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2025 ROLEX 24 at Daytona

Ford Mustang GT3 Claims First Global Win at 63rd Rolex 24

Mustang Beats Corvette in GTD PRO, while AWA Corvette Claims GTD Win


 

January 26, 2025

By Holly Cain

IMSA Wire Service

Race Results


 

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – In a classic battle of iconic American car brands, Dennis Olsen drove the Ford Multimatic Motorsports No. 65 Ford Mustang GT3 to the model’s first global victory, besting Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports’ Alexander Sims in the No. 3 Corvette Z06 GT3.R in the Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) class Sunday’s season-opening IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race.

 

Considered one of the world’s greatest endurance events, the 63rd running of the Rolex 24 absolutely lived up to its reputation with both Grand Touring classes of competition ultimately decided by less than two-seconds after 24 grueling, eventful hours on the Daytona International Speedway’s 3.56-mile, 12-turn combination of speedway high banks and traditional road course winds and turns.

 

While Ford celebrated in victory lane in the 15-car GTD PRO class, the Corvette was victorious in the 22-car GTD class with British driver Matthew Bell ultimately steering the No. 13 AWA Corvette Z06 GT3.R to the win by 1.454 seconds over the No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R (992).

 

This “Detroit special” in the GTD PRO class – featuring Ford and Chevrolet in a dramatic trophy duel during the closing minutes of competition – was not only significant for Ford’s new GT3 brand but also a sentimental victory between these two longtime rivals.

 

While it marked the Mustang’s 20th victory in the race, it was the first for the new GT3 model introduced in 2024. The winning No. 65 Ford’s sister car – the pole-sitting No. 64 Mustang – completed the GTD PRO podium.

 

“I think it is quite historical,” said Belgian driver Frederic Vervisch, who shared the car with Norwegian Olsen and German Christopher Mies. “Yesterday we met (Ford CEO) Jim Farley and he said, ‘Whatever you do, you have to be in front of Chevrolet.’ He was joking, of course. They were extremely strong and so super proud to be ahead and perhaps out-strategize them.” 

 

At no point was there an odds-on favorite to hoist the trophy in the end. There were 10 different race leaders in the GTD PRO class with the winning No. 65 Mustang taking the lead for good on a final restart with only 42 minutes remaining.

 

Olsen got a little breathing room in those last laps as the No. 3 Corvette driven by Sims had to fend off Englishman Sebastian Priaulx in the other Ford. Olsen conceded after the race that both the Corvettes and BMWs speed concerned them.

 

The fourth-place finishing No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW was also among the mix – leading nine times for 187 of the race’s 723 laps – ultimately being spun from a podium finish by the No. 4 Corvette and driver Nico Varrone with less than 12 minutes remaining. 

 

Only an hour earlier, the No. 1 BMW’s sister team, the No. 48 was penalized for impeding the Corvettes move forward and their fight for the lead. Out of competition for the win since a multi-car accident late Saturday night, the No. 48 BMW was 55 laps off pace but raced the Corvette hard ultimately causing an “off” by the No. 4 Corvette that drew a penalty from IMSA.

  

Another all-star GTD PRO entry – fielded in part by NASCAR team owner Justin Marks – the No. 91 Trackhouse Racing by TF Sport Corvette featured NASCAR stars Shane van Gisbergen and Connor Zilisch, IndyCar winner Scott McLaughlin and IMSA veteran Ben Keating. It finished ninth in class after a comeback drive to get near the podium with a little more than an hour remaining. 

 

“It’s been so much fun bringing Trackhouse to IMSA and getting to run the Rolex 24 with this team,” said the 18-year-old Zilisch, who sought to defend his 2024 Rolex 24 win in Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2).

 

“All my teammates were a blast to be teammates with and also to hang out with off the track. … I had a lot to learn and I’m very grateful I got to race with these guys and learn from them. Frustrated with how the race ended, but looking back on the last two weeks, I had so much fun."


 

AWA Holds On for GTD Win

In GTD, behind the class-winning No. 13 AWA Corvette were the No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) and the No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo. AWA, which also won the Rolex 24 in Le Mans Prototype 3 (LMP3) in 2023, added a fifth win for a Corvette Racing-affiliated team to the Rolex 24.

 

Corvette driver Bell was admittedly emotional with his first victory in the famous race. As with the GTD PRO class, the final laps and closing minutes were both dramatic and challenging.

 

“It means absolutely everything to me and this team,” said Bell, who co-drove with Orey Fidani, Lars Kern and Marvin Kirchhoefer. “The minute the checkered flag flew at Petit Le Mans (2024 season finale), it’s been 24-7 putting a car together to win the Rolex 24. The Porsches gave us quite a run and I give it to the competition for that.”

 

Asked about the race-winning move, taking the lead with 10 laps remaining, Bell joked with a smile, “I don’t remember a damn thing.’’

 

His co-driver, Kirchhoefer conceded it was a competitive field, but the team also insisted the GTD class kept things a little cleaner than the GTD PRO class.

 

“It was quite intense in every category especially the 30 minutes after a restart, we know restarts are crucial in IMSA race and what the fans love to see which can be nice or sometimes not nice,” Kirchhoefer said.

 

“The emotions were running very high, and you can tell how much it meant to the whole team. Everyone was super, super happy for the result. For the fans, for everyone I think it was kind of the best race finish you could ask for.”

 

Porsche Penske Goes Back-to-Back at Daytona

Tower Tops Tumultuous, Rough-and-Tumble LMP2 Affair



January 26, 2025

By John Oreovicz and Tony DiZinno

IMSA Wire Service

Race Results


 

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – It’s the era of back-to-back for Team Penske.

 

In a two-year period where Roger Penske’s racing teams and drivers have claimed a Rolex 24 At Daytona victory, the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) title, and back-to-back wins in the Indianapolis 500 and the NASCAR Cup Series championship, Felipe Nasr, Nick Tandy, and Laurens Vanthoor clinched a second consecutive overall and GTP class victory for Porsche Penske Motorsport in the Rolex 24 At Daytona.

 

Nasr crossed the finish line of Daytona International Speedway’s famed 3.56-mile tri-oval in the No. 7 Porsche just 1.335 seconds ahead of Tom Blomqvist in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06 he shared with Colin Braun, Scott Dixon, and Felix Rosenqvist. The No. 6 Porsche with a driver lineup of Mathieu Jaminet, Matt Campbell, and Kevin Estre finished third, 4.423 seconds back after 24 hours of hard racing.

 

Blomqvist passed Campbell for second with just over four minutes remaining, denying Porsche its first 1-2 overall finish at the Rolex 24 since 1987, when the German marque’s iconic 962 model swept the first six places. Porsche has scored overall victory at Daytona on 24 occasions.

 

The modern iteration of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s GTP class with its hybrid-powered prototypes is proving to be every bit as compelling as the legendary original, which ran from 1981 to ‘93. The Porsche 962 took overall victory at the Rolex 24 five times in that period.

 

Now the Porsche 963 could be on its way to compiling a similar record. The No. 7 car made the trip to Daytona’s Victory Lane for the second consecutive year, on the heels of Nasr and Dane Cameron winning the GTP class championship in 2024.

 

“Winning the championship last year was just the start of it,” said Penske. “This Porsche car we have has just been amazing, and to think we did it two years in a row is a credit to all the people from Porsche in Germany and our team here. We’re truly one organization.”

 

Nasr qualified the No. 7 Porsche third fastest and took the lead for the first time midway through the third hour. Meanwhile, the No. 6 moved up quickly after starting 10th. Once they reached the point, the Penske Porsches stamped their authority on the event, leading 517 of the 781 laps completed.

 

The No. 7 ran out front through most of the night before the No. 6 took command, leading a total of 210 laps to pace the field into the final hour.

 

Nasr lined up in third place for what turned out to be the final restart of the race (there were 14 caution periods). He pushed the No. 7 past Dries Vanthoor (the younger brother of Laurens) in the Motul Pole Award-winning No. 24 BMW M Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 with 38 minutes to go. 

 

A furious battle between the two Porsches ensued until the 20-minute mark, when Nasr slipped past Campbell in the No. 6 at the Le Mans Chicane to take the lead. Campbell fought hard before finally conceding the position, causing some discomfort on the timing stand for Penske. 

 

“We had talked to the drivers about not racing each other, but obviously these guys are racers,” Penske said. “Fortunately, we didn’t get into trouble.”

 

Nasr said that electing to take four Michelin tires during the final pit stop was an important factor in the No. 7 car’s win. The No. 6 had a faster final stop to maintain the lead, but Campbell was unable to match Nasr’s pace down the stretch.

 

Nasr now owns the last two overall Rolex 24 wins and a Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) class triumph in 2022.

 

“It’s always hard to know what it’s going to end up like, but that’s what I love about the IMSA racing,” Nasr said. “I felt like I had the pace to go forward, and that’s what I did. The clock was running, so I had to go for it. I could see that the Acura was coming quick behind us, so we had to go. I made a clean pass (on Campbell), and that was it. 

 

“I wanted to win this race for sure, and I wanted to win for the team; on a personal level, doing it back-to-back is incredible,” he added.

 

Sunday’s victory helped Tandy secure an unprecedented grand slam in endurance racing, with 24-hour overall race wins at Daytona, Le Mans, Nurburgring, and Spa-Francorchamps.

 

“Records never really dawned on me until Laurens and I won at Spa in 2020 (in a GT-class Porsche),” said Tandy, who also boasts a GT Le Mans class victory in the 2014 Rolex 24. “Since that day, it’s definitely something I wanted to check off the list. To be the first person ever to do something is quite unbelievable, really.

 

“Winning Daytona alone anyway is a massive standalone event and I’m very proud to be sat here again,” he added. “Just winning one of those races overall would be an incredible career, so to get four, along with a few (Motul Petit Le Mans) and a few (Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of) Sebrings, is dream come true stuff.”

 

Without Campbell as a buffer, Nasr had to watch his mirrors over the closing three laps. But Blomqvist was not able to get his Acura close enough to launch an attack.

 

“We kind of struggled to be honest, especially with our rear tires and traction,” said Blomqvist, the 2022 and 2023 Rolex 24 winner. “At one point we thought it was going to be a real long day.

 

“For the last stint, the car was just better – not much to say, really,” he continued. “I didn’t think I was going to have anything for them, but you never give up, right? I gave it all I had, and I think that was the best we could have done today. The Porsches were really strong.”

 

Nine of the 12 entries in the GTP class were running at the end of the 24 hours, with three on the lead lap. The pole-winning No. 24 BMW claimed fourth, while the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R rounded out the top five.

 

The next round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship is the 73rd running of the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, set for March 12-15 at Sebring International Raceway.

 

Tower Tops Tumultuous, Rough-and-Tumble LMP2 Affair

Tower Motorsports found itself atop the pylon at the end of a competitive, chaotic and dramatic Rolex 24 At Daytona within the 12-car Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class full of ORECA LMP2 07 cars.

 

The quartet of Sebastien Bourdais, John Farano, Sebastian Alvarez and Job Van Uitert shared the winning No. 8 ORECA, emerging almost clear of trouble while contenders rose and fell like the temperatures over the 24-hour endurance classic.

 

Three such challengers dropped out in the eighth hour when Louis Deletraz’s No. 40 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R spun and came back on course exiting Turn 2. The resulting contact eliminated the No. 2 United Autosports USA and No. 73 Pratt Miller Motorsports ORECAs, while despite incurring damage the No. 8 Tower car kept going.

 

By the halfway point, it appeared the second United entry, the Motul Pole Award-winning No. 22 car, along with defending class champions Inter Europol Competition’s No. 43 car and AO Racing’s “Spike” No. 99 car were set to challenge. Penalties took the No. 22 and 43 down the order and heartbreak befell the No. 99 once the final couple hours happened.

 

AO’s No. 99 car, with Christian Rasmussen driving, dropped out of the fight with just over 80 minutes remaining. The car pitted with a low battery warning and the team diagnosed the issue under the rear deck lid, losing several laps and ending “Spike’s” victory charge. This car led a race-high 280 of 765 laps.

 

Era Motorsport, then, appeared in position to repeat its 2024 win with an adjusted lineup in its No. 18 ORECA, courtesy of a strategic move to take fuel only on its final stop before the last 40 minutes. Those hopes went away when Mathias Beche’s No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports’ car hit Paul-Loup Chatin’s No. 18 Era car into a spin at Turn 1. Beche’s No. 52 car was assessed a drive-through penalty for incident responsibility.

 

That promoted the Tower car, which kept enough relative momentum alive to stay in contention, back to the lead. Bourdais added his third Rolex 24 win, first in LMP2 to pair with a Prototype and overall win in 2014 and a GT Le Mans win with Ford in 2017, while his trio of teammates, Farano, Alvarez and Van Uitert all secured their first victories and combined to lead 118 laps.

 

Bourdais even admitted post-race that the rough-and-tumble affair extended to his co-driver Farano, who fought through back pain to keep driving and complete his stints.

 

“I was part of the big one, big time,” Bourdais explained. “The car over my left fender, a car over my right fender and I don't think I had time to back off because I made contact because I was in the gearbox of the Pratt Miller car and it all came to a stop. It was like ‘Days of Thunder.’ 

 

“Yeah, honestly, when it all cleared in front of me and the car still had four wheels on it and the steering wheel was straight, I was like, man, this is just a miracle.”

 

For Bourdais, it’s also his second straight IMSA win albeit in a very different driving situation. With the end of the Cadillac Chip Ganassi Racing program in GTP after the 2024 Motul Petit Le Mans season finale, Bourdais shifted into the highly competitive LMP2 class to remain in the IMSA paddock.

 

“It's almost like it was awarded to us in some respect because it seemed for a minute that nobody wanted to win it,” Bourdais laughed. “I've rarely seen someone torpedo another car like Beche did with Paul-Loup. It was just one incident like this after another in front of us or behind us or around us. 

 

“It was a weird race, but we had hopes at times. Sometimes it felt like it was a bit hopeless, and to come out on top no matter how you got there at some point, it's just one of those races where nobody remembers how you got there, and personally it's my third, but it never gets old winning. I'm really happy that we could bring the result for John who's been running after that Rolex for a little while.”

 

Despite some setbacks throughout, the No. 22 United car rebounded to a runner-up finish, courtesy of polesitter Daniel Goldburg sharing the car with Paul Di Resta, Rasmus Lindh and James Allen. That car finished 44.697 seconds in arrear of the Tower car.

 

Riley completed the podium with its No. 74 LMP2 entry, co-driven by Felipe Fraga, Gar Robinson, Josh Burdon and Felipe Massa.

 

The No. 7 Porsche led IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup points in GTP and the No. 8 Tower and No. 22 United ORECAs were tied for first in LMP2.

 

 

Rolex 24 At Daytona

Post-Race Press Conference Transcript

An Interview with Felipe Nasr, Nick Tandy, Laurens Vanthoor, Jonathan Diuguid


 

THE MODERATOR: We have our winners of the 63rd Rolex 24 at Daytona overall and in the GTP class in the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963. From your left to right, we've got Felipe Nasr, Nick Tandy, Laurens Vanthoor, and also managing director Penske motorsports Jonathan Diuguid.

Third win for the Penske team in the Rolex. This is Felipe's 12th career IMSA victory, third win in the Rolex 24, obviously winning last year, and also in the 2022 GTP pro class.

Nick, this is his 24th IMSA victory, first overall Rolex 24 win, his second class win in the Rolex 24. He won in 2014 in GTLM.

For Laurens, this is his 11th IMSA win, first victory in the Rolex 24 at Daytona; 24th overall Rolex 24 victory for Porsche.


 

Q. Laurens, what was the feeling that you've finally won your first Rolex 24? Is it jubilation? Relief? What's the feeling here?


 

LAURENS VANTHOOR: It's always very difficult to describe your feelings a couple moments after it happened. But I've been wanting this very badly for a long time and came close a couple times.

But like I just said, if you go back 10 years ago, I would have dreamed to drive in back then it was P1 then hyper cars GTP, whatever you want to call it, to drive in that category.

There's not a better brand to do so than Porsche. When I was in IMSA I always dreamed of being in those chrome trailers with Penske on it, to be part of that team. Now it's all in one, and then three months we became world champion and today win the Rolex 24. I couldn't dream of it. I don't know how to describe it.

It's dreams coming true, and extremely grateful to be sitting here and to be part of this team and these boys. Maybe tomorrow I have some more detailed emotions, but that's it for today.


 

Q. Nick, I believe you're the first driver to have won overall Le Mans, Daytona, Spa, and Nürburgring. What does that feel like?


 

NICK TANDY: I mean, to be the first person to do -- ever to do something is -- I mean, it's quite unbelievable, really. I think first of all, you've got to be proud that you've been put in a position to be able to compete in that sort of -- those sort of races, and then be in a car that can compete for the win.

But yeah, it never really dawned on me about these sort of records and stuff like this until Laurens, when we won at Spa and somebody said, well, you've got class wins in all the four majors now.

And then you kind of look into it and you see -- there's other people, legendary names on these lists who have won various things but never overall in all four. Class winners, yes.

But yeah, it's something that since that day in probably 2020, it's something that I've definitely wanted to check off the list.

Winning Daytona is a massive thing anyway as a standalone event. Don't get me wrong. I'm very proud to be sat here again. Obviously as an overall winner is special.

But yeah, like you say, to get the big four 24-hour wins -- one would be just an incredible career, so to be able to get four and a few Sebrings and a few Petits is dream come true stuff.


 

Q. For JD, was there a shake-up in the driver rotation during the race or was that always the plan?


 

JONATHAN DIUGUID: I think the plan evolves throughout the race, but I think at the end if you look back at the data all three of these guys up here were performing at an extremely high level so there wasn't a wrong choice. Obviously Felipe had a history of success so he probably got the football like they say to carry it across the finish line there and deliver it again for us.

To see that happen two years in a row and see the defense he put on for the last 30 minutes of the race is always really exciting.

It was really an epic (indiscernible) today through all phases in the middle of the night when all of us were freezing until at the end there when some of us were sweating for different reasons.

It's a really amazing race as these guys have said, and to be able to win it back-to-back is something that none of us on the team could never have dreamed of.


 

Q. 48 hours ago we were talking to you about some concerns with the HV system. It seems like you didn't have any issues for any cars in the race. Was there a solution or were there any concerns during the race itself over that?


 

JONATHAN DUGUID: All these races, they're never easy. They may look easy from the outside, but I think it takes a lot of hard work. I think I talked to a couple guys on the timing stand a couple hours into the race when it was looking pretty dire as far as our pace and where we were and how competitive we were and nobody ever really gave up.

I don't think any of our six drivers on either car ran off the asphalt today or hit anything or broke apart. That's basically what put us in a position to win. We were two of four cars on the lead lap when the (indiscernible) down there at the end. When you have a 50 percent chance to win with driver lineups like this and pit crews like we have, you see the result that we had today.


 

Q. JD and Felipe, how nerve-racking was that final hour where you had all sorts of challenges from the No. 6 car, the No. 24 car, the No. 60 car? How do you keep a cool head in those situations?


 

JONATHAN DUGUID: For me after the first pit stop that's the easiest part of the day because I just sit back and watching. Leading up to that making all the right decisions I think today was definitely a team effort.

You saw, I think -- I would love to see the stats of how many laps our cars led today, but we really used our two-car approach to make sure one of the PPM cars controlling the pace of the race and controlling our own destiny, and you even saw that in the last pit stop of different tire strategies and when we stopped and things like that, and I think that put us in a position to win and cover all these bases and attacks from the Acuras and the BMWs and the Cadillacs of the world. Every car had a chance to win today, and we are the ones that came out on top.


 

FELIPE NASR: Yeah, from the driver's seat for sure it's a little different. All I was thinking, I wanted to win this for sure and I wanted to win for the team.

I think I restarted third. It's always hard to know what's going to end up like, but that's what I love about the IMSA racing. It's very unexpected. So any restarts, really any car that is running in the top 5 will have a chance to be fighting for victories.

I knew the car was capable. I knew we had a great team behind us, and I've got to say, working with Laurens for the first time this weekend was very straightforward, trouble free. We all have different personalities as you can see, but very professionals, very -- I feel like JD, like no one did a foot wrong all weekend, and we're all celebrating this victory.

On a personal level, doing it back-to-back, it's incredible. Even if I say anything here, just inside, it's one for the memory for sure.


 

Q. Felipe, during your battle with Matt, before, during and after your battle with Matt there was about 20 minutes to go. I was just wondering was there any team chatter on the radio? Did Roger get involved or was anything said? After the race it seemed like he was a little nervous about it still after already going to Victory Lane.


 

FELIPE NASR: Well, it's always going to be drama, right, when you have one trophy for two cars. But I think we did the best. JD said the two cars had different strategy on tires. I took all new tires going into that final run where I think Matt had a split choice between the tire, whichever he took. I felt like I had the pace to go forward, and that's what I did.


 

Q. I wanted to ask you about BMW's performance in this case. They put up an amazing fight, didn't they?


 

LAURENS VANTHOOR: Yeah, it's quite special, actually, from a personal point of view. There was always -- see, you can see how many laps a Vanthoor led.

It's special to see my younger brother up there. He's obviously doing a tremendous job. Obviously in the end, I was like, Dries, piss off, but then I obviously feel kind of sad when it doesn't work out for him obviously because I know he dreams of it as much as I do.

But it's quite unique and difficult to put into words, but I don't want to be in the skin of our dad or mom because I think he sweated a little bit watching TV.

I thought they would be honestly -- what JD said at the beginning of the race, they were really quick and I always saw them as the main contender, and also, Dries was doing a very good job. That's for him, but his day will come, that's for sure. It was a good race.


 

Q. Talk about the trust that is shown in this team. This is a big race and a big championship.


 

FELIPE NASR: For sure. I think anyone that gets in the race car for Porsche Penske, we all get the same opportunity. I think the team comes first, and I didn't want to create any trouble or drama, but try to make a clean pass, and that was it.

I saw the Acura was pretty quick behind us, so we had to move forward somehow, otherwise we're going to be attacked from behind and maybe lose a spot or maybe lose the chance to win the race. The clock was running, so I had to go for it.


 

Q. Felipe, at the moment we're going on 15 years now since someone has won the triple crown of endurance races, which is the longest drought of new members since the club was formed. You've won the 12 hours of Sebring, now two times you won the 24 Hours of Daytona. Does winning here today double down your resolve to tick off Le Mans?


 

FELIPE NASR: Absolutely, and that's what Nick just mentioned after we got out of the podium. I asked him, I said you've got to help me win Le Mans now because those big races are extremely difficult just to be there at the end. There's so many things happening during the race. I've never seen Daytona that cold and the transition at night, the cold tires. Just surviving and staying at the track was a challenge, honestly. It was a real challenge for the drivers today.

But for sure, Le Mans is one -- is a dream, dream list of mine for sure. I'm a little jealous of Nick, in a good way, of everything he's accomplished so far. I think for sure Le Mans is the next goal, and why not do it this year.


 

Q. Larry, a couple years ago you were within a corner or two of winning this race and it was your teammate's car that ended up getting that win at a team you used to drive for. Is this kind of redemption for all of that?


