Inside the final hour of the 55th running of the Rolex 24. Ricky Taylor brings the #10 Cadillac to the pit lane. Four tires and fuel for the #10 Cadillac. Anything Action Express can do, they can do better. Fuel is in, and Ricky Taylor is down and away for the final time. Will it be the last stop? There will be a little more time under yellow before we go back to green. Marc Goossens will stay out, and get sufficiently far into the next stint on fuel so he can get to the flag on one more stop. Will the Cadillac's need a splash and dash? Car #90 is indeed third. Marc Goossens will get the wave around. He is just ahead of Filipe Albuquerque. Seven GTLM cars all make their way to the lane. Ford #66 pits for new Michelin tires. Fuel and tires. No driver change for any of the Ford's. Their current drivers, in all four cars, will take it to the flag.
#69 may actually change drivers. The traffic is too much for #66. Corvette goes quickest in the lane. In GTD, the lead car and the #28 Alegra Motorsports Porsche almost come together in the pit lane! Yikes! A driver change in the #29 Land Motorsports Audi R8. Alegra Motorsports is in the lead, and now it is a race to the flag. Car #90 will get back onto the lead lap. The mindset will change in the final hour. The #912 Porsche may be in the class lead in GTLM. Scoring missed a lap. #912 is now in pit lane from the race lead in class. Christopher Mies will take the #29 Audi to the flag. The #29 team did have a bad pit stop though, costing them the lead, and dropping the car to fourth in GT Daytona.
Michael Christensen leads Jeroen Bleekemolen, Andy Lally, Christopher Mies, Jeff Segal, and Lawson Aschenbach. The next car in the serial is Townsend Bell, a lap down to the leaders. The Prototypes are backing way up from the safety car, and we should get a restart this time, with 50 minutes left to run to settle this one. Contact between the #10 Cadillac and the #31 Cadillac! The #31 was in the way. He moved in reaction to the car behind and that has let car #5, the sister Action Express car, in the lead, get away. No, no, no. Mike Conway, shame on you. #31 deliberately blocks the #10 car. The #31 is sixth in Prototype, 15th in the overall.
Ricky Taylor now has to make up 4.3 seconds. Corvette C-7-R- vs. Ford GT, side by side into the Bus Stop. Dirk Mueller moves ahead of Antonio Garcia. James Calado leads GTLM in the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari. The #29 Audi threads the needle between a couple of it's competitors in GTD. That was behind the safety car. Dirk Mueller chases James Calado, and Antonio Garcia, Olivier Pla, and Tony Kanaan follow. The #29 Audi has gone from fourth to second in GTD behind Michael Christensen in the #28 Porsche. The #15 Lexus RC F GT3 has damage. The front end has broken away from the car.
It is parked at a peculiar angle at the end of the tri oval. The left side of the bonnet on the Lexus is bowed upwards. The driver will not be able to see out of that car. Jack Hawksworth is at the wheel of it. He can now inch his way across the lane. A whole flock of GTLM cars heads for turn one. Dirk Mueller is all over the back of James Calado. Antonio Garcia and Patrick Pilet are also back there. Car #911 has found it's way back into the fray in GTLM. The #90 is in the lane for a splash and dash. Tires also taken on that stop. No further action on the Action Express melee. Mueller looks inside Calado into turn one. #66 is closing on the #62.
The top four scrap in GTLM is really heating up. Ferrari, Ford, Corvette, Porsche. Calado, Mueller, Garcia, Pilet. Michael Christensen leads Christopher Mies by 2.6 seconds in GTD. Lawson Aschenbach passes Jeff Segal for fourth in GTD. Andy Lally is dropping away with the damage to his Acura. The window for final pit stops from the leaders, is open. There is nothing in it between the top four in GTLM. The top four GTLM cars make their way past the GTD #48 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 of Paul Miller Racing. Pilet and Garcia battle again into turn one. Ferrari, Ford, Porsche, Corvette. Too bad BMW couldn't have had a look in on this.
Pilet walks through the open door as Garcia ran a bit wide. Garcia was trying to attack Mueller and in the end, he was mugged by the Porsche and had the door slammed in his face. Filipe Albuquerque in the #5 Cadillac dives for pit lane. Fuel only to make it to the end. Albuquerque had done 14 laps, almost 50 miles, on his most recent full tank. Will Wayne Taylor's team dive for the lane? Ricky Taylor leads, putting 614 laps on the board. 2,186 miles. Calado and Mueller fight in GTLM and Pilet wants a piece of this, too. A hammer and tongs four way scrum in GTLM continues. Ricky Taylor pits the leading Cadillac with 35 minutes left.
