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Autosport
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David Malsher-Lopez

Daytona 24H: Castroneves drives Meyer Shank Racing to emotional win

Castroneves held off fellow Acura Ricky Taylor's Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-05 to secure his second straight win in the event, having won with WTR last year, while Tristan Vautier completed the podium in the leading Cadillac entered by JDC-Miller Motorsports. 

The MSR Acura in which the team's full season drivers Jarvis and Blomqvist were making their debuts had to fight back from going down a lap in the fourth hour, when Castroneves was forced to the pits by a left-rear puncture.

And as the numerically-dominant Cadillacs fell by the wayside, with both Chip Ganassi Racing machines and the Ally-liveried Action Express Racing example delayed, the race became a four-way scrap for honours between the Cadillacs of JDC-Miller Motorsports and Action Express, and the two Acuras of MSR and WTR. 

With Richard Westbrook leading by 20 seconds for JDC-Miller, a full-course yellow was caused by Matt Bell’s AWA LMP3 car dying at Turn 7 with 1hr55m remaining. Just before, in anticipation of the pitlane being closed, both the Acura teams pitted their cars, WTR bringing in Ricky Taylor for a splash-and-dash, while MSR did likewise for Blomqvist.

MSR then also topped off under the caution, too, pitting with Westbrook handing over to Loic Duval, while Action Express pitted Mike Conway.

Taylor pulled away at the restart, and while Duval initially jumped Blomqvist, the Briton soon resumed second before setting his sights on the lead. With 84 minutes to go, Blomqvist side-drafted Taylor to sneak past into the lead, leaving the two-time IMSA champion to fend off Duval and Conway.

Duval started the penultimate round of stops with 68 minutes to go, the first of the Daytona Prototype international cars to make its penultimate stop. Taylor came in next time by, followed by Blomqvist and Conway - with Castroneves and Pipo Derani taking over their respective mounts.

Castroneves held a five second advantage at the front, but when the charging Duval passed Taylor for second with 55 minutes remaining, that gap went down to half a second. Then out came the full course yellow again for Giacomo Altoe spinning and stalling his GTD class TR3 Lamborghini Huracan.

Castroneves won back-to-back Daytona 24 Hours (Photo by: Chris duMond / Motorsport Images)

Just before the restart with just under 30 minutes to go, Derani and Duval pitted for an extra splash, leaving Castroneves and Taylor up front in the Acuras. The four-time Indianapolis 500 winner just held onto the lead at the restart, and the two Acuras started to pull a gap as Derani and Duval held each other up with some side-by-side battling on that first green flag lap.

Castroneves came under severe pressure from Taylor with 15 minutes to go as they threaded through the GT traffic, but the four-time Indianapolis 500 winner pulled away to win by three seconds and clinch victory on the 10th anniversary of MSR’s previous triumph with the late Justin Wilson, AJ Allmendinger, Oswaldo Negri and John Pew.

The LMP2 class was won by the DragonSpeed ORECA of Colton Herta, Patricio O'Ward, Devlin de Francesco and Eric Lux after a late pass from the first-named on Louis Deletraz's Tower Motorsport entry. 

That yellow with around two hours to go wiped out DragonSpeed’s 28s advantage in the LMP2 class. Herta then came under Deletraz in the identical Tower ORECA, with Mikkel Jensen only four seconds further down in the #52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports entry.

Herta’s lead was only 0.8s when he stopped with 63 minutes to go. Tower and PR1 followed suit the next time by, but on new tyres Herta pulled a three second lead over Deletraz until the final yellow again neutralised proceedings. 

Following the pitstops under caution, Tower got Deletraz out ahead of Herta, with Jensen resuming in third. Racing Team Nederland were now right back in the fight, thanks to Rinus VeeKay unlapping himself from Herta two stints earlier, and Giedo van der Garde took over the car in fourth.

At the final restart, Herta initially struggled to hold off Jensen, but with his tyres up to temperature he pulled away and soon caught a fuel-saving Deletraz. 

With barely 10mins to go, Herta was right in the Tower car’s slipstream and made a seemingly impossible late-brake manoeuvre into the Le Mans chicane, leaving Deletraz with nowhere to go but the grass.

That also allowed van de Garde, who had demoted Jensen for third, to take second as Herta held on to win. 