 

LAURENS VANTHOOR: Well, it's crazy how things go and how passionate we are about this. I remember sitting in the car and cried the whole in lap, and now -- I didn't cry that bad but I had tears in my eyes, as well, for different reasons.

We all do these things because we absolutely love it, and we'd say besides our family, probably the most important thing in the world, and it shows how much it means to us.

In a way I think Felipe returned me a bit of favor this year for back then. Yeah, it's amazing to see how things evolve. One day I will be again on the bad side as well or the unlucky side, and one day you are the winner. That's how sports go, so I need to appreciate the good moments, as well.


 

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

152391-1-1041 2025-01-26 20:12:00 GMT

Interviews with Tom Blomqvist, Colin Braun, Scott Dixon, Felix Rosenqvist


 

THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon. We are pleased to be joined by our runner-ups in the 63rd Rolex 24 at Daytona in the GTP class in the No. 60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX 06.

From your left to right, Tom Blomqvist, Colin Braun, Scott Dixon, and Felix Rosenqvist.

For Tom, this is his fourth podium in four Rolex 24 starts. He has two wins and now two second place finishes.

For Scott, this is his seventh Rolex 24 podium from 22 starts in the race.

Colin, this is his 10th podium at the Rolex 24 in 23 starts.

Felix, this is his first Rolex 24 podium; fourth appearance in the Rolex 24. We'll go straight to questions.


 

Q. Tom, can you talk about those closing laps and getting Matt, and did you think you had anything potentially for Felipe?


 

TOM BLOMQVIST: I mean, somehow in the race we actually struggled a lot more pace. We came into the race relatively confident, but for whatever reason we just struggled a lot to keep our rear tires under us.

Even from lap 1 you already knew it was going to be a tough stint. We kind of struggled to be honest the whole race. The Porsches were extremely strong. We were good maybe the first few and then they would just pull away especially on the double stints they had a lot more pace than us, and when the traffic came they had such an advantage. We struggled so much for traction that they would just carve through traffic so much better than us.

Yeah, last stint, the car was just better. Not much to say, really. I didn't think I was going to have anything for them, but you never give up, and I think I gave it all I had, and I think to be honest that was the best we probably could have done today.

The guys did a fantastic job to get us in that position strategy-wise. We were always making the right calls generally at the right time, so that was good.

But definitely some work to do. A lot of lessons learnt, let's say, from this race, and I think to be honest, if you asked all of us, we're super happy with second because at one point we thought it was going to be a real long day.


 

Q. Scott, 22 starts here at this race. How does the competition out there compare to the other 21?


 

SCOTT DIXON: Definitely very different over the years. I think from what we've seen from when I first started here in 2004, a lot has changed. A lot has changed. The cars are very different to drive and the racing is sort of different, too.

But the competition level I think is very much the same. It's definitely one of the toughest races you come to just to try to get everything right across the board.

There were a few kind of situations that we probably would have normally tried to get out of, or not have happened, but I think for all of us, honestly, it was a fairly smooth race. It's just what it was today.

I think every year it's a little bit different to who's going to be strong, who's not. Yeah, and you hope for a little bit better. Obviously for a win.


 

Q. Colin, stellar stint from you. At one point you were the dominant car on track. Where was the Acura at that stage in performance?


 

COLIN BRAUN: Yeah, that's a tough question. I think there was definitely stages of the race where people were using tires in different places where it just ebbs and flows. There were times when you were out of sequence, times when you were in sequence.

I feel like our car was strong for sure at certain points in the night. It just seemed like we could get in a good rhythm and hit a good fuel number, and I think given the fact, like Tom talked about, our rear tire deg was kind of the biggest thing we were working around, you almost found performance by just using that fuel number to kind of help slow the whole thing down, help your exits.

Overall, super happy. Great day. On we go.


 

Q. The other Acura, No. 93, had a suspension issue during the night, and I was just wondering did you guys' team -- were you worried that this might be an issue that would recur in the 60, or did you feel like it was more unique to the wear and tear of the 93?


 

TOM BLOMQVIST: Yeah, we'd been told -- as you guys probably saw, there was a number of suspension failures from other cars and other manufacturers. But yeah, I'm guessing we assumed that it was from the new Bus Stop.

The curbs can be quite aggressive through there so we were told to take it a little bit easier through there.

But yeah, I didn't really (indiscernible) the last few stints because we weren't going to have much chance. That was probably our strongest corner on the track, so we had to make the most of that.

But yeah, we were told.


 

Q. Tom, it's documented the team is a lot bigger this year. Do you think it functions smoothly as well as could be expected in the first weekend in this version?


 

COLIN BRAUN: Yeah, I think to come away with a second, that close to winning the race and executing well as a whole group, obviously the 93 car had good pace. They had that suspension issue, but they did a super good job, too.

I think considering all the other GTP teams have been together for a few years here and we're kind much reassembled and adding people, I think we have a lot of blue sky, a lot of potential to tidy up a few things here and there and continue to be stronger and stronger. A heck of a first race.

I think when we all went to the first test in November when we got the cars, I think if you would have said we'd come here and finish second, we'd all have been signing up for that. So great job for sure.

TOM BLOMQVIST: To add to Colin's thoughts, and there are new people who are new to IMSA as well. IMSA is very unique. The rules are very different to Europe.

So there's certainly little areas where I think we can improve. There's one extra car but it seems like there's three times more people. I think you can only go up from here.


 

Q. Tom, how close were you to catching Nasr in the final stint?


 

TOM BLOMQVIST: That's a difficult question. He had a little gap and he knew there was only a few laps to go once I kind of got into second place. So I don't know how much he was fully pushing. I'm sure he was, to give that gap. It's always nice to have.

Yeah, I think honestly we had really good pace there at the end. I think I had a little bit of extra pace on them. It's difficult to say. Maybe if there was 10 minutes more, we might, might have got to the back of them, but who knows.

I think going into that stint, I didn't actually expect to be able to fight them, but yeah, when I knew I had a chance, I just kind of gave it everything, and thankfully we managed to get one of them. Yeah, very grateful for that.


 

Q. Felix, just wanted to get some insight into the emotion that was going on around the team and the awning on the pit wall as Tom was obviously fighting to the front because it was a gripping finale.


 

FELIX ROSENQVIST: It was cool. As Tom said before, I think at one point in the race, we didn't really think we had it, and you never give up. At that point everything was just turned back on and everything was just starting to stand up in the pit box and the engineers were fired up and they were looking at five different scenarios.

But in the end, it was just a sprint race, which is pretty cool. It was just a good old who gets first to the flag. I thought it was really cool to see from Tom, like he has found speed out of thin air it seemed like, and everyone just got excited.

Yeah, I'm really positively surprised how cool racing in GTP is. I've never done it before, and it's something else for sure.


 

Q. Were you surprised how intense it was throughout? The restarts in particular seemed really aggressive.


 

FELIX ROSENQVIST: Absolutely. It's like a sprint race. It's just like INDYCAR every restart. People are going on the high line and going tight. You leave a little gap and someone is there immediately. I feel like every year it just gets a little bit more towards that direction. It was definitely a shock to the system the first stint, managing that.

But it's really cool. Really good racing.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

Interviews with Tom Blomqvist, Colin Braun, Scott Dixon, Felix Rosenqvist


 

THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon. We are pleased to be joined by our runner-ups in the 63rd Rolex 24 at Daytona in the GTP class in the No. 60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX 06.

From your left to right, Tom Blomqvist, Colin Braun, Scott Dixon, and Felix Rosenqvist.

For Tom, this is his fourth podium in four Rolex 24 starts. He has two wins and now two second place finishes.

For Scott, this is his seventh Rolex 24 podium from 22 starts in the race.

Colin, this is his 10th podium at the Rolex 24 in 23 starts.

Felix, this is his first Rolex 24 podium; fourth appearance in the Rolex 24. We'll go straight to questions.


 

Q. Tom, can you talk about those closing laps and getting Matt, and did you think you had anything potentially for Felipe?


 

TOM BLOMQVIST: I mean, somehow in the race we actually struggled a lot more pace. We came into the race relatively confident, but for whatever reason we just struggled a lot to keep our rear tires under us.

Even from lap 1 you already knew it was going to be a tough stint. We kind of struggled to be honest the whole race. The Porsches were extremely strong. We were good maybe the first few and then they would just pull away especially on the double stints they had a lot more pace than us, and when the traffic came they had such an advantage. We struggled so much for traction that they would just carve through traffic so much better than us.

Yeah, last stint, the car was just better. Not much to say, really. I didn't think I was going to have anything for them, but you never give up, and I think I gave it all I had, and I think to be honest that was the best we probably could have done today.

The guys did a fantastic job to get us in that position strategy-wise. We were always making the right calls generally at the right time, so that was good.

But definitely some work to do. A lot of lessons learnt, let's say, from this race, and I think to be honest, if you asked all of us, we're super happy with second because at one point we thought it was going to be a real long day.


 

Q. Scott, 22 starts here at this race. How does the competition out there compare to the other 21?


 

SCOTT DIXON: Definitely very different over the years. I think from what we've seen from when I first started here in 2004, a lot has changed. A lot has changed. The cars are very different to drive and the racing is sort of different, too.

But the competition level I think is very much the same. It's definitely one of the toughest races you come to just to try to get everything right across the board.

There were a few kind of situations that we probably would have normally tried to get out of, or not have happened, but I think for all of us, honestly, it was a fairly smooth race. It's just what it was today.

I think every year it's a little bit different to who's going to be strong, who's not. Yeah, and you hope for a little bit better. Obviously for a win.


 

Q. Colin, stellar stint from you. At one point you were the dominant car on track. Where was the Acura at that stage in performance?


 

COLIN BRAUN: Yeah, that's a tough question. I think there was definitely stages of the race where people were using tires in different places where it just ebbs and flows. There were times when you were out of sequence, times when you were in sequence.

I feel like our car was strong for sure at certain points in the night. It just seemed like we could get in a good rhythm and hit a good fuel number, and I think given the fact, like Tom talked about, our rear tire deg was kind of the biggest thing we were working around, you almost found performance by just using that fuel number to kind of help slow the whole thing down, help your exits.

Overall, super happy. Great day. On we go.


 

Q. The other Acura, No. 93, had a suspension issue during the night, and I was just wondering did you guys' team -- were you worried that this might be an issue that would recur in the 60, or did you feel like it was more unique to the wear and tear of the 93?


 

TOM BLOMQVIST: Yeah, we'd been told -- as you guys probably saw, there was a number of suspension failures from other cars and other manufacturers. But yeah, I'm guessing we assumed that it was from the new Bus Stop.

The curbs can be quite aggressive through there so we were told to take it a little bit easier through there.

But yeah, I didn't really (indiscernible) the last few stints because we weren't going to have much chance. That was probably our strongest corner on the track, so we had to make the most of that.

But yeah, we were told.


 

Q. Tom, it's documented the team is a lot bigger this year. Do you think it functions smoothly as well as could be expected in the first weekend in this version?


 

COLIN BRAUN: Yeah, I think to come away with a second, that close to winning the race and executing well as a whole group, obviously the 93 car had good pace. They had that suspension issue, but they did a super good job, too.

I think considering all the other GTP teams have been together for a few years here and we're kind much reassembled and adding people, I think we have a lot of blue sky, a lot of potential to tidy up a few things here and there and continue to be stronger and stronger. A heck of a first race.

I think when we all went to the first test in November when we got the cars, I think if you would have said we'd come here and finish second, we'd all have been signing up for that. So great job for sure.

TOM BLOMQVIST: To add to Colin's thoughts, and there are new people who are new to IMSA as well. IMSA is very unique. The rules are very different to Europe.

So there's certainly little areas where I think we can improve. There's one extra car but it seems like there's three times more people. I think you can only go up from here.


 

Q. Tom, how close were you to catching Nasr in the final stint?


 

TOM BLOMQVIST: That's a difficult question. He had a little gap and he knew there was only a few laps to go once I kind of got into second place. So I don't know how much he was fully pushing. I'm sure he was, to give that gap. It's always nice to have.

Yeah, I think honestly we had really good pace there at the end. I think I had a little bit of extra pace on them. It's difficult to say. Maybe if there was 10 minutes more, we might, might have got to the back of them, but who knows.

I think going into that stint, I didn't actually expect to be able to fight them, but yeah, when I knew I had a chance, I just kind of gave it everything, and thankfully we managed to get one of them. Yeah, very grateful for that.


 

Q. Felix, just wanted to get some insight into the emotion that was going on around the team and the awning on the pit wall as Tom was obviously fighting to the front because it was a gripping finale.


 

FELIX ROSENQVIST: It was cool. As Tom said before, I think at one point in the race, we didn't really think we had it, and you never give up. At that point everything was just turned back on and everything was just starting to stand up in the pit box and the engineers were fired up and they were looking at five different scenarios.

But in the end, it was just a sprint race, which is pretty cool. It was just a good old who gets first to the flag. I thought it was really cool to see from Tom, like he has found speed out of thin air it seemed like, and everyone just got excited.

Yeah, I'm really positively surprised how cool racing in GTP is. I've never done it before, and it's something else for sure.


 

Q. Were you surprised how intense it was throughout? The restarts in particular seemed really aggressive.


 

FELIX ROSENQVIST: Absolutely. It's like a sprint race. It's just like INDYCAR every restart. People are going on the high line and going tight. You leave a little gap and someone is there immediately. I feel like every year it just gets a little bit more towards that direction. It was definitely a shock to the system the first stint, managing that.

But it's really cool. Really good racing.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

Interviews with Dennis Olsen, Frederic Vervisch, Christopher Mies


 

THE MODERATOR: We now have our winners in GTD Pro Class Ford Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang GT3. Again, from your left to right, Dennis Olsen, Frederic Vervisch, and Christopher Mies.

20th victory at Daytona for the Mustang; first win globally for the Mustang GT3; Dennis' second career IMSA victory; the first was at Lime Rock Park in, so this is obviously his first Rolex 24 win.

For Frederic, first IMSA victory in his fifth start in the series. Previous best was third in the 2019 Rolex 24 at Daytona.

Christopher, this is his second IMSA victory. His first was at Motul Petit LeMans in 2017. This is also his first Rolex 24 victory.

We'll throw it open to questions.


 

Q. As we've seen, this race may be 24 hours long but it's decided in the very closing minutes. How conscious were you of what was going on directly behind you, and what does this say for this car that you guys were able to return and get this great victory today?


 

DENIS OLSEN: Oh, I have to say I was watching the mirror every single corner about the Chevy coming up the inside, and I just really made sure to cover them up and just played that the car would hold, make sure that -- hope that the diffuser and the bumper doesn't go off and getting a technical flag, but luckily didn't.

Yeah, eventually KO started and I managed to get a gap and from there it was a bit more comfortable luckily. But yeah, I think it was a faultless race by all the team, by all the drivers.

It's incredible having Ford Performance and Multimatic, new structure, new lineups. Incredible.


 

Q. Ford announced this car last year. You've been part of the development of GT cars through the years. I don't remember quite such a remarkable turnaround in one year.


 

CHRISTOPHER MIES: Yeah, it's simply amazing. When I saw the line for line, I immediately got into contact with Ford and with Multimatic. I said, I want to be part of it. Yeah, I wanted the change, let's say, after a long stint with another brand. Yeah, we came here exactly a year ago, leading the race back then, which was fantastic for a new car.

But like everyone we had some pedal issues. We solved them over the year. Coming back one year later together with Ford Performance and Multimatic Motorsports is incredible.

Obviously we know each other from the season in Europe, which is also a cool thing I think. Frederic and I got to do the first time full season of IMSA, which has been personally a dream of mine since I came here the first time in 2017. Everything just comes together right now. It's unbelievable.


 

Q. Dennis, you were sitting on the sidelines for another famously physical end to a GT race where it didn't go your way. How did it feel this time?


 

DENNIS OLSEN: I was very glad that we had a bit more space this time. 2022 it was hard. That was with Porsche. That was Laurens Vanthoor and (indiscernible), so that ended in tears for me.

This year also ended in tears but in a good way. Very, very proud, and yeah, no words.


 

Q. It was so physical and intense in GTD Pro throughout this race and particularly towards the end. Give us a sense of what it was like behind the cockpit in some of these battles and trying to avoid contact because there was so much of it?


 

FREDERIC VERVISCH: Yeah, basically the race starts the last four hours, let's say, and until then you want to have a proper car, car in the best shape possible so you can fight, because like every year it's a sprint race. It's the last 15 minutes, 10 minutes of the race which counts, and yeah, you want to be in the best possible shape.

It's difficult because there's a lot of different categories, different battles in different classes, and then you have the teams where you have to be fast enough but careful and a lot of misunderstandings, as well.

Like Dennis said and Chris, we did an amazing job to just keep the car in one piece and then to give him a strong car for the end, and that's what made us win, I think.


 

Q. Talking about the development of the car, are there any specifics from last year to this year that you've noticed that have really stood out in making that big (indiscernible) in just the year?


 

CHRISTOPHER MIES: I think the most obvious one is that the rear deck lid isn't coming off anymore. We figured out quite quickly where it came from. Obviously from side drafting, but to be honest in development or testing when do you ever side draft, right? It never happens.

We had to learn the hard way in the first race, which is one of the toughest races in the world straightaway. So yeah, we had no preparation really to test that.

But there have been things in the background and also on the team side. I must say this is probably the biggest improvement compared to last year. Yeah, it just feels like we made another good step in terms of preparation and stuff.

This is probably the biggest part, and then obviously little things on the car. There's for sure still things we need to improve for the future and people are working on that, but time will tell.


 

Q. Question for Frederic: I'm sure you guys are aware that Corvette are no easy team to beat. They've got a lot of experience here. Corvette versus Ford has been an interesting rivalry. I wanted to hear, was that something you were aware of in the background, this rivalry, and how does it feel to perhaps win this race?


 

FREDERIC VERVISCH: Yeah, I think it's quite a struggle, the battle between Ford and Chevrolet. Yesterday we met Jim Farley, and he said whatever you do, you have to be in front of Chevrolet, as a joke, of course.

No, of course we were aware of this, and I think they're extremely strong, and I think they hide their A game because suddenly they were going a lot faster than yesterday.

Yeah, super proud that we could stay ahead and maybe out-strategy them. I will not say too much, but we did some very ballsy calls I would say in the team, so big congrats to the team, as well, for that.

It was exciting for me and Chris to be on the sidewall for him, of course, but for us it was even worse I have to say.

CHRISTOPHER MIES: It was not exciting (chuckling).


 

Q. Chris and Fred, obviously this is the start of the championship full season for you guys. Can you talk about what that means and this new adventure for you guys in the WeatherTech Championship and visiting new tracks for the first time and all the success you've had here to jump start your program?

CHRISTOPHER MIES: Well, it's a great start to a new chapter I would say and to full time. I think we know 75, 80 percent of the tracks already so there are just a few we don't know, but in general I don't know any racing driver who isn't a fan of IMSA racing (indiscernible).

You go on the back tracks in the world. Like there's no bullshit about track limits and stuff. It's the track, the grass and the wall. That's how it should be. I've been a fan of IMSA since I came here the first time. I think Fred has been here before me but in different categories.

Anyway, it's a good start, and obviously we know that we still have some weakness and we need to work on that, so it doesn't mean that every race goes like that, but to kick things off and especially for the team, I'm very happy. They have worked very hard and obviously had a hard time last year, and to have success like this now in one of the biggest races in the world is a great reward for them.

FREDERIC VERVISCH: I think he said everything. Yeah, we are leading the championship probably, so good start of the year I would say, but still very long and that's clearly our target and the target of the team so that a Ford can win. I'm happy that we are on target.


 

Q. The top three finishers in the GTD Pro class were all comprised of three-man race teams as well as the winners of the GTP class. Is there anything you think that can be said for that or just a coincidence?


 

CHRISTOPHER MIES: I think it's a coincidence, but in general I think a 24-hour race, especially one like Daytona, it's always better to do with three drivers. Obviously the prep is quite short, and if you have to share the sessions with another driver, it's obviously more difficult and complicated, also in terms of drive time and stuff in the race.

Strategy-wise, I think it's always better the less drivers the better. I think next year we try to go with one or two and see how it goes. (Laughter.)


 

Q. I wanted to get a take on how feisty it got with Corvette and Formula towards the end of this race. It was ready to come to blows. I want to get your thoughts on how close it got.


 

DENNIS OLSEN: I think from my side it was my target to make it difficult for them and that they would fight. That was my only chance. They were quicker. Honestly, I had to defend my position and stay inside. That's the only thing. Once they start to fight, I could try to run away, and that's what we did.

Other than that, I had no idea what happened. I didn't see it. I just saw I had a gap.


 

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

Interviews with Sebastien Bourdais, John Farano, Sebastian Alvarez, Job Van Uitert


 

THE MODERATOR: We have now our LMP2 winners here at the Rolex 24 at Daytona. In the No. 8 Tower Motorsports ORECA LMP2 07. From left to right, Sebastien Bourdais, John Farano, Sebastian Alvarez, and Job Van Uitert.

For Seb, 14th victory in IMSA competition; third win in the Rolex 24 at Daytona. He won prototype and overall in 2014, GTLM in 2017.

John, this is his sixth IMSA win; first Rolex 24 win. Previous best was second in 2021. This was his 10th Rolex 24 start.

For Sebastian Alvarez, this is his first IMSA victory; fourth career start in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. This is third Rolex 24 appearance.

For Job, second IMSA win; previously won Petit Le Mans in 2020; first Rolex 24 win, fourth career start for him.


 

Q. Sebastien, you almost got caught up in the big one, how close was it to completely ending right then and there?


 

SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS: I was part of the big one, big time. The car over my left fender, a car over my right fender and I don't think I had trim time to back off because I made contact because I was in the gearbox of the Pratt Miller car and it all came to a stop. It was like Days of Thunder.

Yeah, honestly, when it all cleared in front of me and the car still had four wheels on it and the steering wheel was straight, I was like, man, this is just a miracle. That's about as much as I know because I didn't see anything coming I had no warning, and all of a sudden it came to a stop in front and it was no chance.

For more than one reason we feel very, very fortunate to be sitting here because it could have been over quite a few times actually.


 

Q. This new chapter with Tower Motorsports and IMSA (indiscernible)?


 

SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS: Yeah, what can we say? The boys did an amazing job. Rick's team of mechanics, which is the best ESM group that Philippe Dumas put together. Bunch of French actually and a few Americans, and a really, really solid group of mechanics.

Ryan did a really, really good strategy for us. We definitely didn't have the fast he's car, but we kept our heads down and mostly stayed out of trouble.

Yeah, there was a lot of carnage around us, just a lot of really, really aggressive driving which ended up in contacts.

I was very surprised, to be honest. I'm not used to that in GTP, and I don't think I have managed to pass someone without someone just hitting me, plain and simple, which I'm not a big fan of that. Really every time I was super happy that the car was still straight and we kept going forward because it was a pretty solid hit.

Yeah, it was very strange, but thanks to John for putting this together and thanks to my teammates who really did a great job. It was a solid effort. We looked really strong at night and then kind of faded a bit when it got hotter, which we were kind of afraid of.

