Rolex 24: Roger Penske, Nick Tandy make perfect pairing to win iconic endurance race
By Don Coble, Special to Florida Sports Wire
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Few things are probable in racing, especially in a 24-hour endurance race.
However,
the combined forces of Roger Penske’s resources and Nick Tandy’s experience proved
to be a grouping destined to win the Rolex 24 at Daytona.
Penske
won America’s iconic twice-around-the-clock race a year ago with the same No. 7
Porsche 963, but he only returned one driver – Felipe Nasr. He added Tandy and
Laurens Vanthoor, and the trio were the class of the GT Prototype division in
conditions that included wind gusts and bitter cold early and warmer
temperatures in the final six hours.
In
the process, Tandy became the most complete endurance driver in sports car
history. He is the only person to win every major endurance race – the 24 Hours
of Daytona, Le Mans, Spa-Francorchamps and the Nürburgring.
“And
some (three 12-hour) Sebrings and a Petit LeMans (at Road Atlanta) is
dream-come-true stuff,” Tandy said.
Tandy
struggled to define when he completed the sports car’s Grand Slam.
“ I
mean, to be the first person to do – ever to do something is – I mean, it's
quite unbelievable, really,” he said. “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 those sorts
of races and then be in a car that can compete for the win.
“It
never really dawned on me about these sorts 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. Then you realize there are legendary names on
these lists who have won many awards, but not all four major ones. It’s
something that I've definitely wanted to check off the list. Winning Daytona is
a massive thing anyway as a standalone event.”
Although
the No. 7 Porsche led for a race-best 307 of 781 laps, Nasr had to make three
passes for the lead in the final two hours, including one with 21 minutes remaining
against the No. 6 Penske team car driven by Matt Campbell. Following the last
pass, Nasr drove away to a 1.335-second victory against the Acura ARX-06 driven
by Tom Blomqvist after Campbell’s faded to a third-place finish.
“We
had a really good pace there at the end,” Blomqvist said. “I think I had a little
bit of extra pace on them. It's difficult to say. Maybe if there were 10 minutes
more, we might have got to the back of them, but who knows.”
The
top three cars were the only ones on the lead lap. Their 781 laps on the
3.56-mile road course equated to 2,780.36 miles, or about the distance between New
Smyrna Beach and Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.
“It’s
amazing to see the work we’ve done with this Porsche program the last couple of years, winning the (IMSA) championship last year, and with the relationship we
have with Porsche, our organization, I’m thrilled,”
Penske
said in victory lane. “It was quite something there at the end.”
Penske
has 20 victories in the Indianapolis 500 as a car owner, 17 IndyCar Series
championships, and is the reigning car owner for the IMSA GT Prototype and
NASCAR Series champions. He now has three overall wins in the 24 Hours of
Daytona.
Vanthoor
helped Penske win last season’s FIA World Endurance Championship sports car
championship.
Nasr
drove the final frantic two hours. He said Tandy now owes him a favor.
“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,” Nasr said. There are 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.
“For
sure, Le Mans is one – is a dream, dream 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?”
Three
other class winners also received Daytona Rolexes.
John
Farano, Sebastian Alvarez, Sebastian Bourdais and Job Van Uitert won in LMP2 by
finishing eighth overall and 6 laps behind, while the winning GT Daytona Pro
was a Ford Mustang GT3 driven by Christopher Mies, Frederic Vervisch and Dennis
Olsen. They were 17th overall and 58 laps in arrears. And, in GT
Daytona, Orey Fidani, Matthew Bell, Lars Kern and Marvin Kirchhofer shared the
driving duties in a Corvette Z06 GT3 Evo. They finished 62 laps behind the winning
Porsche, but their 26th overall finish was best in class.
The
next IMSA race will be at the Sebring International Raceway on March 15.
(Photos courtesy IMSA)
