Coble: Penske, Nsar dominate Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona for third year in a row

 

PHOTO BY DON COBLE

The winning GT Prototype team of Laurin Heinrich of Germany, Julien Andlauer of France and Philipe Nsar of Brazil took the checked flag for the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona on Sunday at the Daytona International Speedway. For Nsar and Porsche Penske Motorsports, it was their third consecutive win at the 24-hour sports car endurance race.

DAYTONA BEACH – The premier sports car teams in America threw everything at Roger Penske’s Porsche 963 team of Philipe Nasr, Julien Andlauer and Laurin Heinrich at the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona.

Teams of Cadillac V-Series.R couldn’t get it done. Neither could BMW M Hybrid V8s, Acura ARX-06s or a single Ashton Martin Valkyrie.

Mother Nature even took a try without success.

Nasr kept the sleek GT Prototype in the lead for most of the final six hours, including a challenge from Jack Aitken’s Cadillac with 20 minutes remaining on the 3.56-mile Daytona International Speedway road course, to win for the third consecutive year.

Aitken got as close to bump Nasr in the infield, but the Brazilian drove away to 1.569-second victory against the Cadillac of Aiken, Earl Bamber, Frederik Vesti and Connor Zelisch in front of a record crowd for the 64^th renewal of the biggest sports car endurance race on the IMSA schedule.

“First of all, it means a lot,” said Porsche Penske Director of Motorsports LMDH Urs Kuratle. “Just before Roger Penske left, if you can see tears in the eyes of somebody like Roger Penske, and then you realize what it means to Porsche as a manufacturer, but also to Porsche-Penske Motorsport as a team.”

It also put Nsar in a rare group. With three consecutive victories, he joined legendary Peter Gregg and Helio Castroneves as the only back-to-back winners.

“Four is starting to sound good,” Nasr said.

The winning Porsche battled through several weather challenges. Teams were given a new Michelin tire compound for the twice-around-the-clock race and three days to test Jan. 16-18 at Daytona.

Temperatures, however, were near freezing. When they returned for the main event, they were greeted by record heat, with temperatures surpassing 80 degrees at the checkered flag.

Also, a dense fog early Sunday morning forced IMSA to put the race under the yellow flag for 6 hours, 33 minutes – 121 laps – because it was too difficult for officials and spotters to see the cars.

“That was certainly something new to me,” said Aitken’s teammate, Connor Zilisch after a four-hour stint. “I’ve never gone slow for that long in my life, other than on the street.”

Through it all, the Penske Porsche marched on.

“We did a great job together with Felipe as well, to run with no scratches on the car,” Andlauer said. “I mean, look at this beauty, just a little bit of some (tire) pick-up on the car, but otherwise the car was running perfectly. No issues. I mean, fantastic job from the whole team, great strategy.”

While it appeared the No. 7 Porsche was on cruise control most of the race, Nasr said the final 30 was more hectic than he liked, especially when Aitken got close.

“I was just trying everything I could,” Nsar said. “That was pure racing. I used everything I had.”

Nsar said the final hour was very “intense.” He said the number of top-level Prototype drivers creates more dramatic finishes.

Eleven Prototypes started, and nine finished on the lead lap. The Ashton Martin experienced a myriad of mechanical problems, and the Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac lost an engine while running on the lead lap with 2 hours, 4 minutes to go. The car burst into flames, but driver Ricky Taylor escaped unhurt.

Nine Prototypes was a race record, shattering the previous mark of five. Also, the distance traveled, 2,510 miles, is roughly the distance between Keystone Heights and Boise, Idaho.

Aitken was disappointed by finishing in the runner-up spot for the second time.

“I tried my best to get a good run on him, but I couldn’t get beside him. Aitken said. “I just didn’t have enough to get the job done. A couple times, I stuck my nose in there. I never, never got a super run on him.”

Aitkens said he tried to squeeze beside Nsar, but Nsar quickly moved to cut off the advance.

“It was aggressive. I would have done the same thing,” Aitken said. “There was a half a gap there and I took it. Suddenly, there was no gap there.”

The charge wore out Aitken’s tires, and that allowed Nsar to pull away to what turned out to be a comfortable victory.

All four of IMSA’s classes competed simultaneously in the 24-hour race.

The ORECA LMP2 07 George Kurtz, Alex Quinn, Toby Sowery and Malthe Jakobsen won its class by 5.59 seconds against a similar ORECA for Neil Verhagen, Connor De Phillippi, Max Hesse and Dan Harper. The winning LMP2 was 19 laps behind the winning Prototype.

Neil Verhagen, Connor De Phillippi, Max Hesse and Dan Hopper drove their BMW M4 GT3 EVO to a 2.223-second win against the Mercedes-AMG GT3 driven by Kenny Habul, Maro Engel, Will Power and Chaz Mostert in the GT Daytona PRO class. While the BMW was best in class, it was 43 laps in arrears to the best Prototype.

And in GT Daytona, there were seven cars on the lead lap, led by the Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Russell Ward, Philip Ellis, Indy Dontje and Lucas Auer. They were 1.367 seconds ahead of John Potter, Spencer Pompelly, Nicki Thiim and Madison Snow’s Aston Martin Vantage GT3 EVO.

The next race for the IMSA Series is the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.