But definitely no better way to start the relationship with Tower Motorsports, and we'll head to Sebring with our heads high and our hopes up.


 

Q. For Sebastien, where would you put this in your list of accomplishments considering moving to this team for this year?


 

SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS: I don't know, to be honest with you. It's almost like it was awarded to us in some respect because it seemed for a minute that nobody wanted to win it because, like, I've rarely seen someone torpedo another car like Beche did with Palou. It was just one incident like this after another in front of us or behind us or around us.

It was a weird race, but we had hopes at times. Sometimes it felt like it was a bit hopeless, and to come out on top no matter how you got there at some point, it's just one of those races where nobody remembers how you got there, and personally it's my third, but it never gets old winning. I'm really happy that we could bring the result for John who's been running after that Rolex for a little while.

It's a lot of financial commitment to put those LMP2 efforts on the privateer side, and I think people forget that a little too often.

Really, hats off to John for putting that effort together with Rick, and yeah, we had quite a bit of fun doing it. Can't complain.


 

Q. Your name has been mentioned for possible Indy 500 ride. Is that likely, or how would you characterize any likelihood of that happening?


 

SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS: You've got to ask Chip.


 

Q. Job, you continue the tradition of Dutch class victories in the Rolex 24, which is a great thing of course. A lot of emotions for you here at Daytona. Once you didn't even get to race because your teammate crashed out, then you came really close. It was heartbreak it didn't happen. Take us through the emotions what winning this one means to you.


 

JOB VAN UITERT: Yeah, I think for all of us it's a childhood dream that comes true. We all want to win these big races, if it's Daytona, Le Mans, Spa 24-hour, Nürburgring 24-hour. We all work really hard for it. The amount of hours that go into it, not even on track here but just the preparation over the past months and also the personal involvement that you have with it, the amount of passion that you give towards it, yeah, that makes it even more important.

Yeah, to finally make it happen on a big 24-hour race, for me that was an emotional feeling after the race. Definitely some tears here and there. I hope I can feel that more often in the future.


 

Q. You mentioned your grandfather after the race. Did you have the feeling he was with you in that car?


 

JOB VAN UITERT: Yeah, I never knew my grandfather actually but he has the same name as me, so I always feel as if I'm a bit in this world for him. It makes me proud thinking about him every time I jump in the car, and that's what I...


 

Q. Sebastien, you and I were speaking earlier in the weekend and you said you're still getting up to grips in the P2 car. Still finding feel. Ultimately you weren't quite having yet the best time. Has that changed at all?


 

SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS: We had quite a few inside jokes for sure with Job and it's an interesting tread sometimes. But the car was really difficult to drive. Daytona is historically a very tough track because it's low grip. It's quite worn out in the infield and it makes tire deg quite high, you're running low downforce.

The P2 has been a little sabotaged to not go too, too fast, as well, so it doesn't make it the easiest handling car to get around, and the smallest difference in mechanical grip makes a big lap time difference. I think we're still kind of trying to find the best setup, but for sure it was the best car we had from the November test, the Roar and the 24 weekend all together.

We're still probably missing about a half a second, but it's the closest we had been, and at night when it got cold, we definitely picked up enough grip that we were in contention. It looked like it was going to be really difficult during the day, and finally it kind of came to us mostly because of indents and unforced errors from others.

But yeah, it's not an easy car to drive. To kind of get 90 percent out of it is easy, but it's not a car that you can hustle around. You really have to be very fine with it, and especially when it's a bit grip limited like it was all weekend.

It's always good because it sharpens you. When the car is really demanding and difficult to put a lap together and you really have to be on your toes and listen to your feelings and measure your movements and your foot and everything, it's a good workout, good practice. I think it will serve me well for places like Bahrain or whatever when we get to them in GTP.


 

Q. Talk us through your last couple hours in the car. Obviously a lot happened up in front of you and you were able to extend that last final stint quite a ways to make it work. What were you going through in the car?


 

SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS: It's like, maybe we got a shot. Nope, we don't. Look, we have actually got this. Nope, we don't. It was just like a total roller coaster.

Yeah, at the end it turned -- we kind of lost it when dash went by and there was no way of defending, just literally drove around us in the straight, and I was like, well, that's an anti climactic way to lose the race.

Yeah, he torpedoed the competitors so gave us the lead, and then after that it was a pure make it to the end. Everybody was pretty far behind. It was like 45 seconds or something, so the engineer was on the radio going, you cannot go slow enough right now. We need to go behind the GTP so we don't do an extra lap because we don't have the fuel for it, and we were hitting I think it was literally 20 percent of fuel saving, so it was massive numbers.

I was lifting at the stripe a little bit before. I was lifting at the 3 marker or even before going into the Bus Stop, taking everything a gear up and taking the throttle really, really gently.

It was a matter of bringing it home. Racing in IMSA and those races sometimes comes to just very strange circumstances, and this one definitely was not a convention at one.


 

Q. Gentlemen, there's been some bumps in the road on the way here. 2018 you give a young kid a shot and took an LMP championship in Europe. Talk about having gotten here and done this.


 

JOHN FARANO: First of all, I want to take full credit for hand selecting these three, and I mean it. I had no input from anybody else. I think these are the three drivers I want.

This guy is my lucky charm because we won the championship in the LMS, we won 2020 at Petit LeMans. Sebastian and I had a really good feeling about, and of course this guy, what can you say. Yeah, with Job being back and all the successes we've had, it's truly wonderful for sure.

SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS: People don't know that but before John had to do his last stint, his back was totally locked up and he couldn't even sit up. He's a trooper because he got back in the car and did his drive time, and yep --

JOHN FARANO: All for that Rolex.


 

Q. This is your first win here. Tell us what it means to you?


 

SEBASTIAN ALVAREZ: Obviously it's very cool. It's quite close to home. I've been racing mostly in Europe, so this race is very close to México. I had a lot of fans, a lot of family over, so it's really special to be able to celebrate this moment with them.

I think Daytona, like Job said, is one of the most legendary races in motorsports, so as a kid you always want to win this race, so it's been a roller coaster and sometimes it's like we can win it or we can't win it. At the end when we finally crossed the checkered flag it was a very special moment.


 

Q. For John, kind of got quite a list of accomplishments here in IMSA, between championships, the pilot challenge championship as well as the WeatherTech Championship, won Sebring, now you've got this. What does all that mean?


 

JOHN FARANO: Well, I've won Sebring, as you say, three Petits, won the championship here, and this was truly the one that was missing. This is truly special. Worked really hard for it. The whole team really worked hard for it. So in 2020 -- we've come close a couple of times. We've been on the podium twice before this.

Just a lot of effort and a lot of pain to go through to get to this spot, but we truly worked hard, and this is truly a dream come true for sure.


 

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

Interviews Matthew Bell, Lars Kern, Marvin Kirchhöfer, Orey Fidani


 

THE MODERATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, we have our GTD winners at the 63rd Rolex 24 at Daytona in the No. 13 AWA Corvette ZO6 GT3 R. From left to right, Matt Bell, Lars Kern, Marvin Kirchhöfer, and Orey Fidani.

Matt, this is his second IMSA victory, first since a GTD victory at Motul Petit LeMans in 2014.

Lars, this is his second IMSA victory, first since the 12-hours of Sebring in 2021.

This is Marvin's first career IMSA victory. Previous best was second at Watkins Glen International in WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca last year.

Orey, this is first IMSA victory. Three second place finishes.


 

Q. Matt, can you touch base on that final stint and going up against the Heart of Racing in GTD there in the final stint?


 

MATTHEW BELL: Yeah, the restarts were intense as we always are in IMSA WeatherTech racing. Honestly, my brain is fried. I can't even remember what happened. It was awesome racing, I have to say. All the competitors that we were going toe to toe with today were really hard, really fair. I can't remember where he overtook me. He got us in the pits. I just had to get my head down. If I saw a GTD car ahead of me I just tried to overtake it.

I remember vaguely getting a little bit of a nose up the side coming out of Turn 5. We were good in the infield. We were strong in the infield. Just managed to squeeze on past and get my head down after that and try to build a gap. Yeah, it was fun. It was definitely fun.


 

Q. Question for Matt: You won in a Corvette. There might be someone near you who is probably more familiar with that given you're part of (indiscernible) management. What pre-race advice did he give you? What did he think of you winning?


 

MATTHEW BELL: I haven't got a clue. I haven't seen my phone yet. He said when someone is really close behind, don't lift. That's how he won his.

I just drove around like that basically, and yeah, I'm sure he'll be very happy. We're equal now. I've just got to go win five Le Manses, five Sebrings, five Petit Le Mans.


 

Q. I asked the other GT drivers about it, but there was no letup. All of the victories were so tight today and there was a lot of beating and banging and stuff going on. Could you just talk about the nature of the race? This is kind of how it is now at the Rolex.


 

MARVIN KIRCHHOFER: It's been a while actually being up here, so that's why. It's been very emotional. I think it was quite intense, as you said, in every category, especially the last 30 minutes after the restarts. We know the restarts are crucial in IMSA racing.

Basically what the fans love to see, what is nice for us sometimes in the car but sometimes not too nice when you're outside the car and you see your teammate trying to hang on or going for a win, which once again, Matt has done an outstanding job in that perspective, and I think the emotion running very high -- I've never seen Lars trying, so you can tell how much it meant to the whole team.

Everyone was obviously super, super happy about the result, and I think for the fans, for everyone, I think this was probably the best race finish everyone could have asked for.


 

Q. (Indiscernible).


 

MATTHEW BELL: Yeah, we knew we had a good car from the start of the Roar. AWA put in so much work since before the checkered flag at Petit Le Mans, and when we hit the track on Friday two weeks ago we felt we had something underneath us that we could go and take on the competition with.

So that gives you some confidence. I said this to everybody multiple times, that we were just waiting for the dream to stop, it can't be this good kind of thing.

Yeah, it was a lot of hard work, but super happy with it, and just to your first question, as well, the racing from the GTD side I have to say was super hard but super fair, I have to say.

All the competitors that I went toe to toe with, it was proper IMSA racing, the real spicy stuff that may be a little over the limit. Looked like it was going on ahead on the red panel cars. That looked entertaining.

But yeah, I have to also congratulate all the competitors that we were racing with here. It was proper racing.


 

Q. Orey, the Mustang guys were in here earlier and talking about the turnaround in fortunes for their program. It was a pretty traumatic start with this car, with this team last season. Your emotions from what's been another remarkable turnaround in just 12 months?


 

OREY FIDANI: The Chevy guys are pretty awesome. It's some of the best support I've ever had with customers programs over the years that I've ran. There's hiccups with new cars, so I figured I'm going to stick it out and just work with these guys, and they were awesome and fixed everything, and it turns out we had a pretty awesome car to race at the end of it.


 

Q. Matt, you're from Newcastle in the northeast of England. You've seen your fair share of fights, I'm sure. How does this match up?


 

MATTHEW BELL: Yeah, I think that could hold up with some of the best ones I've seen. The IMSA WeatherTech series, I've loved every race I've ever done over here.

Like I say, from my side of things, I thought all the racing was super hard but super fair against all the guys that I was against. It was a lot like that last year. We had some intense battles at Road America in particular and Petit LeMans, as well.

I love this championship. This is the best championship in the world to me. I love racing over here. I love the circuits. I love the series, and I like winning. Today went all right.


 

Q. Orey, you join a long line of Canadian winners at the Rolex 24. Seems like there's a renewed effort to grow Canadian domestic homologated racing. How important is that to you to keep that conveyor belt of talent going, whether it's young drivers or bronze drivers like yourself?


 

OREY FIDANI: Pretty important. Canada is small, pretty small in terms of racing community, and I'd like to continue to grow it.

Hopefully we'll see in the next couple years possibly might take over ownership of Mosport from the father and keep that going so I can continue to promote some Canadian drivers and keep that track alive.


 

Q. Matt, when with you spoke over the winter, you said to me, in exact quotes, the Corvette is the best GT car out there you can buy and that you were extremely confident that you guys could win this race. How does it feel to back that up and score Chevrolet such an important win for this customer program?


 

MATTHEW BELL: I mean, yeah, as I said, we spoke -- there were trials and tribulations that Graham has already alluded to the first part of last season, but from the very get-go, the silver lining was the thing was awesome to drive. So we knew the fundamental thing that you need in racing is pace.

You need a car that you can go and win with, and if you've got a hardworking group of people around it, if there's anything to fix, it's going to get fixed. Yeah, everybody put their heads together. Orey had a huge amount of faith in everybody as he's already said, and we knew from last year if we stayed on this train, there's going to be success coming.

Yeah, every now and again, I'm right. It's quite rare, but it is right rewarding. That's the one and only time -- well, hopefully not the only time this year, but yeah, very happy to see a huge amount of hard work come to fruition.


 

Q. Lars, tell us a little bit about it from your perspective, just what this means.


 

LARS KERN: Yeah, I mean, in the past years I was always racing with a different brand who I am still related to, and yeah, it feels amazing achieving this result with this group of people. As Orey and Matt already mentioned, the AWA team and Jim, what they built up over the last year is pretty incredible.

We knew right from the beginning that we were going to have a good car, and as Matt mentioned, it was kind of like the feeling, okay, when does this dream stop because we felt pretty confident or we didn't really speak about it, but in our little group, we were like, okay, this feels pretty awesome.

Normally around Daytona, a car never feels really good because you're on low camber, pretty high pressures, so it doesn't feel great. So yeah, going into the race, it was like, okay, we have to pass, let's see how it goes. What Matt and Marvin did in the last couple of stints was absolutely awesome.

I just had to walk away for the last hour. I was just lying down and I got follow. It was absolutely incredible, and I'm proud to be a part of this team.


 

Q. Lars, I know you were kind of telling me before, but talk me through that stint near halfway when you were moving up in the field. Was there a point at which you thought, okay, the win is on here?


 

LARS KERN: Yeah, it's always the same, like if there's no car coming from behind and you keep on overtaking it feels pretty all right.

At that point I was like, okay, I think we're in a good position, so I went up to P2. After that I was like, okay, if I've got to hand the car over to these two guys, I think we should be in a safe spot.

As I, what he did at the end was absolutely incredible. I could not believe and I still cannot believe. It's going to take some days to think in, weeks, months, I don't know. Yeah, absolutely incredible feeling.


 

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

 

Unofficial Results, Points & Post-Race Nuggets | WeatherTech Championship

63rd Rolex 24 At Daytona

Daytona International Speedway - Sunday, January 26, 2025

Unofficial race results available at results.imsa.com.


 

Unofficial points available at pitnotes.org/points.

GTP

No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport

  • Third overall win in Rolex 24 for Roger Penske (1969, 2024, 2025)
  • Fourth Rolex 24 win for Roger Penske (1966, 1969, 2024)
  • 24th overall Rolex 24 win for Porsche

 

Felipe Nasr

  • 12th career win (first since 2024 Watkins Glen, GTP/Overall) 
  • Third Rolex 24 win (2022 GTD PRO, 2024 GTP/Overall)
  • Second overall Rolex 24 win (2024)
  • Sixth straight season with a win (2019-2025)

 

Nick Tandy

  • 23rd career win (first since 2024 Road America, GTP/Overall)
  • Second Rolex 24 win (2014 GT Le Mans)
  • Completes sweep of overall 24-hour race wins at Daytona, Le Mans, Spa-Francorchamps and Nürburgring (first driver to do so) 


 

Laurens Vanthoor

  • 11th career win
  • First Rolex 24 win
  • First overall Rolex 24 win

 

LMP2

No. 8 Tower Motorsports

  • 21st career win
  • First Rolex 24 win
  • First win of 2025
  • Finished 8th Overall
  • Last win came at 2023 Sebring (Farano, McLaughlin, Simpson, LMP2)

 

John Farano

  • Sixth career win (first since 2023 Sebring, LMP2)
  • First Rolex 24 win in 10th start (previous best second) 

 

Sebastien Bourdais

  • 14th career win (first since 2024 Petit Le Mans, GTP/Overall)
  • Third Rolex 24 win (2014 P/Overall, 2017 GT Le Mans)

 

Sebastian Alvarez

  • First career win in fourth career IMSA WeatherTech Championship start, third at Rolex 24
  • Previous best finish was fifth at 2024 Petit Le Mans, LMP2
  • First Rolex 24 win

 

Job Van Uitert

  • Second career win in fourth career start (first since 2020 Petit Le Mans, LMP2)
  • First Rolex 24 win


 

GTD PRO

No. 65 Ford Multimatic Motorsports 

  • 20th Rolex 24 win for Ford Mustang
  • First global win for new Ford Mustang GT3
  • First win for new Ford Multimatic Motorsports GTD PRO since 2024 debut 

 

Christopher Mies

  • Second career win (first since 2017 Petit Le Mans, GTD)
  • First Rolex 24 win

 

Frederic Vervisch

  • First career win in fifth start (previous best finish was third at 2019 Rolex 24, GTD)
  • First Rolex 24 win

 

Dennis Olsen

  • Second career win (first since 2019 Lime Rock, GTD)
  • First Rolex 24 win 


 

GTD

No. 13 AWA

  • Third WeatherTech Championship victory, first in GTD (two in LMP3 in 2023)
  • Second Rolex 24 win, previous 2023 (LMP3)

 

Matt Bell (UK)

  • Second career win (first since 2014 Petit Le Mans, GTD)
  • First Rolex 24 win

 

Orey Fidani

  • First career win
  • First Rolex 24 win
  • Previous best finish, second place (three previous races)

 

Lars Kern

  • Second career win (first since 2021 Sebring, GTD)
  • First Rolex 24 win

 

Marvin Kirchhoefer

  • First career win
  • First Rolex 24 win
  • Previous best finish, second (2024 Monterey and Watkins Glen)

 

Porsche Penske Claims Historic, Back-to-Back Rolex 24 Wins

New Mustang GT3 Claims First IMSA GTD PRO Win; AWA Corvette, Tower ORECA Win GTD, LMP2



January 26, 2025

By Tony DiZinno

IMSA Wire Service

Hour 24 Race Results


 

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – History was made on several levels in the 63rd Rolex 24 At Daytona to kick off the 2025 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season.


 

Porsche Penske Motorsport won its second consecutive Rolex 24, the third overall for team owner Roger Penske and fourth for the team, with the No. 7 Porsche 963 driven by Felipe Nasr, Nick Tandy and Laurens Vanthoor claiming the overall and Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class triumph.


 

Nasr is the only member of the trio who was part of last year’s winning entry, with a reshuffled lineup. Tandy moved from the team’s No. 6 car, and with the win is the first driver globally to have won all four major 24-hour endurance sports car races in Daytona, Le Mans, Spa-Francorchamps and the Nürburgring overall. Vanthoor was part of last year’s FIA World Endurance Championship-winning lineup with Penske.


 

The win is Nasr’s third (2024 in GTP/overall, 2022 in Grand Touring Daytona Pro), Tandy’s second (2014 GT Le Mans) and Vanthoor’s first at the Rolex 24.


 

The team nearly completed a 1-2 sweep, but a late pass by Tom Blomqvist delivered his second straight runner-up finish. Blomqvist co-drove the No. 60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06, and got around Matt Campbell’s No. 6 Porsche 963.


 

“It’s amazing to see the work we’ve done with this Porsche program the last couple years, winning the (IMSA) championship last year, and with the relationship we have with Porsche, our organization, I’m thrilled,” Roger Penske said in victory lane. “It was quite something there at the end!” 


 

History was also made in the two Grand Touring classes, as two iconic brands – Mustang and Corvette – both won.


 

Ford’s newest Mustang scored its first IMSA victory, with Dennis Olsen holding off all comers in the Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) class in his No. 65 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang GT3 he shared with Christopher Mies and Frederic Vervisch.


 

While Mustang beat Corvette in GTD PRO, Corvette emerged victorious in Grand Touring Daytona courtesy of the customer effort from AWA, which scored its second Rolex 24 win (2023 in Le Mans Prototype 3). Drivers Matt Bell, Orey Fidani, Lars Kern and Marvin Kirchhoefer shared the winning No. 13 Corvette Z06 GT3.R.


 

Tower Motorsports ascended to the top of Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2), in the hands of Sebastien Bourdais, John Farano, Sebastian Alvarez and Job Van Uitert sharing the No. 8 ORECA LMP2 07. The Rolex win is Bourdais’ third in as many IMSA class (Prototype/Overall in 2014 and GT Le Mans in 2017).


 

All other winners – the three Ford drivers, all four AWA Corvette drivers and the remaining three Tower LMP2 drivers – secured their first Rolex 24 victories and the custom Rolex Daytona timepieces that come with the wins. 

Pair of Porsche Penske Cars Pace Overnight Run to Hour 18

AO’s “Spike,” “Rexy” in Contention in LMP2, GTD PRO; AWA Tops GTD


 

January 26, 2025

By John Oreovicz

IMSA Wire Service

Hour 18 Race Results

Hour 18 IMEC Results


 

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – A series of overnight cautions broke up the rhythm of the 63rd Rolex 24 At Daytona International Speedway. But Porsche Penske Motorsport was unaffected, and the team continued to hold down the top two overall positions as the classic endurance race reached the three-quarter mark.


 

Nick Tandy in the Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class No. 7 Porsche 963 took the lead from the team’s sister No. 6 driven by Matt Campbell car in the second half of the 18th hour after Mathieu Jaminet paced most of the night in the No. 6. Tandy held a 5.608-second lead over Campbell at the 18-hour mark, with Philipp Eng holding third place in the No. 24 BMW M Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8, albeit almost half a lap behind.


 

Seven of the 12 GTP entries were still running after 18 hours, with five on the lead lap. The No. 60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06 ran in fourth place, followed by the No. 10 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R.


 

In Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2), Dane Cameron in the No. 99 AO Racing “Spike” ORECA LMP2 07 led by 5.243 seconds over fellow ex-GTP driver Sebastien Bourdais, in the No. 8 Tower Motorsports ORECA, as Cameron drove into the lead during the night.


 

AO Racing was also in great shape in the Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) class, where its No. 77 “Rexy” Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) ran second to the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO, with a deficit of 2.284 seconds.


 

The race in the GTD class was even closer, with Matt Bell (No. 13 AWA Corvette Z06 GT3.R) ahead of Ralf Aron (No. 80 Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3) by just 1.637 seconds.


 

The yellow flag flew just four minutes past the halfway point of the race when a fire broke out in the rear of the GTD class No. 36 DXDT Racing Corvette Z06 GT3.R that was quickly extinguished by a track safety crew. Just four minutes after racing resumed, another caution waved when the No. 22 United Autosports USA ORECA LMP2 07 competing in the LMP2 class left debris on the circuit.


 

Another stoppage occurred early in the 14th hour when defending LMP2 series class champion Tom Dillmann’s No. 43 ORECA LMP2 07 fielded by Inter Europol Competition stopped on track.


