We are live, at Daytona International Speedway, for the blue ribbon race of the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship, the Rolex 24 at Daytona, where the drivers who complete the most distance in 24 hours and win the race, shall receive one of racing's greatest prizes, the Rolex chronograph wristwatch which was initially designed for the space program, but is now one of the most coveted trophies in motor racing. 3.56 miles of track including the banking of the tri oval for the stock cars. We will have almost 13 and a half hours of darkness here at Daytona, which is equal to the same amount in the Dubai 24 Hours that was run, oh, about three or so weeks ago. We have the smallest field of cars in history for the event, at just 38 strong, but that may mean that traffic, though still of the utmost importance, will maybe be slightly less of an issue than in past years.
Grand Marshal, Christian Fittipaldi gives the command, "ladies and gentlemen, start your engines!" No time for anything else other than racing. We have good weather, and a wonderfully close race on tap. Watch the DPi cars. The night will be particularly cool. The cars roll off behind the safety car. We are looking at a fast, frenetic pace. The character of this race has changed as the reliability has gone up leaps and bounds. Flat out, pedal to the metal, all the way. No saving the car like in years past. Look after the traffic, get through the night, be there towards the end of the motor race. Keep the penalties to an absolute minimum. These are the keys to winning at Daytona.
The sun looks glorious above the Daytona high banks. We love to see 24:00:00 on the clock. We're set to race another Rolex 24. This is going to be mega, folks. Hello to everybody in Australia. We feel your pain, having gone through the wildfires, and we'll see you, actually, this weekend, for the Bathurst 12 Hours. Look for coverage from Bathurst, soon after yours truly is able to write about this great race at Daytona. Put aside the worries of daily life, and enjoy one of the great races in the world. The pole sitting Mazda has a new livery and a new sponsor from Idemitsu, a Japanese engine additive product.
Mazda wants to finish, and wants to run at the front, unlike they could last year. It is all on the line, now as we watc the new Porsche 911 RSR-19, a car that has run since September in Silverstone, England in the opening race of the FIA World Endurance Championship. Let's see how the new car deals with 24 hours. The field of 38 cars is lined up, two by two, in Noah's Ark formation. We're ready for a green flag. Oliver Jarvis, starting the #77 Mazda RT24P brings them down slowly towards the flag. Floor it! The 58th Rolex 24 at Daytona, is underway!
Oliver Jarvis leads into turn one and has one of the Penske Racing Acura's for company. Felipe Nasr has started the #31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac. This is a car, yours truly has a particular interest in, and you shall find out more about that, in another series of blog entries, specifically relating to how the race went for the #31 team, coming soon. Felipe Nasr is now right on top of Juan Pablo Montoya who is starting the #6 Acura. Nasr in the Whelen Cadillac, sharing with Mike Conway, Pipo Derani, and Filipe Albuquerque. Oliver Jarvis has opened up half a second on Juan Pablo Montoya in the lead battle of Mazda vs. Acura. Montoya is sharing in a three-driver team with Dane Cameron and Simon Pagenaud in the #6.
The field heads for the west end of the speedway, up out of turn six and onto the banking. Oliver Jarvis is your leader, sharing the #77 Mazda with Tristan Nunez and Olivier Pla. Jarvis is motoring away from the rest of the field and has a gap of 1.4 seconds already, look. The scrap for second and third is truly on. Ben Keating has the early advantage in LMP2 and Nick Tandy leads GT Le Mans. Behind the Mazda, we see Ryan Briscoe in the #10 Konica Minolta Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac that he is sharing with Renger van der Zande, Scott Dixon, and Kamui Kobayashi. In GTLM, the new #3 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R, the mid engine Corvette, is very much the meat in a Porsche sandwich.
Nick Tandy leads in class, with Antonio Garcia in second spot, and third place belongs to the second factory Porsche, with Laurens Vanthoor starting the car. Ben Keating is indeed leading LMP2. Three of the four brand new GTLM cars are right in there. Good to see some clean racing right away. Ben Keating is 4.3 seconds ahead of second place LMP2 runner, Henrik Hedman. It's PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports vs. Dragonspeed in LMP2 with all the cars being identical French Oreca chassis' with the British Gibson Technologies 4.2 liter normally aspirated V8 in them. Keating, the American auto dealer is sharing with Frenchman Gabriel Aubry, Simon Trummer of Switzerland, and American Nick Boulle.
We hear that there is trouble for the GT Daytona polesitter, as there is a radio problem for the #9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R of Zachary Robichon. He can hear them, they can't hear him. Use hand signals. But the truth is, "Zachary, no texting and driving." Antonio Garcia is moving up in GTLM and rightly, Dwight Merriman, the starting driver in the #18 Era Motorsports Oreca Gibson LMP2, has courteously let them pass. Merriman, the only American on that team, sharing with British drivers Kyle Tilley and Ryann Lewis, and the vastly experienced Frenchman, Nic Minassian. Seven different brands in the top seven in GT Daytona right now.
