The weekend race is among opening acts for the racing season and for the renovated Daytona International Speedway.
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Honda, scoring its first overall win in the 24, outran the Corvette and Ford teams that had been the focus of much attention leading into the International Motor Sports Association WeatherTech SportsCar Series opener. Derani closed an 11-second gap to Ricky Taylor in just a matter of laps.
While Derani was 15+ seconds ahead of the rest of the Prototypes at the end of the race, the finishes in the GT Le Mans and GT Daytona categories were fantastic.
With two laps left, Garcia passed Gavin to the outside in the tri-oval, but with a deft crossover move, Gavin retook the top spot as the cars entered Turn 1. The ESM Honda was the fastest vehicle in the field, turning such quick laps that it was able to overcome a slew of miscues and claim the coveted Rolex watches. “I knew I was going to have a battle on my hands”.
– In GT Daytona, Magnus Racing’s Rene Rast nursed his No. 44 Audi R8 LMS GT3 to the finish line to hold off Nicky Catsburg in the No. 540 Porsche GT3 R by 3.048 seconds. It was also the first for most of the drivers, though a second for Sharp who won with rival auto owner Wayne Taylor back in 1996. The gamble paid off. Rast ran out of gas on the backstretch after taking the checkered flag.
“We were the little engine that could today”. We feel like we did the best we could, same as the past four years.
A starring drive by Pipo Derani and a near-flawless effort by team, drivers and auto saw the history books re-written in Daytona, with Tequila Patron ESM scoring overall victory in the 54th Rolex 24 at Daytona.
ESM had lost its greatest challenger in the 10th hour, when the identical Ligier-Honda of Michael Shank Racing suffered an engine failure.
Gavin – the No. 4 was driven by Marcel Fassler and Tommy Milner as well – took the lead in the final hour after passing the Porsche No. 911.
The race’s defending champion – the so-called “Star Car” of IndyCar aces Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan and NASCAR’s Jamie McMurray and Kyle Larson – finished 13th after serious brake problems hit the Ford Riley vehicle in the ninth hour.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) – One by one the top contenders in the Rolex 24 at Daytona fell victim to the bumps and breaks of a twice-around-the-clock endurance race.
Again, brakes were the culprit. “Porsche, BMW, Ferrari and Ford were all fast and we were just pushing and pushing the entire race”.
“It didn’t slow down enough to make the corner, and I drilled the barrier”. Its truly awesome. Ive come so close to winning this race a couple of times. Larson was not injured.
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The two pro-am classes, GT Daytona and Prototype Challenge, would take two drastically different turns, both from each other and from the other two classes competing. I hope to be back. I don’t even remember anything hurting at all or whiplash or nothing. “If this was going to happen, I’m glad it happened there, because the auto is in one piece”. After the race, IMSA said Angelelli had been taken to a local hospital but gave no indication as to what he was being treated for. IMSA officials said he was “conscious and stable”, but offered no further details about his condition.
