We begin this 57th renewal of North America's greatest sports car race, with quoting a narrative by the great Sam Posey.
"To get to the infield at Daytona, you drive through a tunnel under the track. When you emerge from that tunnel, it is into a vast and silent space. You sense that things are done differently here. The shared passion is not only for fast cars and the brave men and women who drive them, but for a whole society that accepts hard work and all-niter's as a way of life. The banking is often called the signature of Daytona. Le Mans, the world's other famous 24 hour race, has nothing like it. Banked to a steep 31 degrees, four lanes wide, is a giant sculpture of earth and pavement, and as you drive it at 200 miles an hour, it's an experience you'll never forget. The infield comprises five turns that are flat and featureless. They look easy on a diagram. But, in real life, they have changes of curbing and track surface that cause small mistakes that become costly over 24 hours.
The most difficult turn is where the banking ends and the road course begins. An abrupt change of vectored forces. Roughly half the race is run at night and as the day fades, the pit lights are switched on, glaringly bright. Pit stops take about 30 seconds of violent action as the fuel is topped off and tires changed. The rules call for three drivers per car, and through the long night each in turn decides who is fastest of the three, fully aware that his reputation depends on it. The drivers are the best in the business. Hurley Haywood and Scott Pruett share the record for most wins here, with five each. This year, the world's top sports car drivers will face stars from Indy, NASCAR, and Formula 1. There are four classes, two for prototypes fighting for the overall win, and two for GT's which attract all the major manufacturers for a chance at the prestige conferred on their production cars for winning Daytona.
In this year's top GT class, BMW, Corvette, Ferrari, and Porsche will try to fight back against two-time defending champion, Ford. Dawn comes. The sun, rises pale over the horizon. It's cold, Florida cold. Cold when you expect it to be warm. Half a dozen cars are running well and in contention for the win. Each team has it's own plans and now is the time to see them play out. Who will choose to risk it all, while others will be patient? The 24 Hours of Daytona is 24 hours of dreams and fear. Dreams of winning one of the world's great races, and the fear of losing it. ...And while there are many ways to lose, there is only one way, to win."
A slight drop of rain, as we are on the formation laps before the start of the Rolex 24. Fans have come on a pilgrimage to Daytona as we begin the 2019 IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship season. The weather forecast is iffy. The Daytona Prototype International machines, the marquee division in IMSA, are on brand new Michelin tires this year for the first time. How will these automobile perfom on their new tires as this motor race gets underway? Of the eleven DPi machinnes in the field, six are Cadillac's, and they are at an advantage because of more cars and more available data for the race as it goes on. In LMP2, just four cars are entered. Oreca and Gibson and Michelin tires. The same car, same engine combination, and same tires, a spec class, has 24 hours to make it to the finish. Can any of the LMP2 cars, survive the upcoming test?
Two GT classes, as mentioned, GT Le Mans, and GT Daytona. GT Le Mans are the production factory dream cars we all want in our driveways. The spoiler could be the lone Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE, who have only this 24 hour race at Daytona, on their schedule for IMSA 2019. They want to win. They want to take the fight to the factory cars from Ford, Chevrolet, BMW, and Porsche. GT Daytona has the largest number of cars. 23 entries in the field, and new teams, cars, and driver combinations, plus evo kits. Who will be the quickest if the wet weather comes? Problems already for the #50 Juncos Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R. Not a good sign for the driving team of American Will Owen, sharing with Rene Binder of Austria, American Kyle Kaiser, and Argentinian driver Agustin Canapino, is in strife already.
IMSA is about to start their 50th season. We've already had two cracking races for Michelin Prototype Challenge (during the weekend of the Roar Before the 24 test), and the Michelin Pilot Challenge, on the Friday, for GT4 and TCR production cars. Are these stunning races a portent of things to come? Last year's race saw just four yellow flags, and the highest number of laps ever run, at 808 laps. We are ready to go racing, very soon. The cars form up into the tri oval. Take a deep breath, and get ready. The Audi safety car pulls off. We have a green flag, and are underway at Daytona!