We follow the #14 AVS Lexus RC F GT3 with Parker Chase at the controls, currently, sharing with NASCAR champion Kyle Busch, Michael de Quesada, and Briton Jack Hawksworth. GT Daytona cars draft past each other on the back straight. GT Daytona cars are the entry level to IMSA, but they are very significantly aerodynamic, as full on GT3 cars. Jeff Westphal in the #63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GT3, is gaining on the #96 Turner Motorsports BMW M6 GT3, Robby Foley at the controls for the start. Westphal is flying right now, sharing with fellow American Cooper MacNeil, Alessandro Balzan of Italy, and Finland's Toni Vilander.
The BMW mentioned earlier, Foley is sharing that automobile with BMW legend Bill Auberlen, German sports car ace Jens Klingman, and American sports car driver, Dillon Machavern. The new Porsche 911 RSR 19 has side mounted exhaust and a bigger 4.2 liter motor. The new Corvette C8.R still has the 5.5 liter V8 but now that engine is in the rear of the car, the middle of it, and has a flat plane crankshaft, changing the engine note completely. Ben Keating has a 13 second lead in LMP2 over Cameron Cassels and Henrik Hedman. Oliver Jarvis has clear sailing, but he'll be getting to lapped traffic soon.
We've been racing for ten minutes now and Oliver Jarvis' lead has shrunk just a bit. 1:39.180 for Ben Keating in ninth overall. Ricky Taylor crashed heavily during qualifying on Thursday. Taylor has made his way past Joao Barbosa in the #5 Cadillac, the JDC-Miller entry. The field is bunched together right now even with 38 cars on track. Oliver Jarvis is right on top of the GTD traffic into the west hairpin and through turn six. Faster cars go to the top of the banking. The #54 car was destroyed in an accident, and Wright Motorsports donated their spare car for the Black Swan team. The boys did a great job fixing the car.
Felipe Nasr wants a bite of the cherry, racing Juan Pablo Montoya. Montoya isn't about to give up. He's pushing, pushing, pushing. Ben Keating is indeed flying right now. Dwight Merriman, has passed the GT Le Mans leading Porsche. Phillip Eng in the #25 BMW has slid three or so seconds behind the Porsche's. Alessandro Pier Guidi is caboose on the field in GT Le Mans and is content to stay there. Eng, the Austrian, sharing with American's Connor De Philippi and Colton Herta, and the veteran Canadian Bruno Spengler, former DTM champion, racing full-time this season for BMW in IMSA. Ryan Briscoe comes out of the International Horseshoe into the dogleg, and he is carving his way through GT Daytona traffic.
15 minutes in the bag. Zachary Robichon leads GTD over Robby Foley and Jeff Westphal. Porsche, Corvette, Porsche, BMW, Corvette, Ferrari in GTLM. Ben Keating leads LMP2 and Oliver Jarvis leads Juan Montoya and Felipe Nasr in DPi. A scrum is developing in seventh and eighth overall between Ricky Taylor and Joao Barbosa. 38 sets of tires for DPi cars, from the very start of FP1 on Thursday. It is the IMSA Michelin medium compound tires. 38 sets of tires for LMP2, 37 sets for GTLM with different compounds, and 30 sets of the Michelin S8M tire for GTD. 2 hours per driver for DPi and GTLM, four and a half hours maximum for LMP2 and GTD. No more than 13 and a half hours can be accumulated in the race by any one driver.
Ben Keating can run LMP2 now, then, GT Daytona for the overnight, and back to LMP2 for the daylight hours on Sunday. Spencer Pumpelly has run fastest in GTD at 1:47 dead. Pumpelly has been moving up well, aboard the #44 Flex Box GRT Magnus Lamborghini Huracan GT3 after not being able to participate in Thursday night qualifying. Pumpelly, sharing with Italian Lamborghini and Audi ace Marco Mapelli, and fellow Americans John Potter and Andy Lally. The gearbox packed up even with zero mileage on it. Juan Pablo Montoya is cartving his way through GT traffic at the moment. He is opening a gap over the #31 Whelen Cadillac, Felipe Nasr at the controls.
Ryan Briscoe dives past Phillip Eng into the tricky braking zone of turn one, coming down off the tri oval. You are trying to slow down and turn into the apex, and it's tough to do if you aren't careful. Which side do you take without hitting your competitor? Briscoe is on a mission to catch the #55 Mazda, with Jonathan Bomarito at the controls. Multi class racing is amazing. Yours truly loves it. There's always something to watch as we see Oliver Jarvis continuing to lead the motor race. Mazda wants to win the Rolex 24. They have been close before.
