the right result for a team that has come to define perseverance in IMSA's pro-am prototype class.- BAR1 Motorsports' Johnny Mowlem insists his 243rd attempt at retirement will stick after coming up short to win the PC class last weekend. The 47-year-old serial retirerer (not a word) has called time on his career at regular intervals in recent years, and the comical nature of those retirements (and eventual returns to the cockpit) had friends like Dario Franchitti and Allan McNish poking fun at the Briton after his latest insistence that he was done for good after Daytona. For now, we'll celebrate Johnny Boy on a marvelous career and await the announcement of his 244th retirement tour.
- Conor Daly was introduced to the less savory side of last-minute calls to drive at the Rolex 24. The budding IndyCar star was already in Florida for a two-day test with his new AJ Foyt Racing team and was excited to make the drive up from Sebring to join Starworks Motorsport in the No. 88 PC. Despite being fastest by many seconds per lap in the wet, spins and contact from some teammates blighted their efforts. Unless it's in a Prototype or GTLM, Daly's limited enthusiasm for pro-am competition could leave the Hoosier watching at home during future Rolex 24s.
Ford had a perfect GTLM run with a pole and win, but that hardly tells the tale of what took place from flag to flag. My lasting memory will be trains of factory cars running nose to tail, sometimes five and six deep, locked in battles that were only suspended when pit stops were required. In Prototype, it was an all-Cadillac affair once the race started at 2:30 on Saturday, and the same was true in PC with the No. 38 Performance Tech entry, but GTLM had the look of a race where half the class should have emerged victorious. Ferrari and Porsche could have knocked off Ford at various points in the event, which was a nice change after both brands spent most of 2016 struggling to crack the top five. The Ford-Ferrari-Porsche GTLM podium reads like a sports car fan's dream top three.- With its unforgettable 1-2 finish at the 2016 Rolex 24 and its eventual GTLM championship in mind, the Corvette Racing team never factored in the race. Its C7.Rs led six out of the 652 completed in the class. BMW also weathered an uncompetitive outing as gearbox problems halved its effort early in the event and the remaining entry, the "art" car, finished eighth.
The attrition in Prototype wasn't enough to promote a GTLM car to the overall win, but it came much closer to happening than expected. Due to the repeated problems with the new prototypes and approximately half the race being run in wet conditions, Michelin's soft, grippy rain tires and intermediates gave GTLM competitors a clear advantage for a considerable period of time. Had the rain continued to fall over the last six or seven hours of the event, it's entirely conceivable the fifth-place GTLM-winning Ford GT would have move farther up the running order.
Even with the rain diminishing and a dry line starting to form an hour or so after sunrise, the winning WTR Cadillac was only able to complete 659 laps to the 652 turned by the No. 66 Ford. It probably would have taken an absolute flood (like the one that helped the Michelin-shod GTLM Porsches to score the overall win at Petit Le Mans in 2015) to move the GTLMs ahead of the prototypes (on spec Continental tires), but it's still remarkable to think a fleet of factory GT cars took P5-12 overall and had a chance to score a major Daytona upset like the one recorded by TRG in 2003.
- If the feel-good story of the Taylor brothers finally winning the Rolex 24 as their teammate and mentor Max Angelelli rode into retirement with a win (along with some old NASCAR dude named "Gordon") wasn't enough, Alegra's shock result in GTD should be remembered as one of the great stories from 2017. The team's entry for the race – almost conceived as a joke at the 2016 Porsche Cup banquet – from owner/driver Carlos de Quesada toppled 26 cars in IMSA's most densely packed class.
- Ringer entries from teams with close factory affiliations to Acura, Audi, BMW, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Lexus, Mercedes-AMG and Porsche were humbled by Alegra's odd combination of age/experienced and youth/inexperience in a Porsche 911 GT3 R that was an afterthought compared to Porsche's most celebrated GTD teams. While some GTD driver line-ups could have been mistaken for all-pro DPi or GTLM squads, Alegra's five-person roster was led by Porsche factory driver Michael Christensen, a how-is-this-guy-not-a-full-time-pro in Daniel Morad, and de Quesada, his teenage son Michael and fellow teenager Jesse Lazare, who were completely overlooked as threats. (I'm certainly guilty.)
- It's hard to figure out exactly what their win means in the context of how Rolex 24 teams are formed; it either says cars packed with big-name drivers are a luxury but far from a necessity, or that the challenges posed at Daytona over 24 hours – at least in GTD – are somewhat reasonable and can be handled by a proper pro-am blend. Whatever the answer might be, we do know Alegra's formula is worth analyzing and possibly copying before the 56th Rolex 24 arrives.
The second-place Land Motorsport Audi R8 LMS GT3 (pictured) added to the feel-good finishes in GTD as another unheralded team made a statement at IMSA's biggest race. Of the many impressive drivers on the team, former open-wheel and Porsche junior standout Connor de Phillippi made a strong case for full-season employment with one of the familiar GTD teams. Blindingly fast at every test and again in the race with the Land R8, the 24-year-old American used the event to increase his stock by a considerable amount.- How great was it to see Alex Job and the familiar combo of Bill Sweedler and Townsend Bell (along with their co-drivers) deliver a strong sixth-place run while working with an Audi for the first time? From having nothing as December approached to a fine showing in the race, Job's ability to deliver for his clients is one of the few constants in North American sports car racing.
- Two of the three new GTD manufacturers make statements in the race. The Riley-run Mercedes-AMG effort, which had the win within its grasp, took a find third-place with the lead entry, and the Michael Shank Racing-led Acura NSXs were stout when the ambient conditions were at their worst. The 3GT Lexus program had the lion's share of problems and disappointments, but enough potential was shown to indicate the big sedans should join Acura and Mercedes-AMG in the fight for podiums at some point this year.
- We readily attribute heroic performances to the hundred-plus drivers and hundreds of crew members that staffed the 55 cars entered in the Rolex 24, but with so much rain and frosty weather hanging over the event, the all-volunteer assembly of SCCA corner workers who braved the conditions deserve the most applause. They, collectively, gave more for less than anyone at the race.
- On a closing personal note, it was wonderful to have J.J. O'Malley as a first-time member of RACER's Rolex 24 coverage team. O'Malley, who worked for IMSA through the end of the 2016 season, started with the series in 1984 – just as the beloved GTP era was building momentum – and brought decades of relationships and reporting excellence to help RACER.com set all-time traffic records during race week. Before we know it, Sebring will be here.