A crewman tapes up a damaged dive plane on the left front of the car. Taylor almost stalled the 6.2 liter V8, but gets back into the race. Albuquerque now has the lead. Mueller dives inside Calado for the GTLM lead. Patrick Pilet is second, and Calado has the Corvette all over him, and he dropped like a stone. Ford, Porsche, Corvette, Ferrari, Ford. Calado has lost a door mirror in that moment of argy bargy. The #5 Cadillac works its way past some of the lower positioned Prototypes. The two Cadillac's are good to race to the end. The Mueller/Calado scrap, was fair, per the marshals. Jack Hawksworth is back on track to finish the race.
Three Ford GT's run in the top six in GTLM. The gap has grown to nine seconds between the top two. Albuquerque is caught behind Marc Goossens. But, Albuquerque makes the pass. The weather has surely played a factor. The new Prototypes have been mostly reliable, especially the Cadillac's. We have another yellow. The damaged #93 Acura NSX is off the road, again. The marshals are checking in with Andy Lally and it will need to be towed. This will be a quick yellow. Ricky Taylor will be boosted by this. Ricky Taylor has three cars between himself and Filipe Albuquerque. The #93 Acura is moving again.
26 minutes to go, as we've run 645 laps (2,296 miles). The restart will be a big deal in GTLM. It's anyone's race in the GT classes. Can Ricky Taylor move past the lapped cars? Andy Lally is now in the lane with his dog eared Acura, looking like a modified short track dirt car. The tires are being changed. There may be a gearshift or gear linkage issue. The sun has come out here at Daytona. How long has it been since we've been able to say that? BMW Team RLL has finally gotten their lap back! Augusto Farfus is at the wheel of the #19 BMW M6 GT. We may break the record for the lowest number of laps completed in the modern era.
668 laps (2,378 miles) were run in 2007. That's the lowest of the modern era. We are looking at this race being 661 or 662 laps. Filipe Albuquerque still leads Ricky Taylor. Staying clean and having pit teamwork were both crucial keys to this race. The weather was crazy. Ten hours worth of light and heavy rain. Be there in the morning. The top four are still there with 20 minutes left. Four GTLM cars are in the mix. The #66 car has had five minutes less time in the lane compared to it's competitors and the #90 for Prototypes. Ricky Taylor sweeps past Marc Goossens. Ford, Porsche, Ferrari, Corvette. Calado is close behind Pilet with no way through in the kink.
Dirk Mueller defends his position from Patrick Pilet. Filipe Albuquerque completes lap 647. There's nothing in it between #5 and #10! Ricky Taylor is coming, and fast! Into turn one, Taylor dives inside Albuquerque! Albuquerque runs wide, and they play dodge 'em cars! No position change in the end, but they were truly nose to nose. The Ford/Porsche GTLM battle is just an intense. Pilet closes on Mueller into the braking zone for the chicane. Mueller and Pilet have edged away from James Calado's Ferrari. Ricky Taylor locks the brakes into the International Horseshoe. Pilet is going to try Mueller on the outside line! He couldn't quite do it.
We work lap 650, (2,314 miles). We've had 40 lead changes throughout this race. Ricky Taylor is really pushing. He's right on Albuquerque's tail now. Mueller in the GTLM lead is balked by the #52 PR1/Mathiasen Ligier Prototype. One of the ESM Nissan's is also there. Patrick Pilet has to back off just a shade. Five cars still on the lead lap in GT Daytona. Plus, give a call to Alex Job Racing and their #23 Audi R8. They are just a lap down after being a ways down the order earlier, serving a two lap penalty for Townsend Bell earlier in the race.
Patrick Pilet gets a run into the tri oval on Dirk Mueller. Mueller still holds the edge. Albuquerque in the leading Cadillac lays down two identical laps at 1:37.24. With just over ten minutes to go, Taylor still can't make the decisive move on Albuquerque. In GT Daytona, Michael Christensen is finding speed in the #28 Alegra Motorsports Porsche he's shared all race with Jesse Lazare, Daniel Morad, and Carlos and Michael de Quesada. Christensen has pulled out the best first sector time the #28 has run all race. Christensen leads in GTD by 1.4 seconds over Christopher Mies. Less than ten minutes remain now and the battle is still between the Cadillac's.
Pilet gets balked again by Mueller at the International Horseshoe. The battle for fifth, sixth, and seventh in GTLM is the same as the lead as Porsche #912 splits Ford's #68 and #69. Filipe Albuquerque does have lapped traffic to contend with. If the leaders hit traffic on the banking, they'll be fine. They don't want to be held up in the road course section. We've had contact, between the two leaders! Albuquerque is off the road! Ricky Taylor has made a pass for the lead. Could this be for the win in the 55th Rolex 24? Let's see the replay of this one, chaps. Taylor was braking, but not sufficiently. Albuquerque moved in, and was spun, somehow. Wayne Taylor cannot believe his eyes! A man, who has won this Rolex 24 as a driver, twice, in 1996 and 2005.