Mazda is leading, after Oliver Jarvis broke a 26 year old track record set at the end of the IMSA Grand Touring Prototype era in 1993, by the Dan Gurney Eagle Toyota with P.J. Jones driving. There could have been a jumped start by the Mazda, but the second place Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac, car #10 gets absolutely mugged by the two Penske Acura's! The action in the Prototype classes at the sharp end is already hot and heavy into the first couple corners of the first lap! Settle down, lads. This is a 24 hour motor race. No need to go for it straight away and make a pig's breakfast out of your race right at the start. The #50 Juncos Racing Cadillac was cleared to trundle down pit lane and get on the track to join the other 46 cars in the race. A decent start so far and there's a huge scrum in GTLM at the moment with the Ford slotting ahead of the Corvette, and here comes Davide Rigon, taking the start in the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE.
Rigon, the Italian, is sharing with countryman Alessandro Pier Guidi, Briton James Calado, and from Spain, Miguel Molina. Juncos will not be penalized. The car did it's first formation lap. The GT Le Mans field seems to be tidying up and sorting itself out. The first lap is always the wildest one of the race. The start is clean, and fast. The #50 Cadillac is catching its way up to the GT Daytona field as Ben Keating leads the class in the retro liveried Wynn's #33 Mercedes AMG GT3. Keating, the American who owns the team, is sharing with regular co-driver, Dutchman Jeroen Bleekemolen, Luca Stolz from Germany, and Brazilian Felipe Fraga. Strangely, the #54 CORE Autosport Nissan DPI is dropping like a stone behind it's compatriots in the class. Jon Bennett, team and car owner is at the wheel of it right now. He will share with fellow American Colin Braun, Romain Dumas of France, and Loic Duval, also of France.
The two DragonSpeed Oreca's lead LMP2. Mexico's Roberto Gonzalez has started the #18 machine ahead of Australian James Allen who is the first driver into the #81 car. Gonzalez is sharing with Venezuela's Pastor Maldonado, a man who raced in Formula 1 and won one Grand Prix, Colombia's Sebastian Saavedra, who has raced in IndyCar's and sports cars, and Irishman Ryan Cullen. The gap is growing between the two DragonSpeed machines. Juan Pablo Montoya in the #6 Acura sets a new lap record at 1:36.118, passing by team mate Ricky Taylor in the #7 Acura. The marshals in race control have declared the start safe. Oliver Jarvis leads the motor race in it's early stages, and he has a clear track ahead of him, which isn't expected to last very long as lapped traffic always plays it's part in these long distance races.
Oliver Jarvis is now beginning to catch up with the back markers at the rear of the field. The infield section is much more technical than people give it credit for. The lap record times are beginning to fall, in all of the classes. James Allen, Earl Bamber in the #912 Porsche 911 RSR, and Ben Keating, set fastest laps. Ben Keating now leads GT Daytona in the Mercedes over the Ferrari of class polesitter, Marcos Gomes. Gomes is the lead driver for Via Italia Racing in their Ferrari 488 GT3, which, despite it's name, is Brazilian. Gomes is sharing the car with fellow Brazilian's Chico Longo and Victor Franzoni, along with veteran Ferrari endurance driver, Andrea Bertolini from Italy. Oh dear. Some off course grass tracking for the Grasser Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 in GTD.
Oliver Jarvis has broken into the 1:35 range for lap times, which beats the existing lap record here at Daytona, set in 2018, by about a second or so. Oliver Gavin, meanwhile, has taken the GT Le Mans class lead away from Nick Tandy. It's Corvette vs. Porsche in these very early stages. Check that, it's Jan Magnussen in the #3 Corvette. Now, Richard Westbrook in the #67 Ford GT, wearing the Castrol livery made famous by Jaguar in their 1988 victory here at Daytona, when Ford owned the company, has also been driving really quickly. Briscoe runs a 1:43.611. The gap is closing between Ford and Porsche. Corvette, Porsche, Porsche, Ford, BMW. Now, Ben Keating still leads GT Daytona, but at a 1:45.5, Marcos Gomes is fast, and he's closed up on Ben Keating completely, look.