Mazda won three races last year. Now, ladies and gentlemen, we've got a battle on our hands, look. Side by side in the banking, it's Juan Pablo Montoya in the #6 Penske Acura ARX05 vs. Felipe Nasr in the #31 Whelen Engineering Racing/Action Express Cadillac DPi-V.R. Who is the brave soul into the Bus Stop? Nasr dives in, wriggles inside Juan Pablo Montoya and makes the pass for second spot. Can Nasr catch the Mazda? There's a four and a half second gap between the two of them. The #25 BMW of Philip Eng has been passed by the #4 Corvette C8.R of Tommy Milner. Alesandro Pier Guidi is next in the #62 Risi Ferrari. No change yet in GT Daytona except for Trent Hindman passing Frankie Montecalvo. So, that is a battle between the #57 Heinricher MSR Acura and the #12 AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus.
#57 is being shared by Hindman, A.J. Allmendinger, Misha Goikhberg, and Alvaro Parente. Zachary Robichon is gapping Robby Foley by 3.6 seconds as Jeff Westphal is next followed by Trent Hindman and Frankie Montecalvo. We have run just 18 laps, 64 miles so far. Juan Montoya has lost time to Felipe Nasr. Jarvis leads Nasr by 4.7 seconds. New car teething issues are to be expected and the Corvette folks know this. This track at Daytona is so much harder to drive than it looks. Ford struggled when they debuted the GT here in 2016. If you win in the first year of a new car, that's quite the gold star on your CV. But there's a long, long way to go.
Nick Tandy has 8/10ths of a second over Antonio Garcia who set a 1:43.6 fastest lap in the class so far. Pit stop time for the #55 Mazda, the Soul Red Crystal paiunted machine. Jonathan Bomarito stays in the casr which has a lot of dirt on it already. The front of the car looks like it's been sandblasted by dust already. Philip Eng has now passed Tommy Milner back again as John Farano in the #8 Tower Motorsports by Starworks car, ahead of Cameron Cassels. We'll talk more about Farano's efforts in a wee while, as we have the #77 Mazda in the pit lane for service. No driver change for the #77. Just a full service pit stop on the cards for the time being.
Oliver Jarvis stays behind the wheel. Meanwhile, both Penske Racing Acura's are in the pit lane as well. #6 and #7 are in. The #77 is very dirty, and is being cleaned up. There's crud all over the car. The #19 Gear Motorsport Lamborghini needed oil. Christina Nielsen has started the car, for the all female Girl Empowerment Auto Racing team. The Danish GT veteran, she shares the car with Katherine Legge from Great Britain, Tatiana Calderon from Venezuela, and Rahel Frey from Switzerland. Felipe Nasr is leading the motor race and he is due to hit the pit lane. There may be extra work necesdsary.
Fuel and tires are into and on the car, and the #38 Performance Tech LMP2 is in the lane, and so is the #85 JDC-Miller Cadillac, anjd the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Konica Minolta Cadillac. The #31 car is very clean although like others, car #10 is already very dirty. We will see a shorter stint this time and it will be extended as the race goes on. The #5 JDC-Miller Cadillac is the last DPi car to make it's first scheduled stop. This is the first time the #5 car has not been run by Action Express. Joao Barbosa at the wheel of it. Again, speaking of Action Express, you shall hear more, in future posts, about how their race came out.
New boots for the #5 car, and a slight cleaning of the windshield. We hear from Gerard Neveu, boss of the FIA World Endurance Championship, and of course, you have seen the announcement of the new LMDh platform for global sports car racing, here, and around the world, to be introduced during 2021 and 2022. We look forward to that new era beginning. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, this motor race continues. We are so, so excited to see the convergence between the ACO and IMSA. The car count will increase I am sure both here and in Europe. Can't wait to hear more about it at Sebring for the next race on the calendar, in March.
40 minutes done and dusted. GTLM should pit and the LMP2 cars may have already done so. No major changes in DPi as the #77 Mazda leads by 2.6 seconds over the #31 Cadillac, Felipe Nasr at the wheel of it. Juan Montoya is reeling in the Brazilian. Acura #7 has gained and passed the #10 and #85 Cadillac's as well as the #5 Cadillac. Ben Keating's lead is massive in LMP2. The gap between first and second has halved between Oliver Jarvis and Felipe Nasr at this particular moment. The GTLM sandwich is still there. No one has taken a bite out of it yet. It remains Porsche, Corvette, Porsche.