Will the marshals have something to say about that move by the #10? Christopher Mies is trying to catch Michael Christensen in GTD, all the while, dealing with Alexander Sims in the #19 BMW M6 GT. 655 laps (2,332 miles) down. The Alubuquerque/Taylor fracas is under review. Five minutes to go. James Calado is moving in on Patrick Pilet, allowing Dirk Mueller to sprint away. Taylor went for a gap that was nonexistent to try and get by the #29 Audi and the #4 Corvette. He checked up big style, and still got through that shemozzle unscathed. Inside four minutes to go. The marshals may slap Taylor on the wrist for that argy bargy we just saw. Will it be a white flag the next time around? It may be.
Will Taylor risk being put back to second? We'll see I guess. Two minutes and 40 seconds to go. No further action on the incident involving the Cadillac's. Ricky Taylor leads the Rolex 24 by two seconds. Action Express won't be happy. Dirk Mueller extends his lead as Patrick Pilet fends off James Calado. No chance for Calado to answer into the chicane, with a minute and half left on the race clock. Two laps to go. Less than a minute to go. The white flag waves. Lap 657. One to go, which will make a total of 658 laps. The brand new Cadillac DPi-V-R- will win the Rolex 24. Twenty seconds left as James Calado is fighting to pass Patrick Pilet. Final lap. The clock reads zero.
The leaders are a second apart. Cadillac will win their first Rolex 24, as General Motors wins their seventh under four different brands. Chevrolet, Oldsmobile, Pontiac, and now Cadillac. Wayne Taylor brought Oldsmobile the win in 1996. Now, his sons will bring a win, for Cadillac, 21 years later. Out of NASCAR turn four. This is it. Wayne Taylor Racing and Cadillac, win the Rolex 24 at Daytona by 0.671 seconds! Wow!
The GTLM battle is not done yet. Calado third, wants past Pilet for second. These two boys won't catch the Ford. Michael Christensen and company win GT Daytona for Alegra Motorsports and Porsche. Dirk Mueller will win in GTLM in the Ford GT which made it's debut here last year. The Porsche/Ferrari battle for second is yet to be decided. Who will do it? Ford will wear the roses in GTLM. Ford wins, and so close for second! Porsche nips Ferrari at the line. Calado gave it everything. Ford wins 52 years after the first of two overall wins for the Ford GT40 in 1966. Dallara scores their first win as a chassis constructor in 2002.
Overall/Prototype: #10 Taylor/Taylor/Angelelli/Gordon Cadillac DPi-V-R-
Prototype
Challenge: #38 French/O'Ward/Masson/Boulle Oreca FLM 09 Chevrolet
GT Le Mans: #66 Mueller/Hand/Bourdais Ford GT
GT Daytona: #28 de Quesada/Morad/Lazare/de Quesada/Christensen Porsche 911 GT3R
The Performance Tech Racing team of James French, Patricio O'Ward, Kyle Masson, and Nick Boulle take the last victory lap in Prototype Challenge at the Rolex 24. Ford wins GT Le Mans in the #66 car with Dirk Mueller, Joey Hand, and Sebastien Bourdais. In GT Daytona, Alegra Motorsports triumphs, with Carlos de Quesada, Daniel Morad, Jesse Lazare, Michael de Quesada, and Michael Christensen.
What a moment this must be for the Wayne Taylor Racing team! The whole team brings the Cadillac into victory lane. Such an accomplishment, for all of the winners, to triumph in the Rolex 24 at Daytona. What a thrill this overall win must be for the Taylor brothers, for three-time Daytona 500 winner and four-time NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Champion, Jeff Gordon, and for Max Angelelli, to win his second Rolex 24, and win in his final race as a driver. One of the wildest, most amazing 24 hour races that yours truly has ever witnessed here at Daytona.
Well deserved celebrations in victory lane, as we hear about the amazing work done by the cameramen who bring us wonderful pictures on television, especially Ray Wentzel Jr., a.k.a. "Rooftop Ray", the lead overnight cameraman. We will see you, in five weeks, for the 65th edition of the 12 Hours of Sebring, the next great endurance event of the season, and the second part of what is collectively known as "The 36 Hours of Florida". There were some controversial non-decisions in this race. But, that being said, the majority of this event, was a well run race by IMSA. Decisions have to be appropriate.
That's all, from Daytona. We'll see you on the fabled runways of Sebring, for the 12 Hours, next month. So long for now, everyone.
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