The weather, has happened, and we are still under red, trying to get the track into a race ready condition of some kind. This is the final hour of the motor race of course. We cannot resume this motor race on Monday, if the race is called, or if the clock expires. We can barely see the coastline and the condominiums that exist there. So, the weather seems to be clearing. Maybe we can race for a few more minutes to finish this. We must give kudos to Race Control. If it goes pear shaped in Race Control, the winners will love it and the folks who lose will want to throw fruit at Race Control. Beau Barfield was a racing driver before being a Race Director. Safety first is the big deal, but it doesn't mean instantly hitting the panic button.
Can we just given a blanket Spirit of the Race Award? Flatbeds and tow trucks did a really good job recovering the cars earlier in the race. Give kudos to the race marshals and also the drivers of the tow trucks. Out of the box thinking always helps in endurance racing. We will reconvene in two weeks for the Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring, which will be a really good one. Folks, it's taken a really long time to write about this motor race. But, stay tuned in the coming weeks, because there will be wall to wall post-race coverage, and also, loads of news recapping Daytona and in the lead up to the Sebring race as well.
GRT Grasser are still at the top of the tree in GTD. Maybe, they will win it two years in a row. Rik Breukers won the Dubai 24 Hours in January. Can he and his co-drivers win again? In eight minutes, we shall get word from IMSA about what will happen. Again, this is the second red flag of the motor race within an hour and ten minutes of each other. Cadillac, Cadillac, Acura, BMW, Ferrari, Ford, and Mercedes, Audi, Lexus, are the top three brands in each class right now and of course all the LMP2 cars are identical. Oreca chassis with Gibson V8 engines. Everyone in a podium place will be extremely close, as they have been faced with close calls for the whole race and especially in these rainy daylight hours.
People will talk about the race stoppages and the weather, but that's the wrong approach. The long spells of green flag racing were amazing. Way too many yellows, but a memorable motor race for the right reasons. Some drivers have been rumored to race both the 1,000 Miles of Sebring for the FIA World Endurance Championship and the 12 Hours of Sebring, but that doesn't seem too likely. Stay tuned in the next two weeks to find out all of the information. Sebring is such a physically demanding race track, it's asking a whole lot of a driver. Plus, one program will be a priority over the other. Logistically, it also presents problems. It is raining even harder on the pit lane, as we have just 36 minutes to go now. The jet dryers are still drying the speedway.
The blistering pace of this race in the dry conditions will be the memorable part. The side by side battling with the DPi cars has been incredible. Outside overtakes have been stunning. This event is just getting better every single year. Where do we go next? We've got the rest of the season to look forward to, but think of where we'll be for another Rolex 24 in 2020. The condos have faded back into the grayness at the south and east ends of Daytona International Speedway, as the low cloud appears once again towards the far side of the raceway. We continue to wait for the official word from the marshals and IMSA.
Official vehicles are out on the circuit. Both of the medical vehicles are on the track. The jet dryer is down there, blowing the water away by the entrances of turn five and six and also on the tri oval, removing all the puddled water. There is also a jet dry at pit in. The weather is not playing ball here this afternoon and it's crunch time. Even if there was a restart, we'd only have a 24 minute sprint instead of a 24 hour race. Thanks to the spectators for staying and watching through this unbelievable weather. We salute the fans, we salute the corner workers, we salute the staff at Daytona International Speedway, and many more. A big thank you to IMSA and the officials as well.
Time is running out to make a decision about finishing this motor race. We have a full season of racing coming your way here on Endurance... The Sports Car Racing Blog, if yours truly is able to carve out time to blog about it. At the Lamborghini team, the pit crew is out on the wall, awaiting something to happen. WTR has their poker faces on. We await a decision and an update in this last 23 minutes. A strange combination of expectation and how much longer to wait. Everybody is keeping warm, dry, and calm as we may or may not go back to green flag racing. No one is on the flag stand as Kamui Kobayashi and Fernando Alonso are having a good time.
Both of them have really taken to this race, and were plug in and play with the WTR Cadillac team. The clock continues to tick away the minutes. It's raining harder now. The low cloud and mist are rolling in toward the edge of the airport. It's no use to try and get this motor race restarted, because we have just 20 minutes to go now. Ah. Someone is up on the flag stand, look. So, maybe we will get some running. But, we don't know yet. The weather might just have the final say on this one ladies and gentlemen.
Just ovr ten minutes to go as we await the confirmation this race is over. No time to fire the cars up. It's over. Wayne Taylor Racing wins! With eleven minutes to go, it's over! Wayne Taylor Racing and Cadillac, win! Fernando Alonso, Jordan Taylor, Renger van der Zande, and Kamui Kobayashi are the 2019 Rolex 24 at Daytona, champions! BMW wins GT Le Mans! BMW Team RLL and the M8 are victorious. Augusto Farfus, Connor De Philippi, Philipp Eng, and Colton Herta, can celebrate! A big shout out to Tom Blomqvist who wishes he could have been here to race.
So fitting, too, for BMW to win Daytona to celebrate the life and the memory of the late, great Charly Lamm, who was so much a part through his Schnitzer team of BMW's racing history. GRT Grasser Racing wins the GT Daytona class. Rolf Ineichen, Mirko Bortolotti, Christian Engelhart, and Rik Breukers win GT Daytona for Lamborghini!
Overall/DPi: #10 Taylor/van der Zande/Alonso/Kobayashi Cadillac DPi-V.R
LMP2: #18 Gonzalez/Maldonado/Saavedra/Cullen Oreca LMP2
GT Le Mans: #25 Farfus/De Philippi/Eng/Herta BMW M8 GT
GT Daytona: #11 Ineichen/Bortolotti/Engelhart/Breukers Lamborghini Huracan GT3
It's hard to understand the vision and the focus of these teams who get here to be able to win such an incredible motor race like the Rolex 24 at Daytona. Max Angelelli, team manager, has won this race as a driver, and now, he has won it as a team boss alongside Wayne Taylor, who also has two wins as a driver. Podium for Acura as well and for Team Penske. Official race time from IMSA is 23 hours and 50 minutes of the Rolex 24 at Daytona. The watches are handed out, and the celebrations can begin! To the winners, you deserve it.
We will see you, in a very short period of time, in just over two weeks, for the super weekend at Sebring Raceway, as the airfield circuit will play host to the 67th renewal of the 12 Hours of Sebring on Saturday, March 16th. But, also, don't forget, that the Friday before, to begin the super weekend, there will be the Michelin Pilot Challenge race which we shall cover at the end of March and also, the 1,000 Miles of Sebring for the FIA World Endurance Championship. So, you will get your endurance racing fix again, very, very soon.
For now, we bid you so long and farewell, from Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida.
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