You've not missed a thing in GTD either. Robichon continues to lead over Foley and Westphal. Five seconds between the top three in DPi. Ben Keating has cleared away from his rivals in LMP2. He is ahead of all the GTLM cars and Cameron Cassels has moved into second place over Ben Hanley. The #81 DragonSpeed car may catch up. The #62 Ferrari 488 GTE headed for pit lane earlier than the rest of the GTLM contenders. Antonio Garcia is still trying to reel in Nick Tandy, putting a lap on Matt McMurry in the #86 MSR Acura NSX GT3. McMurry, the American, sharing with Mario Farnbacher of Germany, Shinya Michimi of Japan, and Jules Gounon of France.
Pit stop time for Jeff Westphal. Cooper MacNeil will take over from Jeff Westphal. BMW #25 is in the lane and so is the #4 Corvette, the silver car. Eng stays in the car and new Michelin tires as well. Pit stop time, too for the #96 BMW M6 GT3 and Nick Tandy in the #911 Porsche. Tandy went from the transition lane into the fast lane of the pit too soon. The #19 Lamborghini is in, getting a new steering wheel, and oil shall be added. Christina Nielsen is out of the car. Not sure which of the other ladies will be taking over. We'll see. Oliver Jarvis has put in his best lap so far at 1:35.74. Porsche is in, with Laurens Vanthoor. Both leading GTLM cars are in the lane.
Porsche's pit crew are behind the eight ball. Some of their crew members, are back at the hotel, sick with a stomach bug. Feel better, boys. Your team needs you if you can make it. The #74 Riley Motorsports Mercedes AMG GT3 is now in the pit lane, too. Gar Robinson staying in the car for a double stint, and the team has a spot of bother with the air jack not properly lifting the car off the ground. Robinson is sharing with Ben Keating, Lawson Aschenbach, and the rapid Brazilian GT driver, Felipe Fraga. New Michelin tires and a full fuel tank. Last time Gar Robinson raced here, it was in a Porsche.
Lexus #12 is in the lane. Frankie Montecalvo will do a double stint. They await the #14 sister car at AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus. Parker Chase is in the sister car, doing a full season with AVS. Fuel and tires for Lamborghini, for both the #48 Paul Miller Racing entry of Madison Snow, and the #44 GRT Magnus car. We mentioned earlier, the driving team in the #44. In the #48, the foursome is Madison Snow, Bryan Sellers, Corey Lewis, and Andrea Caldarelli, the Italian Lamborghini veteran, sharing with the three veteran American drivers. Pit stop time too, for the #9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche, Zachary Robichon will stay in for a double stint. They were doing tire changes during Friday Free Practice 4. They will be balked by the #47 PPM Lamborghini. Robichon almost clips a tire left out by the PPM boys. That would have been a bugaboo for Pfaff without a doubt.
#47, on the driver's strength for that team are three American drivers, Brandon Gdovic, Mark Kvamme, and Eric Lux, joined as a late addition, by Briton Jonathan Hoggard who was supposed to be in an LMP2 car for Rick Ware Racing which was withdrawn from the motor race. No penalties, no mistakes, and near contact on the road, look, between the #86 Acura and the #12 Lexus in GTD! Yikes! Sanity has prevailed there. No argy bargy. Thank goodness. Philip Eng has moved the BMW M8 GTE up to third in GT Le Mans just behind both of the Porsche's. James Calado is next, and followed by Antonio Garcia and John Edwards, with the #4 Corvette C8.R bringing up the rear of the GT Le Mans field. We have run 33 laps, 117 miles. Three wiude on the banking with the GTD and GTLM cars.
This is all through the tri oval and into turn one. The GT Daytona cars are flying, and are equal to GTLM on the tri oval. The GT3 cars are very quick indeed. Pedro Lamy has taken over the #98 Aston Martin for Aston Martin Racing. This is the Aston Martin Vantage GT3, that the former Formula 1 racer and sports car veteran is driving. Lamy, from Portugal is sharing with Austrian Mathias Lauda, son of Formula 1 champion, the late, great Niki Lauda, Briton Ross Gunn, and as a late addition to the car, FIA World Endurance Championship competitor for Aston Martin, Andrew Watson. Zachary Robichon continues to lead in GT Daytona.
Tommy Milner has lost some time in GTLM. Oliver Jarvis has slowed to a 1:39.6 lap time. He's been running in the 1:35-1:36 range. Felipe Nasr wants a bite of the cherry, and is gaining on one O. Jarvis. Ricky Taylor in the #7 Acura is ahad of Ryan Briscoe and Tristan Vautier. Now, Ben Hanley has gone ahead of Cameron Casssels in LMP2 after Cassels ended up on top of the tire wall in FP4 on Friday. Ben Hanley's deficit to Ben Keating has 36 laps, done and dusted in hour one here at the Rolex 24.
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