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January 26, 2025
Tower Tops Tumultuous, Rough-and-Tumble LMP2 Affair
By John Oreovicz and Tony DiZinno
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – It’s the era of back-to-back for Team Penske.
In a two-year period where Roger Penske’s racing teams and drivers have claimed a Rolex 24 At Daytona victory, the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) title, and back-to-back wins in the Indianapolis 500 and the NASCAR Cup Series championship, Felipe Nasr, Nick Tandy, and Laurens Vanthoor clinched a second consecutive overall and GTP class victory for Porsche Penske Motorsport in the Rolex 24 At Daytona.
Nasr crossed the finish line of Daytona International Speedway’s famed 3.56-mile tri-oval in the No. 7 Porsche just 1.335 seconds ahead of Tom Blomqvist in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06 he shared with Colin Braun, Scott Dixon, and Felix Rosenqvist. The No. 6 Porsche with a driver lineup of Mathieu Jaminet, Matt Campbell, and Kevin Estre finished third, 4.423 seconds back after 24 hours of hard racing.
Blomqvist passed Campbell for second with just over four minutes remaining, denying Porsche its first 1-2 overall finish at the Rolex 24 since 1987, when the German marque’s iconic 962 model swept the first six places. Porsche has scored overall victory at Daytona on 24 occasions.
The modern iteration of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s GTP class with its hybrid-powered prototypes is proving to be every bit as compelling as the legendary original, which ran from 1981 to ‘93. The Porsche 962 took overall victory at the Rolex 24 five times in that period.
Now the Porsche 963 could be on its way to compiling a similar record. The No. 7 car made the trip to Daytona’s Victory Lane for the second consecutive year, on the heels of Nasr and Dane Cameron winning the GTP class championship in 2024.
“Winning the championship last year was just the start of it,” said Penske. “This Porsche car we have has just been amazing, and to think we did it two years in a row is a credit to all the people from Porsche in Germany and our team here. We’re truly one organization.”
Nasr qualified the No. 7 Porsche third fastest and took the lead for the first time midway through the third hour. Meanwhile, the No. 6 moved up quickly after starting 10th. Once they reached the point, the Penske Porsches stamped their authority on the event, leading 517 of the 781 laps completed.
The No. 7 ran out front through most of the night before the No. 6 took command, leading a total of 210 laps to pace the field into the final hour.
Nasr lined up in third place for what turned out to be the final restart of the race (there were 14 caution periods). He pushed the No. 7 past Dries Vanthoor (the younger brother of Laurens) in the Motul Pole Award-winning No. 24 BMW M Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 with 38 minutes to go.
A furious battle between the two Porsches ensued until the 20-minute mark, when Nasr slipped past Campbell in the No. 6 at the Le Mans Chicane to take the lead. Campbell fought hard before finally conceding the position, causing some discomfort on the timing stand for Penske.
“We had talked to the drivers about not racing each other, but obviously these guys are racers,” Penske said. “Fortunately, we didn’t get into trouble.”
Nasr said that electing to take four Michelin tires during the final pit stop was an important factor in the No. 7 car’s win. The No. 6 had a faster final stop to maintain the lead, but Campbell was unable to match Nasr’s pace down the stretch.
Nasr now owns the last two overall Rolex 24 wins and a Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) class triumph in 2022.
“It’s always hard to know what it’s going to end up like, but that’s what I love about the IMSA racing,” Nasr said. “I felt like I had the pace to go forward, and that’s what I did. The clock was running, so I had to go for it. I could see that the Acura was coming quick behind us, so we had to go. I made a clean pass (on Campbell), and that was it.
“I wanted to win this race for sure, and I wanted to win for the team; on a personal level, doing it back-to-back is incredible,” he added.
Sunday’s victory helped Tandy secure an unprecedented grand slam in endurance racing, with 24-hour overall race wins at Daytona, Le Mans, Nurburgring, and Spa-Francorchamps.
“Records never really dawned on me until Laurens and I won at Spa in 2020 (in a GT-class Porsche),” said Tandy, who also boasts a GT Le Mans class victory in the 2014 Rolex 24. “Since that day, it’s definitely something I wanted to check off the list. To be the first person ever to do something is quite unbelievable, really.
“Winning Daytona alone anyway is a massive standalone event and I’m very proud to be sat here again,” he added. “Just winning one of those races overall would be an incredible career, so to get four, along with a few (Motul Petit Le Mans) and a few (Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of) Sebrings, is dream come true stuff.”
Without Campbell as a buffer, Nasr had to watch his mirrors over the closing three laps. But Blomqvist was not able to get his Acura close enough to launch an attack.
“We kind of struggled to be honest, especially with our rear tires and traction,” said Blomqvist, the 2022 and 2023 Rolex 24 winner. “At one point we thought it was going to be a real long day.
