Sports Cars
Rolex 24 at Daytona kicks off the 2024 Racing Season
DAYTONA, FL (Pittsburgh Racing Now) – The 2024 racing season Saturday is underway with the twice around-the-clock Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway.
“I am really excited to get 2024 going,” said Sebastian Bourdais, driver of the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac. “I think the traditional start of the season with Daytona is always a fun one. It gathers a ton of drivers that you might not see the rest of the season, so it is a bit of an international event and gathering with a great atmosphere.”
Chip Ganassi Racing’s IMSA side of the operation started on the outside of the front row in the No. 01 Cadillac with Pipo Derani on the pole position in the Action Express Racing Cadillac as General Motors swept the front row.
“Obviously, the Cadillac was flying out there today,” said Derani, whose pole was his 10th career in IMSA competition. “It was just a privilege and a pleasure to drive such a car – really well balanced. There was great teamwork to improve what was needed for qualifying. The car felt on rails, and it was nice to enjoy and feel the full potential of GTP.”
Bourdais led the CGR charge logging his best lap time on his fifth of six total laps, which ultimately fell just 0.071 seconds shy of the pole-sitter.
“It was obviously a great day for Cadillac; you always want to go P1-P2,” said Bourdais. “For us, it was a solid effort, but we just didn’t quite get everything the way we wanted for that perfect run. But we have a really solid racecar and now we will just try to adjust things over the next week to get it the best we can for the race. We’ll try to execute as a team, with the drivers, and hope that we can come out of this with a watch.”
Bourdais and his teammate Renger van der Zande are no stranger to winning the watch. Bourdais captured overall win in 2014 and the GTLM Class Winner in 2017. van der Zande has two victories and and four podiums in ten Rolex 24’s as the CGR teammates took time out of their busy Daytona schedules to talk with The Pittsburgh Racing Now Podcast.
“We have been developing this car for a year now and lately we have found a lot of set-up options that work for us,” said van der Zande. “Reliability is the most important thing and that is certainly what Chip Ganassi Racing and Cadillac Racing bring.”
The Ganassi squad is deep and full of resources but it has been a few years since the stood atop the podium.
“The 01 Cadillac team is anxious to kick off the 2024 IMSA SportsCar Championship,” said Mike O’Gara, CGR’s Director of Operations. “We are ready to build on our Rolex 24 At Daytona success with the Cadillac V-Series.R after finishing third and fourth there in its debut race in 2023. It has been a few years since Chip Ganassi Racing has won overall at Daytona, but we feel confident that we can compete for another win and add to our eight victories there.”
Joining the CGR team at the endurance races are six-time NTT INDYCAR Series Champion Scott Dixon and two-time and defending Series Champion Alex Palou.
“I always look forward to Daytona; it’s a great way to kick off the season,” said Dixon. “I feel like we had a really good shot last year and the car speed was really good. The team has done a good job in the offseason to make things a little bit smoother and better.”
“I’m very excited to return to Daytona after competing with the team in the DPi era in 2022,” said Palou. “I’ve had the privilege of racing with Scott, Sebastien and Renger and I’m sure with all the preparation and knowledge that the team has, we’ll be able to fight for a win and maybe bring home some new watches at the end of January.”
2024 marks the second year of GTP competition in IMSA and having year under their belt with the new car is key compared to 2023.
“I feel like Cadillac has given us a very good car and we have a good understanding of the system,” said Bourdais. “We feel even more prepared and with the team that we can lean on, I think we have all the necessary ingredients to go for the win.”
“Anything can happen at Daytona, but we feel prepared with a nice blend of drivers to win this race,” said van der Zande. “It’s the biggest race of the season, the one you want to win and a big part of a championship. We’re there to win.”
Dixon said the key to any endurance race is surviving.
“The key is always to stay out of trouble and make sure you finish the 24 hours first and then hopefully have a good shot at trying to get a win,” said Dixon. “I feel like we had a really good shot last year and the car speed was really good.”
O’Gara is thrilled to look at the men and women in his paddock and go to battle with them.
“It’s exciting to be returning with our IMSA veteran drivers Renger van der Zande and Sebastien Bourdais, and it is great to have Scott Dixon back again and then with a pleasant surprise in being able to add Alex Palou to lineup this year, as well. Having the opportunity to work with drivers, engineers and a crew of this caliber is an honor.”
By Holly Cain
IMSA Wire Service
DAYTONA BEACH, FL – Add yet another historic victory to Roger Penske’s iconic career of high achievement. Team Penske kicked off its 60th anniversary season Sunday with the overall victory in the 64th Rolex 24 At Daytona – Penske’s third straight win in the world-renowned sports car race. It featured an all-time Rolex 24 record attendance at the Daytona International Speedway road course to kick off the 2026 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season.