O'Ward celebrates as Herta takes the lead in LMP2 (Photo by: Brett Farmer / Motorsport Images)

The battle for GTD Pro class honours came down to a frantic final lap altercation at the Le Mans chicane between the Pfaff and KCMG Porsche 911 GT3Rs, with Mathieu Jaminet, Matt Campbell and Felipe Nasr emerging victorious for Pfaff Motorsports. 

The caution with under two hours remaining came just after the leading duo had pitted. They emerged with Jaminet ahead of ahead of KCMG's Laurens Vanthoor, but temporarily behind the Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 of James Calado. The Briton then pitted under caution, handing over to Alessandro Pier Guidi.

The yellows also allowed the Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F to close up, and following the restart Jack Hawksworth passed the Ferrari. However Pier Guidi soon got back ahead of the luminous Lexus, but had lost ground to the ferocious Pfaff vs KCMG battle.

The two lead Porsches had just stopped when the yellows flew again with 50 minutes remaining, helping them to remain ahead, the Vasser Sullivan crew performing a great final stop to get Hawksworth out ahead of Pier Guidi.

However, the 488 driver wouldn’t let go of the RC F and with 13 minutes to go, the scarlet machine moved back into third, albeit seven seconds behind an increasingly fraught battle for the lead between Jaminet and Vanthoor. The Belgian forced his way by with four minutes remaining after some panel rubbing, but they remained locked together and Jaminet got back ahead on the final lap.

Vanthoor attempted a final move approaching the Le Mans chicane where the two came together, sending the KCMG car spinning across the grass as Jaminet continued on to win with Matt Campbell and Felipe Nasr. By the time Vanthoor rejoined, he had been passed by Pier Guidi, who took second with Calado, Daniel Serra and Davide Rigon, while Vanthoor, Patrick Pilet, Dennis Olsen and Alexandre Imperatori settled for third.

The former GTLM class protagonists BMW Team RLL and Corvette Racing had a difficult race. The best of the new BMW M4 GT3s entered by Team RLL finished 13 laps down in seventh, one spot behind the leading Corvette Racing entry with the de-tuned C8.R.

In the pro-am GTD class, Wright Motorsports ensured a Porsche clean sweep of the GT categories as Zacharie Robichon and Jan Heylen were joined by factory driver Richard Leitz and Ryan Hardwick.

Pfaff Porsche beat KCMG example to win after last lap clash (Photo by: Porsche Motorsport)

Former Champ Car racer Heylen held off Ferrari factory driver Nicklas Nielsen in the AF Corse Ferrari 488 and Andy Lally's Magnus Racing Aston Martin Vantage at the restart, Nielsen dropping out of second when he was issued a drive-through penalty for making a pass under yellow.

That allowed Lally into second in the Aston Martin he shared with four-time British GT champion Jonny Adam, Spencer Pumpelley and team patron John Potter, while Scott Andrews took third in the Gilbert Korthoff Mercedes AMG GT3.

LMP3 saw Felipe Fraga steer Riley Motorsports to victory by one lap over Sean Creech Motorsports and CORE autosport.

Daytona 24 Hours results:

Cla Class Driver Chassis Laps Gap Retirement Pits
1 DPi United Kingdom Oliver Jarvis
United Kingdom Tom Blomqvist
Brazil Helio Castroneves
France Simon Pagenaud
Acura DPi 761     10
2 DPi United States Ricky Taylor
Portugal Filipe Albuquerque
United States Alexander Rossi
United Kingdom Will Stevens
Acura DPi 761 3.028   9
3 DPi France Tristan Vautier
United Kingdom Richard Westbrook
France Loic Duval
United States Ben Keating
Cadillac DPi 761 4.420   10
4 DPi Brazil Pipo Derani
United States Tristan Nunez
United Kingdom Mike Conway
Cadillac DPi 761 5.615   12
5 LMP2 United States Eric Lux
Canada Devlin DeFrancesco
Mexico Patricio O'Ward
United States Colton Herta
ORECA LMP2 07 751     10
6 LMP2 Netherlands Frits van Eerd
Netherlands Giedo van der Garde
Murry Dylan
Netherlands Rinus van Kalmthout
ORECA LMP2 07 751     9
7 LMP2 Canada John Farano
Switzerland Louis Deletraz
Rui Pinto
Austria Ferdinand Habsburg
ORECA LMP2 07 751     12
8 LMP2 United States Ben Keating
Denmark Mikkel Jensen
Scott Huffaker
France Nicolas Lapierre
ORECA LMP2 07 751     10
9 LMP2 France François Heriau
Oliver Rasmussen
United Arab Emirates Ed Jones
Germany René Rast
ORECA LMP2 07 744     9
10 LMP2 United States Jim McGuire
United Kingdom Guy Smith
United Kingdom Philip Hanson
United States Will Owen
ORECA LMP2 07 740     8
11 DPi Germany Mike Rockenfeller
Japan Kamui Kobayashi
United States Jimmie Johnson
Argentina Jose Maria Lopez
Cadillac DPi 739     11
12 DPi New Zealand Earl Bamber
United Kingdom Alex Lynn
Sweden Marcus Ericsson
Denmark Kevin Magnussen
Cadillac DPi 734     10
13 LMP3 United States Gar Robinson
Brazil Felipe Fraga
Netherlands Kay van Berlo
United States Michael Cooper
Ligier JS P320 723     6
14 DPi Netherlands Renger van der Zande
France Sébastien Bourdais
New Zealand Scott Dixon
Spain Alex Palou
Cadillac DPi 722     11
15 LMP3 Portugal Joao Barbosa
Malthe Jakobsen
Seb Priaulx
United States Lance Willsey
Ligier JS P320 722     5
16 LMP3 United States Jon Bennett
United States Colin Braun
United States George Kurtz
Sweden Nic Jönsson
Ligier JS P320 721     8
17 LMP3 United States Jarett Andretti
Josh Burdon
Sweden Rasmus Lindh
Colombia Gabby Chaves
Ligier JS P320 719     9
18 LMP2 Dwight Merriman
United Kingdom Kyle Tilley
United Kingdom Ryan Dalziel
France Paul-Loup Chatin
ORECA LMP2 07 718     8
19 GTD PRO Australia Matt Campbell
France Mathieu Jaminet
Brazil Felipe Nasr
Porsche 911 GT3 R 711     7
20 GTD PRO Italy Alessandro Pier Guidi
United Kingdom James Calado
Brazil Daniel Serra
Italy Davide Rigon
Ferrari 488 GT3 711     6
21 GTD PRO Belgium Laurens Vanthoor
France Patrick Pilet
Norway Dennis Olsen
Switzerland Alexandre Imperatori
Porsche 911 GT3 R 711     7
22 GTD PRO United Kingdom Jack Hawksworth
United Kingdom Ben Barnicoat
United States Kyle Kirkwood
Lexus RC F GT3 711     7
23 GTD PRO Germany Dirk Muller
Germany Patrick Assenheimer
United States Austin Cindric
Mercedes-AMG GT3 709     7
24 GTD United States Ryan Hardwick
Canada Zacharie Robichon
Belgium Jan Heylen
Austria Richard Lietz
Porsche 911 GT3 R 707     6
25 GTD United States John Potter
United States Andy Lally
United States Spencer Pumpelly
United Kingdom Jonathan Adam
Aston Martin Vantage GT3 707     6
26 GTD United States Mike Skeen
United States Guy Cosmo
United Kingdom Stevan McAleer
Australia Scott Andrews
Mercedes-AMG GT3 707     5
27 GTD Mann Simon
Argentina Luis Perez Companc
Denmark Nicklas Nielsen
Finland Toni Vilander
Ferrari 488 GT3 707     8
28 GTD Brendan Iribe
Switzerland Frederik Schandorff
United Kingdom Ollie Millroy
South Africa Jordan Lee Pepper
McLaren 720S GT3 705     9
29 GTD United States Russell Ward
Switzerland Philip Ellis
Canada Mikael Grenier
Austria Lucas Auer
Mercedes-AMG GT3 699     6
30 GTD PRO Spain Antonio Garcia
United States Jordan Taylor
Netherlands Nick Catsburg
Corvette C8.R GTD 698     8
31 GTD PRO United States Connor de Phillippi