 

One of the major stories of the race is the comeback of the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3, the defending WeatherTech Championship GTD champion. The entry fell seven laps behind in the third hour due to a sticking throttle and was three laps in arrears at the halfway point, but drivers Philip Ellis, Indy Dontje, Lucas Auer, and Russell Ward rallied to lead 68 laps. A pit penalty for an unrestrained wheel dropped the car to ninth in class, but still on the lead lap.  


 

“Luckily, it was early in the race, and we have time to make up for it,” said Ellis. “I am super proud of the guys. We earned so many laps back with half the race to go, so I would say we are back in the race, to be honest. It all proves to me we are one of the best in the IMSA paddock. The crew put us back in the game again.”


 

Through the first 18 hours and three Michelin Endurance Cup segments, unofficial leaders with the most points so far are the No. 7 Porsche in GTP, No. 99 AO ORECA in LMP2, No. 1 PMR BMW in GTD PRO and No. 70 Inception Ferrari in GTD.


 

Live coverage of the 63rd running of the Rolex 24 continues on Peacock, with NBC rejoining at Noon ET to broadcast the conclusion of the race. International coverage continues on the Official IMSA YouTube channel. 
 

Competitive, Frantic and Fast Six Hours in the Books at 63rd Rolex 24

No. 60 Acura Out Front; No. 52 ORECA, No. 48 BMW, No. 70 Ferrari Atop Classes


 

January 25, 2025

By Holly Cain

IMSA Wire Service

Hour 6 Results


 

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -

A full, talented and ambitious 61-car field – featuring IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar champions, NASCAR stars, IndyCar winners, Formula 1 veterans and a wide assortment of accomplished drivers from 31 countries – took the green flag Saturday afternoon at Daytona International Speedway for the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona.

 

Blue skies, cool temperatures, a large crowd that even included Miss America - showed up to watch a global A-list of racers competing to earn coveted Rolex Daytona timepieces for their work on the 3.56-mile infield road course that also incorporates portions of the famous speedway’s high banks.

 

A restart five minutes before the six-hour mark – following the race’s third full course caution period – saw a typically frantic move forward among the lead Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) cars which went three-wide into the first turn. 


 

Ultimately, American Colin Braun prevailed taking the front position in the No. 60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/ Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06 ahead of the defending Rolex 24 race-winning No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 at the race’s quarter-mark. 

 

Mathias Beche held the 12-car Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class lead in the No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA LMP2 07 – exchanging the front spot with Felipe Fraga, co-driver of the No. 74 Riley ORECA, in a spirited battle out front of that class.

 

The new two-car Paul Miller Racing team paced the 15-car Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) class. At the six-hour mark, Jesse Krohn was out front in his No. 48 BMW M4 GT3 EVO with Connor De Phillippi third in the sister No. 1 car. They sandwiched Nico Varrone, in the No. 4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Corvette Z06 GT3.R at the race’s first quarter point.

 

The No. 91 Trackhouse by TF Sport Corvette – co-driven by NASCAR stars Shane van Gisbergen and Connor Zilisch, along with IndyCar standout Scott McLaughlin and sports car champion Ben Keating was 12th place in GTD at the six-hour mark.

 

The entire GT field had a “moment” on the opening lap when Nick Boulle’s No. 2 United Autosports USA ORECA LMP2 07 car spun directly in front of them. The evasive action cost the pole-sitting No. 64 Ford Mustang GT3 to relinquish the early lead, but the two Ford Multimatic Motorsports Mustangs quickly recovered and ranked among the leaders for much of the following hours.

 

“It was really bad actually, we were really lucky there,” said Mike Rockenfeller, who was driving the pole-sitting No. 64 Mustang and had took early evasion action.

 

“We lost a position, both of us (Mustangs) but it doesn’t matter. It’s a long race and the track will change and hopefully it will be a clean race for us and we’ll see where we are at the end.

 

“I was definitely not ready for that, even though you should be,” Rockenfeller smiled. “Somehow I wasn’t expecting that.’’


 

David Fumanelli led the field’s most populous class, the 22-car Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) class, in the No. 70 Inception Racing Ferrari 296 GT3.

 

For most of the early going, it was the pole-winning GTP BMW M Team RLL team and Porsche Penske pacing the overall field. However, as expected and as usual, the racing was dramatic from the drop of the green flag in all four classes. 

 

The prototype class, in particular, featured numerous lead changes among all the different makes and a wide assortment of drivers.

 

“I’m not surprised, there’s just so much talent on this grid in terms of manufacturers, drivers, teams, everybody is so close and we’ve seen it in the Roar (test sessions), we’ve seen it in qualifying and the practice sessions, everyone is so close together,” said BMW driver Austrian Philipp Eng, whose No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8 started on pole position in the hands of co-driver Dries Vanthoor. 

 

“I was just watching 10 minutes ago and there were three former F1 guys driving cars. So I must say it is incredible and I feel very privileged to be racing against them and with them,’’ he added. “So this (competitive field) is not a surprise to me. I just hope at the end of the race there is a BMW leading the race.’’

 

Among those former F1 drivers putting on a show out front was Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing’s Kamui Kobayashi, who spent most of his time in his No. 40 Cadillac V-Series.R at the race’s quarter-mark putting on a passing display.

 

His teammate Jordan Taylor spoke to the media as the Japanese super-talent pulled into the lead earlier in the night, glanced up and could only smile. 

 

“It’s fun to watch him,” said Taylor, who shared that while other drivers spent their off-days travelling or doing something ‘fun,’ his teammate Kobayashi instead spent one night doing laundry at a local 24-hour laundromat, watched a bit of Netflix and even went to a local Dick’s Sporting Goods and bought a portable sauna he’s used ever since.

 

“We knew he was going to be like that (pushing to lead the race),” Taylor continued. “You see it all weekend through practices watching his onboards and as he’s learning the new car, you see him making the adjustments to the steering wheel and just having fun. That’s his style and why people love him. 


 

“That’s exactly what I would expect from him watching a restart where everyone is kind of unsure about the conditions and he just goes forward.”

 

Of note, there were three full-course cautions and the weather dropped from starting temperatures nearing 60 degrees ambient and 90 track to a much cooler mid-50s track and ambient into the night stint. Soft compound tires are now available for GTP teams to run until 10 a.m. 


 

IMSA also hands out the first IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup points of the 2025 season at the sixth hour. The top three teams in each class at designated time periods are awarded five, four and three points, respectively with all others taking home two. At the Rolex 24, Michelin Endurance Cup points are awarded at the sixth, 12th, 18th and 24th hours. Naturally, the cars leading at the six-hour mark take home the five points. 


 

Coverage continues on Peacock until noon ET, with a return to NBC at noon ET Sunday. 


 

Six-Hour Highlights are below.

Porsche Leads After Eventful Run to Halfway Mark of Rolex 24

Additional Leaders Include Inter Europol (LMP2), PMR BMW (GTD PRO), Inception Ferrari (GTD)


 

January 26, 2025

By Tony DiZinno

IMSA Wire Service

Hour 12 Results


 

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Porsche Penske Motorsport paces the 63rd Rolex 24 At Daytona at the halfway mark of the 24-hour endurance classic that kicks off the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season. That said, the seventh to 12th hours reduced the number of contenders after some strong middle third stints.


 

Leading runs from Kamui Kobayashi in the No. 40 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R, in Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) and Max Hesse, in the No. 48 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO in Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO), in particular, went up in smoke.


 

The race’s complexion across multiple classes changed significantly with a multi-car accident exiting Turn 2 just after the start of the eighth hour.


 

When Louis Deletraz lost the rear of the No. 40 Cadillac, the resulting spin created an accordion effect that took out more cars. Three Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class entries: the Nos. 2 (United Autosports USA), 8 (Tower Motorsports) and 73 (Pratt Miller) ORECA LMP2 07 cars collected substantial damage. Two other Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) cars collided separately in avoidance, as Jordan Pepper in the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 appeared to push Hesse’s No. 48 BMW off the road.


 

All five drivers involved in the incident were evaluated and released. Deletraz took responsibility for the spin that started it all.


 

“On the restart, the yellow car of JDC went inside and just going to power and I think I spun,” he explained. “I don’t think anything happened. I don’t think I was touched and then I got collected. It was my mistake, and I am sorry to the team and sorry to my teammates as well. A sad way to end the 24.”


 

Hesse described his frustration from the BMW side: “I was very aware of what was happening; the people behind me weren’t. So obviously it was crazy chaos going on. I was able to avoid the car ahead but just got hit very hard in the rear.”


 

Another contender fell out in the 11th hour. Frederik Vesti spun the No. 31 Cadillac Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R in-between NASCAR Turns 3 and 4 with right rear damage from an apparent rear suspension issue.


 

With the 12-car GTP field cut down to the lead lap in half by a mix of incidents and penalties, it’s left the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 of Felipe Nasr out front ahead of the No. 60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb-Agajanian Acura ARX-06 of Scott Dixon. Cadillac has one remaining challenger in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing entry, while the polesitting No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8 also remained in the hunt.


 

Paul Miller Racing led its second six-hour stint in as many efforts, with its No. 1 BMW M4 GT3 EVO of Neil Verhagen pacing Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO). The No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R (992), “Rexy,” worked to come back from being caught up in the multiple car incident from earlier up to second, ahead of the two Ford Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang GT3s.


 

As they were at the six-hour mark, Inception Racing also led Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) at the 12-hour mark. Frederik Schandorff was behind the wheel of that team’s No. 70 Ferrari 296 GT3. Schandorff withstood consistent pressure from Ayhancan Guven in the No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R (992).


 

Inter Europol Competition, former partners with PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports, surpassed its former partner team to pace the LMP2 class at the 12-hour mark. Antonio Felix da Costa was aboard prior to the halfway point in the team’s No. 43 ORECA LMP2 07.


 

Race coverage continues on Peacock through noon ET before going back to NBC at noon, and outside the U.S. on IMSA’s YouTube channel. 
 

 

Rear View Mirror Check: Who You Do and Don't Want to See Behind You

Clear Picture Emerges of Two IMSA GTP Veterans To Monitor... But Which Two?


 

January 25, 2025

By John Oreovicz

IMSA Wire Service

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -

Renger van der Zande earned his first top-class IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship win in 2017 at the track now known as WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, and people still talk about the move he made to seize the lead from Dane Cameron in the Corkscrew with three minutes remaining in the race.


 

It was a sign of things to come. Van der Zande has added another 11 overall race wins to bring his IMSA total to 21 since that Laguna Seca breakthrough, the most recent coming in the 2024 WeatherTech Championship season finale at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. True to form, that win in the Motul Petit Le Mans was achieved with a daring pass as the minutes ticked down.


 

So as the 2025 season is set to begin with the 63rd running of the Rolex 24 At Daytona International Speedway, it should come as no surprise that in an informal poll of drivers who compete in IMSA’s Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class, van der Zande’s name was mentioned most often when they were asked which competitor they don’t want to see in their mirrors with 10 minutes to go.

The 38-year-old Dutchman – who this year is sharing the No. 93 Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06 with Nick Yelloly, joined by IndyCar champion Alex Palou and Honda development driver Kaku Ohta at Daytona – has continually shown that he is willing and able to get his elbows out to get past the car in front as the laps wind down. 


 

“Renger is always really strong at the end of races and he doesn’t seem to make a lot of mistakes,” said Ricky Taylor, co-driver of the No. 10 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R along with Filipe Albuquerque, Will Stevens and Brendon Hartley. 


 

“There are other drivers who are strong, but Renger is known for late race moves that are successful.”


 

“I think everybody is going to give you the same answer, that they’re not worried about anyone,” added Colin Braun, who co-drive’s MSR’s No. 60 Acura with Tom Blomqvist, supported by IndyCar stars Scott Dixon and Felix Rosenqvist for the Rolex 24. “He’s on our team now, but I’ve raced Renger for a long time and I feel like his racecraft is really strong. He’s definitely smart in traffic. And I feel the same with Nick Tandy – I think those two guys have a bulldog, get-it-done-in-the-end sort of style. 


 

“So those two pop into mind, but there are no weak links across this whole GTP field. It’s the best of the best.”


 

Talking to van der Zande and Tandy about the climactic pass for the win last October at Road Atlanta, it’s clear that there is a high level of respect between the pair. The drama was highlighted by an electrical glitch in van der Zande’s Cadillac that caused its headlights to flicker in the pitch-black Georgia night.

Van der Zande said the key to setting up the winning pass was patience and managing his tire wear in the laps leading up to the crucial moment when Tandy got slightly balked in traffic with 15 minutes remaining in the 10-hour endurance race.


 

“The move was fun, and dealing with the lights was fun, and I got a lot of credit for it,” said van der Zande, who is entering his first season with the Meyer Shank team. “Even my spotter didn’t see it coming. But I think the biggest credit is that I could do it on Tandy, because he’s one of the best drivers in the world. And he’s also the guy that if you see him in your mirrors, you know you had better watch out for your gaps.”

Tandy explained his perspective. 


 

“The mirrors in our cars, they’re okay in the daytime, but at nighttime, they’re not great,” he said. “We tend to rely on the camera, which are still not great and in the night, depth perception is incredibly difficult. So, I knew he was close behind me, but I didn’t know how close he was. It was a good move and he drove a great stint. It was a great race to be part of.”


 

Despite being van der Zande’s most recent late-lap victim, Tandy refused to name him – or anyone else – specifically as the guy he doesn’t want to see in the mirror with 10 to go.


 

“Everybody that drives in the GTP class is there for a reason,” Tandy reasoned. “They’re competitive, great drivers. With 10 minutes to go, if it’s your teammate back there, you know their car strengths and weaknesses. What’s difficult is when you’ve got a different car, no matter who the driver is. Different cars make up their speed in different areas, so it’s always more comfortable with a teammate. 


 

“But if I’m in the car with 10 minutes go, it doesn’t matter who is in the car behind me because the philosophy will never change. And that’s to do everything possible to bring the car home.”


 

Mathieu Jaminet was Tandy’s co-driver in the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 the last two years. This year, Tandy has been shifted to share the No. 7 Porsche with Felipe Nasr, while Matt Campbell joins Jaminet in the No. 6. 


 

Jaminet said his ideal scenario for the last 10 minutes of an IMSA race is to have the second Porsche team car in his rear-view mirror. But when pressed, he singled out his former Porsche teammate Earl Bamber, who this year has taken over from Pipo Derani in the No. 31 Cadillac Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R. 


 

“Seeing your sister car is not a bad thing because that means we’re doing a pretty good job to be running 1-2,” Jaminet noted. “There might be some things happening in the background on the pit stand, but in the car that’s the best situation. I know American racing can be really tense and a lot of things can happen at the end of the race. This is why I love it. I’m actually happy if there is a fight with 10 minutes to go. It will be entertaining for the fans and also for the drivers, whoever is up for the fight.


 

“Earl is a good mate; we drove a lot together when he was at Porsche in GT racing (in IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup races in 2018 and ’19),” added Jaminet. “It would be fun to have a fight with Earl and be there at the end because we really never had this opportunity before at Porsche. I’d be looking forward to this one.”


 

Derani, who has stepped away from GTP this year to focus on developing Genesis’s future entry into the hybrid prototype class, was cited by his new co-driver Jack Aitken as a tough nemesis to face late in a race. Derani is part of the driver lineup in the No. 36 DXDT Racing Corvette Z06 GT3.R in this year’s Rolex 24.    


 

“There’s a lot of hard racers in the paddock, and Pipo was one of them,” Aitken said. “I think people didn’t like to see him in their rear-view mirrors, so it’s a good thing he was on my side. Renger has always been a strong racer, really strong and not afraid to make a move. Nick Tandy is another guy who is experienced but really aggressive. It’s a lot of fun to race those guys, but it’s a challenge as well.”


 

Van der Zande was happy to accept the accolade of being the driver most feared in the last 10 minutes by his rivals. But he was also glad to answer the question.


 

“That’s a compliment, it really is,” said van der Zande. “Honestly, the guy I don’t want to see in the mirror is the guy I overtook – Nick Tandy. I think he’s one of those guys who is going to make a move, for sure.”


 

History has shown that there’s a high likelihood that the Rolex 24 could be settled by a pass in the final 10 minutes. Who will be looming in the leader’s mirror this year?

Ultimate Performance Achieved by Michelin Pilot Challenge Winners in Daytona

Accelerating Performance Wins First GS Race with McLaren; Herta, Hyundai Finally Capture Daytona TCR Win 


 

January 24, 2025

By John Oreovicz and Tony DiZinno

IMSA Wire Service

Results


 

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Michael Cooper took charge of the Grand Sport (GS) class in the final stages of the BMW M Endurance Challenge at Daytona International Speedway to claim overall victory in the four-hour opening round of the 2025 IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge.


 

Cooper guided the No. 44 Accelerating Performance McLaren Artura GT4 from fifth to first in the closing 20 minutes, executing a series of clean passes to seize the lead before maintaining an advantage of 0.327 seconds over Jan Heylen (No. 28 RS1 Porsche 718 GT4 RS CS) at the checkered flag.


 

Moisey Uretsky drove a lengthy two-hour, 40-minute opening stint prior to handing the McLaren to Cooper in eighth place. Cooper, who has extensive ties to McLaren, enjoyed coming to grips with the latest evolution of the Artura as he diced with Heylen and Billy Johnson, who eventually finished third in the No. 59 KohR Motorsports Ford Mustang GT4 he shared with Robert Michaelian.


 

Leader Heylen allowed the front end of his Porsche to drift slightly wide at the apex of Turn 7, the corner that takes the cars from the infield section of Daytona International Speedway onto the iconic banking between Turns 1 and 2 of the oval with about seven minutes on the clock. The McLaren drew level on the back stretch and eased in front entering the Le Mans chicane.


 

Heylen, who co-drove with Luca Mars, was unable to pressure Cooper into a mistake in the final three laps, allowing Cooper and Uretsky to claim their first race win in Michelin Pilot Challenge competition. It was McLaren’s first win at Daytona since 2021. Additionally, the rebranded team (previously Baby Bull Racing) won on debut with the McLaren, after campaigning the Porsche in previous seasons.


 

“That was a lot of fun,” said Cooper, who also has a Rolex 24 At Daytona win on his résumé (2022, Le Mans Prototype 3 class with Riley). “I drove the previous version of the McLaren, so this felt very familiar. It’s an amazing GT4 car and all the guys did an incredible job.


 

“Moisey ran the first couple stints, way longer than we needed him to, and he handed me over a clean car that I was able to fight with Jan and Billy and take it to the front. Right after I passed Jan, we both just sailed it into (Le Mans) and sailed it into Turn 1 a couple times, using everything up and trying to get away.”


 

Uretsky added, “Cooper brought it home. The Porsche is a fast car, but Cooper was smart about it, and he picked the right moment. I knew once he had the lead, he wasn’t going to give it up.”


 

Heylen, a former GS class champion in the Michelin Pilot Challenge, looked to be in solid shape until Cooper made his charge as the race crept into twilight on Daytona’s 3.56-mile road course.


 

“It’s tough to be this close and then lose it in the last two or three laps,” Heylen said. “Maybe I could have been a bit more aggressive early on, but they were the better car today – it’s as simple as that.”


 

Sam Paley and Jenson Altzman (No. 13 McCumbee McAleer Racing with Aerosport Ford Mustang GT4) finished fourth, while Spencer Pumpelly, Andy Lally, and Thomas Collingwood rallied to claim fifth in the No. 38 BGB Motorsports Porsche 718 GT4 RS CS.


 

DuPont, Brown Deliver Herta Hyundai Win at Daytona’s ‘Cathedral of Speed’

With five straight drivers’ and six straight Touring Car (TCR) manufacturer championships in IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge, Bryan Herta Autosport with Curb Agajanian and Hyundai has had little left to achieve in the category.


 

However, one “white whale” that has eluded the erstwhile dominant force of the class was a win at Daytona International Speedway. At long last Friday, a BHA Hyundai drove into victory lane.


 

Team co-owner Bryan Herta, whose team has won two Indianapolis 500s in addition to all his IMSA accolades, reflected on adding this win at one of North America’s most special racing venues.


 

“This place is amazing and has so much history, so to win here is special,” Herta said. “You know, this place and Indianapolis Motor Speedway are ‘cathedrals of speed’ in our sport. This one has eluded us, so I'm very proud to get it.”


 

Denis Dupont and Preston Brown were the lucky pair who achieved the feat for the team, driving the No. 76 Hyundai Elantra N TCR from ninth to the win and played the better pit strategy game to leapfrog the otherwise pace-setting sister car driven by Bryson Morris and Mark Wilkins.


 

Morris qualified on pole in the No. 33 Hyundai and led a race-high 48 of 109 laps in class, but fell behind the No. 76 car as the race progressed past the final pit stop sequence. Wilkins pushed Dupont hard enough in the finish and made one final passing attempt high in the tri-oval on the final lap, only to come up short by just 0.067 of a second.


 

The win is the second for both Dupont and Brown in Michelin Pilot Challenge action and coincidentally, their second straight four-hour race win in the series. The pair won their first race together at last June’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Four Hours of Mid-Ohio, courtesy of an intentional fuel-saving final stint.


 

“It was a fight,” Dupont said. “(Wilkins) was in the draft, he was fast. I had to close the door sometimes and sometimes we had traffic. He was super close on the finish line, but we held him off.” 


 

Brown added, “It’s about as special as you can get.”


 

Behind the pair of Hyundais, Audi completed the podium with Ryan Eversley and IMSA Diverse Driver Development Scholarship recipient Celso Neto sharing the No. 7 Precision Racing LA Audi RS3 LMS TCR.


 

Neto’s podium is the first for such a scholarship recipient in Pilot Challenge and adds to the six achieved by 2023 recipient Courtney Crone in the Le Mans Prototype 3 (P3) class in that year’s VP Racing SportsCar Challenge.


 

The podium capped an emotional couple of weeks for the Los Angeles-based team, which announced a partnership with the Salvation Army Los Angeles Chapter to aid those affected by the recent Eaton Canyon Fire in Altadena, Calif.


 

Each podium finishing-car dialed in brand new chassis this race, and the Hyundai cars were also adapting to a new front end.


 

The 2025 Michelin Pilot Challenge season resumes on Friday, March 14, at Sebring International Raceway with the Alan Jay Automotive Network 120 at 2:15 p.m. ET. The first two-hour race of the season will stream live on Peacock. 

Practice Results | WeatherTech Championship

Rolex 24 At Daytona

Daytona International Speedway - Friday, January 24, 2025

Practice 3 Results

Practice 2 Results

Qualifying Results

Practice 1 Results


 

Additional results are available at results.imsa.com.

 

New “IMSA Endurance Hour Podcast” Launches First Episode

Series to Focus on Paddock Personalities, Stories and Vibes Over The Season 

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (January 24, 2025) – The International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) has launched its new official podcast, the IMSA Endurance Hour Podcast.


 

Hosted by veteran motorsports broadcaster Matt Yocum and produced in partnership with NASCAR Productions, the IMSA Endurance Hour Podcast will cover the stories and atmosphere of the IMSA personalities and paddock throughout the season.