Jan Magnussen was 2018 champion, but failed to win a single race dating back to 1999. 2012 was the year he also failed to win a race. John Edwards and Connor De Philippi, have started both of the BMW M8 GTE's and they are running at the rear of the GTLM field right now. Edwards, the American shares with Jesse Krohn of Finland, and Australia's Chaz Mostert, and the biggest story of this weekend, is the return of the legend, Italy's Alex Zanardi, racing for the first time in North America, since losing his legs in a savage accident in an IndyCar at the Eurospeedway Lausitzring in Germany, in September of 2001.
1:35.453 is Oliver Jarvis' best lap of the race so far and the gap from first to second is steady at 1.8 seconds. We are only ten minutes into the race. Cadillac's #5 and #84 are scrapping for position. Stephen Simpson has started #84 and Filipe Albuquerque is aboard the #5 car. The driver's in car #5 all speak the same language. Albuquerque from Portugal, as is his team mate Joao Barbosa, and the third driver, in his final start before retiring, is Christian Fittipaldi of Brazil, a man with experience in Formula 1, IndyCar, stock cars, and sports cars. Stephen Simpson, the South African, is sharing the first of the two "Banana Boat" Cadillac's for JDC-Miller Motorsports, with Simon Trummer from Switzerland, American Chris Miller, and Colombia's Juan Piedrahita.
The AXR Cadillac was unable to qualify due to a brake problem. Now, we have debris on the circuit. It's a plastic bag, a grocery bag of some kind. You don't want debris like that blocking an air intake. We have an early pit caller as well in the form of Alfred Renauer in the #99 NGT Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3R. That lineup, is a German speaking quintet, with Renauer being the starting driver, sharing with fellow German's Juergen Haring, Sven Mueller, and Steffen Goerig, along with Austrian Klaus Bachler. There's work going on on the right front of the Porsche.
NGT is working with Herberth Motorsport, a veteran of the FIA/Creventic endurance races. Juan Pablo Montoya and Ricky Taylor are second and third for Acura with their throwback livery to the Comptech Racing Acura GTP car of the early 1990s. Roger Penske wants to be successful in this race. They had a fraught event last year. Now, the NGT Porsche has some debris in the radiator. Now, Nick Tandy is 4/10ths behind Jan Magnussen, as Tandy has the welly down trying to pressurize the Corvette. As this is happening, we see Filipe Albuquerque also applying the blowtorch to the competition, lowering fastest lap to 1:35.160, with barely 15 minutes on the board.
Oliver Jarvis continues to lead, and he is making his way by some of the slower GT Daytona cars putting laps on them. Jarvis passes the #19 Moorespeed Audi R8 LMS GT3 with Andrew Davis at the wheel of it. Davis, is sharing with fellow American Will Hardeman, as well as Spaniard Alex Riberas, and the experienced German Audi driver, Markus Winkelhock. If you are slow and being overtaken, stay low. Don't impede the faster cars coming by on the high side of the banking in the tri oval. Get used to thick traffic. Fewer cars start this race than they used to. Back in the '70s, '80s, and '90s, there'd be fields of anywhere between 50-80 cars. But, that has lessened dramatically over the years.
Oliver Jarvis continues to lead and must be reactive to traffic. The #77 Mazda is having radio issues. The messages are being lost in translation, somewhere, as the #99 Porsche makes its way to the garage. #99 is being driven into the paddock for repairs. Bits and pieces have been packing up on that new Porsche. Not a good way to start this motor race, and the Renauer brothers are not having a good debut in their first Rolex 24. Also running well is the retro Audi Sport liveried Starworks Motorsport Audi R8. This team has another strong international driver lineup. American Parker Chase, shares with Scotsman Ryan Dalziel, a familiar name to sports car racing fans, Ezequiel Perez Companc from Argentina, and another German Audi veteran, Christopher Haase. Filipe Albuquerque is up to sixth, passing Jordan Taylor who has started the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R.