United States John Edwards
Brazil Augusto Farfus
Finland Jesse Krohn
BMW M4 GT3 698     7
32 GTD United States Ted Giovanis
United States Hugh Plumb
United States Matt Plumb
United States Owen Trinkler
Porsche 911 GT3 R 697     7
33 LMP3 Canada Orey Fidani
Canada Kuno Wittmer
Germany Lars Kern
United Kingdom Matthew Bell
Duqueine D08 695     6
34 GTD France Franck Perera
LLarena Mateo
Germany Paul Maximilian
Canada Mikhail Goikhberg
Lamborghini Huracan GT3 692     7
35 GTD Canada Roman De Angelis
United Kingdom Ian James
United Kingdom Darren Turner
Tom Gamble
Aston Martin Vantage GT3 688     7
36 LMP3 Nolan Siegel
Australia Cameron Shields
Charles Crews
Ugo De
Duqueine D08 682     7
37 GTD PRO United States Cooper MacNeil
Julien Andlauer
Italy Matteo Cairoli
Belgium Alessio Picariello
Porsche 911 GT3 R 673     6
38 GTD Rob Ferriol
United Kingdom Katherine Legge
United Kingdom Stefan Wilson
United States Nicholas Boulle
Porsche 911 GT3 R 672     8
39 GTD United States Bill Sweedler
John Megrue
Italy Giacomo Altoè
United States Jeff Segal
Lamborghini Huracan GT3 669     6
40 GTD Canada Paul Dalla Lana
David Pittard
Charlie Eastwood
Denmark Nicki Thiim
Aston Martin Vantage GT3 667     6
41 GTD PRO Austria Philipp Eng
Germany Marco Wittmann
United Kingdom Nick Yelloly
South Africa Sheldon Van Der Linde
BMW M4 GT3 665     6
42 LMP2 Thomas Steven
United States Josh Pierson
United States Jonathan Bomarito
United Kingdom Harry Tincknell
ORECA LMP2 07 663     7
43 GTD Kyffin Simpson
United States Till Bechtolsheimer
United States Marc Miller
Germany Mario Farnbacher
Acura NSX GT3 659     6
44 GTD Italy Roberto Lacorte
Italy Giorgio Sernagiotto
Italy Antonio Fuoco
Italy Alessio Rovera
Ferrari 488 GT3 652     7
45 GTD United States Frankie Montecalvo
United States Aaron Telitz
United States Richard Heistand
United States Townsend Bell
Lexus RC F GT3 634     6
46 GTD PRO United States Tommy Milner
United Kingdom Nick Tandy
Denmark Marco Sorensen
Corvette C8.R GTD 626     6
47 LMP3 Dan Goldburg
Hikaru Abe
Canada Garett Grist
Nicolas Pino
Ligier JS P320 588     6
48 LMP2 United States John Falb
Australia James Allen
Italy Luca Ghiotto
Tijmen van
ORECA LMP2 07 556     4
49 GTD United States Don Yount
Benja Hites
United States Jaden Conwright
Finland Markus Palttala
Lamborghini Huracan GT3 524     1
50 GTD PRO United States Cooper MacNeil
Spain Daniel Juncadella
Germany Maro Engel
France Jules Gounon
Mercedes-AMG GT3 487      
51 LMP3 United States Mark Kvamme
United States Austin McCusker
United States Trenton Estep
Antoine Doquin
Duqueine D08 425      
52 GTD PRO Italy Marco Mapelli
Italy Andrea Caldarelli
Italy Mirko Bortolotti
Switzerland Rolf Ineichen
Lamborghini Huracan GT3 400      
53 LMP3 Efrin Castro
Germany Moritz Kranz
Ori Ayrton
United States Joel Miller
Duqueine D08 364      
54 GTD United States Robert Megennis
United States Corey Lewis
United Kingdom Sandy Mitchell
United States Jeff Westphal
Lamborghini Huracan GT3 349      
55 LMP2 Denmark Dennis Andersen
Denmark Anders Fjordbach
Switzerland Fabio Scherer
Nico Mueller
ORECA LMP2 07 345      
56 GTD United States Robby Foley
United States Bill Auberlen
Michael Dinan
Germany Jens Klingmann
BMW M4 GT3 280      
57 GTD Lance Bergstein
Jon Miller
United States Patrick Gallagher
United States Paul Holton
McLaren 720S GT3 264      
58 GTD United States Michael de Quesada
Canada Daniel Morad
Linus Lundqvist
Maximillian Goetz
Mercedes-AMG GT3 181      
59 GTD PRO United Kingdom Ross Gunn
Spain Alex Riberas
Belgium Maxime Martin
Aston Martin Vantage GT3 103      
60 GTD Australia Kenny Habul
Germany Luca Stolz
Italy Raffaele Marciello
Germany Fabian Schiller
Mercedes-AMG GT3 101      
61 GTD Kyle Washington
United States James Sofronas
Netherlands Jeroen Bleekemolen
Austria Klaus Bachler
Porsche 911 GT3 R 88      
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