 

The first episode has been released in advance of the 63rd Rolex 24 At Daytona (click on the above link to view on YouTube), featuring four guests:


 

  • Multi-time IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship champion Colin Braun, co-driver of the No. 60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb-Agajanian Acura ARX-06 (Grand Touring Prototype, GTP class), discussing his career and what’s ahead in the 2025 season as he and the team return to IMSA action 
  • 2022 Daytona 500 winner Austin Cindric, co-driver of the No. 64 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang GT3 (Grand Touring Daytona Pro, GTD PRO class), as he makes a fill-in appearance as part of that car’s entry at the Rolex 24
  • Owner/driver PJ Hyett, co-driver of the No. 99 AO Racing ORECA LMP2 07 (Le Mans Prototype 2, LMP2 class), and parent to Rexy, talking about the young team’s early success and positive impact on the culture and the sport
  • IMSA Host Marshall Pruett, podcast host and veteran motorsports mechanic-turned-reporter who has extensive sports car racing experience


 

The podcast is featured on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and in video on IMSA YouTube @imsaofficial. With more platforms coming. New episodes will be available around each race in 2025. 


 

Be sure to watch these three drivers and the rest of the 61-car, 235-driver strong field in the 63rd running of the Rolex 24 At Daytona on Saturday at 1:40 p.m. The first hour of the race will be broadcast on NBC, shifting to USA Network for four hours, before returning to NBC for the finish. Flag-to-flag coverage is available on Peacock.

 

Brembo Becomes IMSA Braking Technology Partner

Brembo Named Braking Technology Partner of IMSA in Multiyear Agreement 

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (January 24, 2025) –

Brembo, the global leader in braking systems for the road and racetrack, and the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA), the premier road racing sanctioning body in North America, today announced a multiyear partnership that names Brembo Braking Technology Partner of IMSA.  



As an IMSA Official Partner, Brembo will support its customers through an integrated IMSA marketing program, reaching fans and IMSA teams, as well as IMSA’s 18 automotive manufacturer partners. The partnership builds upon Brembo’s strong position as the leading brake system supplier to teams in every class and series within IMSA. 


 

“This collaboration with Brembo underscores IMSA’s multi-faceted value proposition for its partners,” said IMSA VP of Partnership Marketing and Business Development, Brandon Huddleston. “This new partnership also supports the shared vision of both parties to push the boundaries of performance and innovation on the racetrack to develop future technologies that will advance safety and reliability for future road cars and other vehicles.” 



With over 60 years of history, Brembo has become synonymous with excellence in braking technology. Founded in 1961 in Bergamo, Italy, the company quickly established itself as a pioneer, revolutionizing braking systems with innovative designs and materials. Brembo brakes are now the gold standard in the automotive and motorcycle industries and trusted by elite motorsport teams across racing disciplines. 

Through the partnership, the Brembo brand and technology will be featured in a number of ways. Fans will learn new insights about braking at each track with Brembo Brake Facts. The features will be included within IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship event coverage streaming internationally on the official IMSA YouTube channel, IMSA.TV, IMSA audio network broadcasts, Sirius XM, and at-track audio/video distribution, as well as a new IMSA social media content series. This element complements Brembo’s visibility within IMSA telecasts on NBC Sports and Peacock in the U.S. 


 

“Brembo has partnered with teams in IMSA for over 20 years, providing the most innovative solutions in braking technology so teams can perform at their best,” said Stéphane Rolland, president and CEO of Brembo North America. “2025 marks 50 years since Brembo first entered racing. Partnering with IMSA makes this year even more special and is an exciting new step in our involvement with the series and our dedication to motorsport worldwide.”


 

About Brembo:

Brembo leads the world in the design and production of high-performance braking systems and components for top-flight manufacturers of cars, motorbikes and commercial vehicles. Founded in 1961 in Italy, Brembo has a long-standing reputation for providing innovative solutions for OEMs and aftermarket. Brembo also competes in the most challenging motorsport championships in the world and has won over 700 titles. 


 

Guided by its strategic vision – “Turning Energy into Inspiration” – Brembo’s ambition is to help shape the future of mobility through cutting-edge, digital and sustainable solutions.


 

With over 16,000 people across 15 countries, 32 production and business sites, 9 R&D centers and with a turnover of € 3,849 million in 2023, Brembo is the trusted solution provider for everyone who demands the best driving experience. www.brembo.com

 

About the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA):

International Motor Sports Association, LLC (IMSA) was originally founded in 1969 and owns a long and rich history in sports car racing. Today, IMSA is the sanctioning body of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, the premier sports car racing series in North America. IMSA also sanctions the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge and the IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge, as well as five one-make series: Ferrari Challenge North America, Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America, Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup presented by Michelin, Mustang Challenge and Porsche Carrera Cup North America. IMSA – a company within the NASCAR family – is the exclusive strategic partner in North America with the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO) which operates the 24 Hours of Le Mans as a part of the FIA World Endurance Championship. The partnership enables selected WeatherTech Championship competitors to earn automatic entries into the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans. For more information please visit IMSA.com or IMSA’s social

 

 

 

 

63rd Rolex 24 Preparation Wraps Up Friday in Daytona

Kobayashi Leads Final Practice; Women in Motorsports Summit Details Confirmed and More


 

January 24, 2025

By Holly Cain and Tony DiZinno

IMSA Wire Service

Practice 3 Results

 

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - The final 60-minute practice session for Saturday’s 63rd Rolex 24 At Daytona was perhaps more eventful than anticipated for some.


 

Three notable cars briefly stopped on track – the No. 60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06, the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 and No. 4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Corvette Z06 GT3.R. The Acura pulled off course exiting Turn 3, the Porsche had nose damage on the Daytona International Speedway banking and the Corvette stopped on the backstraight, and only the Corvette stoppage caused a red flag.


 

Kamui Kobayashi was the fastest overall and Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class driver in the No. 40 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R at 1 minute, 36.380 seconds (132.973 mph).


 

Other class leaders were Toby Sowery in Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2), Shane van Gisbergen in Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) and Anthony McIntosh in Grand Touring Daytona (GTD).


 

Sowery shares the No. 04 CrowdStrike by APR ORECA LMP2 07, van Gisbergen is part of the combined No. 91 Trackhouse by TF Sport Corvette Z06 GT3 and McIntosh is part of the debuting No. 19 van der Steur Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo.

 

Women in Motorsports North America 2025 Summit Details Confirmed

 

Racing legend Lyn St. James and a founding member of Women in Motorsports North America along with WIMNA Executive Director Cindy Sisson announced the organization will hold its fifth annual Women with Drive - Driven by Mobil 1 Summit on Dec. 9-10 - returning to the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis for the second straight year in conjunction with the annual PRI show.



WIMNA also officially announced that Mobil 1 will again support the summit and Allison Melangton, Senior Vice President of Penske Entertainment will again serve as the Honorary Chair of the summit, which "brings together motorsports professional, offering new pathways for individuals to explore career opportunities, discuss current industry challenges and provide mentorship and resources.''

 

The annual event has grown exponentially with just less than 200 attending the first summit in 2021 in Nashville to drawing more than 600 people from 40 states and eight countries last year in Indianapolis. Women with Drive has consistently featured major motorsports executives and important figures in the sport - both on-track and corporate behind-the-scenes - speaking and leading panel discussions on a broad range of topics. And, Sisson said that at the most recent summit, nearly half the attendees were at their first WIMNA conference.

 

"We're trying to help grow the industry, it's not just about women," St. James said. "We do title it Women in Motorsports North America but I want to make it really clear it's about men and women coming together to help grow the industry.

 

"We do this because we advance opportunities for women in the industry as well as bringing new women in the industry through our educational activities and connect through all forms of motorsports and then we enable all people to realize, this is really a career. If you are studying, engineering, or you're studying business or finance, there are careers in this industry. It's growing and we want to help it grow by bringing people into it that maybe didn't see it as a career opportunity.''

 

For information about WIMNA or the 2025 Summit, visit womenwithdrivesummit.com

 

Coming Attractions

 

Two special events happened on Friday in Daytona, which IMSA will expand in greater detail in the coming days.

 

To start the day, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University hosted the IMSA Technology Symposium. Panelists representing Microsoft, NASA, AMD, Michelin and IMSA spoke during the program.

 

Later in the afternoon, a panel discussion including Iron Dames drivers and NASA astronauts and other key NASA officials was held in the Daytona International Speedway Drivers Meeting Room. The quartet of Sarah Bovy, Michelle Gatting, Rahel Frey and Karen Gaillard share the No. 83 Iron Dames Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) in the Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) class. This is the lone all-female lineup in the 2025 Rolex 24, and this quartet are four of the seven female drivers in this year’s race (Lilou Wadoux, Sheena Monk and Tati Calderon). 

 

 

Rockenfeller Turns Back Time with Rolex 24 GTD PRO Pole 

German Wins First IMSA Pole in 19 Years; Skeer Captures Maiden GTD Pole


 

January 23, 2025

By Holly Cain

IMSA Wire Service

Results

Qualifying


 

Videos

GTD PRO

GTD

Press Conference

 

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Sports car ace Mike Rockenfeller paced a Ford front row shut-out claiming his first pole position in almost two decades, posting the fastest time Thursday in Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) qualifying for Saturday’s Rolex 24 At Daytona, which kicks off the 2025 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season. 

 

Under blustery, cool conditions, temperatures in the low-50s and a slight rain mist at Daytona International Speedway, the German Rockenfeller turned a fast lap of 1 minute, 45.523 seconds (121.452 mph) in the No. 64 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang GT3.

 

It was Rockenfeller’s second Motul Pole Award of his IMSA career, and first since 2006 in a Daytona Prototype at Homestead-Miami Speedway. His time Thursday around the iconic 3.56-mile Daytona road course was 0.332 of a second faster than his Ford Multimatic teammate Frederic Vervisch giving Ford a front row sweep for the 15-car GTD PRO class.

 

“This is the biggest race of the year and we want to make sure Ford is proud,” said Rockenfeller, who will share the cockpit with British driver Sebastian Priaulx and 2022 Daytona 500 winner, NASCAR’s Austin Cindric. “It’s a super talented field with many, many good drivers in this category so you really need to push hard.”

 

He said the Ford team – in the make’s second year fielding the Mustang GT3 – focused on earning pole position so the front row sweep was very important. He acknowledged, however, winning pole is very different from racing 24 hours in the perpetually super talented GT field. 

 

“It’s crazy competitive and I would say more competitive from last year for sure, so it’s going to be tough and we saw throughout the sessions, we are clearly good for one lap but we struggle a bit more over a stint with our tire (degradation), so that’s something I’m a bit worried about,” Rockenfeller acknowledged.

 

“But keep the wheels turning, that’s the key – at the end to be there,” he added with a smile.


 

Speaking to the high competition in these production-based GT categories, Thursday afternoon’s qualifying session marked the first time this week the Fords had topped the speed charts in the GTD PRO class.

 

Dan Harper in the No. 48 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO and Alexander Sims in the No. 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Corvette Z06 GT3.R were third and fourth quickest followed by Andrea Caldarelli in the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 – which paced the class in the Roar Before the Rolex 24 test last weekend.

 

Connor Zilisch, the 18-year-old NASCAR phenom and defending Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) Rolex 24 winner, was eighth fastest – less than a second off the GTD PRO class polesitter – in the No. 91 Trackhouse by TF Sport Corvette Z06 GT3.R featuring an all-star driver lineup of NASCAR Cup Series driver Shane van Gisbergen, IndyCar’s Scott McLaughlin and former Rolex 24 class winner Ben Keating.


 

Skeer Keeps Wright Rolling with GTD Pole

In the Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) class, Elliott Skeer claimed his first career pole position with a lap of 1 minute, 46.634 seconds (120.187 mph) in the No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) – just 0.018 of a second faster than the defending GTD class champion Philip Ellis in the 2024 Rolex 24-winning No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3.


 

Skeer and full-season co-driver Adam Adelson won their first IMSA WeatherTech Championship race at the 2024 TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks in Indianapolis, and Adelson swept the new Grand Touring Daytona X (GTDX) pair of IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge races in a similar Wright Porsche this past weekend.  

 

This year the 15-car GTD PRO class and 22-car GTD class will be separated for the race start and all re-starts in the twice-around-the-clock season opener.

 

Behind Skeer and Ellis, Trent Hindman clocked in third in the No. 45 Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2. Last year’s GTD polesitter Parker Thompson will start fourth in the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3. And Franck Perera – a past Rolex 24 GTD winner who led several practice sessions in last weekend’s Roar Before the 24 – was fifth fastest in the No. 78 Forte Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2.

 

The top 15 GTD qualifiers were within one second of Skeer’s pole-winning Mercedes.

 

“Definitely with the new rules this year on splitting the GTD and GTD PRO will be interesting for us,” Skeer said. “It minimizes clean air, so we’ll be spending a lot more time in dirty air especially come restarts which we know there’s going to be a fair bit of it in this race. 

 

“A clean air, out on your own, qualifying run is one thing but then in the midst of what’s going to be an incredible battle throughout the day, that’s going to be a whole new thing. There’s still going to be so many things to learn, not just on the power side, but battling in aero, with some new drivers. There’s a lot to happen in a day’s worth of racing here.’’


 

The field will take the green flag for the 63rd running of the Rolex 24 at Daytona on Saturday at 1:40 p.m. The first hour of the race will be broadcast on NBC, shifting to USA Network for four hours, before returning to NBC for the finish. Flag-to-flag coverage is available on Peacock.

BMW Powers to Maiden GTP Pole for 63rd Rolex 24 At Daytona

Vanthoor Scores First IMSA Pole; Goldburg Ends Keating’s Rolex 24 LMP2 Pole Streak


 

January 23, 2025

By John Oreovicz

IMSA Wire Service

Results

Qualifying


 

Videos

GTP

LMP2

Press Conference

 

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – A tough start turned into a strong finish for BMW M Team RLL in qualifying for the Rolex 24 At Daytona, the opening round of the 2025 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.


 

The No. 25 BMW M Hybrid V8 driven by Sheldon van der Linde caused a red flag when it stalled on track less than five minutes into the 15-minute Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class qualifying session. But Dries Vanthoor saved the day as he drove the team’s No. 24 entry to the GTP and overall pole for Saturday’s 24-hour contest.


 

BMW was extremely competitive in the annual Roar Before the Rolex 24 test sessions, with Vanthoor setting the fastest overall time. The 26-year-old Belgian, who is embarking on his first full season of IMSA competition, repeated that form when it counted in qualifying.


 

It was Vanthoor’s first IMSA Motul Pole Award and also the first for BMW within GTP, as the manufacturer enters its third year in the new class. With the stoppage for the stalled No. 25 BMW, he and the other GTP contestants had time for only two flying laps. The younger Vanthoor brother (older brother Laurens is the endurance driver in the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963) will share the polesitting No. 24 BMW with full-season co-driver Philipp Eng, Formula 1 veteran Kevin Magnussen and Raffaele Marciello.


 

“For sure it wasn’t easy with the red flag,” said Vanthoor, whose Motul Pole Award winning lap was timed at 1 minute, 33.895 seconds (136.493 mph). “It makes tire warming a bit more difficult for everyone. That was a big struggle for us last year, but we have been improving a lot. Then it was just about getting the lap together and trying to do the best that I could. That worked out, luckily, so I am very happy.


 

“We’ve been working hard,” he added. “It’s nice to see that it’s working for everyone here, and also everyone back at the factory. I think everybody can be happy and proud of that, but (the pole) is a little cherry on a big cake and there’s still a big thing still to happen. That’s the race, and that can go any way.”  


 

Nick Yelloly qualified the No. 93 Acura ARX-06 on the outside of the front row in Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian’s return to IMSA competition after a year off at 1:34.186 (136.071 mph). Defending GTP class champion Felipe Nasr was third in the No. 7 Penske Porsche (1:34.280, 135.935 mph).


 

Qualifying was staged in difficult, cold conditions, with wind chills at Daytona in the low 40s ambient, and track temperatures not much warmer. Vanthoor wore a heavy parka and ski cap when he met the media after qualifying.


 

“It’s a bit cold in the car, but when you come out you’re sweating a lot,” he remarked. “You can get sick easily, and that would be the last thing we need going into a 24-hour race.”


 

LMP2: United Autosports Dominates as Goldburg Breaks Through

United Autosports USA dominated Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class qualifying for the Rolex 24 At Daytona, with Daniel Goldburg and Nick Boulle securing first and third on the grid for the team co-owned by McLaren Formula 1 team principal Zak Brown and Richard Dean.


 

It’s Goldburg’s second career Motul Pole Award in IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship competition, and first since Road America in August 2021 in the former Le Mans Prototype 3 (LMP3) class.


 

Additionally, Goldburg’s lap ended Ben Keating’s run of five straight pole positions achieved at the Rolex 24 through either traditional qualifying or the Motul Pole Award 100 qualifying race, which ran for two years.


 

Bronze-rated drivers qualify in LMP2 and while Goldburg came close to pole several times in 2024, he came up short with four second-place efforts and seven top-five efforts in as many races.


 

“This is our moment to stack up against each other in the Bronze category,” Goldburg said after a pole-winning lap timed at 1 minute, 38.676 seconds (129.879 mph). “I’m super excited. I’ve been chasing this pole for all of the last year, and been a couple tenths off a bunch of times. That pole was elusive for me. So, this feels really good. I’ve been putting in a ton of work.


 

“It’s a long race ahead, but this is a great first notch,” continued Goldburg, who shares the No. 22 ORECA LMP2 07 this week with Paul di Resta, Rasmus Lindh and 2023 LMP2 Rolex 24 winner James Allen. “I’ve got great teammates and have been able to compare a lot of great data. I’m just inching closer and closer to what they do. After every session, I watch the video and chase the data and just trying to keep inching closer.”


 

Two-time IMSA LMP2 class champion Keating split his former team, United Autosports, in the No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA LMP2 07 and will start on the outside of the front row.


 

Nick Boulle, who co-drove with Tom Dillmann to the IMSA LMP2 championship last year, will make his first start for United Autosports in the No. 2 ORECA from third place as he contests all Michelin Endurance Cup rounds of the WeatherTech Championship.


 

The field will take the green flag for the 63rd running of the Rolex 24 At Daytona on Saturday at 1:40 p.m. The first hour of the race will be broadcast on NBC, shifting to USA Network for four hours, before returning to NBC for the finish. Flag-to-flag coverage is available on Peacock.

Qualifying Results | WeatherTech Championship

Rolex 24 At Daytona

Daytona International Speedway - Thursday, January 23, 2025

Qualifying Results

Practice 1 Results


 

Additional results are available at results.imsa.com.

Practice Results | WeatherTech Championship

Rolex 24 At Daytona

Daytona International Speedway - Thursday, January 23, 2025

Practice 2 Results

Qualifying Results

Practice 1 Results


 

Additional results are available at results.imsa.com.

2025 Rolex 24 At Daytona

Post-Qualifying Press Conference Transcript

Interviews with Elliott Skeer, Mike Rockenfeller, Daniel Goldburg and Dries Vanthoor

THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. We are pleased to be joined by our Motul Pole Award winners for three of the four classes here at the 63rd Rolex 24 at Daytona. We will start to your left with the No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R, Elliott Skeer.

Elliott's best lap was 1:46.634 seconds. This is his first career IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

He and his teammates won their first race, first WeatherTech Championship race last September at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The top 16 qualifiers in GTD qualified within a second of Elliott's time.

Elliott, congratulations on the pole. What made the difference in that session and how important is it for you and the team to be starting up front for this race?


 

ELLIOTT SKEER: Thank you. It's quite a special feeling. Obviously for a 24-hour race it's not the most important pole of the year in terms of position, but for morale, for having new systems in the car, a whole new engineering philosophy needed to get performance out of these cars, the torque sensors.

It just helps us show that the way we're going about it we think is working for us. So ultimately as the driver now, you're not only dealing with the car but with the torque, we're flying back to the engineers, they're making adjustments as well.

There's so much going on, so it really takes a cohesive team not only to get one lap going, but a full stint going. We still don't know how it's going to race, and that's the big question here.

Ultimately for the first goal of the weekend we checked the box and just everything went right with it, got a little draft, and ultimately just had enough to get it at the end.


 

THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Elliott. Let's slide over to the center in the GTD Pro pole award winner in the No. 64 Ford Motorsports Ford Mustang GT3, Mike Rockenfeller. Mike's best lap was 1:45.523 seconds. This is his second IMSA championship level pole position; first since the GRAND-AM Rolex Series at Homestead-Miami Speedway on March 25, 2006, when he was on the pole in the Daytona Prototype class and overall.

This is his second pole position for the Mustang GT3 in the WeatherTech Championship. First was Gianmarco Levorato in the GTD class at Virginia International Raceway last August.

This is the first GTD Pro pole for Ford. The team swept the first two positions in GTD pole qualifying. It's been a long time coming since the last pole. Do you remember that pole, and what does it mean for you to get up front here today?


 

MIKE ROCKENFELLER: Yeah, I don't remember that pole, to be fair. But yes, it's obviously a great day. I think you said it right at the end. It's one thing you would like to get, but really the race on Sunday is what we all want to win.

It doesn't mean a whole lot for the race, but for us as a team with Ford in the second year now with the Mustang, I think it's a great achievement.

We really focused on that. It was something we wanted to get, as well, even though we all know it's not that important for the race, but still, it's important for our team, for our program.

We really prepared for it. The car was fantastic to drive, as you can imagine, to do those laps. Yeah, I could really push it.

I think the big difference was I don't know why nobody did it, but I did this kind of heat soak. So I went back in the pits right after my out lap and I was waiting just the brake temps that they get into the tire. And then it's so cold that it gave me a lot more grip.

You could see it to the sister car, as well, and I think that was a good decision and it worked out. That's why we're on pole.

We will enjoy it until we go racing.


 

THE MODERATOR: We'll slide over to your right in the LMP2 class pole award winner, No. 22 United Autosports Oreca LMP2 Daniel Goldburg. His best lap was 1:38.676. This is his second career IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship pole, first since 2021, August of 2021 at Road America in the LMP3 class. Daniel snapped a run of five consecutive Rolex 24 pole positions by Ben Keating.

Congratulations. Very hard-fought session. A lot of different drivers changing position there at the top. How did you pull it off?


 

DANIEL GOLDBURG: It's been a lot of work with the team. Last year was our first year together and I was close a few times, a couple tenths away. The pole was elusive for me, and this year just worked a lot in the off-season on myself and worked really hard with the team. I got a lot of great co-drivers that I get to chase their data, their video, and try to inch closer and closer.

I will say our engineers were watching the GTD Pro session and took a little cue and we came in and, let the warm brakes heat up my tires a little better, so thanks for that.

It feels really good. I've been chasing this for the whole season, and really excited.


 

Q. If you could size up the field a little bit, there have been different makes up front, even through the Roar, different ones. As you acknowledge it's important to start there, but this is a very competitive field.


 

MIKE ROCKENFELLER: Yeah, I mean, it's crazy competitive, and I would say more competitive than last year for sure. It's going to be tough, and I think we saw throughout the sessions that we are clearly good on one lap. I think we struggle a bit more over a stint with our tire deg.