The DPi cars are fighting their way through a very competitive GTD field, and fight is the operative word as Juan Pablo Montoya nearly clouts one of the Acura NSX GT3's! That was scary, through the Bus Stop! That is the #86 Meyer Shank Racing Acura with Trent Hindman at the wheel of it. Hindman is sharing with A.J. Allmendinger, Justin Marks, and Mario Farnbacher. The GT Daytona cars are very quick in a straight line. Oh dear! Problems from DragonSpeed and the #18 of Roberto Gonzalez. He has a flat left front tire, on the NASCAR banking! The tire rub is a legacy of earlier contact. Meanwhile, you have to have eyes on the back of your head to not miss the action. Montoya is reeling in Jarvis, look. Jarvis defends the lead.
The sister Mazda and sister Acura are just a few seconds down the road. The two "banana boat" JDC-Miller Cadillac's are getting closer to one another and Tristan Vautier is consistently catching Stephen Simpson, as the #18 car has made it's way back to pit lane. The front bodywork is being replaced after the left front corner was crumpled. We watch GTD cars battle and also, the Cadillac's, the aforementioned "banana boat" machines, as Roberto Gonzalez is undergoing repairs. Alfred Renauer is now out of the garage and back into pit lane with the #99 Porsche. The car has gone back out again.
Roberto Gonzalez was biffed from behind by another car it seems. Elton Julian raced in Formula 3 at one time. So, Oliver Jarvis is leading Juan Montoya and Ricky Taylor. Jonathan Bomarito has the sister Mazda in fourth overall. Jan Magnussen holds the lead in GT Le Mans ahead of the Porsche's and Marcus Gomez has put the Via Italia Ferrari into the lead ahead of Ben Keating in the Mercedes Benz, and Keating actually has gone ahead by 1/4 of a second. Correction, Gomez has gone past Keating. Trent Hindman is four seconds in-arrears. Rolf Ineichen is next up in the GRT - Grasser Racing Lamborghini. The #50 Cadillac is still running. The #99 Porsche had a broken splitter. The NGT pit crew actually fixed that. We are 25 minutes into the race as Oliver Jarvis continues to lead.
James Allen continues to lead LMP2. Jan Magnussen has the GT Le Mans lead. Again, the #13 Ferrari leads GT Daytona. Jarvis has a second advantage on Juan Montoya. We've run 16 laps, 57 miles. James Allen has been running well in the #81 car as Earl Bamber is in the lane for a scheduled pit stop. It seems like it's a scheduled stop, but they are also doing a front brake pad change. The mechanics are earning their money in the Rolex 24 already. Earl Bamber may go a lap down in class, and he has done so. Both of the GT Daytona and GT Le Mans Porsche's are having front splitter issues. The splitter is the piece under the bumper of the car at the front. Soon, the #77 Mazda may hit the pit lane.
The stint lengths have not been calculated properly just yet. Jarvis stays on track. DPi fuel range will be at 40 minutes, and well, there 'tis, the #55 Mazda is in the lane for a standard pit stop, look. Cleaning the windscreen, and changing one tire. That's all they needed. But, it's a bit of a delay for Jonathan Bomarito, but not too bad. DragonSpeed pits, as James Allen is at the wheel, and the second place LMP2 machine, the #52 PR1/Mathiasen car with Gabriel Aubry driving, is also in the pits. Aubry, the Frenchman, who is a regular in the FIA World Endurance Championship, is sharing with countryman Enzo Guibbert, and American's Matt McMurry and Mark Kvamme. Taking over the class lead will be the #38 car, the Performance Tech Motorsports entry. Sharing that car is are American's, father and son Robert and Kyle Masson, and Kris Wright, along with Canadian driver, Cameron Cassels.
Jan Magnussen and Nick Tandy continue leading GTLM and Mazda #77 in the lane, along with the #6 Acura. Both JDC-Miller Cadillac's are in the lane. Juan Pablo Montoya gets fuel and tires, and stays in the car. Stephen Simpson stays in car #84. #77, #6, and #7 are 1-2-3. #85 will be blocked in the pit lane, but both cars have the air jacks pulled out and they head back on track. The two Penske Acura's are ten pit boxes apart. If the Penske Acura's come in together, both have an empty pit lane in front of them as we see a great scrap between Montoya and the Mazda as the Nissan, #54 for CORE Autosport is in the lane, with it's historic livery from the '80s-'90s and the NPTI Nissan team.