Brazilian Felipe Nasr drove the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 across the finish line 1.569 seconds ahead of Brit Jack Aitken in the No. 31 Cadillac Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R after a particularly spirited battle through the final hour between the two. The No. 24 BMW M Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 was third, 21 seconds behind the winner, in the team’s first race running the IMSA BMW GTP program.
“The driving that he’s done for us and at the end there, probably one of the best drives I’ve seen,” Penske said of Nasr. “You know for our 60th it’s a big deal, and here at Daytona, to have three wins here is certainly special. Starts out the year the right way.”
The veteran Nasr’s work now equals and follows on the heels of fellow Brazilian Helio Castroneves’s three consecutive overall wins (2021-23) at Daytona’s famous 3.56-mile road course. Peter Gregg also achieved the feat when he won three straight in 1973, ’75 and ’76 (there was no race in ’74). Both Nasr’s co-drivers, German Laurin Heinrich and Frenchman Julien Andlauer, won their first Rolex 24s and Andlauer achieved his first WeatherTech Championship win of any kind.
Plaudits were earned for team and manufacturer as well. Team Penske tied Chip Ganassi Racing and Wayne Taylor Racing with its third consecutive win and 46th in any IMSA class. Porsche brought home its 21st overall Rolex 24 triumph, the most of any manufacturer.
“Three in a row, it’s just a very special day – I dreamed of that,’’ said Nasr. “We had a battle all the way to the end with the (No.) 31. … I was just trying all I could because I know in these final hours everyone is using everything they have inside the car, and the Cadillac was a strong car.
“The field has such good drivers,’’ Nasr said. “I have to acknowledge that the level of this race is getting higher and higher in this GTP (Grand Touring Prototype) class. It was pure racing. I used everything I had.”
Sunny skies and 70-degree temperatures – warmer-than-usual Rolex 24 weather – straddled a heavy overnight fog at the track that brought out a full-course caution flag for six hours, 33 minutes – the longest in Rolex 24 history.
When racing resumed after the fog just after 7 a.m. ET, the action picked up accordingly. The Penske Porsches battled closely with the BMWs and Cadillacs for the overall lead and, as is so typical of this legendary race, the final hours fed high drama.
Although the Nos. 7 and 6 Penske Porsches truly dominated the event statistically, combining to lead 521 of the 705 laps (74 percent of the race), they had to fend off a strong two-car BMW effort and a powerful Cadillac showing that also included a pair of Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing cars in addition to the runner-up No. 31 Cadillac Whelen entry – as well as a persistent push from the two-car Acura Michael Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06 effort that claimed pole position. Nine of the 11 GTP cars led laps.
Twice in the final hour, Aitken was able to pull within less than a half-second of Nasr, pulling alongside in one particular attempt to pass heading into Turn 1. But Nasr was on his game, negotiating the 60-car field throughout the race and repelling Aitken’s attempts to overtake in the final 60 minutes.
“The guys all around from the team in the pit box to my teammates did a fantastic job to get us back into a position at the end of the race,’’ said Aitken, who was vying to put the No. 31 Cadillac in victory lane for a third straight WeatherTech Championship race dating to the final two of 2025. “The Porsches were very strong all race, very impressive. We tried to challenge them best we could and I got close to them a few times.
“Just really, really heartbreaking but we had great runs and I’m proud of that,” Aitken added.
“I had a couple moments where I stuck my nose in there, but it was always from just a bit further back just trying to make something happen. I never got a super great run on them. I was trying to find an opening here and there, and (there was) a fine line between making a gap open up and causing a bit of an accident.”
The Rolex 24 is the first of five IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup races on the 2026 calendar. By leading at all four junctures when endurance points were awarded, the No. 7 Porsche has opened a significant lead over the competition.
By Tony DiZinno
IMSA Wire Service
SEBRING, FL (March 15, 2025) – A historic sports car race added another chapter to international sports car racing lore on Saturday night.
Nick Tandy adds an overall Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring victory to previous overall victories at the 24 Hours of Le Mans (2015) and the Rolex 24 At Daytona (2025), all with Porsche, to become the 10th driver in sports car history to win the unofficial “Triple Crown of Endurance Racing.”
The other nine are A.J. Foyt, Hans Herrmann, Jackie Oliver, Al Holbert, Hurley Haywood, Mauro Baldi, Andy Wallace, Marco Werner and Timo Bernhard.
This also builds on Tandy’s personal “Tandy Slam” of major 24-hour endurance sports car races achieved at Daytona, Le Mans, the Nurburgring and Spa-Francorchamps. Tandy completed that set at Daytona in January.