That's something I'm a bit worried about, and if you see in qually, it's always the tire kind of over -- yeah, it over comes the issues you have a bit, and that's why I said, the way we treated it for qually I think was really good and spot on, and that gave us an advantage, but that is not valid for the race.

Being in the race is a whole different story, and you will see we will have to fight a lot, and that's good. It's 24 hours; everybody should have a good chance here. You don't make mistakes, you stay out of the pits and you keep the wheels turning, I think that's the key at the end to be there, and then we see Sunday, three, four hours to go if we have a shot or not.


 

Q. Question for Elliott. As you probably know, the combined classification is separate for the classes. How's is going to be like, you're not going to be in the midst of GTD Pro cars, you're going to the in the field?


 

ELLIOTT SKEER: Yeah, it's definitely with the new rules this year on the GT to GTD Pro will be interesting for us especially. It minimizes clean air, so we're going to be spending a lot more time in dirty air, especially come restarts, which we know there's going to be obviously a fair bit of in this race.

Yeah, clean air on your own qualifying run is one thing, but then in the midst of what is going to be an incredible battle for an entire day, that's going to be a whole new thing. So there is still so many things to learn, not just power side, but in battling in aero with some new drivers. There's a lot to happen in a day's worth of racing here.

Who knows, right? Some of the guys you might pass a couple laps before on a restart are ahead of you again. They had to deal with it last year; we're dealing with it this year. We'll see where it evolves to. It does make it a little nicer, though, in terms of the guys around you are most likely poor position, so it does clean up a little bit of that, but ultimately we need to go racing and see how it performs.


 

Q. You came close so many times in the last year and now you've finally broken through and done it. What's the dominant emotion? Is it pride, satisfaction, maybe just relief?


 

DANIEL GOLDBURG: I'll say satisfaction. I've been really working for this. The guys have said it; it doesn't mean as much for this race, but especially in our class that stacks up the bronzes against each other, definitely everyone feels good.


 

Q. Daniel, that was a close session for the bronze drivers. How tough is it to be on top of that tree?


 

DANIEL GOLDBURG: Yeah, it's very, very competitive. That's how bronze is. Last year most qualifyings were within a few tenths. It's extremely competitive. We all work really hard on our craft, as well, just like all the other drivers out here. It's gotten quite competitive, in particular last year.


 

THE MODERATOR: We now have our overall and GTP class Motul Pole Award winner in the No. 24 BMW M Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V-8, Dries Vanthoor. His best lap was 1:33.895 seconds.

This is his first career WeatherTech Sports Car championship pole position and the first GTP pole for the BMW M Hybrid V-8. Dries, congratulations. Obviously the session came together late as far as the quick times right at the very end. Tell us about what you had to do to bring home a pole.


 

DRIES VANTHOOR: Yeah, for sure it wasn't easy with the red flag. It made tire warming a bit more difficult for everyone, I guess. Yeah, I think we've been improving on that quite a lot, especially over the last year, which has been a big struggle point for us last year.

But it seems it was working out today, and then it was just all about getting the lap together and trying to do the best that I could, and that worked out luckily. Yeah, very happy.


 

Q. You're wearing a winter coat and stocking hat. Is it cold in the car?


 

DRIES VANTHOOR: Yeah, a bit cold. I also get cold -- it's getting a bit on me, so I need to make sure it doesn't go too much. It's a long race to go, so I have to stay fresh, but especially when you come out, when you're sweating, when it's that cold you get sick easily, so I don't want to get sick. That's the last thing that would be nice going into a 24-hour race.


 

Q. Dries, obviously last weekend your cars were quick the entire Roar. Do you feel like this validates that performance from last week, as well?


 

DRIES VANTHOOR: Well, yeah. I guess you could say so. Last week we were also looking strong, and we are again looking strong. We've been working hard, and I think it's nice to see for everyone here and also working back at the factory and everywhere that it's working, and I think everybody can be happy and proud of that.

But again, it's a little cherry on a big cake, so there's still a big thing still to happen, and that's the race, and this can go any way. It's a long ways to go.


 

Q. Have you learned the reason why the other cars stopped, and did that cause you any concern during the red flag?


 

DRIES VANTHOOR: You mean what caused the red flag?


 

Q. Yeah.


 

DRIES VANTHOOR: Yeah, no, I did not know the exact reason what happened to them. Unfortunately they couldn't continue the session. But no, I do not know the exact reason why they stopped.

31 Flavors of International Talent Arrive at 2025 Rolex 24 

With 30-Plus Countries and 230-Plus Drivers, Breadth and Depth is Strong


 

January 23, 2025

By Holly Cain

IMSA Wire Service

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - From the world’s smallest municipalities to this week’s Rolex 24 At Daytona host country of the United States of America, from Eastern Europe to South America and Asia, from the Scandinavian region to Antipodeans in Australia and New Zealand, the entry list for this week’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season-opening race is literally a global grid.

 

The mix of international talent is the gold standard of high-speed sports car star power – a grid of diversity and high achievement poised to take the green flag Saturday at 1:40 p.m. ET (NBC) to officially mark the start of the 2025 racing season.

 

A Daytona 500 winner, a pair of Supercar legends, Formula 1 veterans and IndyCar champions join a long list of sports car greats. 


 

In all, competitors entered from 31 countries fill the entry list, a number that grew by one from 30 when the provisional entry list was released with a handful of outstanding drivers to be named.

 

The 235-driver field is so diverse in fact, only a single entry on the entire 61-car grid will feature four drivers all from the same country. A quartet of Italians (Roberto Lacorte, Nicola Lacorte, Lorenzo Patrese and Antonio Fuoco) will steer the No. 47 Cetilar Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 in the Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) class.

“It’s crazy, but I think it’s just cool from a world perspective just how much depth there is in the motorsports world,” said Team Penske IndyCar Series driver Scott McLaughlin. 


 

He’ll share the No. 91 Trackhouse by TF Sport Corvette Z06 GT3.R with fellow New Zealander and former Supercars rival, NASCAR Cup Series driver Shane van Gisbergen, along with two past Rolex 24-class winning Americans in Connor Zilisch, a 2025 NASCAR Xfinity Series driver, and Ben Keating, an automotive dealer widely regarded as one of the best Bronze-rated drivers in sports car racing. 

 

“You think you’ve got amazing people in your backyard then you wonder,” McLaughlin continued, “what’s Italy got? What’s Spain got? That’s what’s so cool and that’s what I love about sports car racing, you definitely get that world championship feel like Formula 1.”

 

Perhaps one of the brightest signs of this race field is that the diversity is hardly surprising. Decades of drawing the top international talent provides so much intrigue to every Rolex 24 – the world’s best from all racing genres have made a point to participate in the ultimate endurance test for car and driver. 

 

“It’s at such a level of diversity in terms of nationalities of the drivers, that it (international grid) almost isn’t a thing because it doesn’t feel like I am an outsider coming into IMSA,” explained British driver Alexander Sims, who will steer the GTD PRO class No. 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Corvette Z06 GT3.R with Spanish drivers and past Rolex 24 winners Antonio Garcia and Daniel Juncadella.

 

“Although it’s the American sports car championship, it’s such an international series in terms of those participating so it doesn’t feel strange.”

 

Sims added, “When hopefully we do well, you recognize the class of drivers in the field and it’s really second to none. It’s the biggest you can get and that makes it really cool.”

 

One of the compelling draws of competing in the Rolex 24 At Daytona, many drivers insist, is the singular chance for so many international drivers to race against some of the NASCAR drivers they admire, but also on the same hallowed ground. The 3.56-mile Daytona road course includes three of the four high-banked turns the stock cars will navigate in the Daytona 500 only three weeks later.

“The speedway incline is way steeper than anything you imagine,” said Estonia’s Ralf Aron, his country’s lone representative, who will drive the No. 80 Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 in the GTD class.


 

“When I did a track walk this December, I was like, ‘oh my gosh, this is way steeper than I thought.’

 

“My first question is when it rains and we are behind the safety car do we slide down?” he added, laughing. “It’s cool and it’s special. The way the track is, is what makes the racing so interesting.

 

“One of my ‘list items’ for sure was to race in the Daytona 24. It’s such a huge event, very prestigious and you can feel that. It’s nice to see a lot of familiar faces in the paddock. Anyone who is anyone in the racing world is here.”


 

Jules Gounon, a 2023 Rolex 24 At Daytona GTD PRO class winner, grins when asked about the broad international feel to the event, in part because he represents two countries.  


 

Born in France, Gounon lives in the tiny municipality of Andorra, located in the Pyrenees Mountains on the border between Spain and France and wears the Andorran flag on his firesuit. The municipality – which has a population of around 80,000 – is an especially popular homebase among athletes eager to take advantage of the climate and mountainous terrain in their training regimens.

“I made the bold decision to just change and drive with another flag, but I am still French and very proud of my country,” said Gounon, who will drive the No. 75 75 Express Mercedes-AMG GT3 in the Rolex 24.

 

And with two countries poised to celebrate Gounon’s work, he is especially eager to renew his bid to become a multi-time Rolex 24 winner. 

 

“I love the banking, the sun of Florida... the watch,” Gounon said a wink and a nod. “I’ve been lucky to win the big races, but the flavor of winning Daytona when you are standing there and the extra trophy (watch) that is something you cannot buy, the only way to get it is to win and it makes it even more special.”

 

When the annual full-field photograph is taken later this week it will include drivers representing 31 countries, with those flags of the drivers entered on display at the International Horseshoe (Turn 3). 


 

The United States leads all countries with 57 drivers entered, but seven countries (USA, Great Britain, Italy, France, Germany, Canada and Denmark) have at least 12 drivers. Six countries (USA, Great Britain, Denmark, Brazil, Australia and the Netherlands) have at least one driver in each of the four classes. Interestingly, Americans are most represented among countries in the LMP2, GTD Pro and GTD classes, however Great Britain has the most drivers in the GTP prototype ranks.

 

“I think it’s amazing and shows the depth of drivers from all over the world,” McLaughlin said. “This is truly one of the world’s ‘blue-chip’ races and I’m super excited to be a part of it.”

 

Adds Aron of his Rolex 24 debut at a world-renowned facility on a grid full of international talent, “I am going to enjoy this.” 

63rd Rolex 24 At Daytona Driver Nationality Breakdown

  • USA, 57
  • Great Britain, 27
  • Italy, 19
  • France, 16
  • Germany, 14
  • Canada, 12
  • Denmark, 12
  • Brazil, 8
  • Australia, 7
  • Switzerland, 7
  • Austria, 6
  • Belgium, 6
  • Netherlands, 6
  • New Zealand, 6
  • Spain, 6
  • Japan, 3
  • South Africa, 3
  • Argentina, 2
  • Ireland, 2
  • Monaco, 2
  • Portugal, 2
  • Sweden, 2
  • Turkey, 2
  • Chile, 1
  • Colombia, 1
  • Costa Rica, 1
  • Estonia, 1
  • Finland, 1
  • Mexico, 1
  • Norway, 1
  • Russia, 1

 

Acura Integra Type S Set to Pace Field for 63rd Rolex 24 At Daytona

Honda Racing Corporation Global President Koji Watanabe to Serve as Race's Honorary Starter

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (January 23, 2025) –

The Acura Integra Type S will serve as the Official Safety Car throughout the 63rd Rolex 24 At Daytona.


 

Additionally, Honda Racing Corporation (HRC) Global President Koji Watanabe will wave the green flag as the race’s Honorary Starter. 


 

Acura has paced the field before, as its NSX Type S split Official Safety Car duties with fellow Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class participating manufacturers BMW, Cadillac and Porsche during the first race of the new GTP era at the 2023 Rolex 24 At Daytona. The Integra Type S will pace the field on its own in 2025.

Watanabe (pictured right with David Salters, President, Honda Racing Corporation USA, courtesy Honda Racing Corporation) has had an extensive, successful career with Honda since joining Honda Motor Company in 1987. Throughout his more than 35 years with the company, he has served in a variety of executive leadership roles. He has headed up Honda’s Chinese and European regional operations and helped to lead and elevate the global Honda Racing Corporation brand and corporate communications. He was named President of Honda Racing Corporation globally in 2022. 


 

The high-performance Acura Integra Type S is an award-winner built exclusively at the Marysville Auto Plant in Marysville, Ohio. It won the 2023 North American Car of the Year™, 2024 Car and Driver 10 Best Cars award and 2024 Road & Track Performance Car of the Year after launch. 



Standard high-performance hardware includes a turbocharged 2.0-liter VTEC® engine producing 320 horsepower (SAE net @ 6,500 rpm) and 310 lb.-ft. of torque.


 

As the ultimate Integra, the model’s road holding is improved with an innovative dual-axis front suspension design and performance-tuned Adaptive Damper System that provides precise control of ride and handling with optimized damping curves to suit driving conditions. Powerful Brembo® front brakes and lightweight 19-inch wheels wrapped in sticky 265/30ZR19 Michelin Pilot Sport 4S high-performance summer tires complete the dynamic package.


 

Two Acura ARX-06 prototypes will compete in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season-opener, fielded by Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian, in GTP. One of them includes the No. 93, a number bearing a nod to Honda Performance Development’s founding year of 1993. In January 2024, Honda renamed HPD to HRC US, combining with HRC Japan to strengthen its overall motorsports programs and capabilities under the Honda Racing Corporation (HRC) global umbrella. 


 

“We are excited to have Acura and HRC represented for this year's prestigious Rolex 24 in such a significant way,” said David Salters, President, Honda Racing Corporation USA. "Acura electrified ARX-06 race cars on track, our sleek Acura Integra Type S cars pacing the race, and our Global President of Honda Racing Corporation, Koji Watanabe, all being involved in this legendary race just shows our commitment to this sport. We truly value IMSA and the Rolex 24 and especially the partnership we have with them."


 

Live coverage of the 63rd Rolex 24 At Daytona begins on Saturday, January 25, at 1:30 p.m. ET on NBC. Flag-to-flag coverage streams on Peacock (U.S.) and on YouTube.com/IMSAOfficial (outside the U.S.).

 

 

What to Watch For: 63rd Rolex 24 At Daytona

The Stars Come Out, Timepieces Can Lead to Titles, and GTP Deck Gets Reshuffled


 

January 23, 2025

By David Phillips

IMSA Wire Service

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – “Excitement?” “Intrigue?” The 63rd Rolex 24 At Daytona figures to feature a full IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season’s worth of excitement and intrigue in one race. 


 

With 61 cars in four classes at the 3.56-mile Daytona International Speedway, it launches what promises to be an exciting, not to mention intriguing, season of sports car racing featuring the world’s leading marques, many of the sport’s top drivers and teams, and 11 of North America’s most iconic motorsports venues.  


 

The Stars Come Out


 

The stars will come out at Daytona, and not just because the sun sets at 5:56 p.m. Saturday evening and reappears at 7:15 a.m. Sunday morning. Rather, as usual, a veritable motorsport “Who’s Who” from Formula 1, NASCAR, IndyCar and others will join a lineup of international sports car luminaries contesting the full WeatherTech Championship for the Rolex 24. 


 

A partial list of top-flight drivers making cameo appearances includes:


 

  • Multiple IndyCar champions Scott Dixon and Alex Palou, and race winners Colton Herta and Felix Rosenqvist
  • 2008 World Championship runner-up Felipe Massa and fellow Formula 1 veterans Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen
  • World Endurance Champions Kamui Kobayashi, Kevin Estre, Laurens Vanthoor and Brendon Hartley
  • Double duty drivers and NBC Sports broadcasters James Hinchcliffe, Townsend Bell and Parker Kligerman 
  • V8 Supercar champions Scott McLaughlin and Shane van Gisbergen who now ply their trades in IndyCars and NASCAR, respectively
  • Daytona 500 champion Austin Cindric and rising NASCAR star Connor Zilisch 
  • FIA Formula E champions Pascal Wehrlein and Antonio Felix da Costa


 

These stars aren’t just coming out to “play.” A full-time IndyCar Series driver has been part of the winning team in the past five Rolex 24s and also, F1 World Champion Fernando Alonso and NASCAR Cup champions Jeff Gordon and Kyle Larson all have won overall in the last decade. 


 

It’s entirely possible – if not downright likely – that one or more drivers whose day jobs do not include the WeatherTech Championship for the balance of 2025 will be sporting a brand-new Rolex Daytona from Rolex, now the Official Timepiece of IMSA.


 

From Timepieces to Titles

Speaking of Rolex Daytonas, although it’s just one event in a 11-race season that stretches over 10 months, the Rolex 24 At Daytona can – and often does – play a major role in determining the WeatherTech Championship’s overall winners. 


 

Recently, Porsche Penske Motorsport and Winward Racing (2024, Grand Touring Prototype and Grand Touring Daytona) and Acura Meyer Shank Racing and Pfaff Motorsports (2022, Daytona Prototype international and GTD PRO) have won both the Rolex 24 and their respective class titles in the same year. 


 

As Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian team co-owner Mike Shank explained, preparation is everything. 


 

“A strong finish gives the team momentum that carries through the heart of the season,” Shank said. “We’re bringing four transporters worth of equipment to Daytona to make sure we have everything we need to fix or repair our cars. 


 

“We’re also bringing our full IndyCar team, so we’ll essentially have two full shifts of (fresh) people on hand throughout the 24 hours. We want to do everything we can to get a podium finish or, better yet, a win in the Rolex 24 to start the season.”      


 

Conversely, a poor showing in the Rolex 24 can put a team in such a deep hole that they spend the remainder of the season playing catch-up. 


 

Vasser Sullivan won the 2023 GTD PRO title but began 2024 with a self-described “dumpster fire” per team co-owner Jimmy Vasser, when one car crashed and the other caught fire after a pit stop, resulting in two DNFs. The team’s No. 14 GTD PRO class Lexus RC F GT3 won the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, but didn’t recapture the title-winning magic. 


 

“We’ve won Sebring, we’ve won Petit Le Mans, we’ve won Watkins Glen but we haven’t won the 24,” said Vasser. “So, it’s number one on our list of things to achieve. We’ve gotta win the 24!”


 

No wonder. Although earning a Rolex Daytona is not a prerequisite for a WeatherTech Championship title, a team’s performance in the Rolex 24 Hours can certainly set the stage for the coming season.


 

Reshuffled GTP Deck

So shuffled is the 2025 GTP class, it’s all but unrecognizable when compared to last year’s lineup. Sure, there’s a dozen ultra sophisticated Acura, BMW, Cadillac, Lamborghini and Porsche hybrids are back for another season of ultra-fast sports prototype competition, with Lamborghini set for its Daytona GTP debut. And they’ll all be using VP R80 fuel to put their Michelin rubber to the tarmac. 


 

But apart from those constants, every marque and/or team is different in some way from their 2024 version be it with a new driver lineup or new - or at least different - alliances between manufacturers and teams. 


 

Shank explained the team’s changes since it made its last IMSA start in 2023. 


 

“The (Acura GTP) program has certainly progressed since 2023, but we kept our GTP team intact last season and added to our capabilities as well,” he said. “We were back on track with the Acura ARX-06 two and a half weeks after Petit Le Mans last fall, and we picked up right where we left off. Our expectation is that we’ll be competing for podium finishes at the Rolex 24 Hours.”


 

A similar reunion comes with Cadillac and Wayne Taylor Racing, having won Rolex 24s and titles together in their past collaboration. 


 

“It’s really like the family has come back together,” Taylor said. “Of all the programs I’ve done this program, I am more passionate about this than any other one.”


 

Additionally, the Cadillac V-Series.R uses the Dallara-built chassis. WTR’s Filipe Albuquerque had been in the ORECA-based Acura ARX-06 the past two seasons but feels at home in the Dallara. 


 

“When I went back to the Dallara simulator in Indianapolis, I could see the box with my name and some (driving) gloves that I left there from the past,” Albuquerque said. 


 

“We just picked up where we left off and the good people are still around. Obviously, there are more people around because there is now the electric part of the car, which in the past there was not. But it’s not totally new.”


 

The Plaid Shall Rise Again

Speaking of reunions, some of the best news in the offseason came in the form of the decision by Pfaff Motorsports to “go plaid” again. Fans will doubtless recall the plaid Pfaff Porsche 911 GT3 R that cruised to the 2021 GTD and 2022 GTD Pro championships. 


 

After a season campaigning a papaya-dominated McLaren 720S GT3 EVO, the Canadian team’s plaid livery pops on its new No.9 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2.


 

See these and all the other competitors set to compete in the 63rd Rolex 24 At Daytona, with the race on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. ET live on NBC and streaming for its entirety on Peacock (U.S.) and YouTube.com/@IMSAOfficial (International).

 

 

Michelin Pilot Challenge Sets Off On 2025 Campaign in Daytona

Four-Hour BMW M Endurance Challenge Race Set to Pack Action, Drama


 

January 21, 2025

By Tony DiZinno

IMSA Wire Service

Entry List (Click Here)


 

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Over the past 24 years, the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge series has regularly provided some of the best racing of an entire IMSA weekend and season. The mix of wide-open competition and the camaraderie among many of its drivers often delivers a wild race affair, usually in the closing minutes of the standard two-hour race or endurance-type four-hour race.


 

As the BMW M Endurance Challenge is a latter race type, the four-hour race on the 3.56-mile Daytona International Speedway often comes down to the final four minutes as teams try to stretch fuel mileage and/or engage in hard-fought battles for the lead.


 

Those entered include 26 Grand Sport (GS) class competitors from seven auto manufacturers (Aston Martin, BMW, Ford, McLaren, Mercedes-AMG, Porsche, Toyota) and 16 Touring Car (TCR) class competitors from four (Audi, Cupra, Honda, Hyundai). 


 

Neither will have a repeat Daytona winner in the same class in 2025. The Kellymoss with Riley team, whose young trio of Riley Dickinson, Michael McCarthy and Brady Golan eked out just enough fuel in their No. 91 Porsche 718 GT4 RS CS to win overall, eschews an entry this year.


 

Meanwhile, TCR winners UniTronic/JDC-Miller MotorSports’ Chris Miller and Mikey Taylor had a heroic effort to even make the start in their No 17 Audi RS3 LMS TCR entry with a last-second replacement part installed within an hour of the green flag.


 

Grand Sport: 26 Contenders from 7 Brands

Instead of adding just a new part, TCR season champions Miller and Taylor are adding both a new car and a new class to their season: a Porsche they’ll race in GS. They’re one of five entered. 


 

Porsche has two returning 2024 race-winning teams in RS1 and BGB Motorsports, plus CSM and CDR Valkyrie. RS1’s new lineup of Jan Heylen and Luca Mars (No. 28 Porsche) and BGB’s regular pair of Spencer Pumpelly and Thomas Collingwood (No. 38 Porsche) should contend for wins, especially as Heylen, Pumpelly and Mars have won either Michelin Pilot Challenge or VP Racing SportsCar Challenge titles.


 

Aston Martin enters 2025 as the defending GS manufacturer champion, thanks in large part to Team TGM’s efforts with its two AMR Vantage GT4 EVOs. Defending driver champion Matt Plumb is back with Paul Holton in their quest to repeat, although this time Holton will have the advantage of sharing the No. 46 car for the full year after coming on board at Sebring in 2025. 