DPi and P2 cars pit together, and the GT cars pit together (GTLM and GTD). Oliver Jarvis is weaving around on the road, trying his best to get heat into the new set of sticker Michelin tires. Meanwhile, the #5 Action Express Cadillac is in the lane as well. Ditto for the #10 Cadillac. Filipe Albuquerque is now right behind Felipe Nasr, the first chap into the #31 as the Juncos Cadillac is snow on the infield doing some agricultural racing. Augustin Canapino has an off course excursion out of the west horseshoe.
Nick Tandy is closing on Jan Magnussen in GTLM. He may have a better car at this stage of the race as we are still very, very early in the going, with a little over 23 hours to go in this Rolex 24. They brake very deeply and very late into the Bus Stop, riding over the flat yet serrated curbs. Tandy has the draft in the tri oval, but, Jan Magnussen, going toward turn one on the road course section, slams the door in Tandy's face. Tandy is determined. The Corvette's rear tires might not be working. A penalty from the stewards is assessed for the #38. They were dinged by the stewards for using electronic tools during refueling. The Corvette will definitely have a power and torque advantage down the straight, but be less nimble than the Porsche through the twisty bits.
Tandy moves past one of the GTD Lamborghini's. That is the #47 PPM (Precision Performance Motorsports) Lamborghini Huracan GT3. American Don Yount is at the wheel of it, sharing with fellow American Steve Dunn, Linus Lundqvist from Sweden, and Milos Pavlovic from Switzerland. Magnussen has reeled Nick Tandy back in, with a faster exit speed onto the banking. Problems for the sister factory Porsche in GTLM. Earl Bamber is a lap down, and is undergoing repairs to his machine. Troubles with the front bumper, again. They have a second bumper, and the bar that holds the nose to the car is in a bit of trouble.
Acura runs 1-2 at the moment as Ricky Taylor has boxed in Oliver Jarvis, and has gone past, as has Juan Pablo Montoya. The Acura's may be able to manage their tires a tad better than do the Mazda's. Porsche #912 is still down in pit lane. The bits are not going together properly, to bolt the front clip to the car. They cannot get the nose square. Is one of the mounting points broken? A new nose actually does get fitted to the car, and Earl Bamber can go back on his way. Wow. That was drama to be sure. Meanwhile, the sister Porsche is still on track with Nick Tandy still at the controls. Meantime, Juan Montoya and Ricky Taylor are two and a half seconds apart. Jonathan Bomarito is in the #55 Mazda at the moment. A major scrap continues in GT Le Mans. BMW, Ferrari, Corvette, and Ford are all in it. Multi-class racing is showcased at it's finest in IMSA.
The GT Daytona cars are now pitting. The first car into the lane is the #46 Ebimotors Lamborghini Huracan GT3 in the hands of Giacomo Altoe of Italy. He is sharing with countrymen Emanuelle Busnelli and Fabio Babini, along with Amrican driver, Taylor Proto. Another of the Lamborghini's has also taken the opportunity to dive for pit lane, the #44 Magnus Racing entry, which used to run the Audi R8. American drivers spearhead that lineup with John Potter, Andy Lally, and Spencer Pumpelly (all familiar names to IMSA fans), and Italian Lamborghini star, Marco Mapelli. Mapelli is someone we've seen in the Blancpain GT Europe Endurance Cup and Intercontinental GT Challenge over the last number of years.
Jan Magnussen pits Corvette #3. Pitting too, is the #66 Motorcraft liveried Ford GT paying tribute to the 1985 Jack Roush Ford Mustang's that won here, in the first of what was ultimately nine straight wins for Roush at Daytona except for 1994, when they didn't compete, and a Nissan 300ZX for Cunningham Racing won overall, not just in class. Pit stop time again as well, look, for the #33 Wynn's liveried Mercedes, paying homage, in GTD, to the Hotchkis Racing, purple Wynn's Porsche 962 that raced in IMSA in the early 1990s in the hands of John Hotchkis and Jim Adams. Ferrari #13 is also in the lane.