He shared the Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class and overall winning No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 with co-drivers Felipe Nasr and Laurens Vanthoor as he did in Daytona. All have past Sebring wins; this is Tandy’s fourth Sebring win (GTLM – 2018, 2019, 2020) and the second for both Nasr (DPi – 2019) and Vanthoor (GTD PRO – 2023).
The No. 7 Porsche is also the first car to win back-to-back IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship races in Daytona and Sebring in the same season since Wayne Taylor Racing achieved the feat in 2017 with a Cadillac DPi-V.R, albeit with different driver lineups.
The Porsches came alive in the cooler night conditions after fighting most of the race with the No. 31 Cadillac Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R. The No. 7 Porsche beat the sister No. 6 Porsche, driven by Mathieu Jaminet, Matt Campbell and Kevin Estre by 2.239 seconds, with the No. 93 Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb-Agajanian Acura ARX-06 in third.
Inter Europol Competition scored the Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class victory with a mix of good strategy, able to emerge in podium position after the final round of pit stops, plus a sprinkle of luck when the leading No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR car ran aground of a Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) class car inside the final 20 minutes. Tom Dillmann, Bijoy Garg and Jeremy Clarke shared the winning No. 43 ORECA LMP2 07.
Porsche doubled up victories with the Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) class with the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 R GT3 (992), shared by Laurin Heinrich, Klaus Bachler and Alessio Picariello. They beat the pair of BMW M4 GT3 EVOs fielded by Paul Miller Racing, the No. 48 car finishing ahead of the No. 1 car.
Winward Racing repeated its 2025 GTD class win with the same trio of Russell Ward, Philip Ellis, Indy Dontje in the No. 57 Mercedes-AMG GT3. A forceful pass by Ellis on last year’s GTD PRO winner, Jack Hawksworth, netted the Winward Mercedes-AMG the top spot.
By Tony DiZinno
IMSA Wire Service
DAYTONA BEACH, FL – History was made on several levels in the 63rd Rolex 24 At Daytona to kick off the 2025 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season.
Porsche Penske Motorsport won its second consecutive Rolex 24, the third overall for team owner Roger Penske and fourth for the team, with the No. 7 Porsche 963 driven by Felipe Nasr, Nick Tandy and Laurens Vanthoor claiming the overall and Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class triumph.
Nasr is the only member of the trio who was part of last year’s winning entry, with a reshuffled lineup. Tandy moved from the team’s No. 6 car, and with the win is the first driver globally to have won all four major 24-hour endurance sports car races in Daytona, Le Mans, Spa-Francorchamps and the Nürburgring overall. Vanthoor was part of last year’s FIA World Endurance Championship-winning lineup with Penske.
The win is Nasr’s third (2024 in GTP/overall, 2022 in Grand Touring Daytona Pro), Tandy’s second (2014 GT Le Mans) and Vanthoor’s first at the Rolex 24.
The team nearly completed a 1-2 sweep, but a late pass by Tom Blomqvist delivered his second straight runner-up finish. Blomqvist co-drove the No. 60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06, and got around Matt Campbell’s No. 6 Porsche 963.
“It’s amazing to see the work we’ve done with this Porsche program the last couple years, winning the (IMSA) championship last year, and with the relationship we have with Porsche, our organization, I’m thrilled,” Roger Penske said in victory lane. “It was quite something there at the end!”
History was also made in the two Grand Touring classes, as two iconic brands – Mustang and Corvette – both won.
Ford’s newest Mustang scored its first IMSA victory, with Dennis Olsen holding off all comers in the Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) class in his No. 65 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang GT3 he shared with Christopher Mies and Frederic Vervisch.
While Mustang beat Corvette in GTD PRO, Corvette emerged victorious in Grand Touring Daytona courtesy of the customer effort from AWA, which scored its second Rolex 24 win (2023 in Le Mans Prototype 3). Drivers Matt Bell, Orey Fidani, Lars Kern and Marvin Kirchhoefer shared the winning No. 13 Corvette Z06 GT3.R.
Tower Motorsports ascended to the top of Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2), in the hands of Sebastien Bourdais, John Farano, Sebastian Alvarez and Job Van Uitert sharing the No. 8 ORECA LMP2 07. The Rolex win is Bourdais’ third in as many IMSA class (Prototype/Overall in 2014 and GT Le Mans in 2017).
All other winners – the three Ford drivers, all four AWA Corvette drivers and the remaining three Tower LMP2 drivers – secured their first Rolex 24 victories and the custom Rolex Daytona timepieces that come with the wins.
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