 

There’s another goal for Plumb in 2025: re-establish himself as the series’ all-time wins leader. He and Billy Johnson are tied on 24, with his most recent win coming at Watkins Glen International last June. Beyond Team TGM, Rebel Rock Racing and van der Steur Racing field the other three Aston Martins.


 

Johnson’s full-time series return is one of Ford’s key story lines for the season among its five cars. He’s with past GS and last year’s VP Challenge GSX title-winning team KOHR Motorsports, in one of the team’s two cars. He’ll share the No. 59 Ford Mustang GT4 with Bob Michaelian and should figure at the front often during the year. 


 

Keep an eye as well on the young pairing of Jenson Altzman and Sam Paley in the No. 13 McCumbee McAleer Racing with AEROSPORT entry. Both have shown promise in their IMSA development series careers and may break through for their first GS wins in 2025. Single Stephen Cameron Racing and LAP Motorsports Fords complete the quintet. 


 

Although the five Aston Martins, Fords and Porsches apiece comprise 15 of the 26 GS entries at Daytona, it’s race sponsor BMW that is the most popular model in action to kick off the year. 


 

Six M4 GT4s – split three apiece between the initial M4 and new-for-2025 EVO version – will vie to bring BMW back to GS victory lane at Daytona for the first time since 2014 (Shelby Blackstock and Ashley Freiberg shared the winning BMW M3). Turner Motorsport’s pair of BMW M4 GT4 EVOs have revised lineups while CarBahn with Peregrine Racing’s pair of past GS champion Jeff Westphal and Sean McAlister are back in their No. 39 BMW M4 GT4; they won most recently at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in September. 


 

Stevan McAleer switches to Auto Technic’s No 27 BMW M4 GT4 EVO for 2025 from RS1 as he searches for an elusive GS title to add to his 2015 Street Tuner (ST) crown. Team ACP-Tangerine has two Bronze Cup-entered BMW M4 GT4s. 


 

The five remaining entries are three Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2 cars, with past Michelin Pilot Challenge winners Hattori Motorsports and newcomers RAFA Racing and Kingpin Racing present, and a single entry apiece from McLaren (Accelerating Performance) and Mercedes-AMG (Winward Racing). 


 

Touring Car: Hyundai Heavy with Audi, Honda, Cupra Challengers

Hyundai’s five-year run atop the TCR driver’s championship (2019 through 2023) ended in 2024, although the brand’s strength in numbers ensured it completed a six-pack of TCR manufacturer titles. As it prepares to regain the driver’s crown in 2025 with Miller and Taylor moving into GS, there are seven Hyundai Veloster N TCR cars, most in with a title shout.


 

Perennial championship contenders Bryan Herta Autosport with Curb-Agajanian won all those five and has two past champions back this year. Mark Wilkins (2019, with Michael Lewis) and Harry Gottsacker (2023, with Robert Wickens) will fly the flag in BHA’s now-traditional Nos. 33 and 98 Hyundais, respectively. 


 

Wilkins will race alongside rising star Bryson Morris while Gottsacker sees Wickens head to the WeatherTech Championship with DXDT Racing, and will race alongside fellow Hyundai veteran Mason Filippi instead. Denis Dupont and Preston Brown (No. 76) and team newcomers Maddie Aust and Suellio Almeida (No. 9) complete the BHA quartet. Two Victor Gonzalez Racing and one Pegram Racing Hyundai finish the set. 


 

Audi is next up in volume with five cars. Two Precision Racing LA entries will be worth watching, with IMSA Diverse Driver Development Scholarship recipient Celso Neto and past TCR race winner Ryan Eversley spearheading the team’s No. 7 car. Single entries from Baker Racing, Rockwell Autosport Development and Rumcastle Racing by Speed Syndicate round out the class.


 

Honda has three intriguing entries. MMG (Montreal Motorsports Group) returns after a 2024 VIR win with the pair of Dai Yoshihara and Karl Wittmer in its No. 93 Honda Civic FL5 TCR. Longtime Honda of America associates are back in the No. 89 HART entry, which runs sporadic IMSA events. New to the fold this year is KMW Motorsports with TMR Engineering, leaving its plucky Alfa Romeo for a Honda for the pair of Tim Lewis Jr. and William Tally. 


 

A single Cupra completes the field, as Gou Racing shifts from Audi to IMSA’s newest automotive brand. 

Family Ties: Eight Families to Watch This Season


 

This year’s Michelin Pilot Challenge field begins with seven different sets of families competing in the same car, and an eighth in separate cars:


 

  • Brothers Matt (No. 46) and Hugh (No. 64) Plumb split in the two No. 46 Team TGM Aston Martin AMR GT4 Evo cars in GS; Hugh Plumb and Ted Giovanis were the 2024 GS Bronze Cup champions.
  • Husband-and-wife Ben and Christine Sloss in the No. 15 van der Steur Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 Evo, a Bronze Cup entry in GS.
  • Father-and-son Roland and Austin Krainz share the No. 27 Auto Technic Racing BMW M4 GT4 EVO, sharing with Stevan McAleer. McAleer and Austin Krainz will race the full calendar with Roland third driver in four-hour races.
  • Father-and-son Eddie and Eduardo Gou share the No. 55 Gou Racing CUPRA Leon VZ, as they move over from Audi.
  • Father-and-son Alex and Eric Rockwell share the No. 10 Rockwell Autosport Development Audi RS3 LMS TCR with Christina Lam; the Rockwells have run occasional races for several years. 
  • Father-and-son Dean and Sam Baker share the No. 52 Baker Racing Audi RS3 LMS TCR with James Vance at Daytona; the Bakers ran occasional 2024 races. 
  • Father-and-daughter Larry and Riley Pegram share the No. 72 Pegram Racing Hyundai Veloster N TCR; ran occasional 2024 races.
  • Father-and-daughter Ron and Megan Tomlinson share the No. 37 Precision Racing LA Audi RS3 LMS TCR; new to the championship in 2025.


 

The Michelin Pilot Challenge has two one-hour practice sessions, Wednesday at 3 p.m. ET and Thursday at 8:45 a.m. ET. Qualifying takes place Thursday 1:15 p.m. ET. A final 30-minute practice session takes place Friday morning at 9:25 a.m. ET before the green flag of the four-hour race at 1:45 p.m. ET. Live coverage streams on Peacock (U.S.) and YouTube.com/IMSAOfficial (outside the U.S.).


 

Fast Facts

BMW M Endurance Challenge

Daytona International Speedway – Daytona Beach, Fla.  

Jan. 22-24, 2025

  • Race Day/Time: Friday, Jan. 24, 1:45 p.m. ET
  • Peacock Streaming Coverage: LIVE – Flag-to-flag beginning at 1:40 p.m. (available outside the U.S. on IMSA.tv and youtube.com/IMSAOfficial)
  • Circuit Type: 3.56-mile, 12-turn road course
  • Classes Competing: Grand Sport (GS), Touring Car (TCR)
  • Race Length: Four hours

 

Michelin Pilot Challenge Track Records

  • GS: Paul Holton, McLaren GT4, 1:52.143 / 114.227 mph, January 2019 (Qualifying)
  • TCR: Harry Gottsacker, Hyundai Elantra N TCR, 1:56.757 / 109.766 mph, January 2024 (Qualifying)


 

2024 BMW M Endurance Challenge Winners

  • GS: Riley Dickinson/Michael McCarthy/Brady Golan, No. 91 Kellymoss with Riley Porsche 718 GT4 RS CS
  • TCR: Chris Miller/Mikey Taylor, No. 17 Unitronic/JDC-Miller MotorSports Audi RS3 LMS TCR

Charting the 2025 IMSA GTP Changes

Significantly Different Landscape Beckons for 2025 GTP Season


 

January 21, 2025

By John Oreovicz

IMSA Wire Service

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – It’s often said the more things change, the more they stay the same. That adage could be used to describe the Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class heading into the 2025 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season.


 

Twelve GTP entries will line up on the grid January 25 for the 63rd running of the Rolex 24 At Daytona International Speedway, and every one of them is incorporating some element of change in terms of driver lineup and/or team/manufacturer partnership compared to 2024. 


 

The quest for progress and perfection is relentless, as evidenced by the shuffled driver lineups at Porsche Penske Motorsport, the defending GTP class champion team.


 

“There are a lot of things happening in the background for us at Porsche Penske Motorsport, and I guess for every team on this grid there have been a lot of changes,” said Mathieu Jaminet, winner of two races in 2024 paired with Nick Tandy in PPM’s No. 6 Porsche 963. 


 

A key moment in March 2024 triggered a domino effect of significant changes for 2025. Cadillac announced it was ending its collaboration with Chip Ganassi Racing after four seasons. 


 

In June, Acura confirmed it would turn back to Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian to lead its 2025 attack, leaving the door open for its 2021-24 partner team Wayne Taylor Racing to re-establish its longtime links to General Motors and Cadillac. BMW M Motorsport underwent a through revamp of its worldwide sports car driver program. And on the driver front, Pipo Derani sent a stir through the paddock by departing Cadillac Whelen Racing.


 

It all adds up to a 2025 GTP lineup that features a surprising amount of change. Here's a look at what’s new for 2025, while also noting what has stayed the same:


 

Porsche Penske Motorsport

Porsche 963


 

No. 6

2024 Drivers: Mathieu Jaminet, Nick Tandy, Kevin Estre, Laurens Vanthoor, Fred Makowiecki

2025 Drivers: Mathieu Jaminet, Matt Campbell, Kevin Estre


 

No. 7 

2024 Drivers: Felipe Nasr, Dane Cameron, Matt Campbell, Josef Newgarden

2025 Drivers: Felipe Nasr, Nick Tandy, Laurens Vanthoor

A streamlined Porsche Penske Motorsport lineup has the same three drivers set for 2025 after intermittent 2024 IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup changes. Jaminet continues in the No. 6 car and is reunited with Matt Campbell, as they hope to match their 2022 IMSA GTD PRO title achieved with Pfaff Motorsports. Tandy shifts into the No. 7 car to pair with defending GTP co-champion Felipe Nasr.


 

“It’s a change without a change, to be honest,” Jaminet said. “Nick and I worked well and had a lot of success. We couldn’t put a championship together but had a lot of wins and podiums. It was good to learn from him the last couple years, especially technically. It was really a surprise that we didn’t continue, but now the opportunity came up to be together with Matt again. It just feels natural, not like a change.”


 

Campbell drove the No. 7 IMSA Porsche in 2023 and spent the 2024 season in one of Porsche Penske Motorsport FIA World Endurance Championship entries. Tandy, now in the No. 7 car, noted a different factor to monitor.


 

“We’ve been mixed around, but it’s the same core four drivers,” Tandy added. “Probably the most difficult thing will be in the pits and not stopping at the No. 6 sign board.” 


 

The notable departure is Dane Cameron, the 2024 GTP co-champion with Nasr who joins Tom Sneva as a driver who lost his ride shortly after winning a championship with Team Penske. But the four-time IMSA champion has a new ride set in the No. 99 AO Racing ORECA LMP2 07, “Spike,” in the Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class. 


 

Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing

2024: Acura ARX-06

2025: Cadillac V-Series.R

 

No. 10

2024 Drivers: Ricky Taylor, Filipe Albuquerque, Brendon Hartley, Marcus Ericsson

2025 Drivers: Ricky Taylor, Filipe Albuquerque, Brendon Hartley, Will Stevens


 

No. 40

2024 Drivers: Jordan Taylor, Louis Deletraz, Jenson Button, Colton Herta

2025 Drivers: Jordan Taylor, Louis Deletraz, Alex Lynn, Kamui Kobayashi

Wayne Taylor’s association with General Motors spans more than 30 years, so it was no surprise to see him rekindle a relationship with Cadillac that produced the 2017 IMSA Daytona Prototype (DPi) championship and multiple Rolex 24 At Daytona victories. Wayne Taylor Racing served as a factory Acura team from 2021-24 and in that time, expanded to a full-time, two-car program. 


 

WTR embarks on its new Cadillac era with the least altered driver lineup of any team on the GTP grid. Both teams keep their same full-time core lineups and make minor adjustments among their Michelin Endurance Cup extras, and Ricky Taylor noted his excitement more for a second year with two cars. 


 

“It seems like every year we’ve had something new going on, so I think we’re used to change,” he explained. “But in a lot of ways, it’s nice to keep things consistent.”


 

BMW M Team RLL

BMW M Hybrid V8

 

No. 24

2024 Drivers: Augusto Farfus, Jesse Krohn, Dries Vanthoor, Philipp Eng

2025 Drivers: Dries Vanthoor, Philipp Eng, Kevin Magnussen, Raffaelle Marciello 


 

No. 25

2024 Drivers: Nick Yelloly, Connor De Phillippi, Maxime Martin, Rene Rast

2025 Drivers: Marco Wittmann, Sheldon van der Linde, Robin Frijns, Rene Rast

Wholesale changes come to BMW M Team RLL, with an almost completely new full-season IMSA driver lineup and three of four new endurance drivers. Phillipp Eng is the lone full-time driver to return in 2025 in the No. 24 car and will be joined for the full season by Dries Vanthoor, whose only ride with the team last year was in the Rolex 24. Marco Wittmann and Sheldon van der Linde share the No. 25 car. While van der Linde and Vanthoor will race both WEC and IMSA races, they’ll race the IMSA event in Monterey in May on a conflict weekend. BMW’s WEC drivers fill out the IMSA lineup for Michelin Endurance Cup races, including new recruit Kevin Magnussen. 


 

Nick Yelloly heads to Acura Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian, and Augusto Farfus, Jesse Krohn and Connor De Phillippi found seats in the two Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO entries in Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO).


 

Cadillac Whelen (Action Express Racing)

Cadillac V-Series.R


 

No. 31

2024 Drivers: Pipo Derani, Jack Aitken, Tom Blomqvist

2025 Drivers: Jack Aitken, Earl Bamber, Frederik Vesti, Felipe Drugovich

Cadillac Whelen adjusted its GTP program in the wake of Pipo Derani’s departure to become part of the new Genesis Magma Racing program coming online in the future. Cadillac veteran and versatile sports car ace Earl Bamber fills his role, while young drivers Frederik Vesti and Felipe Drugovich have a great opportunity as endurance extras. Jack Aitken, meanwhile, looks forward to racing alongside Bamber. 


 

“I think there’s a lot to be said for a fresh pair of eyes,” Aitken said. “Pipo has been a great teammate since I joined Action Express and Cadillac, but Earl also brings a ton of experience and has won at the top level. We’re already getting on very well on testing and it’s been smooth sailing.”


 

Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian

Acura ARX-06


 

No. 60

2024: Did not compete

2025 Drivers: Tom Blomqvist, Colin Braun, Scott Dixon, Felix Rosenqvist


 

No. 93

2024: Did not compete

2025 Drivers: Renger van der Zande, Nick Yelloly, Alex Palou, Kakunoshin “Kaku” Ohta

The strengthened overall Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian organization returns to IMSA as the flagship team for Honda Racing Corporation USA (HRC US) and the Acura brand. Tom Blomqvist and Colin Braun are back in the No. 60 car after nearly winning the 2023 GTP class championship. 


 

The bigger news, perhaps, is MSR’s expansion to two GTP entries. HRC staff will engineer the No. 93 car, and it will features the strong driver lineup of Renger van der Zande and Nick Yelloly, formerly of Cadillac and BMW, respectively. Shank’s endurance drivers include IndyCar champions Alex Palou and Scott Dixon (part of a new technical alliance between the Shank and Ganassi IndyCar teams), MSR IndyCar driver Felix Rosenqvist, and Honda-affiliated Kaku Ohta.

 

“At the end of the day, every car has four wheels and a steering wheel, and that makes things easy,” van der Zande said. “Just keep the basics in place and bring that thing around as fast as you can. The Acura is a completely different car than the Cadillac and the hardest thing is learning all the new systems.” 

Automobili Lamborghini Squadra Corse

Lamborghini SC63


 

No. 63

2024 Drivers: Andrea Caldarelli, Matteo Cairoli, Romain Grosjean

2025 Drivers: Mirko Bortolotti, Daniil Kyvat, Romain Grosjean, Edoardo Mortara


 

Driver Romain Grosjean is about the only common denominator in Lamborghini’s 2024 and 2025 programs. Lamborghini will again contest the IMSA Michelin Endurance Championship, but this is the SC63’s first appearance in the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

Proton Competition 

Porsche 963

 

No. 5

2024 Drivers: Gianmaria Bruni, Bent Viscaal, Alessio Picariello, Neel Jani, Romain Dumas, Julien Andlauer, Mike Rockenfeller

2025 Drivers: Neel Jani, Tristan Vautier, Nico Pino, Julien Andlauer


 

A rotating lineup cycled through Proton Competition’s No. 5 Porsche 963 in 2024. Neel Jani and Julien Andlauer made selected starts in the car last year while Tristan Vautier and Nico Pino are team newcomers.

JDC-Miller MotorSports

Porsche 963

 

No. 85

2024 Drivers: Tijmen van der Helm, Richard Westbrook, Phil Hanson, Ben Keating

2025 Drivers: Tijmen van der Helm, Gianmaria Bruni, Pascal Wehrlein, Bryce Aron


 

Another customer Porsche, the distinctive yellow JDC-Miller MotorSports entry returns with young Dutchman Tijmen van der Helm but swaps in former Porsche factory driver Gianmaria Bruni for the retiring Richard Westbrook. Bryce Aron and Porsche factory driver, Formula E champion Pascal Wehrlein, complete the Rolex 24 lineup.

 

63rd Rolex 24 At Daytona – GTP and LMP2 Team-by-Team

Field of 12 GTP and 12 LMP2 Cars Apiece Set to Vie for Rolex 24 Victories



January 22, 2025

By Tony DiZinno

IMSA Wire Service

Rolex 24 At Daytona Entry List

Spotters Guide


 

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – A run through the prototype entries competing in the 63rd Rolex 24 At Daytona reveals 24 contenders for the 24-hour endurance classic to kick off the 2025 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season.


 

There are 12 Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) cars split among five auto manufacturers: Acura, BMW, Cadillac, Lamborghini and Porsche. And all 12 have some degree of change, year-to-year. 


 

Meanwhile all 12 Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) entries are the popular ORECA LMP2 07 cars, and that equality in car type means it’s down to the drivers and teams that best execute the race that win a Rolex watch.


 

The team-by-team preview is below:


 

Grand Touring Prototype (GTP)


 

No. 5 Proton Competition Porsche 963

Neel Jani/Tristan Vautier/Nico Pino/Julien Andlauer


 

Proton Competition returns with three total Porsche cars, split one apiece among Grand Touring Prototype (GTP), Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) and Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) – the latter of which is entered as Iron Dames with Proton’s team running it. Its GTP car has, for another season, seen a change on the driving front.


 

Jani is a past 24 Hours of Le Mans polesitter and overall winner, and together with sports car veteran Vautier form a solid pair of experienced hands at the wheel. Pino won a pair of Motul Pole Awards in the former Le Mans Prototype 3 (LMP3) class – including at the 2023 Rolex 24 with Sean Creech Motorsport – and has plied his trade in both IMSA and FIA WEC competition. Andlauer is a past Le Mans class winner to complete the lineup.  


 

No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963

Matt Campbell/Mathieu Jaminet/Kevin Estre


 

The “Cam/Jam” duo is back. Linked throughout most of their careers as Porsche factory drivers, Matt Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet have established themselves as pre-eminent winners and champions of the late 2010s and early 2020s, and their IMSA records back that up. A dominant season together with Pfaff Motorsports, starting with a 2022 win at the Rolex 24 to kick off the GTD PRO class era, propelled them to the class championship. Campbell’s 2024 started with his second Rolex 24 win and first overall – this time in the sister No. 7 car as an endurance driver – and he’s back for a full IMSA campaign in 2025 after a single season abroad in the FIA World Endurance Championship. Jaminet has 11 IMSA wins and that 2022 GTD PRO title, but fell short against the sister car for last year’s GTP crown. 


 

Estre’s global record is similarly defined, with a WEC Hypercar World Championship achieved in 2024 with Porsche Penske Motorsport to add to his 24 Hours of Le Mans class win (2018 in GTE PRO). Estre holds one of IMSA’s more curious stats, as he’s yet to win a WeatherTech Championship race in over 20 starts, mostly as a third driver in Michelin Endurance Cup events. It’s a role he’ll reprise in 2025. 


 

No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963

Felipe Nasr/Nick Tandy/Laurens Vanthoor


 

A winning start at the 2024 Rolex 24 set the No. 7 Porsche 963 on its way for its GTP class title-achieving campaign. Nasr, then paired with Dane Cameron, won twice and added five further podium finishes to capture his third WeatherTech Championship title, all in the top prototype class at the time albeit under different category names (2018 P, 2021 DPi, 2024 GTP). He has 11 career IMSA wins. A lineup change for 2025 sees Tandy shift from the No. 6 car to the No. 7 car, now paired with Nasr after two years co-driving with Jaminet. The fast Englishman is one of IMSA’s most prolific race winners; he has 22 in more than 100 starts including the 2014 Rolex 24 in GT Le Mans. However, he has yet to win an IMSA championship, and he’ll seek to rectify that in 2025. 


 

Vanthoor shared the championship-winning Porsche with Estre in FIA WEC and will serve as this car’s third driver in 2025. He has a pair of IMSA titles (2019 GTLM, 2021 GTD) and 10 IMSA wins, but remains in search of his first Rolex 24 triumph to complete a set that also includes others at Le Mans, Sebring, the Nurburgring and Spa-Francorchamps. 


 

No. 10 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R 

Filipe Albuquerque/Ricky Taylor/Will Stevens/Brendon Hartley


 

The long-anticipated reunion between Wayne Taylor Racing and General Motors is set to be one of the year’s overarching narratives, to see whether this iteration of WTR and Cadillac can achieve similar heights as the DPi period from 2017 to 2020. Of WTR’s four Rolex 24 wins in five years from 2017 to 2021, the first three were achieved with Cadillac and a series of all-star lineups. Its most recent IMSA championship was too, in 2017.


 

The team has the same intent for 2025, with only one change from its 2024 Rolex roster. Albuquerque (2018, 2021) and Ricky Taylor (2017, 2021) have four Rolex 24 overall wins between them and are set for their fifth straight year as full-season teammates, but first with Cadillac after four years with Acura. Their battles as rivals within the Cadillac brand in the late 2010s shift to a unified approach in 2025. Stevens and Hartley both have Le Mans class wins; Stevens has six IMSA starts, including a pair with WTR in 2022, while Hartley bolsters the lineup ahead of his eighth Rolex 24 start. 


 

No. 24 BMW M Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8

Philipp Eng/Dries Vanthoor/Raffaele Marciello/Kevin Magnussen


 

Eng has, almost by default, ascended to the senior member of the BMW M Team RLL lineup by virtue of his full-season experience. The Austrian is the only one of the team’s four full-season drivers who’s competed in a full WeatherTech Championship season. He captured an elusive first prototype win at last year’s TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks in Indianapolis, his second IMSA win of his career after sharing in the team’s 2019 GT Le Mans class win at the Rolex 24 At Daytona.