Trouble for the Park Place Porsche 911 GT3R, as they were boxed in by Grasser and their Lamborghini, and the #9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R, also in GTD, in the hands of Canadian drivers Scott Hargrove and Zacharie Robichon, sharing with Lars Kern of Germany and Dennis Olsen of Norway. Hargrove, the 2018 champion in Blancpain GT America, has made the move over to IMSA for the full season in 2019. Corvette in the lane as well, and so is a slow moving #71 P1 Racing Mercedes AMG GT3. The cars are boxed in so, so close together in the lane here at Daytona.
Pit lane action is fast and frantic in the GT classes. Oliver Gavin is still in the #4 Corvette and the #25 BMW M8 GT should have Brazilian Augusto Farfus behind the wheel. A mechanic was repairing something underneath the dashboard of the #71 Mercedes AMG GT3. J.C. Perez at the wheel of the car, right now. But, they have a couple of problems. Wheels spinning while the car is on the air jacks is a penalty, and so, they will have to serve it, and there is bodywork damage on that Mercedes AMG GT3 as well. J.C. Perez is at the wheel of it, the Colombian driver, sharing with German Mercedes factory aces Maximilian Buhk and Fabian Schiller, and Austrian Dominik Baumann.
The #62 Ferrari almost ran into the BMW coming off pit lane. Connor De Philippi vs. James Calado. If you are in an ailing car and can't reach the 60 mile per hour speed limit, you should not be diving for the pit lane. 60 kilometers per hour (37 miles per hour), pardon. The #47 PPM Lamborghini was in the lane, and the fuel hose got yanked out of the housing! Holy cow! That could have been a fuel fire waiting to happen. In the meantime, Ford #67 with Ryan Briscoe at the controls, is headed for the garage. The Mazda's are virtually tied together and they still are, as are the two Acura's. First and second for Acura, and then, third and fourth for Mazda, and fifth and sixth for both the Action Express Cadillac's, all within three seconds of each other.
Ryan Cullen is about take over in the #18 DragonSpeed car, and the #48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 gets dinged for speeding in the lane. That car is being shared by Bryan Sellers, Ryan Hardwick, Corey Lewis, and Andrea Caldarelli. Acura, Acura, Mazda, Mazda are the top four in the DPi class, before a whole phalanx of Cadillac's is followed by the lone Nissan, the retro liveried CORE Autosport racer. Jon Bennett has been passed by the #50 Cadillac, of Augustin Canapino. Canapino ran a 1:35.3 lap. Canapino is 29 years old, in his first North American race, after racing in his native Argentina. Ricardo Juncos, the team owner, is also from Argentina.
Juncos has been successful in the IndyCar championship and for the first time, are turning their attention, too, to IMSA racing. Tremendous amounts of clag, (balled up rubber from the tires), being tossed up from the pavement onto the windshield, like squash balls hitting the sides of the court. Rain could be coming. Quite a few cars are using soft compound Michelin tires it seems. Soft compound tires could be becoming the order of the day fairly soon, but many drivers are settling into the rhythm as this motor race is just starting. New fastest lap in GT Le Mans as John Edwards sets new fastest lap.
Whoops! The Castrol liveried Ford GT, Richard Westbrook, does his interpretation of a Swiss roll, spinning the car through turn six, transitioning back onto the NASCAR high banks. He has spun on his out lap, due to cold tires. It was a quarter spin as he drifted sideways. The rear end didn't want to stick to the pavement. #67 has had a litany of issues in the first hour. Juan Pablo Montoya runs consistent 1:36 lap times, still in the lead, and Filipe Albuquerque has passed Felipe Nasr in the #31 Cadillac. Jordan Taylor in the #10 Cadillac is caboose on the pack of cars in DPi that are running between first and seventh in the overall right now.
Poor old Jonathan Bomarito in the Mazda is balked by the Ford GT and gets swept up by a whole bunch of cars, losing places on the road, hand over fist! The leaders are together on track, look, and Oliver Jarvis, he wants to make a move, but discretion might be the better part of valor at this juncture in the motor race. Keep it on the black stuff, chaps. This is a cracking start to a Rolex 24. 23 long, tough hours still to go.
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