“For the last stint, the car was just better – not much to say, really,” he continued. “I didn’t think I was going to have anything for them, but you never give up, right? I gave it all I had, and I think that was the best we could have done today. The Porsches were really strong.”
Nine of the 12 entries in the GTP class were running at the end of the 24 hours, with three on the lead lap. The pole-winning No. 24 BMW claimed fourth, while the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R rounded out the top five.
The next round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship is the 73rd running of the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, set for March 12-15 at Sebring International Raceway.
Tower Tops Tumultuous, Rough-and-Tumble LMP2 Affair
Tower Motorsports found itself atop the pylon at the end of a competitive, chaotic and dramatic Rolex 24 At Daytona within the 12-car Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class full of ORECA LMP2 07 cars.
The quartet of Sebastien Bourdais, John Farano, Sebastian Alvarez and Job Van Uitert shared the winning No. 8 ORECA, emerging almost clear of trouble while contenders rose and fell like the temperatures over the 24-hour endurance classic.
Three such challengers dropped out in the eighth hour when Louis Deletraz’s No. 40 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R spun and came back on course exiting Turn 2. The resulting contact eliminated the No. 2 United Autosports USA and No. 73 Pratt Miller Motorsports ORECAs, while despite incurring damage the No. 8 Tower car kept going.
By the halfway point, it appeared the second United entry, the Motul Pole Award-winning No. 22 car, along with defending class champions Inter Europol Competition’s No. 43 car and AO Racing’s “Spike” No. 99 car were set to challenge. Penalties took the No. 22 and 43 down the order and heartbreak befell the No. 99 once the final couple hours happened.
AO’s No. 99 car, with Christian Rasmussen driving, dropped out of the fight with just over 80 minutes remaining. The car pitted with a low battery warning and the team diagnosed the issue under the rear deck lid, losing several laps and ending “Spike’s” victory charge. This car led a race-high 280 of 765 laps.
Era Motorsport, then, appeared in position to repeat its 2024 win with an adjusted lineup in its No. 18 ORECA, courtesy of a strategic move to take fuel only on its final stop before the last 40 minutes. Those hopes went away when Mathias Beche’s No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports’ car hit Paul-Loup Chatin’s No. 18 Era car into a spin at Turn 1. Beche’s No. 52 car was assessed a drive-through penalty for incident responsibility.
That promoted the Tower car, which kept enough relative momentum alive to stay in contention, back to the lead. Bourdais added his third Rolex 24 win, first in LMP2 to pair with a Prototype and overall win in 2014 and a GT Le Mans win with Ford in 2017, while his trio of teammates, Farano, Alvarez and Van Uitert all secured their first victories and combined to lead 118 laps.
Bourdais even admitted post-race that the rough-and-tumble affair extended to his co-driver Farano, who fought through back pain to keep driving and complete his stints.
“I was part of the big one, big time,” Bourdais explained. “The car over my left fender, a car over my right fender and I don’t think I had time to back off because I made contact because I was in the gearbox of the Pratt Miller car and it all came to a stop. It was like ‘Days of Thunder.’
“Yeah, honestly, when it all cleared in front of me and the car still had four wheels on it and the steering wheel was straight, I was like, man, this is just a miracle.”
For Bourdais, it’s also his second straight IMSA win albeit in a very different driving situation. With the end of the Cadillac Chip Ganassi Racing program in GTP after the 2024 Motul Petit Le Mans season finale, Bourdais shifted into the highly competitive LMP2 class to remain in the IMSA paddock.
“It’s almost like it was awarded to us in some respect because it seemed for a minute that nobody wanted to win it,” Bourdais laughed. “I’ve rarely seen someone torpedo another car like Beche did with Paul-Loup. It was just one incident like this after another in front of us or behind us or around us.
“It was a weird race, but we had hopes at times. Sometimes it felt like it was a bit hopeless, and to come out on top no matter how you got there at some point, it’s just one of those races where nobody remembers how you got there, and personally it’s my third, but it never gets old winning. I’m really happy that we could bring the result for John who’s been running after that Rolex for a little while.”
Despite some setbacks throughout, the No. 22 United car rebounded to a runner-up finish, courtesy of polesitter Daniel Goldburg sharing the car with Paul Di Resta, Rasmus Lindh and James Allen. That car finished 44.697 seconds in arrear of the Tower car.
Riley completed the podium with its No. 74 LMP2 entry, co-driven by Felipe Fraga, Gar Robinson, Josh Burdon and Felipe Massa.
The No. 7 Porsche led IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup points in GTP and the No. 8 Tower and No. 22 United ORECAs were tied for first in LMP2.