 

BMW has opted to deploy its FIA WEC lineup across into IMSA this season. Laurens’ younger brother Dries Vanthoor is set for his first full IMSA season; he has three career starts and only one in a prototype in this series (2024 Rolex 24, BMW M Hybrid V8). Third driver Marciello has multiple GT championships globally and only four career IMSA starts, also only one in prototype (2023 Rolex 24, High Class LMP2). Magnussen, ironically, has this car’s most additional IMSA full-season experience after Eng but is a BMW newcomer. An overall winner at Belle Isle Park in Detroit in 2021 with Chip Ganassi Racing in a Cadillac, Magnussen has 10 career IMSA starts – all in DPi machinery – and completes this quartet after moving on from a decade-plus in Formula 1. 


 

No. 25 BMW M Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8

Sheldon van der Linde/Marco Wittmann/Robin Frijns/Rene Rast


 

It’s all change at BMW M Team RLL’s No. 25 car for 2025, with a quartet high on global experience but limited in IMSA. None of its four drivers has raced an IMSA full season and Rast, a two-time Rolex 24 winner with Magnus Racing in GTD (2012, 2016), is its most experienced WeatherTech Championship driver with 11 starts since 2014.  


 

Wittmann and van der Linde raced the BMW M Hybrid V8 in FIA WEC competition last year, split between the team’s two cars with Wittmann recording the car’s best finish of second in Fuji. The younger van der Linde brother has 10 IMSA starts over five seasons, with a GTD class win on debut at the 2017 Petit Le Mans with Connor De Phillippi – who he’ll replace in this car in 2025 – and Christopher Mies. Frijns has only a single IMSA start to his name, the 2018 Rolex 24 in an ORECA LMP2 car as part of an eclectic lineup (Felix Rosenqvist, Lance Stroll, Daniel Juncadella). 


 

No. 31 Cadillac Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R

Jack Aitken/Earl Bamber/Frederik Vesti/Felipe Drugovich


 

It seems hard to believe, but the oft-contending Action Express Racing-prepared No. 31 Cadillac Whelen V-Series.R has gone winless in two of the last three seasons, sandwiching its 2023 GTP championship. As such, there are big changes for 2025 on the driving front as Pipo Derani departed the team.


 

After his first full year, Aitken ascends to the role of the team’s longest-tenured driver. He won his first Motul Pole Award at Motul Petit Le Mans to cap off the campaign and impressed the team with his combination of speed, persistence and affability. New alongside him for the full season is Bamber, one of IMSA’s most successful drivers with seven wins and a 2019 GT Le Mans title to his name. Bamber has extensive Cadillac experience the last three years across both IMSA and the FIA WEC and will run a dual campaign in 2025. Endurance extras Vesti (Michelin Endurance Cup) and Drugovich (Rolex 24) boast similar backgrounds. Both drivers gained LMP2 experience globally in 2024 after successful junior open-wheel careers. Drugovich won the 2022 F2 title, Vesti was second in 2023, while both have been part of Formula 1 junior programs with Aston Martin and Mercedes-AMG, respectively.


 

No. 40 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R 

Louis Deletraz/Jordan Taylor/Kamui Kobayashi 


 

The Deletraz and Jordan Taylor pair shifts ahead to its second year together, with Jordan now back in the GM family fold once more after a year with Acura in 2024. Jordan has one of IMSA’s strongest résumés with four IMSA full-season championships (2013, 2017, 2020, 2021) – all in either Corvette or Cadillac machinery – and three Rolex 24 wins (2017 and 2019 overall, 2021 GTLM). Deletraz added a fourth straight global LMP2 title to his résumé in another series, while starring in his first full-time IMSA campaign here with his late move for the win at Sebring a standout moment of the season.


 

Kobayashi is widely regarded as one of the Rolex 24’s “must-see” drivers. He’s won it twice with WTR, back-to-back in 2019 and 2020. Alex Lynn was due to complete the lineup but was ruled out due to illness. 


 

No. 60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06

Tom Blomqvist/Colin Braun/Scott Dixon/Felix Rosenqvist


 

The band is back together. Blomqvist and Braun stormed to three wins, bookending their 2023 campaign with wins at the Rolex 24 and Motul Petit Le Mans, en route to third place in their last full-time IMSA season together. Both raced part-time in 2024, Blomqvist as third driver with the No. 31 Cadillac Whelen GTP entry and Braun alongside longtime co-driver George Kurtz in the No. 04 CrowdStrike by APR LMP2 car. Circumstances arose to reunite the pair back with the expanded MSR Acura program in 2025, and with their Rolex 24 win record (Braun has three, 2014 LMPC, 2020 LMP2, 2023 GTP/overall and Blomqvist has 2022 DPi/overall and 2023/GTP overall) and season-long championship pedigree (Braun has three IMSA titles, 2014 and 2015 PC, 2022 LMP3), expect this duo to contend for both the race win and title. 


 

Their endurance extras? They’re also strong to quite strong. Michelin Endurance Cup third driver Dixon has six IMSA wins from 50 career starts – including four Rolex 24 victories (2006 DP/overall, 2015 P/overall, 2018 GTLM, 2020 DPi/overall) – to go with his six IndyCar Series championships. Rosenqvist has had fewer IMSA starts, but is a race winner across IndyCar, Formula E, and multiple junior open-wheel series. 


 

No. 63 Automobili Lamborghini Squadra Corse Lamborghini SC63

Mirko Bortolotti/Romain Grosjean/Daniil Kvyat/Edoardo Mortara


 

Lamborghini is set for a unique Rolex 24 with its SC63, the first for this car since its introduction. The entry is now flagged as “Automobili Lamborghini Squadra Corse” in a nod to its factory affiliation.


 

The driving strength is still impressive. In Bortolotti and Mortara they have two past Rolex 24 class-winning GT drivers, and in Grosjean and Kvyat they have two aggressive, entertaining, fast ex-Formula 1 veterans who stood on Grand Prix podiums over the course of their careers.  


 

No. 85 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche 963

Gianmaria Bruni/Tijmen van der Helm/Bryce Aron/Pascal Wehrlein


 

The JDC-Miller program continues with its striking yellow Porsche 963 and like fellow customer team Proton Competition, changes its driver lineup. Spearheading the full-season lineup is Bruni, who joins the team after racing with Proton the last two years. The Italian has both Rolex 24 (LMP2, 2023) and 24 Hours of Le Mans (four class wins) on his résumé. He’ll share the car with Dutchman van der Helm, who continues to improve as he heads into his third season in this car.


 

Aron is set for his Rolex 24 debut, as another potential under-the-radar person to note as an Indy NXT driver who is set to add sports cars to his résumé. Wehrlein is the reigning FIA Formula E champion and will add speed and poise as the team’s fourth driver. 


 

No. 93 Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06

Renger van der Zande/Nick Yelloly/Alex Palou/Kaku Ohta


 

There is a lot of new to dissect about MSR’s second Acura for 2025. The car bolsters a more significant Honda Racing Corporation U.S. (HRC) presence, from engineering talent to its iconic No. 93, a number that hails the company’s U.S. founding year of 1993 as Honda Performance Development (HPD) before a global rebrand. That extends further to its extra drivers, in the form of three-time IndyCar Series champion Palou, who’s raced his entire IndyCar career with the manufacturer and Ohta, a Super GT and Super Formula race winner who races with the brand in his native Japan and is set for his IMSA debut. 


 

The two full-season drivers? There’s a lot to like about team and manufacturer newcomers van der Zande and Yelloly. The Dutchman has over 100 IMSA starts and secured his 21st win to cap off 2024 at Motul Petit Le Mans. Twice a Rolex 24 winner (2019, 2020 with Cadillac and WTR), van der Zande seeks his first Rolex with Acura and MSR this go-around. Yelloly joins from BMW M Team RLL, where he only won once (2023 Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen) but delivered notable pace and performances throughout his tenure.  

 

Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2)


 

No. 2 United Autosports USA ORECA LMP2 07

Nick Boulle/Ben Hanley/Garnet Patterson/Oliver Jarvis


 

United’s No. 2 ORECA won the 2024 Rolex 24 Motul Pole Award but features a nearly reshuffled lineup compared to last year. It’s still strong as three of the four drivers – Jarvis, Hanley and Boulle – already have a Rolex 24 win and the only reason Patterson doesn’t is because he hasn’t raced it yet. Jarvis (2022 DPi/overall) is the most recent Rolex 24 winner while Boulle enters this race after winning last year’s LMP2 championship and the Jim Trueman Award, securing an automatic invite to the 24 Hours of Le Mans. 


 

No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR ORECA LMP2 07

George Kurtz/Toby Sowery/Malthe Jakobsen/Colton Herta 


 

CrowdStrike by APR returns to full-time competition in 2025 in pursuit of its second Jim Trueman Award for Bronze-rated drivers, as achieved in 2023. Kurtz doesn’t have usual co-driver Colin Braun on board but youngsters Sowery and Jakobsen will play a significant role. Sowery made three IndyCar starts in 2024 and has impressed with his speed in his sports car starts, while Jakobsen has ascended to a factory role with Peugeot’s FIA WEC Hypercar effort. Kurtz (Watkins Glen, Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta) and Jakobsen (Sebring) both have won Michelin Endurance Cup races. Fourth driver Herta, last year’s IndyCar Series runner-up, has two Rolex 24 wins (LMP2 in 2022, GT Le Mans in 2019). 


 

No. 8 Tower Motorsports ORECA LMP2 07

John Farano/Sebastien Bourdais/Sebastian Alvarez/Job van Uitert


 

One of LMP2’s perennial contenders, Tower Motorsports reloads in 2025 after a podium-less 2024 season that saw eight drivers aboard the team’s No. 8 ORECA LMP2 07. Farano has five career wins and is joined by Bourdais, a 13-time IMSA winner and one of the most decorated sports car and open-wheel drivers of the 2000s. Third driver Alvarez has made a handful of IMSA starts in both LMP2 and LMP3. Van Uitert, a past Motul Petit Le Mans winner with Tower, is back for the Rolex 24. 


 

No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA LMP2 07

Steven Thomas/Mikkel Jensen/Hunter McElrea/Charles Milesi


 

No changes lie ahead for TDS Racing in 2025, after a Michelin Endurance Cup-winning 2024 campaign built in part by the strong finish delivered by Thomas, Jensen and McElrea to win the final two rounds in Indianapolis and Atlanta. Jensen has 10, Thomas five and McElrea two IMSA wins in their careers. Fourth driver Milesi has had LMP2 success outside of IMSA, with an FIA WEC title and 24 Hours of Le Mans class win both in 2021. 


 

No. 18 Era Motorsport ORECA LMP2 07

Tobias Lutke/Ryan Dalziel/David Heinemeier Hansson/Paul-Loup Chatin


 

Era Motorsport, twice a winner in the last four Rolex 24 races (2021 and 2024 LMP2), has some old and some new for 2025. Dalziel has been part of both of those, along with his 2010 overall win for Action Express Racing, and has entrenched himself as Era’s team stalwart. Chatin reprises his role as Rolex 24 extra driver as he did in 2021. Rounding out the lineup are a pair of programmers – Lutke has gathered Historic Sportscar Racing (HSR) experience while “DHH” is a sportscar veteran and a past 24 Hours of Le Mans class winner (2014 in GTE Am) set to make his IMSA return for the first time since 2020. 


 

No. 22 United Autosports USA ORECA LMP2 07

Daniel Goldburg/Paul di Resta/Rasmus Lindh/James Allen


 

The other United car retains Goldburg and di Resta, with Lindh on as third driver for the Rolex 24. Allen has the lone Rolex 24 victory of this group, having been at the wheel of the Proton Competition ORECA for the photo finish margin of victory in LMP2 in 2023.


 

No. 43 Inter Europol Competition ORECA LMP2 07

Tom Dillmann/Jon Field/Bijoy Garg/Antonio Felix da Costa


 

Inter Europol has enjoyed an excellent two-year run. The Polish-flagged team won the 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans in LMP2, then returned to IMSA for the first time in four years in tandem with the oft-successful PR1 Mathiasen team, and promptly won the 2024 championship with Bronze-rated Nick Boulle also securing the Jim Trueman Award. Boulle, like PR1 Mathiasen, are no longer part of this lineup in 2025. Dillmann remains, joined by Field who’s back for the first time in more than a decade. Garg moves from United Autosports where he was part of that team’s 24 Hours of Le Mans LMP2-winning lineup, while da Costa adds pace and recent championship-winning pedigree (2022 FIA WEC LMP2, 2019-20 Formula E) as fourth driver. 


 

No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA LMP2 07

Rodrigo Sales/Mathias Beche/Benjamin Pedersen/Ben Keating


 

It doesn’t seem to matter who’s aboard the Bobby Oergel-led PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports entry, which has won five of the last six class championships in IMSA’s LMP2. Some of that goes to the team’s staying power over time, but its continued up-front presence in deeper fields indicates a program that has both the class and the car sorted to compete. Its latest new lineup of Sales and Beche for the full season, Pedersen for the Michelin Endurance Cup rounds and Keating for the Rolex 24, will seek to continue that trend. 


 

No. 73 Pratt Miller Motorsports ORECA LMP2 07

Chris Cumming/Pietro Fittipaldi/James Roe Jr./Callum Ilott


 

Pratt Miller Motorsports’ entry into LMP2 for 2025 is one of the most intriguing propositions in the class, given its prototype roots but longtime GT presence working in tandem with Corvette Racing. Its lineup includes open-wheel veterans Fittipaldi (full season), Roe (Michelin Endurance Cup) and Ilott (Rolex 24). Cumming has extensive sports car experience, predominately in the former Prototype Challenge class with limited global LMP2 running and will make his IMSA return for the first time since 2017.  


 

No. 74 Riley ORECA LMP2 07

Gar Robinson/Felipe Fraga/Josh Burdon/Felipe Massa


 

A year without a Riley team winning a race is a rarity in modern sports car racing, yet that’s what occurred in its maiden LMP2 voyage in 2024. It was still a steady season, as the team scored four podium finishes and six top-five finishes in seven races to finish runner-up in points. The dedication to consistency continues, and the same quartet of Robinson, Fraga, Burdon and Massa are back for the Rolex 24. All except Massa have won either and/or both of a full-season IMSA title or Michelin Endurance Cup. The team won two titles and two Rolex 24s from 2021 to 2023 in the former Le Mans Prototype 3 (LMP3) class.


 

No. 88 Af Corse ORECA LMP2 07

Luis Perez Companc/Nicklas Nielsen/Matthieu Vaxiviere/Dylan Murry


 

Af Corse has won the 24 Hours of Le Mans overall the last two years as the service provider for the Ferrari 499P and seeks to add a Rolex 24 to its victory list with entries in both LMP2 and Grand Touring Daytona (GTD). Nielsen was part of last year’s overall Le Mans win and also part of a Watkins Glen win last year with Perez Companc and Lilou Wadoux. Vaxiviere and Murry add experience from sporadic IMSA starts.


 

No. 99 AO Racing ORECA LMP2 07

PJ Hyett/Dane Cameron/Jonny Edgar/Christian Rasmussen


 

AO Racing’s model of expand and advance for its sophomore season paid dividends greatly in GT racing in 2024, and will seek to do likewise in 2025 for its second LMP2 effort. Wholesale changes come on the driving front, with Hyett now paired with four-time IMSA champion Dane Cameron for the full-season. He became available after winning last year’s GTP title with Porsche Penske Motorsport. Cameron’s four titles have come in four different categories (2014 GTD, 2016 P, 2019 DPi, 2024 GTP), so an LMP2 crown would make it five-for-five. Edgar was part of AO by TF’s ELMS-title winning effort in 2024 – along with Louis Deletraz and Robert Kubica – and IndyCar driver Rasmussen was a key cog in Era’s 2024 Rolex 24 LMP2 win. AO’s “Rexy” Porsche stole the headlines in 2024 with its GTD PRO title, and the volley of attention may shift to “Spike,” the LMP2 dragon for 2025 if the lineup changes work as advertised. 

 

 

Meet the Full Field for the 2025 Rolex 24 At Daytona

Sixty-One Cars Are on the Grid for the 63rd Running of the Endurance Classic

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Jan. 22, 2025) – The complete field of cars for the 63rd Rolex 24 At Daytona gathered on the Daytona International Speedway circuit for the annual full-field photo today. Sixty-one cars across four classes (Grand Touring Prototype, Le Mans Prototype 2, Grand Touring Daytona Pro and Grand Touring Daytona) are set to compete in the iconic race that opens the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season starting Saturday afternoon.


 

NBC Sports offers complete coverage of the 24-hour race across its platforms. Catch the race start live on NBC network starting at 1:30 p.m. ET Saturday. USA Network picks up coverage from 2:30-6:30 p.m. Saturday. The broadcast returns to NBC for the conclusion of the race from noon-2 p.m. Sunday. The entire race also streams live, flag-to-flag, on Peacock in the U.S. and on IMSA's Official YouTube channel and IMSA.TV outside the U.S.


 

Additionally, please find today's video asset from the full field shoot at this link.


 

(Mandatory Credit: Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA/LAT Photo USA; Video: IMSA/Beverly Hills Aerials)

 

 

Be on the Lookout: These Rolex 24 Drivers Bear Watching

 

Keep an Eye on These Guys: NASCAR Stars, Ex-F1 Drivers and Young Phenoms


 

January 20, 2025

By Mark Robinson

IMSA Wire Service

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Now that the field of drivers for the Rolex 24 At Daytona later this month is complete, it’s a good time to sift through the more than 230 names to look at a baker’s dozen who may have an impact on the 63rd twice-around-the-clock marathon at Daytona International Speedway, largely beyond those that immediately come to mind competing in the leading Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class.


 

Some of the drivers boast lengthy racing resumes; some you may not have heard of before. All, though, bear watching when they’re in their respective machines during the Jan. 25-26 opener to the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season.


 

Austin Cindric (No. 64 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang GT3, Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) class: The NASCAR star and 2022 Daytona 500 winner was a late addition to the lineup as a substitute for the injured Ben Barker. Cindric has competed in eight WeatherTech Championship races since 2017, most recently in the 2023 Rolex 24 for Rick Ware Racing in the Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class. His last effort in a GT3 car came in the 2022 Rolex 24 with Proton Competition, and he’ll add the Ford to previous runs in a Lexus RC F GT3 and Mercedes-AMG GT3.


 

Pipo Derani (No. 36 DXDT Racing Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) class): The two-time season champion in the top class of the WeatherTech Championship will make his GTD class debut in a one-off with DXDT as he focuses on development of the new Genesis Magma Racing LMDh car set to begin competition next year. Derani already has an overall Rolex 24 win (2016); can he add a class victory to go with it?


 

Malthe Jakobsen (No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR ORECA LMP2 07, LMP2): The dynamic Dane’s star is shining brighter in 2025, as he’s been named a Peugeot factory driver for its Hypercar lineup in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC). He returns to the No. 04 CrowdStrike LMP2 entry for Daytona, where he’s paired with nearly the identical lineup that finished second in class in 2024 for a second straight year. George Kurtz and Toby Sowery are back with Jakobsen, with two-time Rolex 24 class winner Colton Herta replacing Colin Braun this time around. 


 

Parker Kligerman (No. 78 Forte Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2, GTD): The NASCAR driver/broadcaster is making his series and Rolex 24 debut. He tested with the team at Daytona in November and will be surrounded by winning talent. Co-drivers Franck Perera (2018 GTD) and Misha Goikhberg (2016 Prototype Challenge) each have a Rolex 24 win, and third co-driver Mario Farnbacher is a two-time WeatherTech Championship GTD season champion with 10 career race wins.

Kamui Kobayashi (No. 40 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R, Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class): The mega-fast and popular Japanese driver is back with the team he helped to consecutive Rolex 24 overall victories in 2019 and ’20. Of course, he still has that full-time job as team principal for Toyota Gazoo Racing in WEC, where he was the season champion in 2019-20 and 2021, as well as capturing victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in ‘21.


 

Andy Lally (No. 44 Magnus Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo, GTD): The active driver with the most Rolex 24 wins (five) is becoming inactive after this year’s race, as he’s announced his retirement from full-time driving. The 2025 race will mark Lally’s 23rd consecutive start, and he’ll do it alongside longtime friend and co-driver John Potter – they won at Daytona together in 2012 (GT) and 2016 (GTD) – as well as two-time Rolex 24 winner Spencer Pumpelly and Aston Martin works driver Nicki Thiim.


 

Scott McLaughlin, Shane van Gisbergen, Connor Zilisch (No. 91 Trackhouse by TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, GTD PRO): We label this as a co-entry because this talented trio is together in the No. 91 Corvette along with one of the best Bronze-rated drivers in the world, Ben Keating. McLaughlin was a three-time Supercars champion in Australia before joining the IndyCar Series, where he’s won seven races over the past three seasons and finished third in the championship the last two years. Fellow New Zealander van Gisbergen was also a three-time Supercars champ before taking the NASCAR world by storm, winning the Chicago street race in his 2023 Cup Series debut. Zilisch is well-known in IMSA circles for his Mazda MX-5 Cup prowess and winning his first two races in the WeatherTech Championship last season in LMP2 (Rolex 24 and Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring). The 18-year-old is already a NASCAR shooting star with one Xfinity Series and five ARCA Menards Series wins last year.


 

Felipe Massa (No. 74 Riley ORECA LMP2 07, LMP2): The former Formula 1 driver (11 wins in 15 seasons) returns for a second crack at the Rolex 24 and is back with the same team and lineup. He and co-drivers Gar Robinson, Felipe Fraga and Josh Burdon reached the podium in 2024 with a third-place showing and look to bump up to the top step this time around.


 

Kakunoshin “Kaku” Ohta (No. 93 Acura Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian Acura ARX-06, GTP, pictured at top): The 25-year-old is a rising star in the Honda development program, with manufacturer backing since 2019. He’s raced almost exclusively in Japan to date, in the F4, Super GT, Super Formula and Super Taikyu (endurance) series, but will make his WeatherTech Championship debut in the Meyer Shank Acura GTP. He tested with the team at Daytona in November.


 

Lorenzo Patrese (No. 47 Cetilar Racing Ferrari 296 GT3, GTD PRO): The 19-year-old son of retired Formula 1 driver Riccardo Patrese isn’t even the youngest driver in the No. 47 Ferrari quartet. That honor goes to 17-year-old Nicola Lacorte, with Nicola’s dad Roberto Lacorte also in the lineup. The team has a pretty solid anchor driver in Antonio Fuoco, who was victorious in the Ferrari Hypercar at last June’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.


 

Nico Varrone (No. 4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, GTD PRO): The Argentinian joins full-season No. 4 drivers Tommy Milner and Nicky Catsburg for the Rolex 24, in a reunion with Catsburg. The duo, along with Ben Keating, earned the 2023 WEC LMGTE Am season championship as well as seizing the class win at Le Mans. Varrone made it back-to-back Le Mans victories last year when he teamed with Ben Barnicoat – yes, he of the Vasser Sullivan Lexus in GTD PRO – and Francois Perrodo to take LMP2 Pro-Am honors.

 

 
 
       

 

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