The German car manufacturer Porsche is celebrating a big victory at the beginning of 2024. Her Penske factory team dominated the famous 24 Hours of Daytona. The Florida race, which opens the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship overseas series in its modern era, was Porsche’s first win in 21 years.
Everything was decided in the last eighty minutes. One hour and twenty minutes before the checkered flag, the #31 Cadillac, which started from the pole position on Saturday night, was in a battle for first place with the #7 Porsche. In the banked section of the Daytona racetrack, Tom Blomqvist in Cadillac hung on to ex-F1 driver Felipe Nasr in Porsche and using the air bag he stretched to the first position. There was a slight optimism in the Action Express Racing box office. Everyone would like a victory, because the Brazilian Pipo Derani with the “thirty-one” won the qualification by capturing the track record, and the red Cadillac was in the lead for a large part of the race.
However, in all IMSA WSC races, including Daytona, safety car exits play a significant role, which always erase the differences between cars driving in the same lap. And before the finish of this year’s Daytona, the safety car had to go to the track one more time. For about three quarters of an hour, the marshals had to go to the track due to the parked Lexus GT3 and the race was neutralized. The yellow phase was used by the leading cars for the last stop to refuel, and after exiting the pits, suddenly Nasr in the Porsche was first again!
At that moment, it was clear that one of the most important half-hours of his career so far awaits the former driver of the Sauber team in the “queen of motorsport”. After the final restart, Blomqvist, hungry for victory, was chasing Nasr badly, he didn’t let the Brazilian breathe and several times he loomed very close in his rearview mirrors. But all the effort was in vain in the end.
Felipe Nasr defended first place all the way to the finish line, and Porsche fans around the world started popping bottles of champagne. The #7 Porsche 963 LMDh Prototype in the colors of Penske Motorsport won the 62nd edition of the Rolex 24 at Daytona by two seconds, giving the German manufacturer its first outright triumph in Florida since 2003. Kevin Buckler, Michael Schrom, Timo Bernhard and Jörg Bergmeister. In addition to Nasr, this year’s winning quartet consisted of Dane Cameron, Josef Newgarden and Matt Campbell. Newgarden is now the IndyCar, Indy 500 and Rolex 24 champion. And Team Penske is celebrating its first overall win at Daytona since 1969!
“I had no idea I would ever see this in my life,” Dane Cameron said into the microphone of an IMSA radio reporter through a flood of happy tears. “And now we want to win Le Mans,” added the legendary Roger Penske confidently, his voice also filled with emotion. And that doesn’t happen often with a big boss.
Tom Blomqvist, Jack Aitken and Pipo Derani took second place for the #31 Cadillac V-Series.R in the signature Whelen Engineering livery. 2009 F1 World Champion Jenson Button also made his debut in the Rolex 24. The Briton alternated in the Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06 Prototype #40 crew with IndyCar star Colton Herta, team owner’s son Jordan Taylor and former F2 driver Louis Deletraz.
A tight battle in the LMP 2 class was finally won by the 23-year-old Danish talent Christian Rasmussen for the Era Motorsport team. He alternated in the cockpit of the prototype Oreca 07 Gibson #18 with experienced Brit Ryan Dalziel, American gentleman Dwight Merriman and another American Connor Zilisch. Another Dane, Malthe Jakobsen, finished second by less than seven seconds with Oreca 07 #04 of CrowdStrike Racing (Algarve Pro Racing). Colin Braun, Toby Sowery and George Kurtz were also in the crew with him.
Similar to Jenson Button, Felipe Massa also won the podium at his first start in the Rolex 24. The ex-Ferrari driver finished third in the LMP 2 class as a member of Riley’s Oreca 07 Gibson #74 Prototype crew. Massa alternated with compatriot and frequent Brazilian Stock Car rival Felipe Fraga, American Gar Robinson and Australian Josh Burdon.
The famous team boss Giuseppe Risi is rejoicing in a great triumph in the GTD PRO class. The factory GT3 category was won by Risi’s #62 Ferrari 296 GT3, crewed by experienced drivers from the iconic Italian marque. It consisted of two of last year’s Le Mans winners James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi, who were joined by Davide Rigon and Daniel Serra. Ferrari won another important trophy with the 296 GT3 model after last year’s victory in the 24-hour race on the Nordschleife. Moreover, in an interview during the race, Risi himself did not rule out that he is considering the use of the Ferrari 499P customer hypercar in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in the future.
The second place in GTD PRO went to Porsche 911 GT3 R #77 in the colors of AO Racing (Sebastian Priaulx / Laurin Heinrich / Michael Christensen), the podium was completed by Sheldon van der Linde, Bryan Sellers, Neil Verhagen and Madison Snow, who BMW M4 GT3 #1 by Paul Miller Racing. In the GTD PRO class, the new cars Ford Mustang GT3 and Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R also started for the first time.
The GTD category for semi-professional GT3 cars was won by Winward Motorsport, who fielded the #57 Mercedes-AMG GT3 for Russell Ward, Daniel Morad, Phillip Elis, Indy Dontje.
The next race of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season will be the equally famous 12 Hours of Sebring on March 16.
2024-01-28 20:31:00
#Porsche #wins #Hours #Daytona #Nasr #Newgarden #rejoice
