Coble: Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona proving to be a rough ride for many
Penske Porsches setting pace for possible third consecutive victory
DAYTONA BEACH – Drivers had to deal with a lot of unknowns in the first four hours of the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona sports car race.
First, Michelin brought a new tire compound that made the rear tires dance most of the way around the 3.56-mile Daytona International Speedway road course that includes a twisting, flat section in the infield and a significant portion of the high-banked superspeedway.
Temperatures were in the low 40s during a three-day test session at the ROAR Before the 24 at Daytona a week earlier, but they approached nearly 80 degrees at the start of the twice-around-the-clock marathon on Saturday at 1:40 p.m.
Another issue for 58 of the 60 teams was a pair of two-time defending 24-hour winning jet-quick Penske Motorsports Porsche 963s that seemed to have an extra gear when needed.
Add that with an extraordinary level of aggressive driving, especially in the first two hours, and it turned the longest race in America into a matter of survival, not technical prowess.
“People got really racy,” said prototype driver Earl Bamber. “It’s pretty crazy. But, you know, I think through the night, hopefully it'll settle down.”
The Porsches were so fast, both were able to make extended stops for minor repairs and remain in the top five.
“The super scary thing is Porsche never shows everything early,” said two-time prototype driver Ricky Taylor. “They’re definitely the ones to beat.”
At the five-hour mark, the No. 7 GT Prototype class Porsche for Felipe Nasr and Julien Andiauer and driver Laurin Heinrich were in the lead, followed by the Cadillac V-Series.S for Jack Aitken, Bamber, Frederik Vesti and driver NASCAR Cup Series rookie-to-be Connor Zilisch was in second and the BMW M Hybrid V8 for Sheldon van der Linde, Dries Vantdoor, Robin Frijins and driver Rene Rast was running third.
All four of IMSA’s classes compete at the same time, adding another challenge with a variation of driving skills and speed.
The top-running LMP2 was the ORECA of P.J. Hyett, Dane Cameron, Christian Rasmussen and driver Jonny Edgar in 11th, while the best GT Daytona Pro was the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R for Antonio Garcia, Alexander Sims and driver Marvin Kirchhofer in 21st place and the top GT Daytona was the Ferrari 296 GT3 EVO for Manny Franco, Albert Costa, Lorenzo Patrese and driver Thierry Verneulen in 28th place.
Bamber and Taylor said they hope the cooler temperatures at night will help their Cadillacs gain grip and close the gap with the Porsches.
“It looks like we’re pretty strong,” Estre said. “It looks like it’s quite aggressive behind us. I think everything went OK. We’re trying to get through traffic safely.”
For four Le Mans Prototype 2s, months of preparation and practice were erased less than 10 seconds into the 24-hour endurance race.
LMP2 cars driven by Naveen Rao, Phil Fayer, Tobi Lutke and George Kurtz crashed diving into the first turn, 300 yards after taking the green flag. All were able to return, but they were well behind – Fayer down by 21 laps, Hyett down by one, Lutke and Kurtz down by three.
“Everybody seemed to be a little enthusiastic to win the race in the first hour,” said GT Daytona Pro driver Nicky Catsburg, who was just two cars behind the mayhem.
The No. 6 Porsche for Laurens Vanthoor, Kevin Estre and Matt Campbell led most of the first hour, but a vicious crash involving the GT Daytona of Eric Zitza in turn one allowed Estre to stop on pit road to make repairs on the right side of his car.
“Sadly, I had a very small contact on the right side with a LMP2 coming out of the pit,” Estre said. “I thought I left enough room, but we had a contact and we have a small damage on the right side.”
The car was fast enough to race back into the top five within an hour.
The race concludes at 1:40 p.m. on Sunday.
